Unlike the multistore model, which depicts short-term memory as a simple passive store of information, Baddeley and Hitch's (1974) model suggests that information is actively held and manipulated by a more complex system called Working Memory.

Working memory consists of a number of processing systems that handle different types of information: the visuospatial sketchpad handles visual information; the phonological loop handles auditory (sound) information; while the episodic buffer brings all of the information together and records it as an event; the whole process is coordinated by a 'central executive' which can access information, manipulate it and move it between the other components.

Serences et al.'s (2009) study supports the existence of the visuospatial sketchpad in the working memory model because it demonstrates that visual information is handled by specific areas of the brain and also that this information can be actively manipulated.

In the study, participants were shown a visual image for one second and asked to remember either its colour or its orientation. They were then shown a blank screen for 10 seconds, after which a second image was shown and participants had to decide whether it was the same colour or orientation as the first image. During the 10 second period where participants were holding the information in memory their brain activity was monitored using fMRI.

The results indicated that if the participants were holding colour information in memory there was specific activation of the visual cortex that processes colour information, while if they were holding orientation information there was activity in the area associated with the processing of orientation information. The researchers were even able to tell what type of task the participant was doing just from looking at the fMRI images.

This shows that working memory uses the same parts of the brain that are used when we are actually looking at an object. However, participants were only storing the information necessary for the task (either colour or orientation), which supports the existence of a central executive that consciously decides what information is important.