Working Memory Model

Criteria B 
● The WMM is a development of the MSM. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed a new
model. 
● Their model suggests that STM consists of multiple different stores. This
was suggested from studies which used dual-task technique where the participant will
essentially multi-task. 
● They found that when participants performed two tasks related to listening, they
performed less well. However, when doing two tasks which involved listening and vision,
there wasn’t a problem.  
○ This led to propose different stores for different types of information. 

● There are several components of the WMM: the central executive, the slave systems
(phonological loop, episodic buffer, visuospatial sketchpad), and long-term memory
storage. 
● The central executive’s function is attention control. It is responsible for monitoring the
operation of the slave systems. It decides which information should be given attention to. 
● The phonological loop holds auditory information. It has two components. 
○ The phonological store is like an inner ear and holds speech-based information.  
○ The articulatory control system is like an inner voice and rehearses information
from the phonological store. As long as there is frequent rehearsal, the more likely it will
be stored in LTM. 
● The visuospatial sketchpad stores visual and spatial information. 
● The episodic buffer is a sort of backup store which is fed by the slave systems, and is
linked to central executive. It holds information temporarily and combines different types
of information. 
Note: articulatory suppression is the process of inhibiting memory performance
by speaking while being presented with an item to remember. 

Criteria C
Study #1:
Landry & Bartling (2011) Aim To investigate if articulatory suppression affected
memory.  
Procedure 
1. The participants were psychology students.  
2. In the experimental group, participants saw a list of letters, then had to recall them
while speaking aloud (articulatory suppression task). 
3. The the control group, the participants saw a list of letters, but had to recall without
speaking aloud. 
Findings/Results 
● The scores of the experimental group were much lower than the control group. 
● The participants in the experimental group had a more difficult time
recalling information. 
Conclusion 
● The results support the WMM because disruption of the phonological loop through
the use of articulatory suppression lead to less accurate working memory. 

Criteria D
Evaluation of study 
Sample bias 
● Psychology students were used for the study. They are not representative of
the population. 
Low ecological validity 
● The study was an experiment conducted in a lab where the variables were highly
controlled.  
● It doesn’t model a realistic situation. 
Demand characteristics and social desirability effect 
● The psychology students may have predicted what the aim of the study was
and behaved a certain way to achieve certain results. 
● They may have wanted to be liked by the experimenters, thus showing SDE
by demonstrating demand characteristics.  
Cultural bias 
● The experiment was done in the USA.  
● The findings may not be applicable to other cultures i.e. may be an emic finding. 

Criteria C 
Study #2:
Warrington & Shallice (1970) 
Aim 
To investigate the impact of brain damage on short-term memory. 
Procedure 
1. A series of tests were done on Patient KF who had suffered from brain damage due to
a motorcycle accident. 
2. He was presented with information orally and then visually which had had to recall.  
Findings/Results 
● Patient KF was able to remember visual information much better than verbal. 
● He could still transfer information from short-term storage to long-term.  
Conclusion 
● This supports the WMM because it shows there are different stores for different kind of
information. 
● Patient KF could recognise visual and auditory information (e.g. telephone ringing) but
not verbal. Thus, there must be different components for information.  

Criteria D
Evaluation of study Research method: case study 
● Since the research method used was a case study, it is difficult to generalise
the findings.  
● This is because only one patient was used and he may have been exhibiting emic
behaviour. 
Longitudinal study 
● The case study was longitudinal allowing the researchers to be more precise in their
investigation and findings. 
● Longitudinal studies also allowed the researchers to find patterns over time in the
patient’s memory. 
Researcher bias 
● The researchers developed a relationship with Patient KF due to the study
being longitudinal. 
● This may have influenced the results and gotten too involved because they
had become emotionally attached. 
Ethical considerations 
● Since Patient KF suffered from brain damage, it is difficult to know how well-informed
he was about this study. 
● Patient KF may not have completely understood what he was getting into.  
● This is important because we can’t be sure if gave consent to the experiment or not. 
Criteria D
Evaluation of theory Strengths 
● Some aspects are testable. For instance, dual task techniques can be used to
test WMM. 
● There is a lot of empirical evidence for WMM through experiments and case studies. ○
Landry & Bartling (2011) 
○ Warrington & Shallice (1972) → patient KF who suffered from brain damage, but
his visual short term memory wasn’t as affected 
● Furthermore, brain scans have shown that different parts of the brain are activated by
different tasks.  ○ This supports WMM because the model suggests different types
of information are held in different stores. 
● It is applicable to patients who have suffered from brain damage. It explains why we
can multitask.  ○ It also relates to specific tasks in our everyday lives. For e.g. reading
= phonological loop, problem solving = central executive. 
Limitations 
● The variables are not clearly defined because we can’t measure each
component separately.  
 ○ It’s difficult to measure the role of the central executive separately from the other
parts of the model. 
● The model only applies to short-term memory. It doesn’t explain ○ Long-term memory ○
Memory distortion 
○ How emotion has an impact on memory 

