[Music] talking of short-term memory as a single unified concept is like calling a multitool a mere flip knife it's like saying Pizza is made from Pizza it's time to find out what the shortterm memory equivalents of flour eggs tomato and cheese are and so we open our recipe book to badle and hitch's working memory model this cognitive model proposed a new structure for short-term memory though doesn't really say much about short-term memory's relationship with long-term memory anyway here are the ingredients the central executive one phological Loop one visual spatial sketch pad and an episodic buffer let's start with the important sounding Central executive a great name but not so much as known about this central element of the model the central executive has been included in the model in an effort to account for the organization of information attended by the slave systems you could say that the central executive is something of a line manager it determines information but doesn't do a huge amount itself onto the slave systems and the hugely hardworking phonological Loop a temporary storage system for auditory information the store can be subdivided into two parts the phological store the inner ear which stores what you hear and the articulatory process the inner voice which rehearses words to keep them in working memory whil needed the second slave system is the visual spatial sketch pad responsible for dealing with spatial and visual information compliments to the imaginative naming committee the visual spatial sketch pad also has two constituent Parts the visual cache which stores visual data such as shape and color and the inner scribe which records the arrangements of objects and transfers information to the central executive probably in the hope of an end of year bonus the final slave system in badle and hitch's model is the episodic buffer as with the central executive less is known about this element of the model than the phonological loop and visual spatial sketchpad but theorists included it in the model in a bid to account for the interaction between working memory and long-term memory so does working memory work as a model for memory well aside from the limited information about the central executive and episodic buffer yes it does badle and hitch's own research using a dual task Paradigm demonstrates that people are able to complete two tasks simultaneously if they are using different processing systems but it becomes difficult to complete two tasks at the same time if they use the same slave system try these examples yourself and you'll probably get similar results first try to Pat your stomach and rub your head at the same time both of these tasks employ the visual spatial sketch pad it's hard if you managed it it took effort now Pat your head and say the alphabet easy you're still completing two tasks but because one task relies on the phological loop whilst the other calls upon the visual spatial sketch pad you're able to multi task with few or no errors evidence from the kfk study adds further support for the suggestion that the slave systems are not only operationally distinct but anatomically separate too KF experienced brain damage as a result of a motorbike accident but whilst his verbal memory was impaired his ability to recall and learn visual information was largely unaffected badley and hitch open the door to understandings of shortterm memory being a complex interaction between several processes rather than a unified store but this model is unlikely to provide the complete picture share your thoughts in the comments below and make sure you're subscribed to psychology unlocked for all the latest videos for more videos articles and revision AIDS head over to psychology unlocked.com