The Multi-Store Memory Model

Question 1

Who was the MSM developed by and when?

Answer 1

Attkinson and Shiffrin in 1968

Question 2

How many stores is it made up of?

Answer 2

Three: The sensory register, STM store, and LTM store.

Question 3

What passes into the sensory register?

Answer 3

All environmental stimuli.

Question 4

How many memory stores in the sensory register?

Answer 4

5- one for each sense.

Question 5

What are the main two sensory stores in the sensory register?

Answer 5

Iconic (visual) and echoic (acoustic)

Question 6

What is the duration of the sensory register?

Answer 6

Less than half a second

Question 7

What is the capacity of the sensory register?

Answer 7

Very high. E.g. over 100 million cells in one eye each storing data.

Question 8

How does information transfer from the sensory register to the STM store?

Answer 8

If attention is paid to the information.

Question 9

What is the STM?

Answer 9

A limited capacity store of temporary duration.

Question 10

How is STM encoded?

Answer 10

acoustically

Question 11

What is the duration of the STM?

Answer 11

18 seconds without rehearsal.

Question 12

What is the capacity of STM?

Answer 12

7+/-2 items

Question 13

How does information transfer from the STM store to the LTM store?

Answer 13

Maintenance rehearsal (when we repeat material to ourselves). We can maintain information in the STM as long as we rehearse it, if it is rehearsed for long enough it enters the LTM.

Question 14

What is the LTM?

Answer 14

A permanent memory store.

Question 15

How is LTM encoded?

Answer 15

semantically (in terms of meaning)

Question 16

What is the duration of LTM?

Answer 16

Up to a lifetime

Question 17

What is the capacity of LTM?

Answer 17

Potentially Unlimited

Question 18

How do we recall information from LTM?

Answer 18

It has to be transferred back to STM by a process called retrieval.

Question 19

Strength of the MSM

Answer 19

Baddeley’s 1966 study shows that STM and LTM are encoded separately, supporting the idea of two different independent memory stores.

Question 20

Counterpoint for the research supporting separate memory stores

Answer 20

The studies don’t use everyday information- they use digits, letters, or trigrams. The MSM therefore may not be a valid model of how memory works in everyday life.

Question 21

Limitation of the MSM- What was Shallice and Warrington’s 1970 study?

Answer 21

It suggested that there is more than one STM store. KF with amnesia’s recall for digits was poor when he heard them, but better when he read them. The MSM is wrong to claim that there is just one STM store.

Question 22

Limitation of the MSM- What was Craik and Watkins’ 1973 argument?

Answer 22

2 types of rehearsal- maintenance and elaborative. Elaborative is needed for LTM storage- when you link information to existing knowledge. The MSM does not fully explain how LTM storage is achieved as only maintenance rehearsal is described.