Alan Baddeley

Alan David Baddeley CBE FRS (born 23 March 1934) is a British psychologist. He is known for his research on memory and for developing the three-component model of working memory. He is a professor of psychology at the University of York. Baddeley was born in Leeds, Yorkshire on 23 March 1934. He lived there with his parents, Donald and Nellie Baddeley, until leaving for university. He decided to study psychology and was originally interested in psychoanalysis. Later he changed his focus to evidence-based psychology. In 1956, Baddeley went to the United States of America to continue his studies. After spending a year in America, he returned home. He then went to Cambridge, where he met and married Hilary Ann White. Baddeley and his wife have three sons. Baddeley has taught and conducted research at University of Sussex, University of Stirling, MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, and University of Bristol. He is currently a professor of psychology at the University of York. Baddeley attended the University College London from 1953 to 1956. He then obtained an MA from Princeton University's Department of Psychology in 1957. He earned a PhD from University of Cambridge in 1962. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by University of Essex in 1999, Plymouth University in 2000, and University of Bristol in 2019. In 1974, working with Graham Hitch, Baddeley developed an influential model of working memory called Baddeley's model of working memory, which argues for the existence of multiple short-term memory stores and a separate interacting system for manipulating the content of these stores. There are three components of this model: the phonological loop, the central executive, and the visuospatial sketch pad. In 2000, Baddeley suggested adding a fourth component to his memory model called the episodic buffer. The model accounts for much of the empirical data on short-term retention and manipulation of information.