Multi-Store Model of Memory

Question 1

What is the The Multi-store model of memory?

Answer 1

It is a theoretical model of memory developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin. It includes THREE SEPARATE UNITARY STORES; the Sensory Register (SR), Short Term Memory (STM) and Long Term Memory (LTM).

Question 2

What does the the Multi-store model of memory believe?

Answer 2

That information flows through the three separate stores in a FIXED LINEAR ORDER and each store has different roles in the memory process.

Question 3

What is the sensory register?

Answer 3

It processes a stimulus from the environment along with other sights, smells and sounds.

Question 4

What is the CODING of the Sensory Register?

Answer 4

ALL SENSES.
Gathers information from your sense organs and each sense is coded differently.

Question 5

What is the DURATION of the Sensory Register?

Answer 5

Has a limited duration of 0.5-2 seconds.

Question 6

What is the CAPACITY of the Sensory Register?

Answer 6

VERY LARGE.

Question 7

What is the Short Term Memory? (STM)

Answer 7

It is a temporary storage, which will be encoded visually, acoustically or, less often, semantically.

Question 8

What is the coding of the Short Term Memory?

Answer 8

ACOUSTIC.

Question 9

Similar sounds lead to?

Answer 9

Confusion

Question 10

What creates confusion in our STM?

Answer 10

When using our STM, acoustically similar words will create confusion (e.g flip, flit, flop, flap, flab.)

Question 11

What is the duration of the STM?

Answer 11

LIMITED duration of 18-30 seconds.

Question 12

What is the capacity of the STM?

Answer 12

LIMITED capacity of 5-9 items (Miller’s 7+/-2).

Question 13

What is rehearsal and what does it allow?

Answer 13

Rehearsal is constant note repeating and allows retaining information in the STM.

Doing this multiple times transfers memories from the STM to the LTM.

Question 14

Why does forgetting occur in the STM?

Answer 14

Forgetting can occur due to displacement or decay.

Question 15

What is meant by the term “chunking”?

Answer 15

• Capacity of STM is 5-9 items but can be increased by “chunking” information together in order to store more information in the short term memory.
• This is done by reducing the number of separate items overall and instead grouping them together.

Question 16

What is the long term memory?

Answer 16

It has unlimited capacity.

Question 17

What is the CODING of the LTM?

Answer 17

SEMANTICALLY.

Question 18

What is the DURATION of the LTM?

Answer 18

Few minutes to a lifetime.

Question 19

What is the CAPACITY of the LTM?

Answer 19

UNLIMITED.

Forgetting can occur through interference (proactive and retroactive) and retrieval failure (cue-dependent forgetting).

Question 20

Why does forgetting occur in the LTM?

Answer 20

Forgetting can occur through interference (proactive and retroactive) and retrieval failure (cue-dependent forgetting).

Question 21

What creates confusion in our LTM?

Answer 21

When using our LTM, SEMANTICALLY similar words will create confusion (e.g huge, large, great, giant.)

Question 22

Who used the digit span task for experimenting the STM?

Answer 22

Jacobs

Question 23

One strength of the MSM is that there is research support for the capacity of the short term memory.

Answer 23

Jacobs used a digit span task where participants were presented with a sequence of digits (e.g four digits) and had to recall them in the correct order. If they were correct, they were then given a sequence of digits that was one number longer (i.e five digits). This would continue until participants were unable to correctly recall the digits in the right order. This is known as the participant’s digit span. He found that the mean digit span for letters was 7.3 items and for numbers it was 9.3 items.

This is a strength of the MSM because Jacob’s findings regarding the digit span being 7.3 and 9.3 is in line with the capacity range that the MSM argues, which is 5-9.

This increases the validity of the MSM.

Question 24

Who tested participants on their ability to remember students from their high school year group?

Answer 24

Bahrick (1975)

Question 25

Another strength of the MSM is that there is research supporting the proposed duration of the LTM.

Answer 25

Bahrick tested participants on their ability to remember students from their high school year group. In one test, participants were given 50 photos of some people who were in their highschool year group and others that were not. The participants were required to identify the ones that were in their year group.

It was found that participants who were tested within 15 years of their graduation showered around 90% recognition accuracy. After 48 years after graduation, the recognition accuracy tested around 70%.

This is a strength of the MSM because it agrees with how memory can last for up to a lifetime, as participants that were tested even after 48 years had a high recognition rate.

Question 26

Who contracted a viral infection?

Answer 26

Clive Wearing

Question 27

One weakness of the MSM is that the LTM is not unitary proven by Clive Wearing, which goes against the MSM model.

Answer 27

Wearing contracted a viral infection causing extensive brain damage. This made him lose his long-term declarative memory. For example: he has no memory of his wedding. However, he still has use of his long-term procedural memory, e.g, he was still able to play the piano.

This is a weakness because it shows that there are different stores within the LTM, and therefore is not unitary like the MSM argues.

This decreases the validity of the MSM.

Question 28

What is ‘Flashbulb memory?’

Answer 28

This is when a memory is stored in your LTM without rehearsal and this is a decrease in validity.

Question 29

Describe the Primary and recency effect:

Answer 29

When learning and immediately recalling a sequence of items:

• Recall of words at the start of the list (primary effect) and end of the list (recency effect) is much higher than the words from the middle of the list.
• Words at the start are rehearsed so are transferred to the LTM.
  Words at the end are still within the capacity of the STM.
• Words in the middle are displaced from the STM by words at the end.
• This shows how the STM and LTM are separate memory stores as the info at the start and the end of the list went to different stores.

Question 30

What is the primary effect?

Answer 30

Recall of words at the start of the list is much higher than the words from the middle of the list.

Question 31

What is recency effect?

Answer 31

Recall of words at the end of the list is much higher than the words from the middle of the list.

Question 32

Explain what is meant by the term coding

Answer 32

Coding iswhen information is changed into a form that can be stored.

Question 33

Explain what is meant by the term Duration

Answer 33

Duration refers to the length of time that information can be held in memory.

Question 34

Explain what is meant by the term Capacity

Answer 34

How much can be stored in memory

Question 35

Who developed the MSM?

Answer 35

Atkinson and Shiffrin

Question 36

What does paying attention to information lead to?

Answer 36

Attention to information leads to transferal to STM, otherwise we forget it due to rapid decay.