Comparison questions are the easiest marks on this topic and the ones students most often fumble, because they describe each model in turn and never actually compare them. This page is built the way the answer should be built.
📚 What you need to know
Both are cognitive models: attempts to conceptualise how memory works.
The MSM sees memory as unitary stores; the WMM sees it as a dynamic, flexible process.
The MSM covers all of memory. The WMM covers STM only.
The MSM has a rehearsal loop for moving information into LTM; the WMM is vague about LTM.
The MSM is supported by serial position effect studies; the WMM by dual-task studies.
Only the WMM can explain parallel processing — handling visual and acoustic information at the same time.
Both are supported by lab experiments and by case studies of brain-damaged patients.
The shape of each model
Neither shape is simply better. A pipeline explains how information gets stored; a hub explains how it gets used.
Similarities
Similarity
What it means
Both conceptualise memory
They are both cognitive models, trying to represent an invisible process as a structure.
Both give capacity and duration
Each model specifies limits for its stores or components rather than leaving them vague.
Both rest on the same kinds of evidence
Lab experiments (Glanzer & Cunitz; Baddeley) and case studies of brain-damaged patients (HM, KF).
Both share a weakness in their evidence
Lab research lacks mundane realism because the tasks are artificial, and case studies lack generalisability because they rest on one participant.
Both leave things unmeasured
The capacity and function of the CE and EB have never been measured, and neither has the exact duration and capacity of LTM.
Differences
Multi-store model
Working memory model
Sees memory as unitary stores
Conceptualises memory as a dynamic, flexible process
Includes a rehearsal loop for moving information from STM to LTM
Is vague about LTM, and only added a link to it in 2000
Supported by serial position effect lab studies
Supported by dual-task studies
Cannot explain parallel processing
Explains parallel processing through the VSS and the PL
Is a full model of memory, covering all three stores
Covers STM only, and does not explain changes in processing ability that come with practice or time
Write comparisons in linked pairs, not in two separate blocks. ‘The MSM explains X, whereas the WMM explains Y’ is worth more than a paragraph on each. The word ‘whereas’ is doing real work in the mark scheme.
So which fits better?
The honest answer is that they are answering different questions. The MSM asks how information moves into permanent storage, and it answers that reasonably well. The WMM asks what happens while you are actually using information, and it answers that far better than the MSM ever did.
The MSM’s weakness is that it treats STM as one grey box. The WMM’s weakness is that it stops at the edge of that box. A complete account of memory needs both, which is roughly where the field ended up.
A useful line for essays. The WMM is better on process; the MSM is better on structure. If a question asks which explains memory more effectively, that sentence gives you a defensible position rather than sitting on the fence.
Link to concepts
Perspective: the concept of working memory is very useful for understanding how people attend to the here and now, and it applies directly to educational and clinical settings — testing cognitive ability, or possible deficits in attention and information processing. The MSM does not have that kind of direct application to other settings.
Bias: both models may lack cultural relativism. They are biased towards Westernised rather than collectivist concepts of memory. Eastern collectivist cultures tend to focus on contextual information and on group and social relationships in memory, which does not fit neatly into a box-and-arrow diagram. The cognitive approach uses machine reductionism to depict human cognition, and models of memory may not align with cultures where the human element of a memory matters more than the processes that formed it.
EXAM PRACTICE
Compare and contrast two models of memory. [22]
Step 1: name both and their scope
MSM (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968) covers all memory. WMM (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974) covers STM only.
Step 2: two similarities, linked
Both are cognitive models specifying capacity and duration, and both rest on lab experiments plus brain-damage case studies.
Step 3: two differences, linked
The MSM sees unitary stores whereas the WMM sees a dynamic process. The MSM has a rehearsal loop into LTM whereas the WMM is vague about LTM.
Step 4: the decisive difference
Only the WMM explains parallel processing, evidenced by dual-task studies.
Step 5: shared weaknesses and a position
Both rely on artificial tasks and single-case studies, and both carry a Western bias. The WMM is better on process; the MSM is better on structure.
Scope + similarities + differences + decisive point + positionEvery point should mention both models in the same sentence. That is what ‘compare’ means.
💡 Exam tip
Use linking words — whereas, however, similarly, by contrast. They signal comparison to the marker.
Balance it. Roughly equal similarities and differences.
Name a study for each model. Glanzer & Cunitz for the MSM, Baddeley for the WMM.
KF is worth mentioning as a second case study alongside HM if you know it.
End with a position. Sitting on the fence caps your marks.
⚠ Common mix-up
Describing each model separately. That is not a comparison and it will not be marked as one.
Saying the WMM covers LTM. It only gained a link to LTM through the episodic buffer.
Claiming one model is simply wrong. They have different scopes.
Using the wrong study for the wrong model. Serial position goes with the MSM; dual-task with the WMM.
Forgetting the shared limitations. Both rely on artificial lab tasks and both carry culture bias.
Up next: How Culture Shapes What We Remember — where the neat box diagrams meet the fact that memory works differently in different places.
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