Multi Store Model Of Memory

Question 1

What doe this model suggest?

Answer 1

That memory is composed of three parts: sensory memory, short-term memory and long term memory

Question 2

How is information stored in these parts?

Answer 2

Depending on how it is cognitively processed (attention, rehearsal, encoded)

Question 3

What is encoding?

Answer 3

How is the information put into the memory and remembered

Question 4

How do STM and LTM encode

Answer 4

STM - acoustic
LTM - semantic

Question 5

Whats the capacity and duration of STM?

Answer 5

It has a capacity of 5-9 items and a duration of 20-30 seconds

Question 6

Whats the duration and capacity of LTM?

Answer 6

Both are limitless

Question 7

Explain the multi store model of memory

Answer 7

Information from the environment first enters sensory memory where it is stored for a very brief period of time . Depending on coding and rehearsal determines the fate of this information. If we do not pay attention to it, it is lost and decays. If we do pay attention to it, it is passed on to the STM. in order for it to be passed on to the long-term memory we must rehearse the information. This means repeating the info again, and again if the information is not rehearsed, it is forgotten.

Maintenance rehearsal is seen as a key process as not only does it keep information in the STM but also responsible for transferring it to the LTM . Also, if a short-term store becomes too full information is lost via displacement. This means the storage of reaches full capacity and can’t take any more items that they aren’t attended to. Once in a long-term memory, the only way is the information can be lost his through lack of use (decay) or interference (confusing information)

Question 8

Draw the multi store model of memory

Question 9

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)

Answer 9

They found that people recalled more words from the beginning (primary effect) and the end of the list (recency effect) and fewest words in the middle, which indicates the presence of a STM and LTM

Primacy effect = participants tend to recall the first words of the last well
Asymptote = the middle portion of the list, I remembered far less well than those at the beginning and the end
Recency effect = participants usually recalled those items from the end of the list first, and to get more of these is correct on average than the earlier terms. This effect persists, even if the list is made longer.

the serial position curve demonstrate support for the multi store model of memory, separate stores, and that if information is rehearsed, it will transfer into the long-term memory

Question 10

How do case studies of amnesia patients provide strong evidence for distinction between STM and LTM?

Answer 10

Because brain damage can affect one store, and not the other. Regularly show deficiencies in one store, a normal functioning in the other.

Anterograde amnesia = you can recall old memories in the past, and the brain injury causes you to be confused in the future

Retrograde amnesia = in the past, they couldn’t remember memories and the brain injury causing them to build a new memories

HM and Clive wearing both had a normal STM, but were unable to transfer information into the LTM. If these people are given free recall experiments, they show good recency effect, but extremely poor primary effects

Question 11

Shallice & Warrington (1970)

Answer 11

They reported a victim of a motorbike accident (KF) who could still add memories to LTM, even though his STM was so damaged, he couldn’t repeat back more than two digits. MSM cannot explain this but KFs unusual condition does support the working memory model. KF, could recall memory impairment in remembering personal events in his life before the accident. This suggests LTM is not single unitary store, but perhaps do a different longtime stores for procedural memory of practiced skills and ability. And of a factual information and autobiographical events.

He remembered words better if presented visually as opposed to auditorily. Therefore impairment was mainly for verbal information. His memory for visual information was largely unaffected.

Question 12

What is procedural memory?

Answer 12

Memory for skills like riding a bike for playing the piano

Question 13

What is declarative memory?

Answer 13

Memory for general knowledge

Question 14

What is episodic memory?

Answer 14

Memory for events, like your last birthday or holiday

Question 15

What is semantic memory?

Answer 15

Memory for understanding concept like what numbers mean

Question 16

How does Clive wearing supports the idea of multiple LTM stores?

Answer 16

It doesn’t support the model because he can play the piano, so he can remember certain things, but he can’t fall, new memories, or retrieve others

So the MSM is too simplistic of an explanation

Question 17

How does HM provide evidence in question the validity of a model??

Answer 17

Because his long-term memory was examined further, and HM, completely unable to store new events, and his long-term memory, however, he was able to learn new skills.

One example of this was the pursuit through to task in which he simply had to use a pencil to follow a wavering line on a rotating disc . Each time he was asked to repeat the task. He was unable to remember ever having seen the disc before, but on each occasion he became more accurate, through practice

HM had therefore learned a new skill, which must be storms in long-term memory, and Sophie idea that long-term memory as a single unitary store as represented by the multi store model must be incorrect there must be more than one type of long-term memory

Question 18

Why is this model seen as too simplistic of an explanation?

Answer 18

As it under emphasises interaction between the stores, for example, the weight information from the LTM influences what is regarded as important and relevant enough to be paid attention to end a sensory memory, and helps the meaningful chunking of information in STM

And understanding of how psychological knowledge has developed over time is important in psychology as we should always be updating theory is based on research findings . The MSM is valuable and prompted father research into memory, and since this other theories have a match texting limitations of the MSM, set does the working memory model. We can say that the MSM has laid foundations for further memory model test to be developed.

Question 19

What factors does the model ignore?

Answer 19

Ignores factors such as efforts and strategies Participants might have used when learning and does not account for the type of information taken into memory. Mere rehearsal is also to simple process to account for the transfer from STM to LTM.

Question 20

How do you lab experiments provide evidence for the model

Answer 20

Do use free record experiments and findings from the serial position of fact ie the primary recency effect of showing that performance. In certain memory tasks can be explained in terms of an STM and LTM distinction.

Question 21

How does further research from brain scanning technique support the MSM and the idea of separate memory stores

Answer 21

SQUIRE ET AL (1992) used brain, scanning techniques and found that STM can be associated with activity in the prefrontal cortex, and the LTM can be associated with activity in the hippocampus.

