Multi-store model of memory

Question 1

Proposed by?

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shriffin 1968

Question 2

Type of Model

Answer 2

Linear

Question 3

Structural components

Answer 3

3 Memory Stores/Stages:
1) Sensory Input
2) Short-term Memory
3) Long-term Memory

Question 4

Sensory Input

Answer 4

• Capacity = unknown
• Can store any number of inputs for a fraction of a second.
• Visual stimulus decays after 1 second
• Sound decays after 2-5 seconds
• Attention is the key process required to retain information.
• Information that is attended to or noticed is sent to short term memory or else it is lost immediately to decay.

Question 5

Short-term Memory (Capacity, key process, encoding, information loss)

Answer 5

• Capacity is 7±2 chunks of information which has a limited duration of 30 seconds.
• Rehearsal is the key process required to send information to long-term memory.
• According to model, information is encoded phonetically (by sound) or visually.
• If information is not rehearsed, it is lost to displacement (getting it replaced by another chunk) or decay.

Question 6

Long-term Memory
(Capacity, mode of processing, information loss)

Answer 6

• Capacity is unknown but thought to be unlimited.
• Information is processed semantically (through understanding). retained through rehearsal
  Information can be lost from LTM in 3 different ways:
  1) Interference - when different memories integrate with one another and become indistinguishable
  Proactive - when new information you learn interferes with old information
  Retroactive - when old information interferes with new information
  2) Decay - Refers to how memories fade with time
  3) Retrieval Failure - The memory can not be retrieved or recalled due to the lack of a cue, stimulus, or context that was probably used to encode the information.

Question 7

Serial Position Effect

Answer 7

Remembering more words from the beginning and the end of a list than the middle [displacement in STM of middle words while beginning words moved to LTM] - Murdock (1962)

Question 8

Recency Effect

Answer 8

Remembering the last few words more

Question 9

Disadvantages

Answer 9

• Reductionistic (process for encoding verbal memory in LTM may be more complex)
• Focuses too much on rehearsal
• Doesn’t explain the two different types of rehearsal
  Elaborative - thinking about the meaning of the stimulus item (semantic)
  Maintenance rehearsal - simple repetition and keeps item cycling through STM (not thought to be effective for encoding in LTM)
• Suggests that memory is something humans can’t control but memory is active and humans can shape it.
• Problem with ecological validity
• Flow of memory is unidirectional in this model (memory is bidirectional)

Question 10

Glancer and Cunitz (1966)

Answer 10

Primary and recency effect
Aim - to investigate serial position effect with and without the influence of a filler activity

Participants - 46 army-enlisted men

Procedure:
- series of 15 word lists were read out to participants
- After hearing the list, they had to do a free-recall activity (recalling as many words as possible)
Three conditions:
1) free-recall task immediately after hearing words on the list
2) filler activity (counting out loud backwards from a random number for 10 seconds) and then doing the free-recall task
3) the same filler activity but for 30 seconds

Order of conditions was random, 5 lists per each condition

Results - without filler task, participants displayed primary and recency effect
with filler task 10 sec, primary effect stayed but no recency effect
with filler task 30 sec, recency effect gone, even less word in the beginning of the list

Conclusion - fits in multistore model showing STM and LTM are different stores
info only moves to LTM if rehearsed, but decays if not
Duration of STM is about 30 seconds

Question 11

Atkinson and Shriffin (1968)

Answer 11

Model relied on hippocampal lesion studies,
which showed that people with damaged hippocampal regions could create short term memories, but not long-term memories. This showed that short- and long-term memory are distinctly different cognitive processes.

Question 12

Craik and Tulving (1975)

Answer 12

Aim - Craik and Tulving aimed to investigate how the depth of processing affects memory recall.

Methodology:
Individuals were shown a list of words and asked different types of questions about them.
Type of processing:
Shallow processing (structural)
Intermediate processing (phonemic)
Deep processing (semantic)
After processing the words at different levels, participants were given a surprise recall test to see how many words they could remember.

Results:
Words that were processed semantically (deep processing) were remembered significantly better than those processed at a shallow or phonemic level.
Memory recall was lowest for words processed using structural (shallow) processing.
The deeper the processing, the stronger and more durable the memory trace.

Conclusion:
Depth of processing affects memory retention
challenges multistore model which suggests that repetition of rehearsal is what is responsible for memory retention.