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Baddeley's Working Memory
AP Psychology · Unit 5 Cognitive Psychology
Learning Objectives
Phonological Loop: Processes auditory/verbal information. Has a "rehearsal" component (inner voice) and a "store" (inner ear). Capacity: ~2 seconds of speech.
Visuospatial Sketchpad: Processes visual/spatial information. "The mind's eye" — mental images, navigation, object manipulation.
Central Executive: Directs attention, coordinates subsystems, switches between tasks. Limited capacity — the "boss" of working memory.
Episodic Buffer: Added in 2000. Integrates information from all subsystems + long-term memory into coherent episodes.
Tags
Working MemoryBaddeleyPhonological LoopVisuospatial
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vs Atkinson-Shiffrin: Baddeley's model replaces the single "short-term memory" box with a multi-component system. This explains why you can listen to music WHILE drawing — they use different subsystems (phonological loop vs visuospatial sketchpad).