Alan Baddeley facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alan Baddeley
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| Born |
Alan David Baddeley
23 March 1934 Leeds, Yorkshire, England
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| Nationality | British |
| Education | University College London Princeton University University of Cambridge (PhD) |
| Known for | Neuropsychological tests, Baddeley's model of working memory |
| Awards | CBE FRS (1993) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of York |
| Thesis | The Influence of Acoustic and Semantic Similarity on Long-term Memory for Word Sequences (1962) |
Alan David Baddeley is a famous British psychologist. He was born on March 23, 1934. He is best known for his important work on how our memory works. He created a well-known idea called the three-part model of working memory. Today, he is a professor of psychology at the University of York.
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About Alan Baddeley
Alan Baddeley was born in Leeds, England, in 1934. He lived there with his parents, Donald and Nellie Baddeley. When he was older, he decided to study psychology. At first, he was interested in psychoanalysis. But he later chose to focus on psychology that uses scientific evidence.
In 1956, Baddeley traveled to the United States to continue his studies. After a year, he came back home. He then went to Cambridge, where he met and married Hilary Ann White. Alan and Hilary have three sons.
Baddeley has taught and done research at many universities. These include the University of Sussex and the University of Bristol. He also worked at the Medical Research Council's Applied Psychology Unit. He is now a professor at the University of York.
His Education
Alan Baddeley studied at University College London from 1953 to 1956. He then earned a master's degree (MA) from Princeton University in 1957. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1962.
Later, he was given special honorary doctorates. These were from the University of Essex in 1999, Plymouth University in 2000, and University of Bristol in 2019.
His Work and Research
The Working Memory Model
In 1974, Alan Baddeley worked with Graham Hitch. Together, they created a very important idea about working memory. This idea is called Baddeley's model of working memory. It explains how our brains temporarily hold and use information.
Their model suggests that we have different short-term memory systems. These systems work together to help us think and solve problems.
The original model had three main parts:
- The phonological loop: This part helps us remember sounds and words. It's like an inner voice that repeats things.
- The central executive: This is like the "boss" of working memory. It controls attention and decides which information to focus on.
- The visuospatial sketchpad: This part helps us remember images and locations. It's like an inner eye that lets us picture things.
In 2000, Baddeley added a fourth part to his model. He called it the episodic buffer. This part helps to link information from the other memory systems. It also connects working memory with our long-term memory.
How We Remember Words
In 1975, Baddeley did a famous study on short-term memory. He found that people remembered more short words than long words. This is known as the word length effect. It showed that how long it takes to say a word matters more than how many letters it has.
His study also found something interesting. If people repeated a random sound while reading words, the word length effect disappeared. This showed how the phonological loop works.
Memory and Amnesia
Baddeley also worked with Barbara Wilson. They studied people who had amnesia, which is a type of memory loss. These patients had damage to parts of their brain.
Their research showed that short-term and long-term memory are different systems. The amnesia patients could still remember things for a short time. But they had trouble remembering things for a long time. This helped scientists understand how memory is organized in the brain.
Other Interesting Studies
Baddeley also did research with divers. He studied how being underwater affected their skills. He looked at how depth and temperature changed their reaction times. He also studied how memory can be linked to the place where you learn something. This is called context-dependent memory.
Awards and Recognition
Alan Baddeley led the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge. This unit is part of the UK's Medical Research Council. He was its director from 1974 to 1997.
He has received many honors for his work:
- In 1993, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.
- In 1996, he was chosen as an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- In 2001, he received an award from the American Psychological Association (APA). This was for his important scientific contributions.
- The British Psychological Society gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
- In 2016, he won the Major Advancement in Psychological Science Prize.
Other Notable Works
Alan Baddeley also helped create several neuropsychological tests. These tests help doctors understand how a person's brain is working. Some of these tests include the Doors and People test and the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test.
He was also involved in designing the postcodes used in the United Kingdom. He was also one of the people who helped start the European Society for Cognitive Psychology.
