Classic Study

• Working Memory Model (WMM)


  Model of memory proposed by Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
• Baddeley (1966b) conducted a study on long-term memory encoding
• Baddeley (1966b) study


  • Investigated the influence of acoustic and semantic similarity on long-term memory for word sequences
• Baddeley (1966b) study procedure


  1. Independent groups design, Laboratory Experiment

  2. Male and female participants (approx. 20 per group)

  3. Four lists of ten words used (acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, semantically dissimilar)

  4. Words presented by tape recorder, one every 3 seconds

  5. 40 seconds to write down the ten word list in order after each trial

  6. 20min task of memory for 8 digits

  7. Asked to write down the ten word list in order
• Baddeley's experiment puts LTM under strain because the semantically similar list has words that all mean the same thing, giving LTM "nothing to hold on to"
• The aim of this study was to determine how long-term memory is affected by semantic and acoustic encoding


  through lab experiment involving word sequences
• The study follows standardised procedures such as being conducted in a controlled laboratory environment.

  Therefore, the study can be regarded as replicable and the reliability of the results can be established.

  Controlled nature = Cause and effect relationship can be established.
• Recalling the order of words is completely artificial and doesn't really resemble anything you would use memory to do in the real world = lacks mundane realism = low ecological validity

  Also decreases the generalisability
• Research into working memory and its assessment have helped identify children who have working memory impairments, which mean that they struggle with scholastic activities in the classroom and often fail in education
• The participants were all British volunteers – included both males and females and consisted of 72 participants in total

  Fairly large sample size -> however can't be generalised to others outside of the british population
• There were no major ethical issues within the study
• One strength of Baddeley's study is that it is reliable and scientific
• This is because it was conducted in a controlled laboratory environment with a standardised procedures such as the words appearing on the projector every 3 seconds and all the participants having 40 seconds to write down the ten word list in order after each trial
• This is important as it suggests that the study can be regarded as replicable and the reliability of the results can be established
• Due to the highly controlled nature of the experiment, Baddeley can also establish a cause and effect relationship between the independent variable (semantic or acoustic word list similarity), and the dependent variable (long-term memory)
• However, due to the nature of the study being a lab experiment, this means that the study is artificial and lacks ecological validity as recalling the order of words is completely artificial and doesn't resemble anything you would use memory to do in the real world
• Due to this, it is clear that the study is reliable but the validity of the study is questionable