The multi-store model of memory

Question 1

What is the MSM:
- who created it?
- a simplified diagram

Answer 1

• Created by Atkinson and Shiffrin
• Stimulus >Sensory register >STM >LTM

Question 2

What is the sensory register’s role?

Answer 2

• Where all information from environment enters
• Has several registers
• Coding is modality specific
• Duration is less than half a second
• Capacity is very high

Question 3

What is the STM’s role?

Answer 3

• Duration is 18 seconds unless rehearsed (Peterson & Peterson - trigram)
• Limited capacity of 5-9 words (Jacobs - digit span)
• Information is stored acoustically (Baddeley - recall)

Question 4

What is the LTM’s role?

Answer 4

• Duration may be up to a lifetime (Bahrick - yearbook photo recognition)
• Capacity is potentially unlimited
• Encoded mostly semantically (Baddeley - recall after 20m)