Multi store model of memory Flashcards
The MSM is a representation of how memory works in terms of 3 stores the…
sensory register
STM
LTM
Explain the sensory register store
The memory store for each of our 5 senses. The 2 main stores are called the iconic memory (visual info is coded visually) and echoic memory (auditory info is coded acoustically). The sensory registers have a high capacity and info lasts for a very short time.
Explain STM
STM is known as a limited capacity store, because it can only contain a certain number of ‘things’ before forgetting occurs.
Info is coded acoustically and lasts about 30 seconds unless rehearsed.
Capacity is between 5 and 9 items on average.
Explain LTM
The permanent memory store
Coding is mainly semantic
unlimited capacity and can store memories up to a lifetime
E.G Bahrick et al. found that many of their participants were able to recall the names and faces of their school classmates almost 50 years after graduating.
Define maintenance rehearsal
occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again. We can keep the material in our STM as long as we rehearse it. If we rehearse it for long enough , it passes into LTM
Although material is stored in the LTM, when we want to recall it, it has to be transferred back into the STM by a process called..?
retrieval
AO3-supporting research evidence
Support to show that STM and LTM are indeed qualitatively different. Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when we are using our STMs. But we mix up words that have similar meaning when we use our LTMs. The strength of this study is that it clearly shows that coding in STM is acoustic whereas, coding in LTM is semantic.
AO3- there is more than one type of STM
The MSM stats that STM is a unitary store, however, there is evidence from people suffering from a clinical condition called amnesia which shows that this can’t be true. Shallice and Warrington studied a patient with amnesia known as KF. They found that KF’s STM for digits was very poor when they read out loud to him. But his recall was much better when he was able to read the digits to himself. Further studies of KF and other people with amnesia showed that there could be even another STM for non-verbal sounds.
AO3- artificial material
In everyday life, we form memories related to all sorts of useful things - people’s faces, their names, facts, places etc. But a lot of research studies that provide support for the MSM used none of these material. Instead, they used digits, letters, and sometimes words. They even used constant syllables which have no meaning.
