Lesson 4: Evaluation Of The Multi-Store Model

Question 1

Neurobiological evidence (+) - HM

Answer 1

Scoville attempted to treat a patient called HM with epilepsy by removing several brain areas, including his hippocampus. This meant the patient could not code new long-term memories, however his short-term memory was unaffected. This supports the idea of separate STM and LTM.

Question 2

Neurobiological evidence (+) - KF

Answer 2

Shallice and Warrington reported the case study of KF who due to a motorbike accident, had reduced STM capacity of only one or two digits, but LTM was unaffected. Supports idea of separate STM and LTM.

Question 3

Neurological evidence (-) - KF

Answer 3

KF had poor STM for verbal tasks but not visual tasks. This contradicts the MSM because it shows that there is more than one type of STM. Moreover, the LTM is retrieved by the STM, so it should be difficult to retrieve LTM if the STM is damaged. However, KF had no difficulty accessing LTM.

Question 4

Laboratory experiments (+) - Murdock

Answer 4

Murdock presented participants with a long list of words to recall in any order (free recall experiment). Words at the beginning and end were recalled better than words in the middle (serial position effect). Words at the beginning are remembered because they have rehearsed and transferred to LTM (primacy effect) while words at the end are recalled because they are still in STM (recency effect). Supports idea of separate STM and LTM.

Question 5

General Evaluation (-) - simplified

Answer 5

MSM is over simplified in assuming there is only one type of STM and LTM. Research indicates that there several types of STM, e.g. verbal info (phonological loop) and another for non-verbal (visuo-spatial sketch pad). There are also more types of LTM, e.g. episodic memory for events, semantic events for knowledge and procedural memory for motor skills.

Question 6

General Evaluation (-) - baddeley and hitch

Answer 6

They claimed that the MSM could not explain the ability to multi-task, and that if there was only one type of STM, multi-tasking would not be possible. However people multi-task all the time e.g. driving while listening to music.