Multistore Model Flashcards
What is the process of the multistore model?
- Environmental stimulus is presented
- The sensory memory takes in the stimulus
- Attention is paid to a stimulus which moves it into the short term memory store
- Rehearsal of information maintains the information in the short term memory (maintenance rehearsal loop)
- If information is not rehearsed, the memory is forgotten
- If information is rehearesed, it is moved to the long term memory
- Memory is remembered through the process of retrieval, transferring memories from LTM store to LTM store
How does the sensory register code?
Modality specific (several senses in which each is coded for individually)
What are the duration and capacity of the sensory register?
- Brief, millisecond duration
- High capacity (constantly bombarded with senses)
What are the evaluations for the strengths of the multistore model?
Different characteristics show they are separate sources
* A major strength of the MSM is that it is supported by research that shows STM/LTM are different separate stores
* Baddely found we tend to mix up words that sound similar when we use our STMS, but we mix up words that have similar meanings when we use our LTMS. This shows coding in STM is acoustic and semantic in LTM
* Further research shows that the duration of STM is 18-30s but for LTM it can be up to a lifetime
* Such evidence shows STM and LTM are different as they have different characteristics, supporting the idea of separate and independent memory stores
Brain scans show different areas in use
* Support for the multistore model and its claims of separate memory stores comes from brain scanning techniques
* Prefrontal cortex is active during STM tasks but not LTM tasks
* Hippocampus is active when LTM is being used
* Evidence provides strong support for MSM and scans clearly show they are located in different areas of brain (separate stores)
HM case shows LTM and STM are separate
* Support for the multistore model and its claims of separate memory come from the case of HM
* HM suffered from severe epilepsy and underwent surgery to remove his hippocampus to reduce seizures
* HM could not form any new long term memories after operation and would read the same magazine repeatedly without remembering it. He could not recall what he had eaten or who he had seen that day. He performed well on tests of immediate memory span showing his STM was intact and unaffected
* HM provides clear evidence for the existence of STM and LTM being separate independent store due to one being damaged and the other unaffected
What are the evaluations for the weaknesses of the multistore model?
LTM is far more complex
* A further limitation of the multistore model is that the long term store has also been found to be subdivided rather than unitary
* More than one type of LTM has been identified. For example, facts and knowledge (semantic memory), how to do things (procedural memory) and events (episodic memory) are all different
* HM also gives evidence for sub types of LTM. He could improve on the mirror drawing task so the procedural LTM was fine, but he has no recollection of the task to detail how episodic memory was damaged after hippocampus was removed
* This shows strong evidence for the fact that LTM has several components, something that the simplistic MSM does not account for
STM is more complex than the MSM details
* One major limitation is that the STM is too simplistic
* Baddely and Hitch proposed the working memory model, a theory that the short term store has multiple stores that do different things, e.g visuo-spatial sketchpad that processes visual info an phonological loop that processes auditory information
* Case studies of brain damaged patients support the notion of a subdivided STM. KF had a motorbike accident which resulted in short term forgetting of auditory information but not visual stimuli, suggesting only one part of STM was damaged
* This goes against the idea that STM is a unitary store, and suggests the short term store has numerous components rather than it being unitary, showing the multistore model is too simple.
Rehearsal is not the only way to create long term memories
* One major limitation of the MSM is that rehearsal is not the only way to transfer info from STM to LTM
* Craik and Lockhart proposed the idea that long lasting memories are created by the TYPE of processing you do, rather than just through maintenance rehearsal
* Found that participants who were asked a question that required sematic processing remembered more words than those who visually processed how a word looked
* This suggests that it is not just rehearsal that will create long term memories, and the most important part is using deep semantic technqiues, something which the MSM does not consider