Schema Theory
Criteria B
● Cognitive schemas: mental representations that organise our knowledge, beliefs
and expectations.  
● Schemas derive from prior experience. We have schemes (and possibly
need them) to understand and simplify the world around us.  
● There are many different types of schemas including social schemas, scripts and
self-schemas.  
● Social schemas: mental representations about various groups of people (connects
to stereotypes). 
● Scripts: sequences of expected behaviour for a given situation. 
● Self-schemas: mental representations about ourselves. 
● Schemas increase information processing efficiency, form a set of expectations 
and are generally resistant to change. 
● They can lead to distortion of memory. 
Schema Theory memory processes 
● Encoding: transform sensory image into a memory 
● Storage: maintain the memory 
● Retrieval: using the stored information for decision-making, problem-solving and
thinking
Criteria C
Study #1: Bartlett (1932) 
Aim To investigate how memory reconstruction is affected by cultural schemas.  
Procedure 
1. British participants were allocated into two groups and told a Native
American story. 
2. One group used repeated reproduction where participants had to reproduce
the story over a period of time. 
3. The other group used serial reproduction where the participants had to tell
the story to another person. 
Findings/Results 
● There was no significant difference in the results between the first and
second group. 
● The researchers found that the story became shorter over time because
the participants omitted information which they felt wasn’t important. 
● The participants changed unfamiliar parts of the story to make them more in line
with their schemas.  
● The participants tended to change the order of the events of the story to make
it more coherent. 
● They also added detail and emotions to better fit their own cultural frameworks. 
Conclusion 
● Bartlett concluded that people weren’t good at remembering a story from another
culture.  
● They tended to reconstruct the story to fit their own cultural schemas.  
● Bartlett suggested we tend to do this because schemas help us make sense of the
world. If something doesn’t fit our cognitive schemas, we lose that sense of
understanding. 
● Bartlett also concluded that remembering is an active process. Our
memories aren’t exact copies of experiences. Rather, they are reconstructions and
are susceptible to error. 

Criteria D
Evaluation of study Cultural bias 
● The sample consisted of only British participants.  
● This behaviour of memory reconstruction may not be an etic behaviour. Ecological
validity 
● The research was an experiment in an artificial setting (laboratory).  
● However, Bartlett’s memory reconstruction theory is applicable to other real-life
situations and so, has a high ecological validity. In addition, not all variables were
controlled. Design 
● The method was not rigorously controlled. There were no standardised instructions
or time after which the participants had to recall the story. 
○ This affects the reliability of the results because extraneous variables may
have affected the reconstruction of memory. 
● The participants also weren’t told to reproduce the story as accurately as possible. 
● There was no control group to ensure that memory distortion doesn’t happen to
members of the same cultural group. Cause-effect relationship 
● No independent variable was manipulated and so, a cause-and-effect relationship
could not be established. 
Criteria C 
Study #2: Brewer and Treyens (1981) 
Aim To investigate whether schemas affected the encoding and retrieval of memory. 
Procedure 
1. University psychology students were used as the sample.  
2. The participants had to sit in a room made to look like an office. There were typical
objects and several strange objects placed in the room. 
3. Then the participants were taken out of the office and were asked to recall
the objects in the office. 
Findings/Results 
● When participants had to recall through writing or drawing, they were more likely to
recall items which were congruent with their schemas (which fit their schemas) even
if they weren’t actually in the office.  
● Participants had a tendency to change the nature of the object to match
their schema.  
● Some participants also remembered certain objects incongruent with
their schemas. 
Conclusion 
● The researchers concluded that schemas affect the reconstruction of
memory shown by how the participants recalled objects that were typically in an
office even if they weren’t present. 
● Also, we have a tendency to recall objects that don’t fit in our schemas
because they stand out from what we expect to see. 
Criteria D
Evaluation of study 
Historical bias 
● The study was done in 1981. Schemas might have changed over time
(since then). 
Low ecological validity 
● The experiment was done in an artificial environment. This behaviour may not be
applicable to other situations. 
High reliability 
● Due to its low ecological validity, the experiment is reliable because it is
easily replicated due to standardised instructions and controlled variables. 
Demand characteristics 
● Psychology students were used. They may have shown demand
characteristics because they knew what to expect from a psychology experiment. 
Sample bias 
● Only university students were used for the experiment. They are not representative
of the population. 
Criteria D
Evaluation of theory 
Strengths 
● Testable: The schema theory is testable as shown by the studies done by Bartlett
and by Brewer and Treyens. 
● Empirical evidence: Along with many studies on a cognitive level, there is biological
research too. 
○ Mahone et al (2009) found that information about non-living and living things
were sorted in different parts of the brain.  
○ This shows that the brain automatically sorts information and classifies it in the
same way that the schema theory predicts.  
● Applicable: Schema theory helps us understand how memory works. It
helps explain memory distortion. 
○ Schema theory has been applied in several fields of psychology. For
e.g. abnormal psych as therapy for depression and anxiety. 
● Unbiased: Though most early research was done in the West, there’s no bias
in research. Schema theory is also an etic concept. 
● Predicts behaviour: We can predict what kind of information will be best recalled
(the stuff that fit with our schemas) and omitted. 
Limitations 
● It is argued by some psychologists that the schema concept is too vague especially
because schemas can’t truly be observed. 
● Doesn’t fully predict behaviour: We can’t predict what EXACTLY an individual will
recall.  
● It is not clear how schemas are established in the first place. 
● Doesn’t explain why schema-inconsistent items are sometimes recalled.