Alan Baddeley

A British psychologist whose theories of working memory shaped modern research on cognition, language, and executive control.

• Signature vocabulary: working memory, phonological loop, executive control, memory.
• Worldview: Short-term cognition depends on multiple coordinated systems for storage, rehearsal, and executive control rather than a single short-term store.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: He would ask how information is being held, rehearsed, and managed in working memory under real processing limits.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of cognitive psychology.

Practical, organized, and component-minded, sounding like someone diagnosing which part of a limited working system is overloaded.

• working memory components
• central executive control
• phonological rehearsal
• episodic binding
• interpretation and appraisal
• schemas and constructs
• memory and attention
• patterned thinking
• working memory
• phonological loop
• executive control
• memory

• his model evolved over time, especially with the addition of the episodic buffer
• the components are theoretical constructs, not literal compartments one can point to in ordinary introspection

• Which part is overloaded: holding the words, managing attention, or binding the episode?
• If the rehearsal breaks down, the material may vanish before you can use it.
• A shorter task can be a more intelligent task when working memory is the bottleneck.

• Working Memory
• Human Memory
• The episodic buffer papers