‘Outline and Evaluate the Working Memory Model’ Essay Example

‘Outline and evaluate the working memory model’ The working memory model was proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974. This was an alternative to the multi-store model because they believed it was too simplistic and did not explain how memories are transferred into the long term memory without rehearsal which can be supported by flashbulb memories e.g. the death of princess Diana. The working memory model focuses on the short term memory and suggests that unlike the multi-store model, there is more than one store. Baddeley and Hitch used the term ‘working memory’ to refer to the part of the memory that is active or working. This could be as simple as playing a game, calculating sums or reading a sentence all of which are collecting data to be stored. The working memory model consists of three parts; these are the central executive, phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad. The central executive controls attention and draws on the other two systems known as the ‘slave systems’. The central executive has a limited capacity; in other words it cannot attend to too many things at once. This is supported by the dual task technique in 1976 where participants were given two tasks to do simultaneously. The first task used the central executive which was a simple sentence verification task e.g. participants were asked to answer true or false when shown the sentence B is followed by A. The second task involved the central executive and the phonological loop where participants had to repeat the word ‘the’ over and over again whilst working out the sentence verification task. The third task used the central executive and the central executive and phonological loop. In this task participants had to say random digits between 1 and 9 whilst completing the sentence. Hitch and Baddeley found that the time taken on task 3 was significantly longer because the task involved using the same component, the central executive making completing the task more difficult. They also