Wickens' Model

For the purpose of this course, we have chosen Christopher Wickens' model for human information processing and memory. This model integrates components and processes that are commonly agreed upon and that have been most substantiated by research. You will note that in this model, short-term memory has been replaced by "working memory." This is in accordance with research that indicates a much more active role for short-term memory. In essence, it is our mental "workbench."*

Wickens' model depicts sensory stimuli entering short-term sensory store where they are transformed into a form that the perceptual processes within the brain can understand. Processed stimuli are transferred to working memory. Working memory draws upon and interacts with long-term memory to develop our perception of the world and to determine our response to these perceptions.*

*adapted from Wickens, C.D., Engineering Psychology and Human Performance, Harper Collins, New York, 1992.