the multi store model

Question 1

what is the multi store model?

Answer 1

a model of memory proposed by atkinson and shiffrin (1968), claiming info passes from one component to the next in a linear manner.

Question 2

how is information processed?

Answer 2

-info enters the sensory register via our senses
-info that is attended to is transferred to the stm
-if this info is rehearsed it is transferred to the ltm

Question 3

sensory register

Answer 3

capacity = unknown but very large
duration = approx 250 ms
coding = raw and unprocessed

Question 4

short term memory

Answer 4

capacity = 7 +/- 2 chunks of info
duration = 18-30 seconds
coding = acoustically

Question 5

long term memory

Answer 5

capacity = unlimited
duration = lifetime
coding = semantically

Question 6

research into the capacity of stm: miller (1956)

Answer 6

a literature review of published investigations into perception and stm. it suggested organising info into chunks let stm cope with seven ‘chunks’. so encoding can extend the capacity of stm and let more info to be stored

Question 7

research into duration of stm: peterson and peterson (1959)

Answer 7

24 university students were tested for recall with 48 trigrams. the researcher spelled the syllable out then said a 3 digit number, they had to count down in 3s or 4s from that number. at the end of a preset interval (3 to 18s) they had to recall the trigram. they found the longer the interval the less accurate the recall. so stm has a limited recall of approx 18s

Question 8

research into duration of ltm: bahrick (1975)

Answer 8

392 american graduates shown photos from the high school yearbook, were given a group of names and had to select the name that fit the photos. 90% of them matched them 14 years after graduating and 60% of them 47 years after. concluded that ltm has a lifetime duration

Question 9

give a strength of the msm
1/2

Answer 9

supported by the case of clive wearing, who contracted a virus causing severe amnesia. he could only remember info for 20-30s, but could recall info from his past (he couldn’t transfer info from his stm to ltm but could successfully retrieve info). his case supports idea that memories are made by passing info from one store to the other

COUNTER = since this comes from a case study it’s hard to generalise. his case was so unique and there are other factors to consider

Question 10

give a strength of the msm
2/2

Answer 10

brain scans show diff brain areas are active when performing certain stm tasks (hippocampus and subiculum) and ltm tasks (motor cortex). hippocampus is also involved in transferring short term memories into long term memories. suggests diff brain regions are responsible for the diff aspects of the msm

Question 11

give a limitation of the msm
1/1

Answer 11

the msm may be an oversimplified explanation of memory. e.g. following an accident patient KF could recall stored information from his ltm but had issues with his stm - he could remember visual images but not sounds. suggests that there are perhaps multiple components within our stm, which the msm doesn’t account for. baddeley and hitch said the msm couldn’t explain certain processes like parallel processing, and developed the working memory model to explain the complexity of the stm and fill gaps that the msm missed. suggests the msm is an incomplete model and more research is required to gain a clearer understanding