The multi store model Flashcards
Who made the multi store model of memory?
Atkinson and Shiffin
What does the multi store model describe?
how information flows through the memory system - the model suggests that memory is made up of three stores linked by processing.
What are the three stores?
sensory register, short term memory and long term memory
What is the sensory register?
A stimulus from the environment passes into the sensory register, for example the sound of someone’s name. This part of the memory is made up of several stores, one for each of our five senses.
The two main stores are:
Iconic memory - visual information is encoded visually
Echoic memory - sound, or auditory information is encoded acoustically
Duration - less than half a second
Capacity - very large
Coding - very little of what goes into sensory register passes further into the memory system - but it will if you pay attention to it
What is short term memory?
STM is what is known as the limited capacity store, as it can only contain a certain number of ‘things’ before forgetting takes place. Information in STM is coded acoustically and lasts about 18 seconds unless it is rehearsed.
How do we pass information from our STM to our LTM?
Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again. We can keep the information in our STMs as long as we rehearse it. If we rehearse it long enough it passes into our long-term memory (LTM).
What is long term memory?
This is the potentially permanent memory store for information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time. It is believed that the capacity is unlimited and can last for a lifetime. LTMs tend to be coded semantically.
Although the material is stored in the LTM, when we want to recall it, it has to be transferred back into STM by a process called retrieval. According to the MSM, this is true of all our memories. None of them are recalled directly from LTM.
Strength of the MSM - Baddeley
One strength of the MSM is that there is research to support the idea that STM and LTM are different stores. Baddeley conducted research into the coding of information, testing both short term memory and long term memory and found that short term memory appeared to be encoded acoustically and long term memory was encoded semantically. This shows that coding is different for STM and LTM which supports the view that the two memory stores are separate and independent
Strength of MSM - case study
One strength is that the case of HM provides support for the MSM. HM’s hippocampus was removed from his brain to reduce severe epilepsy. He was unable to encode new long term memories, although his short term seemed unaffected. Additionally, he was able to recall childhood events, but lost the ability to recall experiences a few years before his surgery. This supports the MSM as it suggests that there are separate memory stores for STM and LTM and HM is unable to rehearse new information into his long term memory.
Limitation of MSM
One limitation of the MSM is that long-term memory involves more than prolonged rehearsal. According to the MSM the importance of rehearsal is how much of it you do as the more you rehearse something, the more likely it will transfer to the LTM. Craik and Watkins (1973) found that the type of rehearsal is more important than the amount. Elaborative rehearsal is also needed which is where you link the information to your existing knowledge, or you think about what it means, transferring information into the LTM without prolonged rehearsal. This suggests that the MSM does not fully explain how long-term storage is achieved
