Multi-store model

Question 1

Who came up with the multi-store model of memory?

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968, 1971)

Question 2

What does the model show?

Answer 2

How memory passes through 3 stores, sensory register, STM and LTM, and is linked by processing

Question 3

What is the sensory register?

Answer 3

The memory stores for each of our 5 senses

Question 4

What is coding in the iconic sensory register?

Answer 4

Visual

Question 5

What is coding in the echoic sensory register?

Answer 5

Acoustic

Question 6

What does the haptic sensory register process?

Answer 6

Touch

Question 7

What is the duration of the sensory register?

Answer 7

Less than half a second

Question 8

What is the capacity of the sensory register? Why is this?

Answer 8

Very high

Millions of receptors

Question 9

How is information passed from the sensory register to the STM?

Answer 9

Attention

Question 10

What are some features of the short term memory?

Answer 10

Very limited capacity
Stores a limited number of pieces of information before forgetting occurs
Coded acoustically
Duration is about 30 seconds

Question 11

How is information passed on from the short term memory to the long term memory?

Answer 11

Maintenance rehearsal

Question 12

What are some features of the long term memory?

Answer 12

Permanent memory store
Unlimited capacity
Duration is thought to be unlimited
Coding is semantic

Question 13

How is information from the LTM passed to the STM?

Answer 13

Through retrieval

Question 14

Outline Bahrick’s study into long term memory? (1975)

Answer 14

Participants could recognise the names and faces of their school classmates from 50 years ago

Question 15

What are some evaluative points for Bahrick et al’s study on long term memory?

Answer 15

• Lacks population validity as he used American university graduates
• High levels of ecological validity as real life memories were used
• Hard to control extraneous variables as some people may have looked at the photos more than others and therefore have a better memory

Question 16

Outline Glanzer and Cunitz research into STM and LTM?

Answer 16

They showed participants a list of words to remember.

They remembered the first words and last words best

Question 17

What conclusions can be drawn from Glanzer and Cunitz research?

Answer 17

The words remembered at the start were in the long term memory (Primacy effect)
The words remembered at the end were in the short term memory (recency effect)

Question 18

What are strengths of the multi-store model?

Answer 18

• gives a good understanding of the structure and process of the STM
• researchers can expand on the model and make it more valid
• Influential model
• Supporting evidence

Question 19

What clinical evidence supports the different types of LTM?

Answer 19

Cases of HM and Clive wearing
Episodic memory impaired due to amnesia - difficulty recalling past events
Semantic memory and procedural memory unaffected

Question 20

What evidence has neuroimaging provided?

Answer 20

Tugging et al (1994) - Tasks and PET scanners
Found that episodic memory and semantic memory were recalled from prefrontal cortex - divided into two hemispheres
Left-prefrontal cortex - recalling semantic information
Right-prefrontal cortex - episodic memory

Question 21

What are weaknesses of the multi-store memory model?

Answer 21

• Oversimplified by suggesting both short-term and long-term memory each operate in a single, uniform fashion
• Types of memory more complicated than previously thought eg. Baddeley and Hitch’s working memory model
• Rehearsal considered too simple to explain the transfer of information from STM to LTM
• Rehearsal not essential to transfer information into LTM
• Focuses more on structure and neglects the process elements of memory