Working Memory Model

The Working Memory Model (WMM) is an explanation of how STM is organised and how it functions. There are four elements. Central executive - monitors incoming data, clearing house, coordinates data. Has a very limited processing capacity. Allocates tasks to the slave systems.Phonological Loop - deals with auditory information (coded acoustically) and preserves the order in which the information arrives. The phonological loop is divided into - phonological store - stores the words you hear, and the articulatory control system - allows maintenance rehearsal to keep them in working memory until they are needed. The capacity of this rehearsal is about 2 seconds worth of what you can say.Visuo-spatial Sketchpad - stores visual and spatial information. It has a limited capacity of 3/4 objects. It is divided into visual cache - stores visual data and inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects in the visual fieldEpisodic Buffer - temporary store for information, integrating the visual, spatial and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing. It has a limited capacity of about four chunks. It links working memory to LTM

Clinical Evidence:KF who suffered from brain damage, had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual information, normally presented visually i.e. he had difficulty with sounds but could recall letters and digits. This suggests that just his phonological loop had been damaged leaving other areas of memory intact