Alan Baddeley's Work on the Aspects of the Working Memory Paper Example

Introduction

Baddeley is a psychologist that tried to work on how short-term memory is remembered. A few examples of short-term memories are like; remembering the shirt colour of a friend that we met once, remembering the car model that is ahead as people drive and remembering what a news presenter has just said after a few minutes (Arnold et al., 2016)). These are the kind of memories that Baddeley tried to research and work on. A majority of psychologists have been trying to research the working of the memory. The main reason for their work is getting to find out why some things are remembered while others are not remembered at all. Alan Baddeley a psychologist from Britain is one individual that tried so much to deal with the issues of short memory.

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Baddeley is well known for the work that he conducted when it comes to the short-term type of memory or in other words the memory that goes away first enough. Baddeley was significantly involved with matters that pertain to the short-term memory. He tried to dwell a lot in the way the short memory is stored and processed and how it works within the human body. This article will look at all the aspects of the working memory.

Working Memory Model by Baddeley

Working Memory can be described as a memory that people form and which does not take long to be retained. For example, if one is reading and rehearsing the sentences that are in this article, they will not be remembered for a long time, and it may be difficult to know a word after word (Arnold et al., 2016). Working memory can be said to be similar to the short-term type of memory; that is the part of the memory that keeps few items and which can be remembered and accessed in few minutes or in less time. Due to the curiosity that was within Baddeley tried all he could do so that he would get to study how the memories worked and how they were processed. For that reason, Baddeley came up with a model that is known as working memory model to explain all the working and the processing of things by the short-term memory.

This model was proposed and initiated by Baddeley together with Hitch in the year 1974 as a country to the multistore type of memory. The model was developed to challenge the concept that was of a lone unitary store in the cases of memories that are short. This model of the working memory comes from the results of a task that shows and gives implications that there exist about four components that are separate from the working memory (STM). This article looks at the Working Memory Model in detail.

Central Executive

This is one of the most vital components. The work of this system is to make decisions and at the same time get involved in solving problems. The other duties that are undertaken by this system are the control of attention, and the central executive system plays a significant role when it comes to the planning and the synthesizing of information. It gets plans and integrates data from subsidiary systems and also LTM (Furley & Wood, 2016). The central executive system is described as being flexible as it can process data from any modality. However, the executive system has some limitations as it has small storage space and for that reason, it can only deal with few things at a time.

Phonological Loop

Phonology is the branch of linguistics that looks at how sounds and words get organized in language. This is the other important aspect of the working memory model is known as the phonological loop. This part keeps in store very few numbers of sounds that are speech-based for less time. This part is also known to be involved in the processing of language that is spoken. At this part, arithmetic issues get processed here, how new words are learned is processed here, and at the same time, a new address that is written down is processed in this part of the working memory. The phonological loop is said to be made of two aspects-the articulatory control process which is the inner voice, and its work is to allow repetition that is sub-vocal of the things that have been stored within the phonological store. The other component of the phonological loop is the phonological store known as the inner ear whose work is to permit coded items that are acoustic to be kept for a small period.

Visuo-Spatial Scratch Pad

This is the other important component of the working memory model. The function of the visuospatial scratchpad is to keep spatial and visual information, and the part can be described as an inner eye. The component is tasked with the manipulation and the setting up of images that are considered mental. The visuospatial scratch pad is similar to the phonological loop as it has a small capacity when it comes to storage but there are differences between the two components when it comes to the limitation in storage (Furley & Wood, 2016). This can be described in that; it is very agreeable to practice several digits within the phonological loop and at the same time reaching decisions concerning spatial layout within several letters at the visual-spatial scratch pad.

In the year 2000, Baddeley came up with another component known as the episodic buffer. The component is tasked with the integration and manipulation of material. The episodic buffer has a small storage capacity, and it is very dependent on the executive processing component (Kessel et al.,2016). The Episodic buffer is known to bring information together from various sources into episodes and chunks, and that is why the name 'episodic.' There are essential functions that are carried out by the episodic buffer like recalling material from LTM and integrating the information into the STM when the working memory is needed; a good example is the imagination of an elephant being involved in skating.

