multi-store model

Question 1

the multi store model of memory created by

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shiffrin

Question 2

proposed that memory consisted of

Answer 2

sensory register, short term memory and long term memory

Question 3

definition of duration, capacity and coding

Answer 3

duration - amount of time information stays in memory store for
capacity - how much can be stored
coding - how the information is processed

Question 4

two forms of coding in sensory memory

Answer 4

iconic memory
echoic memory

Question 5

what is iconic memory

Answer 5

visual information from the eyes
things you see, stored as images

Question 6

what is echoic memory

Answer 6

auditory input from the ears
things you hear, stored as sounds

Question 7

evidence for capacity of SM comes from

Answer 7

sperling - presented a grid of letters for less than a second
people recalled on average 4 letters

Question 8

duration of SM

Answer 8

2 seconds (or less)

Question 9

encoding of short term memory

Answer 9

STM encodes information acoustically - as sounds

Question 10

capacity of short term memory

Answer 10

5-9 items of information
7+/-2

Question 11

duration of STM - experiment by

Answer 11

Peterson & Peterson - the trigram experiment

Question 12

the trigram experiment

Answer 12

24 students recall meaningless three letter trigrams at different intervals
counted backwards from a specific number, until asked to recall the letters to prevent rehearsal

Question 13

findings of the trigram experiment

Answer 13

the longer the interval, the less accurate the recall
at 3 seconds 80% of trigrams were correctly recalled
at 18 seconds, 10% were correctly recalled

Question 14

short term memory has a limited duration of

Answer 14

18 seconds

Question 15

encoding of long term memory - experiment

Answer 15

Baddeley presented lists of 10 short words
some lists were semantically similar, others were semantically dissimilar
tested immediately and after 20 minute delay

Question 16

results of Baddeleys experiment

Answer 16

after 20 mins they did poorly on the semantically similar words
this suggests encoding in LTM is semantic - by meaning

Question 17

capacity of LTM

Answer 17

unlimited

Question 18

atkinson and shiffrin suggested 4 key features of the multi store model

Answer 18

Unitary, Linear, Rehearsal, Passive

Question 19

definition of unitary, linear, rehearsal and passive

Answer 19

Unitary - there is only one of each store
Linear - a fixed sequence, cannot be leapfrogged
Rehearsal - moving from STM to LTM
Passive - no decision making or problem solving needed

Question 20

1 general strength of msm

Answer 20

the first model to try and explain memory - stimulated further research eg WMM

Question 21

Experimental evidence to support MSM

Answer 21

the primary/recency effect

Question 22

the primary recency effect experiment

Answer 22

read out a list of words to pps and asked them to recall as many as possible

Question 23

findings of primary recency effect

Answer 23

tended to recall more from the start and the end of the list, and more likely to forget the middle of list

Question 24

this supports the idea of there being

Answer 24

a separate STM and LTM

Question 25

explain the ‘primary effect’ and the ‘secondary effect’

Answer 25

primary effect - the words first heard have been rehearsed, recall from our LTM
secondary effect - the words are most recently heard, recall from our STM

Question 26

BRAIN SCANNING RESEARCH:
- what is active in the brain when: - making a decision - remembering new information
- what does this support

Answer 26

the prefrontal cortex is active when making a decision - using STM
the hippocampus is active when remembering new information - using LTM
this supports the existence of different stores for different memories

Question 27

2 case study evidence names

Answer 27

HM and KF

Question 28

HM case study
how does this support the MSM

Answer 28

problems in long term memory after brain surgery removing his hippocampus, his short term memory remains intact
- shows that the stores must be separate as only one part was damaged

Question 29

KF case study
how does this support the MSM

Answer 29

extremely poor STM after motorbike accident, his LTM was normal
this shows the stores are unitary

Question 30

case study evidence supports the idea of

Answer 30

separate stores for different types of memory

Question 31

2 weaknesses of MSM (key features of MSM)

Answer 31

• it is unlikely that memory stores are UNITARY, as evidence from WMM show short term memory has at least 4 stores
• its unlikely that memory is always LINEAR, the STM can sometimes be bypassed - evidence comes from brain damaged patients whos STM destroyed but could still learn new information into LTM

Question 32

Case Study - as a weakness of MSM

Answer 32

Clive Wearing

Question 33

explain Clive Wearing

Answer 33

damage to episodic memory - no memory of wedding day, procedural memory still intact - could still play the piano

Question 34

why is this a problem for MSM

Answer 34

challenges the idea of one unitary store in LTM

Question 35

weakness of MSM

(validity)

Answer 35

ecological validity
lab setting criticised for lacking ecological validity as they dont reflect real life situations
trigrams and word lists lacks mundane realism