Multi-store model Flashcards
Who created the multi-store model?
- Atkinson and Shiffrin {1968}
What are the 3 components of the model?
Sensory register
STM
LMT
How does the sensory register work?
- Environmental stimulus enters sensory register as senses.
- Stores are constantly receiving information from environment
-Most of this information receives no attention and only remains in a sensory store for a very brief period
-If a person’s attention is focused on one of the sensory stores then the information in that store is transferred to STM
-Psychologists believe that only a small amount (about 1%) of the
information in the sensory register actually reaches the STM
-This is because there is so much going on around us that it is
difficult to pay attention to everything
How does STM work in the model?
-Information held in STM is in a fragile state
-STM has a limited duration of about 20 seconds
-This means that information in STM can be forgotten through
a process known as decay, This is when the information simply fades away over time
-STM also has a limited capacity of 7+/-2
-This means that information in STM can also be forgotten through a process known as displacement, This is when old information is pushed out by new incoming
information
-To keep information in STM and prevent it from being forgotten
by either decay or displacement we need to keep going over it
or repeating it, this is known as maintenance rehearsal
-Maintenance rehearsal is largely verbal as information in STM is
coded acoustically
-If we rehearse information in STM enough then it will be
transferred to LTM
How does LTM work?
-LTM has a potentially unlimited capacity and duration
-However it is possible for information stored in LTM to be
forgotten through decay
-When we remember information, we retrieve it from LTM and
bring it back to our STM
-From our STM the information can be used as an output
-However we can experience retrieval failure, This is the process whereby items stored in LTM cannot be
accessed because no suitable retrieval cues are available
How can information in STM be forgotten?
Displacement
Decay
How can information in LTM be forgotten?
Retrieval failure
Decay
