European Psychologist

European Psychologist
Alan D. Badd eley Is Working Memory StillW orking?

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Is Working Memory Still Working?*
Alan D. Baddeley
University of Bristol, UK

The current state of A.D. Baddeley and G.J. Hitch’s (1974) multicomponent working memory model is reviewed. The phonological and visuospatial subsystems have been extensively investigated, leading both to challengesover interpretation of individual phenomena and to more detailed attempts to model the processes underlying the subsystems. Analysis of the controlling central executive has proved more challenging, leading to a proposed clarification in which the executive is assumed to be a limited

capacity attentional system, aided by a newly postulated fourth system, the episodic buffer. Current interestfocuses most strongly on the link between working memory and long-term memory and on the processes allowing the integration of information from the component subsystems. The model has proved valuable in accounting for data from a wide range of participant groups under a rich array of task conditions. Working memory does still appear to be working.

The term working memory appears to have beenfirst proposed by Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960) in their classic book Plans and the Structure of Behavior. The term has subsequently been used in computational modeling approaches (Newell & Simon, 1972) and in animal learning studies, in which the participant animals are required to hold information across a number of trials within the same day (Olton, 1979). Finally, within cognitivepsychology, the term has been adopted to cover the system or systems involved in the temporary maintenance and manipulation of information. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) applied the term to a unitary short-term store, in contrast to the proposal of Baddeley and Hitch (1974), who used it to refer to a system comprising multiple components. They emphasized the functional importance of this system, as opposedto its simple storage capacity. It is this latter concept of a multicomponent working memory that forms the focus of the discussion that follows. I myself have been using the concept for over 25 years; does it still work? Before addressing this issue, it is perhaps appropriate to consider what are the criteria for working. The multicomponent model of working memory was proposed as a theoreticalframework whose function was to give

an economical and coherent account of a relatively wide range of data. Its success should be judged in terms of its continuing capacity to do so and to prompt new questions that in turn add to the basic understanding of cognition. To work, therefore, requires breadth of coverage coupled with a capacity to stimulate further research and to incorporate moreprecise quantitative and/or computational models. So, how well is working memory working? Baddeley and Hitch (1974) proposed that the earlier unitary concept should be elaborated into a three-com-

Alan Baddeley was born in Leeds, UK. He graduated with a degree in psychology from University College London, and after a year at Princeton University joined the staff of the Medical Research CouncilApplied Psychology Unit in Cambridge, where he completed a PhD under Conrad. After 9 years he moved to the newly created Experimental Psychology Laboratory at Sussex University, eventually moving to a chair at Stirling University. He then succeeded Donald Broadbent as director of the APU, a post he held until moving to his present chair in Bristol 21 years later. Correspondence concerning this addressshould be sent to Alan D. Baddeley, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, United Kingdom. Electronic mail may be sent to alan.baddeley@bristol.ac.uk.

* Copyright © 2001 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission from the original publication: Baddeley
A. (2001). “Is Working Memory Still Working?” American...