Evaluate the Working Memory Model

The central executive directs the flow of information. It functions more with delegating the way resources are used in cognitive tasks. The central executive also coordinates information from the person’s current environment with retrieval of their prior information (119). The phonological loop is used to carry out rehearsed maintained verbal material. It plays an important role in the acquisition of vocabulary, learning how to read, and comprehending language. The visuospatial sketchpad maintains material through visualization. The visuospatial sketchpad creates and manages our mental images. The episodic buffer is a temporary system that connects information from long term memory to working memory.

Memory is divided into three categories. These categories consist of: sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory, out of these short term memory is the main focus in this essay. It has been widely researched due to interest of how much memory can be stored, how long this memory can be stored for and what information is memorised.

In the last half century several theories have emerged with regard to the best model for human memory. In each of these models there was a specific way to help people recall words and

One of the most important models for memory is Atkinson-Shiffrin theory. In 1968, the theory created by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin was based on the idea that processing, receiving and combining of

George A. Miller, one of the founders of cognitive psychology, is considered a pioneer who recognized that the human mind can be understood by using an information-processing model. Miller was also a leader in the story short-term memory. In Miller’s most famous article, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two” remains one of the most frequently cited papers in the field of psychology. In his article, Miller proposed that short-term memory is subject to certain limits, including the span of information that can be stored at a given time. provides evidence for the capacity of short term memory.

This supports the idea of an immediate memory store for items that are neither visual nor phonological and that draw on long-term memory to link the related words. It is used as both the Phonological Loop and the Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad have specific roles and the Central Executive has very limited storage capacity so as a result there was no where to store both visual and acoustic information. The Episodic Buffer is an extra storage system that has in common with all working memory units, a limited capacity. It is handy and can integrate information from the Central Executive, The Phonological Loop, The Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad and also information from the Long-Term Memory.

The Evidence for the Existence of Multiple Memory Systems Memory forms an important part of cognitive psychology and has been of interest to numerous psychologists. This essay is going to refer specifically to the information-processing model of memory and will discuss the experimental evidence that exists for multiple memory systems. The multi-store model of memory was first developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) and Waugh and Norman (1965).[1] It comprises sensory stores, short term-store and long-term store to form a model of memory and information processing. One component of the system is the sensory register, where our feature detection and pattern recognition processes produce a

Memory in the human brain is a complex process which is easier understood by the use of theoretical constructs. Memories begin as sensory stimuli which become sensory memory which only last about one second, from there it moves into working memory which lasts for about twenty to thirty seconds and is used to process information. Within working memory there are a few separate processes, the central executive which directs attention, the episodic buffer which is a secondary storage lasting ten to twenty seconds, this area communicates with long term memory as well as the central executive. The visuospatial sketchpad which is used to visualise visual and spacial

Author used the example of doubling the short term memory to give a picture of how the improvement of human memory would be.

Verbal short term memories encode and represent information in a phonological form in immediate memory. This was highly supported by Baddeley and Hitch’s (1974) working memory model. Baddeley and Hitch introduce the “phonological (articulatory) loop”, a mechanism in the short term memory which helps in the retention of verbal information temporarily. (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). As these mechanisms are heavily dependent on the phonological systems, they have brought about inefficiencies in memory encoding bringing about various effects which includes phonological similarity effect ( difficulty in recall due to similar sounding words), word length effect (recall to be more difficult with long words than short words), the unattended speech effect

The visuo-spatial sketchpad when planned a spatial task and it saves memory temporarily. The episodic buffer is the general store, it integrates info from the central executive, the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad and forms long term store.

The reason Baddeley added the episodic buffer was because it’s various components was to unconnected in there functioning. The episodic buffer is a component of working memory that is used store briefly information from the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the long-term memory. Baddeley (2000, 2007) suggested that there would be close links between the central executive and episodic buffer, if that is true then we would expect to find prefrontal activation on tasks involving the episodic buffer, because there are associations between the use of the central executive and prefrontal cortex (Eysenck, M., & Keane, M. 2010). Baddeley and Wilson (2002) provided support for the episodic buffer, which they pointed out that it had generally been assumed that good immediate prose recall involves the ability to store some of the relevant information in long-term memory (Eysenck, M., & Keane, M.

There is evidence that no single region of the brain is responsible for all memories and that each brain region makes a specific contribution. Integrate the following terms into a coherent hypothesis of a multiple memory systems: explicit and implicit memory, encoding, storage, retrieval, recent, remote, working, hippocampus, cerebral cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia, right and left hemisphere. Please define each term first and then relate it with specific brain areas; finally integrate them into a “coherent hypothesis of a multiple

Moreover, Hardyk and Petrinovich (1970 in Parkin, 1993) found the articulatory loop to be crucial when being presented with complex information. In their study they measured participants throat muscle and forearm muscle activity although some may argue that this was not a good technique to carry out. Their findings led to them conclude that when participants were presented with complex material their articulatory loop would come in to function (in Parkin, 1993).

The Central executive is the main component of Baddeley’s working memory model and coordinates the other two systems and ensures they don't go astray. It is also involved in directing attention and resources towards tasks. Information is received from the senses or long-term memory and the capacity is limited.