Working Memory : The State Of Memory

People rely on incoming information and stored information to perform their everyday functions. However, humans have a natural capacity of how much information they can attain. We are unable to store all of our acquired information without different systems that organize our information. Working memory is one of these systems that temporarily holds and manages information for cognitive processing (119). Baddeley’s working memory model is made up of four components that allow for temporary information to be stored (109).

Working memory is a part of our executive functions, the functions that are involved with the planning and regulation of one’s behavior. Despite that during the first year of life working memory is developed, working memory can trained and enhanced throughout you life with experience. Julia Morales Castillo, from the Department of Experimental Psychology of the University of

The multi-store model of memory (eg, Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968) claims the memory can be sectioned into three distinctive parts: sensory store, short-term store (STM) and long-term store (LTM). Eysenck and Keane (2005:190) states that data is first encountered by the sensory store, then depending on the attention given, is processed to the STM and finally - if rehearsed - continues to the LTM.

In 1974 the researchers Baddeley and Hitch argued that the picture of short-term memory (STM) provided by the Multi-Store Model was far too simple. Following the Multi-Store Model, it is believed that STM holds limited amounts of information for short periods of time with relatively little processing, it is believed to be a unitary store. This means that due to its single store it has no subsystems, unlike the Working Memory Model which has many subsystems. This proves that the Working Memory is not a unitary store.

Atkinson’s and Shiffrin’s (1968) multi-store model was extremely successful in terms of the amount of research it generated. However, as a result of this research, it became apparent that there were a number of problems with their ideas concerning the characteristics of short-term memory. Building on this research, Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed an alternative model of short-term memory which they called working memory. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) argued that the picture of short-term memory (STM) provided by the Multi-Store Model is far too simple. According to the Multi-Store Model, STM holds limited amounts of information for short periods of time with relatively little processing. It is

Baddeley (2001) suggests a working memory system which consists of four components; a modality-free central executive, a phonological loop which holds information in speech based form, a visuo-spatial sketchpad and an episodic buffer which is the temporary storage system that holds and integrates information from the phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and long-term memory (Eysenck & Keane, 2005).

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) criticised the multi-store model for being a very simplistic view of memory. They saw short term memory as a store that had many individual sections inside it. This was supported by patient KF who had epilepsy, the doctor wanted to try and remedy this by removing his hippocampus. This surgery was done, however instead of fixing his epilepsy, it damaged his short term memory, yet he still had his long term memory intact. In the multi-store model it states that in order to have long term memory, one needs to have gone through the several stores, such as the sensory memory store, the short term memory and then by adding meaning and rehearsal, into the long term memory store. Seen as patient KF could still encode long

A brief look at the history of the working memory can show a graduate movement toward separate components of the memory. It can acknowledge that one of the first models to separate the different components of working memory was the model modal presented by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). They proposed that the short-term memory is a single unity in which different stimuli modality is stored in one unit. This assumption encountered some problems; one is that if the short-term memory were a single unit to all information modality, than an individual with short term memory defect would be impaired in all cognitive tasks, which is not the case in many short-term memory patients.

Working memory's current understanding largely stems from the model in 1974 by Baddeley and Hitch, since then it has been recently advanced. The boss being the central executive, who controls and monitors all the information processing. The two other separate storage systems that support the central executive: phonological loop, who functions as the temporarily store for phonological information, and the visuospatial sketchpad where visual and spatial representations are temporarily stored and manipulated (Baddeley, 1996). The integrator of information from the subcomponents of working memory and long term memory is known as the episodic buffer, it is the recently proposed addition (Baddeley, 2000). Many people when they think of an individual

One reaction paper wouldn’t be enough for me to share my thoughts and point the most important parts of this chapter, but I will try to. “The three-stages model divides memory into three sequential stages: sensory, short-term, and long-term memory (R.C. Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)” (Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian 240).

(Abernathy, 2010). Working memory includes several components, for example, short-term storage, rehearsal, and executive processes operating on the contents of storage (Smith, 2000).

This essay addresses the working memory model which was proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974 in Smith & Kosslyn, 2007) as a response to Atkinson and Shiffrins (1968 in Smith, 2007) multi-store model. According to Baddely and Hitch the multi-store model failed to explain most of the complexities of the human memory and viewed it as being too simplistic. They argued that the short term memory store must have more components rather it being a single inflexible store as suggested previously by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). The working memory model is therefore an enhancement of the multi store model. According to Baddeley and Hitch working memory is a limited- capacity system that stores and processes information.

Reisberg (2013) states that working memory "is the memory you use for information that you are actively working on" (p. 17). Working memory holds information in a way that is easily obtainable when needed. Sadly, working memory has a very small capacity. One way they have tested this capacity is with a span test. For instance, researchers would read a list of four items to participants. The text uses letters as an example. Each time the participant would repeat the sequence of letters back to the researcher correctly, the researcher would then add on another letter to the sequence. Though this time, it would be a different sequence of five letters. Not the same sequence as before. Researchers found that people's letter span was normally around seven or eight (Reisberg, 2013). It was discovered though, that working memory isn't one unit. Because of its several different parts, it is called a working-memory system, and the central executive is the one in charge (Reisberg, 2013). Just like any system or business, you have your leader (the central executive), and you have your assistants. For example, let's say you have a piece of information that you will eventually need, however, you don't need it at this exact moment. The "assistants" of your working-memory system would take that information and temporarily store it. One of the most important jobs of the assistants

In this system there are three separate components that combine to enable us to process memories. These three components of memory are sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory (Reisberg, 2013). Of the three, sensory memory has the shortest time-span in our memory lasting roughly 300 milliseconds. The purpose of the sensory memory is to interpret the sensations coming to the body, and then transfer them to short term if there is enough attention placed on them (Reisberg, 2013). Short-term memory has a longer time-span in which it can be remembered. In short term memory we are able to remember 7 items +/- 2. These items can be remembered for up to a minute and that length of time can be increased if they are rehearsed. Rehearsal allows memories to be consolidated and be placed in long-term memory where they can be later retrieved and placed in working memory. Long term-memory are memories that can be retrieved with a hint or cue (Reisberg, 2013)

An additional seven children scored in the impaired range on the working memory composite only. The remaining 38 children achieved standard scores above 86 on both the language and working memory composite scores".()