We're going to talk about Baddeley's
working memory model as differentiated from
Atkins and Shiffrin's model. So, Atkins and Shiffrin's model gives us the basics.
They're also present in Baddeley's model so you don't have to learn
a lot more. Atkins and Shiffrin give us what? Sensory memory,
short term memory with rehearsal and long-term memory
that interacts with short term memory and then Baddeley is working memory model
talks about a mental workbench for processing information.
The phonological loop would be essentially that main is rehearsal.
You can just repeat things in your head phonologically.
Auditory information going on and on and on inside your head.
Visuo spatial scratch pad is something that he adds to this.
The idea that you can see images in your mind sometimes.
So, if you think about it, let's think about it. Think for a second, annoying noise
notwithstanding,
about Pals. Can you visualize in your mind
the front of Pals? Draw a little picture of Pals
and see if you know what's on Pals. I don't know.
I have a general idea what I think might be at Pals.
I have a general idea about its color. I have a general idea about its shape
but they're certain features on it that I am semi sure about and other ones that
I'm very sure about.
But if I am doing that I'm actually using a visual sense inside my head.
So the visuo-spatial scratchpad gets at the idea that you have a visual sense
internal to your mind as as well as
an auditory or phonological sense. So I can say
how do I get to Pals? I might say that to myself. I go out the door,
make a right, get to the first street, make a right, it's on my left,
or I might actually visualize it and say well there go outside the front doors
and you'll see a street in front of you
and as you see that street then you're going to turn to your right and then you'll see the Carnegie,
right? At the Carnegie you'll see, you will make a right at the Carnegie, and when you get to
the stop light,
then you'll look to your left at this crazy building. This crazy building is an
interesting thing because it talks about late selection.
For years I came to Johnson City before I got employment here,
many years, somewhere around 94 to 2003.
When I came to do my interview
at Johnson City East Tennessee State University in 2004,
early 2004, it was the first time I realized
that the University was across the street from Pals,
because for all those years, being from Charlotte North Carolina, I had never seen a
Pals.
I had never seen anybody make a building out of fries and shakes and hamburgers &
and hot dogs or whatever is up there. Every time I'd pass by
I'd be like damn. Look at that. And I would look at it. It's what grabbed my attention as I went
by a
university on my left. I looked at the hot dog to my right.
Then when I came for an interview, I then was faced with the fact that, oh,
these are across the street from each other. I never knew that or,
if I did know it, I certainly didn't remember it. So when we are talking about that
visuo-spatial scratchpad, we are talking about visualization
in addition to being able to say things in your head.
The central executive is the concept that is kind of new here
but makes sense as a metaphor to what we've already been talking about.
So what Baddely is saying is you,
inside your head, act as your own central executive to decide what to attend to at
any given time.
How you're going to use your mental workman? Whether you're using phonological
information or whether you're using visual information?
How you're trying to attend to things? What kinds of things you are going to attend to?
How long you'll remember that in short term memory? What kind of things you pull out your
long-term memory to remember it with
and how all that fits into your moment to moment life?
Because you're using working memory all the time. There's not a moment
that you're not thinking of something and while you're thinking of it its
actually working in your short term memory which is why they call it working
memory,
but you'll soon not be thinking of it unless you do something
to change that. Well, who decides? You decide.
You being the inside I.
I with a capital I. I decide but I don't usually
pay attention to the processes. Most of the time
this happens pretty much automatically. The times that you notice it are when
somebody asks you what the name of that song is and you're like,
oh, if you hadn't asked me I could have told you, and then he's trying to struggle to remember something.
Now you're conscious
that you're having trouble remembering stuff but normally if you heard the
music that you are familiar with, the name would just pop right into your
head from long-term memory because you have stored it there.
If it's the first time you've ever heard it, it couldn't be there but other elements
of music might be there and you might go, that's the kind of music
I like. From where would that come? From your long-term memory.
Having decided what kind of music you do like and what kind of music you do not
like.
So the working memory model really emphasizes the visuo-spatial scratchpad
in addition to phonological loop which is maintenance rehearsal and this idea of
essential executive where you're using your mind as a workbench
to integrate information and deal with information on a moment to moment
basis throughout your day.