Memory and emotion - multistore model of memory Flashcards
The multistore model of memory
the multistore model of memory
- It was one of the first models to give an overview of the basic structure of memory
- The MRM sparked a lot of research based on the idea of information processing - it has been one of the most influential models to date
According to MSM, memory consists of three types of memory
- sensory stores
- Short term memory (STM)
- Long term memory (LTM)
According to the MSM, the three types of memory differ from one another in 3 important ways
- duration
- capacity
- coding
Sensory store
- Stimuli are perceived, recognized, and entered into short-term memory
- Modality specific - one sensory store for each one of the senses
- information decays rapidly, therefore ATTENTION is required to move information to the short term memory
Short term memory (STM)
- extremely limited incapacity
- duration - anything from several seconds to half time
Memory strategy - chunking
- chunking is a cultural process that can overcome the ‘Biological limitation’ of only being able to remember a limited number of units
- We use meaningful patterns of information often grounded in our cultural tool of language. By grouping items together we form coherent chunks of information
Long Term Memory (LTM)
- The model suggests that LMT has a potentially limitness capacity and duration, but it is very difficult is not impossible to prove this
- LTM encoding is sematic - it is the meaning and understanding of something
Serial Position Affect
- Primacy-recency effect
- Refers to the finding that recall accuracy veries as a function of an item’s position within a list
Study
Support for the MSM
- Glanzer & cunitz (1966)
Aim- To exemine the primary-recency effect to see if there are two separated stores of memory (STM & LTM)
Methodology- Participants (enlisted army men) were shown lists of words (one at a time) the they knew they had to memorise. They were asked to recall the words and could do so in any order (free recall)
Experimental Method - There were two conditions - immediate free recall (Recalled immediately after presentation) and delayed free recall (counting for 30s to prevent rehearsal, then recalled)
Results - Found that delaying recall of 30 seconds (while preventing rehearsal) negates the recency effect causing recall of later words to be similar to ones in the middle, however it does not infulance primacy affect
Conclusions
- They suggest the primary effect occurs because words remembered from the beginning of the list have already been stored in LTM owning to gather rehearsal, while the words at the end of the list are still in SMT
- The distractor task (Counting) reduces regrency effects as it interfears with the transfer of the words from STM to LTM (by preventing the control process of rehearsal)
- The experiment offers evidence for two separate stores of memory
Evaluation
Study
Support for the MSM
- Glanzer & cunitz (1966)
Aim- To exemine the primary-recency effect to see if there are two separated stores of memory (STM & LTM)
Methodology- Participants (enlisted army men) were shown lists of words (one at a time) the they knew they had to memorise. They were asked to recall the words and could do so in any order (free recall)
Experimental Method - There were two conditions - immediate free recall (Recalled immediately after presentation) and delayed free recall (counting for 30s to prevent rehearsal, then recalled)
Results - Found that delaying recall of 30 seconds (while preventing rehearsal) negates the recency effect causing recall of later words to be similar to ones in the middle, however it does not infulance primacy affect
Conclusions
- They suggest the primary effect occurs because words remembered from the beginning of the list have already been stored in LTM owning to gather rehearsal, while the words at the end of the list are still in SMT
- The distractor task (Counting) reduces regrency effects as it interfears with the transfer of the words from STM to LTM (by preventing the control process of rehearsal)
- The experiment offers evidence for two separate stores of memory
Evaluation
strengths of MSM
- The model pioneered the new approach to memory where humans are seen as information processors
- The models conseptulasion of memory as milti-stored is supported by research
- it has been possible to make predictions based on the model and to design experiments
limitations of MSM
- it is critualized for focusing on the structure of the memory system at the expense of adaquently explaining the processes involved
- suggestion that rehearsal is the only means of transfer from STM into LTM has also been criticized. People acquire new knowledge continually without conscious rehearsal
- the working memory model casts doubt onm the assumption that the STM is a single (unitary) stored with a several limited capacity
