Multi-store-model Flashcards
Who developed the multi-store-model?
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
What is the multi-store-model?
Describes flow between three permanent storage systems of memory: the sensory register (SR), short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) – this is a linear model.
What are the two main stores when referring to sensory register.
The two main stores are iconic memory (visual information coded visually) and echoic memory (sound or auditory information coded acoustically).
What are the qualities of Transfer of sensory info to STM store?
very little of what goes into the sensory register passes further into the memory system – but it will if you pay attention to it.
What are the qualities of Transfer of STM to LTM?
Information here will disappear (decay) if it isn’t rehearsed.
Information will also disappear if new information enters STM and pushes out the original information due to STM’s limited capacity. This is called displacement.
Rehearsing information via the rehearsal loop helps to retain information in the STM. If we rehearse it for long enough it will transfer to the long-term memory store.
What is a limitation of MSM? (STM)
P: A limitation of the MSM is that it states that there is only one type of short-term memory.
E: However, evidence from people suffering from a clinical condition called amnesia shows that this cannot be true. For example, KF, a patient with amnesia has poor short-term memory for digits when they were read aloud to him (audio), but his recall was much better when he read them himself (visual).
C: This means that there must be one short-term store to process visual information and another to process auditory information.
Describe the qualities of the Transfer from LTM to STM?
When we want to recall materials stored in the LTM it has to be transferred back to the STM by a process called retrieval.
According to the multi-store model, this is true of all of our memories, none of them are recalled directly from the long-term memory store.
What is a limitation of the multi-store model? (LTM)
P: A further limitation of the multi-store model is that it oversimplifies long-term memory.
E: There is evidence to suggest that there is more than one store for long-term memory. For example, we have one long-term store for our memories of facts about the world, a different one for our memories of how to ride a bike etc.
C: Therefore, the multi-store model is limited because it does not reflect these different types of long-term memory.
What is the case of HM
H.M underwent brain surgery to relieve his epilepsy – unfortunately the procedure used was in its infancy and not fully understood.
Crucially, a part of his brain known as the hippocampus was removed from both sides of his brain – which we now know to be central to memory function.
When his memory was assessed in 1955, he thought the year was 1953 and that he was 27 years old (actually 31). He had very little recall and couldn’t remember events very well.
His LTM was tested over and over again but never improved with practice.
He would read the same magazine repeatedly without remembering it and he couldn’t remember what he had eaten or drank earlier the same day.
However, he performed well on tests of immediate memory span, a measure of STM. Supporting the MSM where memory is said to be held in three different stores.
