multi store memory model Flashcards
who proposed the msm?
atkinson and shriffin
describe the msm
MSM comprises of 3 seperate stores
- the sensory memory has a capaity of the entire sensory experience, a dureation of up to 0.5 seconds and encodes sense specifically
- the short term memory encodes acoustically, has a duration of 15-30 seconds and a capacity of 7+/-2 items
- the long term memory encodes semantically, and has an unlimited duration and capacity
An environmental stimuli enters the sensory memory and is lost by decay unless given attention, where it goes to the STM. it is kept there by maintenance rehearsal, lost through displacement, decay or given elaborate rehearsal to the LTM. in the LTM, memories can be lost by decay or retrieved into the STM
describe what is meant by encoding according to the msm
- Encoding refers to the form in which a memory is stored/retained (1)
- for example STM encodes info acoustically (1)
describe what is meant by capacity according to the msm
- capacity referes to the maximum amount of information that can be retained in a memory store
- for example the capacity of the stm is 7+/-2 items
describe what is meant by duration according to the msm
- duration refers to the length of time information can be held in memory
- for example the duration of stm in the msm is 15-30 seconds
describe what is meant by retrieval
the process of transferring information from LTM to STM, recalling information
what are the 3 stores in the msm
- sensory store
- short term memory store
- long term memory store
describe the sensory store
- duration - very brief, less than 0.5 seconds
- capacity - large, but exact capacity is debated
- encoding - sense-specific
- information arrives from the 5 senses such as sight, sounds and touch. most of the information is lost through decay.
describe the stm store
- duration: 15-30 seconds
- capacity: 7 +/- 2 items
- encoding: mainly auditory
how is info lost from the stm
displacement or decay
describe the ltm store
- duration: unlimited
- capacity: unlimited
- encoding: mainly Semantic
strength of the msm (supporting evidence)
P - supporting evidence by case study of HM
E - Brain surgery removal of his hippocampus caused damage to his episodic long-term memory whereas the short-term memory remained intact. For example HM was not able to process information from the short-term memory into long-term memory so couldn’t make new episodic memories (couldn’t remember that his father passed away).
T - Therefore this suggests that short-term memory and long-term memory are separate stores and work independently of one another.
weakness of the msm (contradicting model)
P - Contradicting model
E: Baddeley and Hitch’s WMM suggests that the STM consists of several components and can actively process information using acoustic, visual and spatial information and so is not the basic system proposed in the MSM
T - Therefore this reduces the validity of the MSM
strength of the msm (application)
P - Practical applications
E - For example, the model emphasises the importance of maintenance rehearsal when transferring STM into LTM.
T - Therefore, this would benefit students in terms of their revision as they should continuously go over and practise content in order to sufficiently memorise information for an exam.
weakness of the msm
P - A weakness of the theory is that it’s a reductionist model because it takes a complex phenomenon and reduces it into a simple concept, when in reality memory is much more complex than just 3 stores which info flows through in a linear way
E - KF suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident that damaged his STM. KF’s impairment was mainly for verbal information, his memory for visual information was largely unaffected.
T - This shows that there are separate STM components for visual information (Visual Spatial Sketchpad) and verbal information (phonological loop).
