The Multi Store Model

Question 1

How are environmental stimuli detected?

Answer 1

By the sensory register.

Question 2

Name 2 of the stores contained in the sensory register used for coding.

Answer 2

Iconic - Visual
Echoic - Sound

Question 3

State the duration of the sensory register.

Answer 3

0.5 seconds

Question 3

State the capacity of the sensory register.

Answer 3

Unlimited

Question 4

How does STM code?

Answer 4

Acoustically

Question 4

Information from the sensory register is passed to which store under what condition?

Answer 4

Information from the sensory register is passed to STM as long as attention is paid to it.

Question 5

What is the duration of STM?

Answer 5

18 seconds

Question 6

What is the capacity of STM?

Answer 6

7 +- 2

Question 7

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 7

Repeating things in your head over and over to remember them.

Question 8

How does information become part of LTM?

Answer 8

Prolonged maintenance rehearsal leads to transfer.

Question 9

How does LTM code?

Answer 9

Semantically

Question 10

What is the duration of LTM?

Answer 10

Unlimited

Question 11

What is the capacity of LTM?

Answer 11

Unlimited

Question 12

How is information passed from LTM to STM?

Answer 12

Retrieval, allows information to be recalled from LTM

Question 13

Explain the strength of there being research support from Glanzer and Cunnitz who have provided evidence for the fact that LTM and STM are separate stores.
Talk about how PPTs are more likely to remember words from the start and end of the list and why.
Name the effects that allow this.

Answer 13

They conducted an experiment etsting STM and found that PPTs were more likely to remember wods from the start of a list (primary effect) and words at the end of a list (recency effect), but were more likely to forget words from the middle of a list. This therefore shows how LTM and STM are separate because words at the start of the list were remembered due to rehearsal, leading to transfer to LTM and words at the end of the list were still in STM, supporting the idea that they are 2 separate stores.

Question 14

Explain the limitation that there may be more than 1 STM store that the MSM doesn’t show.
Use the example from Shallice and Warrington’s case study on amnesia patient KF who had better recall for visual STM than verbal STM.
Use another example of further research showing that there may even be an STM for sound.

Answer 14

Shallice and Warrington conducted an STM task on amnesia patient KF and found that he had poor recall for digits when they were read verbally to him, but had better recall when he read the digits himself visually. This suggests there may be more than 1 STM store. Further research has shown that there may even be an STM store for noise. Therefore, this suggests that the MSM is wrong for claiming that there is just one store for STM.

Question 15

Explain the limitation that there may be more than one LTM store that the MSM doesn’t show.
Use the example of Clive Wearing, who had suffered brain damage and had lost part of his memory as a result.
What skill was Wearing still able to perform?
What type of LTM was he unable to remember?

Answer 15

For example, research was conducted on Clive Wearing, who suffered from brain damage. The man still understood the meaning of words (semantic) and still knew how to perform skills (procedural). He could remember how to play the piano and read music, but couldn’t remember personal memories (episodic). This contradicts the assumption that LTM is a unitary store as research shows that we store different LTM in different areas.

Question 16

Explain the limitation that prolonged rehearsal is not needed for transfer to LTM.
Use examples from other models of memory that suggest the type of rehearsal is more important (such as elaborative rehearsal).

Answer 16

The MSM believes that prolonged rehearsal is required for transfer to LTM but other models suggest that the type is more important (i.e.: elaborative rehearsal, linking information to existing knowledge and thinking about what it means) for transfer from STM to LTM. This means that the MSM doesn’t fully explain how long term storage is achieved.