The Working Model: How Does Your Memory Work?

The working model, in it's day, was a revolutionary way of looking at how we remember things compared to the other model - The Dual Store Model. Now, most consider this to be the model of memory we should use. The lead up to the invention of this model was due to an experiment done by Baddeley which showed that people can concentrate better when given two different tasks - such as doing your homework with music on - than two tasks that were similar - like watching TV and drawing at the same time. The model consists of four components: the central executive, the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer.

The central executive works basically like 'attention'. It draws information from the long term memory and the three other components to solve various tasks. Traditionally, it has been thought that this is solitary component but research with brain damaged patients show that they could be separate executive functions that can work or be destroyed in an accident.

The phonological loop comprises of two parts: the phonological store and the articulatory process. The store holds audial information - it acts like an inner ear whereas the articulatory process works as the inner voice, letting written words become sound in the mind. The inner voice and ear can keep repeating until the acoustic information is taken into the long term memory by the central executive and the meaning is found.

The visuo-spatial sketchpad has two functions. It holds and decodes visual information - ie, what you see and helps with spatial (or physical) tasks like typing on a computer or moving a chair. Logie suggested that this could be separated into two sections like the phonological loop: the visual cache - the component that deals with form and colour - and the inner scribe - the component that deals with spatial and movement information.

The episodic buffer - added by Baddeley in 2000 - deals with the application of time and sequencing to memories and information. It can place events into the right order and place items of information into order. Little research has been done into this component for which Baddely has been criticized.

The model has it's good and bad points. It can work well with other research into the short term memory (such as Miller's chunking idea). However, it is hard to define and to falsify, therefore rendering it's value down.

Now, you can take this information for your own use - like proving to your parents that music doesn't affect your concentration - or to maybe help you with your psychological understanding.