Evaluation: this is a strength, because it provides biological evidence that the different types of memory are processed by different parts of the brain, and that the memory stores are distinct as the multi store model suggests

Question 22

George Miller (1956) STM evidence

Answer 22

he noticed is that in every day life things often appear in sevens for example, 7 notes on the musical scale, seven days of the week, seven deadly sins. He suggested that the spinal capacity of STM is between five and nine items on average. He called this the magic number 7+ or -2

Question 23

Alan Baddeley (1966) STM evidence

Answer 23

He discovered that information is encoded, acoustically and STM, for example how it sounds. He found that when people records from a list immediately., any mistakes are acoustic, for example, substituting, a word with another that sounds the same

Question 24

Lloyd and Margaret Peterson (1959) (STM evidence)

Answer 24

They found out that the duration of STM is between 18/ and 30 seconds so most information is forgotten quickly, but the duration of STM can be extended by maintenance rehearsal. This occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again.. we keep information in STM as long as we rehearse it. If we rehearse it long enough , it passes into long-term memory (LTM)

Question 25

Harry Bahrick (1975) (LTM evidence)

Answer 25

Found that many of the participants were able to recognise the names and faces of school classmates. Almost 50 years on. when you want to recall material stored in the LTM it has to be transferred back into the STM. According to the MSM model, none are recalled directly from LTM.

Question 26

Give strengths of MSM

Answer 26

Strengths:
- There is a large base of research that supports the idea of distinct STM and LTM systems (e.g. brain-damaged case study patient KF’s STM was impaired following a motorcycle accident, but his LTM remained intact).
- It makes sense that memories in the LTM are encoded semantically – i.e. you might recall the general message put across in a political speech, rather than all of the words as they were heard.
- The MSM was a pioneering model of memory that inspired further research and consequently other influential models, such as the Working Memory Model.

Question 27

Give weaknesses of MSM

Answer 27

Weaknesses:
- Some research into STM duration has low ecological validity, as the stimuli participants were asked to remember bear little resemblance to items learned in real life, e.g. Peterson and Peterson (1959) used nonsense trigrams such as ‘XQF’ to investigate STM duration.
- The model is arguably over-simplified, as evidence suggests that there are multiple short and long-term memory stores, e.g. ‘LTM’ can be split into Episodic, Procedural and Semantic memory.
- It does not make much sense to think of procedural memory (a type of LTM) as being encoded semantically, i.e. knowing how to ride a bike through its meaning.
- It is only assumed that LTM has an unlimited capacity, as research has been unable to measure this accurately.

Question 28

Evaluate MSM

Answer 28

Point: Further research from brain scanning techniques has supported the Multi-Store Memory model and the idea of separate memory stores (i.e. a short term memory store and a long term memory store. Evidence: Squire et al (1992) used brain-scanning techniques and found that STM can be associated with activity in the prefrontal cortex and that LTM can be associated with activity in the hippocampus. Evaluation: This is a strength because it provides biological evidence that the different types of memory are processed by different parts of the brain and that the memory stores are distinct as the multi-store model suggests.

(2) Point: Case studies of brain damaged patients (e.g. KF) have also offered support for the Multi-Store Model of memory. Evidence: Shallice and Warrington (1970), reported the case of KF, who was brain damaged as a result of a motorcycle accident. His STM was severely impaired, however his LTM remained intact. Evaluation: This supports the view that STM and LTM are separate and distinct stores and therefore supports the proposals of the Multi-Store Model of memory as it shows that it is possible to damage only one store in memory.

(3) Point: The main strength of the MSM come from support for the idea that at least two separate memory stores do exist (i.e. STM and LTM). Evidence: Murdock’s (1962) Serial position effect (laboratory experiment): Murdock argued that no matter how many words a person is shown and then asked to recall, items at the beginning of the list are recalled to a greater degree than those in the middle, while words at the end have a greater recall than either the beginning or the middle. Words recalled at the beginnig are rfered to as the primacy effect, words remembered at the end of the list are refered to as the recency effect. Evaluation: This supports the MSM because the fact that participants remember words more at the beginning of the list is due to the fact that these words are rehearsed and are starting to pass into the LTM (as suggested by the MSM). Words in the middle of the list are not remembered as well due to the fact that these words are not rehearsed and therefore are lot through displacement. Finally, as suggested by the MSM, the words at the end are remembered well due to the fact that we can hold words in in our STM without rehearsal for up to 30 seconds.

3) Point: Case studies of brain damaged patients criticise the MSM. Evidence: The case of KF demonstrated that his deficit in STM was for verbal information and that the STM for visual material was normal. Evaluation: This is a weakness because it demonstrated that it is possible to damage only part of the STM going against the MSM idea that STM is unitary (suggesting that there may be more than one type of STM).

APPLICATION: The MSM has been applied to ways of improving memory
For example, research has shown that the limited capacity of STM can be increased for a process called Chunking. this shows health and knowledge of a memory system as represented in the multi store model can be applied to practical ways of improving memory.

SUPPORTING RESEARCH EVIDENCE:
A strength is that the MSM is supported by research studies that show STM and LTM a qualitatively different for example Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when we are using our STM. But we makes up words that have similar meanings when we use our LTM, so in coding in STM as acoustic button LTM, it is semantic. Further support comes from studies of capacity and duration by Miller and the Petersons. This shows that STM and LTM a different in terms of encoding capacity and duration and supports the MSM view that needs to memory stores are separate an independent.

COUNTER ARGUMENT: not all psychologist, except that STM and LTM, are separate stores. It is often more difficult than suggested by MSM to identify in every day life where one store ends and the other begins.. some research is suggests that STM and LTM are integrated, for example, Guillermina Campitelli (2015) argues that STM is the part of LTM, that we are currently focusing attention on