Psychology Section 2- Memory Topic 1 Multi Store Model of Memory (Introduction)

Question 1

Describe 3 similarities between the Mind and the Computer

Answer 1

1. Input: Computer (The keyboard, the
   mouse, the scanner, etc.)
   The senses (vision, hearing,
   touch, smell, taste, balance,
   body position, etc.)
2. Processing:

The CPU (central
processing unit–the chip)
and other microchips to
process the instructions
from the input devices

Brain, especially involving
memory for retrieving old
information and storing new
information

3. Output:

The printer, the plotter,
the monitor

Behaviour and new stored
memories (and modified old ones)

Question 2

What are the 3 separate memory stores in the Multi Store Model of Memory?

Answer 2

These are the structural features:

1. Sensory stores (sensory register/sensory memory) - which
   hold information for very brief periods of time and are modality
   specific (i.e. there is one store for each of the five senses)
2. A short-term store, known as short-term memory (STM) –
   which can hold a limited amount of information for a few
   seconds
3. A long-term store, known as long-term memory (LTM) – which
   can hold unlimited amounts of information for very long periods
   of time.

Question 3

What else has been proposed aside from the structural features?

Answer 3

In addition to these structural features, Atkinson and Shiffrin
proposed a number of control processes such as ‘attention’ and
‘rehearsal’ that control the flow of information between the
memory stores.

Question 4

What 3 characteristics have researchers of memory been interested in?

Answer 4

Researchers investigating memory have been interested in three
characteristics: capacity, duration and encoding. We will look at
each of these for each of the three stores.

Question 5

What does Coding, Capacity and Duration mean?

Answer 5

Coding= The form in which the information can be stored

Capacity= How much information can be stored

Duration= How long information can be stored for