The Multi Store Model Of Memory Flashcards
Who created the multi store model
Created by Atkinson and shiffrin
What are the stores of the multi store model
Sensory register
Short term memory
Long term memory
What is meant by the term coding
The different information types or formats the brain uses to store memory is called coding
What is meant by the term capacity
Capacity is how much information can be held by a store
What is meant by the term, duration
How long information can be held in that store before loss
Describe the function of the sensory register
This store is not under cognitive control like STM or LTM, sensory information coming from the senses is detected and recorded automatically, all information in the short term and long term memory stores are initially gathered by the sensory register, from sensory information such as sight, taste, sound, smell or touch. Information is then passed onto the STM store by paying attention to sensory information
How is the sensory register coded
The store depends on the sense organ that information comes from. Ionic - vision
Echoic- sound
Haptic- touch
Gustatory- taste
Olfactory- smell
Or we can just say the coding is modality specific
What is the capacity of the sensory register
Very large, has to contain all the sense impressions for all the senses in the moment. However only what is payed attention to is passed. Onto the STM (potentially unlimited)
What is the duration of the sensory register store
Very short, as low as 250 milliseconds. As so much information is held, (1/4) it cannot be retained for very long. However each store has a different duration.
What happens to information that isn’t payed attention to in the sensory register
Information is lost
How is the short term memory store coded
Information in the short term memory store is stored acoustically (in the form of sound/ spoken words)
What is the capacity of the short term memory store
Miller suggested this is small, approximately 7 items plus or mins 2 items (5-9) and this can be improved by chunking, making small sets/ groups of items. This reduces the number of items overall.
What is the duration of short term memory
Short, 18-20 seconds. However duration of information can be extended by verbal rehearsal
How does the short term memory store transfer information to the long term memory store
STM passes information to LTM through maintenance rehearsal. Information is passed back from the long term memory store with retrieval, and information can be lost via displacement or decay.
What capacity and duration does the long term memory store have
Unlimited capacity and duriation
How is the long term memory store coded
Coded semantically, this is in the form of meaning.
What supporting evidence for the multi store model was there from case studies
The case study of henry molaison- he had severe epileptic seizures- this was cured through operations involving to removal of his hippocampus. This left him with a memory imparment. He could make short term memories however he couldn’t make long term memories. This supported the claim that the short term and long term memory stores were separate, which was suggested by atkinson and shiffrins multi store model.
However, as this is a case study we have difficulty generalising findings from it to other settings, meaning it may not represent the full population.
What supporting evidence was there for the multi store model from brain scanning
Brain scanning has demonstrated that there are two separate stores. For example, Beardsley in 1997 found that the prefrontal cortex was active during short term memory stimulation but not long term memory. And squire et al found that the hippocampus is active during long term memory stimulation but not short term memory.
Squires research can also be supported by the case study of HM because the removal of the hippocampus caused him to be unable to make new long term memories.
What supporting research was there provided by glanzer and cunitz in 1966
They asked participants to listen to a list of words and then they were asked to recall them in order. However, in one condition the participants had an interference task between listening and then recalling. Both groups easily recalled words at the beginning of the list as the early words were stored in the LTM (primary) . And the words at the end of the list were recalled well. Because they were stored in the STM. (Recency) The words in the middle found to be the hardest to recall. this showed the primary and recency effect that proved that there were two separate processes
What evidence was there against the multi store model from case studies
Patient KF -in 1970 KF suffered brain damage from a motor cycle accident, his long term memory was normal, but his short term memory was not. He experienced difficulty with verbal information, but not visual. This showed that the multi store model was too simple as it showed there was more than just unitary memory stores. As well as this, the MSM suggests that if there is damage to the stm there should also be damage to the LTM store. But there isn’t.
How can studies on the first spread can be applied in supporting evidence of the multi store model
Controlled lab studies on capacity, duration and coding support the existence of separate short and long term memory stores.
What supporting research for the multi store model is there from Bahrick et al
Bahricks aim was to investigate the duration of long term memory
He used a sample of 392 American ex- high school student aged between 17 and 74. The time since leaving high school was up to 48 years. The participants were tested in four ways: free recall of the names of as many of their ex classmates as possible
- a photo recognition test- they were asked to identify their former classmates from the photos
- a name recognition test and a name and photo matching test. The findings were that in the recall group, there was 60 precent accuracy after 7 years and 20 percent accuracy after 47 years.
In the recognising group after 47 years, there was 60 precent accuracy. This showed that the duration of long term memory is potentially unlimited
