multi store model of memory

Question 1

atkinson and shiffrin

Answer 1

describes how info flows through memory system

suggests that memory is made up of 3 stores: SR, STM and LTM

Question 2

SR

Answer 2

info is held at each of the senses and the corresponding areas of the brain
SRs are constantly receiving info, but most receives no attention so remains in SR for short periods of time
sperling - encoding - sensory modality
sperling - capacity is very large
sperling - limited duration - 50 milliseconds

Question 3

attention

Answer 3

attention is first step in remembering something

if attention is focused on one of the sensory stores, then data is transferred to STM

Question 4

STM

Answer 4

info is held so it can be used for immediate tasks
peterson and peterson - limited duration - upto 30 secs
baddeley - acoustically coded
info disappears if new info enters STM displacing original info as STM has limited capacity of 7+ or -2 (miller)

Question 5

maintenance rehearsal

Answer 5

eventually creates LTM, the more the info is rehearsed the better it’s remembered

Question 6

LTM

Answer 6

baddeley - coded semantically
bahrick et al - unlimited duration
capacity - unlimited

Question 7

retrieval

Answer 7

process of getting info from LTM involves info passing back through STM

Question 8

evaluation - supporting evidence

Answer 8

controlled lab studies on capacity, duration and coding support existence of separate short and long term store - studies using brain scanning techniques demonstrated difference between STM and LTM
beardsley - prefrontal cortex active during STM but not LTM tasks
squire et al - used brain scanning and found hippocampus active when LTM is engaged.

Question 9

evaluation - case studies

Answer 9

show different areas of brain are involved in STM and LTM from study of individuals with brain damage
HM - brain damage caused by operation to remove hippocampus from both sides of brain to reduce epilepsy - HM’s personality and intellect remained intact but he couldn’t form new LTMs, although he could remember things from before the surgery - provides support for MSM’s notion of separate stores as HM couldn’t transfer info from STM to LTM but could retrieve info from before his surgery

Question 10

evaluation - MSM too simple

Answer 10

suggests STM and LTM are single unitary stores but research doesn’t support this - WMM and supporting research shows that STM is divided into number of qualitatively different stores, same is true for LTM. research shows there are number of qualitatively different kinds of LTM and each behave differently, e.g maintenance rehearsal can explain long term storage in semantic memory but doesn’t explain episodic memory