Memory- MSM

Question 1

Memory-MSM

Developed by atkinson and shiffrin
Includes 3 separate stores

Answer 1

Memory can be defined as a system of retaining information from out daily experiences
CAPACITY- HOW MUCH
- SR: large
-STM: 5-9 pieces
-LTM: unlimited

DURATION- HOW LONG

• SR: less than 1/2 sec
• STM: 18-30 secs(perterson and peterson)
• LTM: lifetime

CODING- WHICH FORMAT

• SR: from 5 sense organs
• STM: acoustic
• LTM: semantic

Clinical studies-
Evidence to support the distinction between STM and LTM include clinical studies of patients with korsakoffs syndrome. Chronic alcoholics sometimes develop korsakoffs syndrome because of damage to parts of the brain. There is little effect on STM but LTM impaired. Eg, possible to carry out conversation with people with this however as LTM impaired, they wont remember they had a conversation. Further clinical evidence comes from case studies, eg KF suffered brain damage as a result of a motor cycle accident; it had no effect on LTM but poor performance on STM tasks. Thus suggests that STM and LTM are separate in memory.

Experimental support-
There is also experimental support that STM and LTM are separate stores- glazner and cunitz study on primacy and recency effects shows that when participants are asked to remember list of words, they are more likely to remember first few(pri..effect) and last few(rec… effect) and likely to forget those in middle. This can be explained as the first few have transferred to LTM through rehearsal and end words still in STM. Supports idea that STM and LTM are separate as MSM suggests.

LTM and STM are not unitary stores-
One issue is MSM proposes that LTM and STM are single stores of information, however evidence suggests that each store is fractioned. Cohen and squire suggested that LTM can be divided into declarative memory(knowing that) and procedural(knowing how). For example the case of clive wearing, who contracted a viral infection causing brain damage. Lost his declarative(no memory of wedding) but has procedural(can still play piano). This is evidence to suggest that the two separate systems of declarative memory and procedural memory exist in LTM therefore undermining the MSM as its far too simplistic.

Too much emphasis on rehearsal- the MSM suggests rehearsal is the only method of transferring from STM to LTM. It can be argued that the model lacks face validity as its clear that we do not have to rehearse remember. As some things can be remebered because they are funny, distinctive or significant. Also what’s distinctive or significant to one person may not be to another person. Therefore these individual differences in human memory influence how information is transferred to LTM and is not accounted for by MSM