Multi-Store Model of Memory

Question 1

Factors of sensory register

Answer 1

Comes from environmental stimuli
Iconic memory and echoic memory
Duration: less than a second
Capacity: high (100 million photoreceptors in eye)
Will only pass on to STM if you pay attention

Question 2

Iconic memory

Answer 2

Visual information coded visually in the sensory register

Question 3

Echoic memory

Answer 3

Sound or auditory information coded acoustically in the sensory register

Question 4

STM

Answer 4

Capacity: limited to 7 +/- 2 items
Duration: ~30 seconds unless rehearsed
Coding: acoustically
Will pass on to LTM with maintenance rehearsal

Question 5

Factors of LTM

Answer 5

Capacity: unlimited
Duration: possible unlimited unless information is lost by forgetting
Coding: semantically
Recall requires retrieval

Question 6

Retrieval

Answer 6

Transferring information from LTM back to STM in order to recall certain items

Question 7

Evaluation of MSM

Answer 7

Evidence suggests both STM and LTM are divided into qualitatively different subcomponents

However, it remains ambiguous how separable LTM and STM are:
- chunking of information in STM can be dependent on meaning, meaning is stored in LTM
- LTM relies on STM as there is no retrieval of information without STM

Furthermore, memories are encoded into LTM not due to rehearsal but rather complex processing

Question 8

Multi Store Model of Memory

Answer 8

Proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968,
Described as a 3 unit model of memory in which the units are linked by processes which enable the transfer of information from one to another