Strengths of the Working Memory Model

One of the major strengths of the memory working model is that there is a lot of evidence that can support the working of the phonological loop. Baddeley suggested that there is a presence of the word length effect. This means that shorts words would be recalled more than the long words. At the same time, there was the prevention of the short words from being able to be rehearsed through the repetition of a sound that was irrelevant. The effect of the word length got lost because of the suppression that was articulatory by filling the phonological loop.

The other strength of the working memory model is that there is a lot of information when it comes to supporting how visuospatial scratch pad works. Baddeley carried out an example as he held a pointer together with a spot of light that was moving and at the same time getting to visualize the F letter as a block one (Arnold, 2018). The letter imagery tasks and tracking competed with the resources that were limited within the visuospatial scratch pad. In that case, there was the verbal tasks and tracking using components that were separate.

Weaknesses of the Working Memory Model

One of the major weaknesses of the working memory is that the central executive system gets difficult in quantifying it. There has been insufficient research that has been carried out in getting to understand the whole system of the central executive. No individual understands the limitations regarding capacity when it comes to the central executive system. A researcher by the name of Richardson specified the problems of the central executive system by saying that the function could not be falsified in any way.

The other weaknesses of the working memory model are that the research is mainly based within the lab. There is no problem of the research being lab-based, the problem happens in that there can be a lack of validity when it gets to the part of the ecology and more so when it gets to the setting that is artificial (Arnold et al.,2018). In some aspects though, the model can be said to possess realism that is mundane because the tasks that have been given to all the participants would in many ways stand for experiences in the life of people, a good example is listening to music from a radio and riding a bicycle.

Association of Working Memory with IQ

In today's world, intelligence is put into two-man categories; crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence refers to the general reasoning together with the skills of solving problems. At the same time, fluid intelligence is known as an executive function or even the as the working memory (Furley& Wood, 2016). On the other hand, Crystallised intelligence may be used to refer to functions that are cognitive that are associated with a broad perspective of knowledge. The various tests of IQ are used in the measuring of crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence to some extents that are varying. However, the measurement of crystallized intelligence is sometimes complicated to deal with. There is a lot of evidence showing that fluid intelligence usually is affected by some factors which are emotions and environmental ones.

In. a majority of research there is 'g.' That is the nearest point that people have come to the factor that is called 'intelligence,' however that is considered as a construction that is psychometric. That goes to mean that the presence is summarised as a way in which various scores on the cognitive tests correlates positively. For that matter, it is not known what becomes of it, and that is why it is referred to as 'g'and not something that is intelligible (Arnold et al., 2016). For that matter, it is very wrong for it to be thought of as a thing. The truth is that it is a kind of a type of property or even properties owned by the brain and they are not known what they are. Various processes have been suggested. They are the likes of, Processing speed, synaptic plasticity, and even fluid cognition. The properties are considered plausible. However, studies that are experimental have not born fruit when it comes to giving clear evidence of them. However, the nearest is said to be fluid cognition otherwise known as fluid intelligence and which is connected with crystallized intelligence. The two terms give a direction that is very important.

Fluid intelligence refers to the functions that are cognitive and which are generally in association with problem-solving and general reasoning, and for that matter, it is known as executive function or even working memory function. Crystallised intelligence can be at times referred to as cognitive functions which are generally associated with knowledge that has been previously gained within the long-term period (Engle, 2018). Some interconnections between all the functions have been mentioned above, but in most of the occasions, functions are separable by use of experiment.

It is good to note that there are different tests for IQ which are used in the measuring of crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence to some different texts. For instance, WAIS is used for the measurement of crystallized intelligence while Raven's Progressive Matrices Test is used for the size of fluid intelligence (Engle, 2018). There was an analysis of the most used intelligence done on children, and it was discovered that a third of the tests were used in the measurement of crystallised intelligence, a quarter of the other tests was used on the measuring of writing and reading skills and it was seen that only7% was for the measurement of fluid intelligence.

What is known as the Flynn effect that is said to be the rise in the IQ in the last century, is categorized as the addition of fluid intelligence and not crystallized intelligence. It has been said that fluid intelligence gives way for crystallized intelligence to develop but should be known that there is a huge difference when it comes to the two. The difference is that the two are present from an early age and they form a pattern that is different in the life of a person....