MSM

Question 1

Outline

Answer 1

The MSM consists of three separate and unitary memory stores of different duration, coding and capacity, with pathways linking each store. It is possible to damage one store without affecting the others. Information enters the sensory Register via the body’s senses. Here information must be paid attention to so that it can pass to short term memory. For information to be held in STM maintenance rehearsal must be performed. If we continue to rehearse that information for long enough, it will pass into long term memory. Information can pass to STM from LTM via retrieval.it is a passive model as it shows information simply flowing into memory stores in a linear way.

Question 2

Strength 1

Answer 2

A strength of the MSM is that it has convincing evidence to support it from Peterson and Peterson and Bahrick, who found STM and LTM have different durations. Peterson and Peterson showed participants could only recall a series of trigrams for 18 seconds in STM, while Bahrick showed participants could recall the names of the classmates from LTM up to 47 years later. This suggests that, as STm and LTM have different durations, each store must be separate and unitary as the model predicts.

Question 3

Strength 2

Answer 3

A further strength of the MSM os that it has convincing evidence to support it from Glanzer and Cunitz. They found that information at the beginning of a presentation can be remembered because it has passed inti LTM, and I formations at the end of the presentation can be remembered because it is being held in STM but that all other information is forgotten. This suggests that there must be separate and unitary stores for LTM and STM.

Question 4

Limitation 1

Answer 4

However, one limitation of the MSM is that there is evidence to suggest we have more than one type of STM, from Shallice and Warrington who found that after a motorbike accident KF’s STM for digits was poor when they read aloud to him, but that his recall was better when he read the digits himself. This suggests that the may be one short term store to process visual information and another to process auditory information. Therfore, the MSM may not fully explain memory; instead, the working memory model may better explain it.