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2 - Working Memory and the Challenge of Language

from Part I - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2022

By
Alan Baddeley
Edited by
John W. Schwieter  and
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen
John W. Schwieter
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Shue Yan University
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Summary

The multicomponent model of working memory developed during the period when psycholinguistics was dominated by Chomsky’s transformational grammar and its potential implications. The original model had assumed a limited capacity attentional control system, the central executive, aided by temporary verbal storage from the phonological loop and visuospatial storage from the visuospatial sketchpad. Over the decades, each component of the model has been systematically explored by language studies, which have repeatedly resulted in challenges to earlier versions of the model and led to the addition of the fourth component of the episodic buffer and the recent incorporation of the concept of binding. Overall, the multicomponent model was developed using a different approach than Popper’s emphasis on falsification, and the model continues to evolve and has proven successful both in accounting for a broad range of data and in its application to the understanding of a wide array of language phenomena and populations. L11

Keywords

working memorymulticomponent modelphonological loopvisuospatial sketchpadcentral executiveepisodic bufferbindingchunking
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language , pp. 19 - 28
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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