Evaluation of Working Memory Model

Strengths

KF case study: KF suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident that damaged his STM. Impairment mainly for verbal info, visual memory intact - evidence of separate stores.

Gathercole & Baddeley (1993): ppts asked to follow a moving spot of light with a pointer (VSSP). Half asked to describe angles on letter F (VSSP). Other half asked to perform verbal task (phonological loop) at same time. Ppts in 1st group found it harder as they were using the same store for both tasks.

Paulescu et al (1993): used a PET scan to record activity when ppts were performing either verbal tasks (phonological loop) or visual tasks (VSSP) and found very different areas of the brain were active during each task - objective evidence.

Baddeley (1996): studied patients with Alzheimer's disease, and thus reduced CE functioning, who showed a marked reduction in performance when given 2 simultaneous tasks, compared with normal ppts.

A much more plausible model than the MSM because it explains STM in terms of both temporary storage and active processing. It attempts to explain how memory actually functions. Evidence presented that the phonological loop has a key role in the development of reading and the phonological loop isn't operative in some children with dyslexia.

Weaknesses

Lieberman (1980): According to the model, the VSSP implies that all spatial information was first visual. However, Lieberman points out that blind people have excellent spatial awareness without visual information.

Least is known about the central executive. Not clear about how it works or what it does. This vagueness means that it can be used to explain almost any experimental results. The capacity of the CE has never been measured. WM doesn't over-emphasise the importance of rehearsal for STM retention. Rehearsal is just one option with the ACP instead of being the only means of transferring information to the LT store. WM doesn't explain the changes in processing ability that occur as a result of practice or time. WMM only concerns itself with STM and isn't a comprehensive model of memory.