Evaluation

• The WMM is an advance from the passivity of the MSM, and there is research to support the STM being more than one component. Baddeley et Al. found participants could carry out a visual and verbal task at the same time, but not two of the same task suggesting only one task per subsystem at a time- backing up the model
• WMM is supported by highly controlled lab studies which may undermine the validity of the model.
• The WMM does not account for musical memory- it's possible to listen to instrumental music whilst performing other auditory tasks, criticising the WMM
• The Central Executive is vague and untestable. Baddeley said that it was the 'most important but least understood component' and research suggests it could be more than just one component, not unitary, as in this model- Eslinger and Damasio studied patient EVR could perform well on reasoning tasks but had poor decision making skills- this challenges the validity of the model as the most important part is not well explained
• Clinical evidence supports the idea that STM is more than one component. For example, KF could recall digits better if he read them (VSS) than if they were read to him (PL)- this selective impairment supports the EWMM, as do brain imaging studies.