It consists of two parts: a short-term phonological store with auditory memory traces that are subject to rapid decay and an articulatory rehearsal component (sometimes called the articulatory loop) that can revive the memory traces.Īny auditory verbal information is assumed to enter automatically into the phonological store. The phonological loop (or articulatory loop) as a whole deals with sound or phonological information. Phonological loop īaddeley's model of the phonological loop Rather, there seem to be separate executive functions that can vary largely independently between individuals and can be selectively impaired or spared by brain damage. Recent research on executive functions suggests that the 'central' executive is not as central as conceived in the Baddeley & Hitch model. This research has shown the deteriorating of the central executive in individuals with Alzheimer's. Individual actions are completed well, but as the Alzheimer's becomes more prominent in a patient, performing two or more actions becomes more and more difficult. Two tasks include a memory tasks and a tracking task. Using the dual-task paradigm, Baddeley and Erses have found, for instance, that patients with Alzheimer's dementia are impaired when performing multiple tasks simultaneously, even when the difficulty of the individual tasks is adapted to their abilities. The central executive has two main systems: the visuo-spatial sketchpad, for visual information, and the phonological loop, for verbal information. inhibition, suppressing dominant or automatic responses.shifting between tasks or retrieval strategies.binding information from a number of sources into coherent episodes.updating and coding incoming information and replacing old information.It can be thought of as a supervisory system that controls cognitive processes, making sure the short-term store is actively working, and intervenes when they go astray and prevents distractions. It directs focus and targets information, making working memory and long-term memory work together. The central executive is a flexible system responsible for the control and regulation of cognitive processes. Components īaddeley's first model of working memory (without the episodic buffer) Central executive It is considered a limited-capacity system that provides temporary storage of information by conjoining information from the subsidiary systems, and long-term memory, into a single episodic representation. The third slave system was designated as episodic buffer. Ī fourth component of Baddeley's model was added 25 years later to complement the central executive system. In contrast, when a person tries to carry out two tasks simultaneously that use the same perceptual domain, performance is less efficient than when performing the tasks individually. a visual and a verbal task) is nearly as efficient as performance of the tasks individually. Performance of two simultaneous tasks requiring the use of two separate perceptual domains (i.e. Both the slave systems only function as short-term storage centers.īaddeley & Hitch's argument for the distinction of two domain-specific slave systems in the older model was derived from experimental findings with dual-task paradigms. The phonological loop stores verbal content, whereas the visuo-spatial sketchpad caters to visuo-spatial data. The original model of Baddeley & Hitch was composed of three main components: the central executive which acts as a supervisory system and controls the flow of information from and to its slave systems: the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad. However, alternative models are developing, providing a different perspective on the working memory system. This model is later expanded upon by Baddeley and other co-workers to add a fourth component, and has become the dominant view in the field of working memory. īaddeley & Hitch proposed their three-part working memory model as an alternative to the short-term store in Atkinson & Shiffrin's 'multi-store' memory model (1968). Working memory splits primary memory into multiple components, rather than considering it to be a single, unified construct.

Baddeley's model of working memory is a model of human memory proposed by Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch in 1974, in an attempt to present a more accurate model of primary memory (often referred to as short-term memory).

Visuospatial scratchpad