MSM

Question 1

Describe the Sensory Register

Answer 1

Duration: 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 second (< 1 second)
Capacity: potentially unlimited - all sensory experience
Encoding: modality/sense specific
If attention isn’t paid to the information then it is lost through decay

Question 2

Describe the STM

Answer 2

Duration: 18-30 seconds maximum (Peterson and Peterson)
Capacity: 7 +/- 2 items (Miller)
Encoded: phonologically stored auditory
Lost information due to displacement

-Information maintained through light maintenance rehearsal
- If information is understood though deep elaborative
rehearsal then information moves into the long-term memory store

Question 3

Describe the LTM

Answer 3

Duration: Unlimited
Capacity: Unlimited
Encoding: Mainly Semantic (but can be visual and auditory)
Lost information through interference

Question 4

A03 - Lab based research - Miller and Peterson and Peterson

Answer 4

Research support for the duration and capacity of STM is demonstrated through the findings of laboratory-based studies.

• Miller investigated capacity by studying the number of words
  that can be recalled from the STM and concluded that the magic number 7+/-2 items was almost universal for retention in STM.

-Likewise, Peterson and Peterson’s laboratory-based experiment found that after 18 seconds just 10% of trigrams could be recalled and
by 30 seconds almost no information was retained in STM.

-Both experiments have provided evidence for the capacity and duration of STM in the MSM.
-However, one must be cautious when applying the findings of lab-based studies to reflect real life scenarios as they may lack
ecological validity as the processes involved in recall within a lab-based setting may be very different to those needed when remembering real life events.

Question 5

A03 - HM Case Study

Answer 5

(Milner) - provides supporting evidence for the MSM’s notion that there are two separate stores for STM and LTM.
- HM had his hippocampus removed following seizures.
- Following his operation HM could no longer transfer new STM to LTM, supporting the distinctiveness of the stores in the MSM for STM and LTM.

-However, case study evidence cannot be generalised to the wider population, as HM’s brain may be distinctly different from the norm, therefore although it supports the distinctiveness of STM and LTM
stores in the MSM, it is not conclusive support.