Multi-Store Model Flashcards
State the components of the MSM and the researchers who developed it
Sensory register, STM, LTM
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
Coding, capacity and duration of sensory register
Sensory specific, very large, very limited (milliseconds)
Coding, capacity and duration of STM
Acoustic, 18-30s, 5-9
Coding, capacity and duration of LTM
Semantic, lifetime/years, unlimited
Outline the 3 different types of modality specific coding in sensory memory
Echoic coding - Processes sound
Iconic coding - Processes vision
Haptic coding - Processes touch
Define attention
Information from the environment that we notice is transferred from the sensory register to the STM
Define maintenance rehearsal
Repeating information over and over in order to keep it in your STM
Define prolonged rehearsal
Rehearsing information for long enough that it transfers from our STM into our LTM
Define retrieval
The process by which we transfer material back into our STM from our LTM so that we can recall it
Outline the case study which shows support for the MSM
Patient HM (Scoville and Milner, 1957):
HM suffered from epilepsy and had his hippocampus removed during surgery.
After surgery, his LTM was damaged - he could read the same magazine repeatedly without remembering it, couldn’t remember moving house after the surgery ect.
His STM was still intact - he performed well on tests of immediate span
Supports the central feature of the MSM - That there are two separate and independent memory stores (STM and LTM)
2 Strengths (both with counters) of the MSM
Scientific research support from controlled lab studies- Baddeley 1966 found that we mix up words that sound similar when using STM and words with similar meanings when using our STM . Supports the idea that these 2 memory stores are independent. COUNTER - Artificial, not reflective of real-life
Case study of HM. - Generalising not possible
2 Limitations of the MSM
Idea of unitary stores too simple - WMM - STM comprises of multiple components that actively process different kinds of information eg. Auditory, visual stores. Different types of LTM - Clive Wearing was a world class musician who contracted a viral infection which attacked his central nervous system and led to total amnesia. He is unable to store new memories. He lost his episodic memory so he has no memory of his wedding, cannot remember his musical education but his procedural memory is still intact as he can still play the piano.
LTM involves more that prologues rehearsal - Craik and Tulving found that what maters is the type of processing when rehearsing rather than the amount. They gave participants a list of nouns and asked a question that asked shallow or deep processing. Shallow ( Whether a word was printed in capital letters). Deep ( Whether the word fitted in a sentence). They then had to pick out the words they had seen from a long list of 180 words. Participants remembered more words in the task involving deep rehearsal. Suggests another type of rehearsal not considered by the MSM - elaborative rehearsal where you think and consider what information means.
