Memory: MSM Flashcards
What is the MSM?
Describes how information flows through the memory system and is made of three stores which are linked by processing
Who proposed the MSM?
Atkinson + Shiffrin
What are the components of the MSM?
Stimulus from env
Sensory register
Attention
STM
Prolonged rehearsal
LTM
What is the sensory register?
5 memory stores, one for each sense
How do memories get to the SR?
All stimuli from the environment passes into it
How is the SR coded?
modality specific, depends on sense (visual in iconic, acoustic in echoic)
What is the duration of SR?
very brief, less than half a second
What is the capacity of the SR?
Very high
How do memories pass from SR to STM?
Paying attention to it
What is the STM?
A limited capacity store of temporary duration
How is STM coded?
Acoustically
What is the duration of STM?
about 18 seconds
What is the capacity of STM?
Between 5 and 9 (7 plus minus 2)
How do memories transfer from STM to LTM?
Through maintenance rehearsal where we repeat material to ourselves, keep info in STM for as long as we rehearse it and if long enough passes into LTM
What is LTM?
A permenant memory store
How is LTM coded?
Mostly semantic
What is the duration of LTM?
Potentially up to a lifetime
What is the capacity of LTM?
Potentially unlimited
How do memories pass from LTM back to STM?
Retrieval
What is the strength that suggests there is research support for MSM showing that STM and LTM are different?
- Baddeley - we tend to mix words sound similar in STMs but mix up words that mean similar in LTM
- Supports MSM view that these two memory stores are sep and ind
What is the limitation of the MSM that suggests that there is more than one STM store?
- Shallice + Warrington, patient KF had amnesia and STM recall for digits was poor when heard but better when he read them
- Other studies suggests seperate STM for non verbal sounds
- Wrong to claim there is one STM for all info
What is the limitation of the MSM that suggests that prolonged rehearsal is not needed for transfer from STM to LTM?
- Craik + Watkins, 2 types of rehearsal; maintanance (amount) + elaborative (link to existing knowledge or think about meaning)
- MSM doesn’t fully explain how LTM storage is achieved
What is the limitation that suggests that the MSM is not developed enough?
- Useful model that explained a lot at time but doesn’t account for many findings and oversimplifies memory stores
- Only good starting point for developing more valid models of memory
What did Baddeley argue as a strength of MSM?
STM and LTM are two seperate stores because of acoustic and semantic mix ups
What did Shallice + Warrington argue is a limitation of MSM?
There could be more than one STM bc amnesia patient KF had poor recall for digits when heard them but better when read them
What did Craik + Watkins argue is a limitation of MSM?
Prolonged rehearsal is not needed for transfer to LTM, only maintainance and elaborative
What are the titles of the evaluation points of MSM?
- Support showing STM and LTM are different
- More than one STM
- Prolonged rehearsal is not needed
- Not developed enough
