Multi-Store Model - MSM Flashcards
What is significant about the MSM model?
It was the first model of memory
How many memory stores does it suggest individuals have? How do they differ?
Suggests memory is made up of 3 separate and distinct stores. Each differs in coding, capacity and duration (prediction)
How does information pass through each store?
It is a linear, sequential model which means information passes through the stores in order
Only passes if certain conditions are met and info can be lost in each memory store
What is the coding, duration and capacity of the sensory register?
Coding – sensory memory is modality specific = info is encoded in modality form – info enter and leaves in the same format
Duration – less than one hundredth of the info that touches the human senses reaches the stm
Capacity – very large
How does information transfer to the STM store?
If attention is focused on this information
What stores are with the sensory register?
Iconic store – where visual images are kept for short period
Echoic store – where auditory senses are kept for a short period
Haptic store – retains physical senses of touch and internal muscle tension
How can information get lost in stm?
New info can also push out old information due to stm’s limited capacity (displacement)
What is the coding, duration and capacity of the STM store?
Encoded – acoustically
Capacity – 7 +/-2 items
Duration – 18-30 seconds
What is the coding, duration and capacity of the LTM store?
Encoded – semantically
Capacity – potential unlimited
Duration – potentially infinite
How does information enter the LTM store?
Moved from stm to ltm via the maintenance rehearsal
How does information get recalled from the LTM store?
It is retrieved back to stm
A strength of the MSM is that there is supportive research from the case study of HM.
HM’s LTM was serverly damaged, he would read the same magazine repeatedly without remembering it and not recall what he has ate earlier that day
However his STM was intact and would perform well on tests of immediate digit span
How does thecase of HM support the MSM?
It provodes evidence for the central feature of the model
– there are 2 separate and independent memory stores increasing the validity of the model
What is the weakness of HM’s case study?
HM is one individual so the results may not be generalizable to other individuals.
His epilepsy medication may have affected his brain which made it different to other individuals
A strength of the MSM is that there is supportive evidence from brain scans that the STM and LTM are distinct stores.
Beardsley (1997)- the prefrontal cortex is active during STM but not during LTM tasks
Squire (1992)- the hippocampus is active when the LTM is engaged
This provides evidence (validity) that there is more than one memory store as different parts of the brain are active when different type of memory is used.
