The primary function of the working memory is to reserve information temporarily. This information may have been encountered previously, but is not present in the external environment (D 'Esposito, 2007). Baddeley’s working memory model comprises of four main functions, the central executive which acts a controller, the episodic buffer, the visuospatial sketchpad that handles visual and spatial data. Lastly, a function that will be examined closely in this report is the phonological loop, a modular process containing a momentary store concurrently with methods of retaining information through vocal or sub-vocal practice (Baddeley, 2012) which is comparable to the articulatory rehearsal process. Together with the phonological store, articulatory …show more content…
As the study aims to quantify the different individual 's working memory capacity, participants were asked to recall three stimulus types, namely, digits, letters and words. There is a total of 30 tests, with ten trials per material. On each test, participants were shown a series of items continuously on the computer screen for a brief period. Thereupon, a variety of options were provided on the screen which participants had to recall and indicate the items by using an optical mouse in the exact arrangement presented. With each correct arrangement, the list length increases by one for that material type and decreases by one with each wrong …show more content…
As mentioned above, participants are shown words such as “medallion”, which has a minimum of three syllables. Jalbert, Neath, Bireta and Surprenant (2011) explains that one-syllable short words are recalled more precisely than three-syllable long words is because of the phonological loop theory. The theory states that long words require longer period to be refreshed whereas short words require lesser time, which was displayed in this experiment. Participants are found to have scored higher in digits and letters recall as it is only one-syllable, which is in consistent with the previous study. Hence, the word length effect indicated a higher possibility for the word item type to fall below the hypothesised