Multi Store Model Of Memory (A03)

Question 1

Strength of multi store model of memory. - research support - baddeley.

Answer 1

• shows that STM and LTM are indeed qualitatively different.
• For example, Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when we are using our STMs. But we mix up words that have similar meanings when we use our LTMs.
• The strength of this study is that it clearly shows that coding in STM is acoustic and in LTM it is semantic. So they are different - this supports the MSM’s view that these two memory stores are separate and independent.

Question 2

Limitation - more than one type of STM - shallice and warrington (1970)

Answer 2

• MSM states that STM is a unitary store.
• However, evidence from people suffering from a clinical condition called amnesia shows that this cannot be true.
• Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied a patient with amnesia known as KF.
• They found that KF’s short-term memory for digits was very poor when they read them out loud to him.
• But his recall was much better when he was able to read the digits to himself.
• The unitary STM is a limitation of the MSM because research shows that at the very least there must be one short-term store to process visual information and another one to process auditory information.

Question 3

Limitation #2 - more than one type of rehearsal - Craik and Watson (1973)

Answer 3

• According to the MSM, what matters in rehearsal is the amount of it that you do.
• the more you rehearse some information, the more likely you are to transfer it to LTM and remember it for a long time.
• Craik and Watkins (1973) found that this prediction is wrong. What really matters about rehearsal is the type. They discovered that there are two types of rehearsal.
• Maintenance rehearsal is the type described in the MSM, but this does not transfer information into LTM.
• Elaborative rehearsal is needed for long-term storage. This occurs when you link the information to your existing knowledge, or you think about what it means.
  This is a very serious limitation of the MSM because it is another research finding that cannot be explained by the model.