The Multi-Store Model of Memory Flashcards
What is the Multi-store model?
A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called SR, STM, LTM. It describes how information is transferred from one store to another.
What is the Primary effect?
The tendency to recall information presented at the start of a list better than at the middle or end of a list.
What is the Recency effect?
The tendency to recall information presented at the end of a list (the most recent) rather than at the middle or the end of a list.
Who developed the MSM?
Atkinson and Shiffrin
Why is attention a key process?
If info is attended to it moves from the SR to the STM for temporary storage which is primarily encoded acoustically.
What is Maintenance rehearsal?
It occurs when people repeat material repeatedly as it helps to retain information via the rehearsal loop.
What happened to H.M and what does it say about the MSM?
- Underwent brain surgery to relieve epilepsy and both his left and right hippocampi were removed.
- His STM seemed unaffected yet his LTM seemed affected
- Shows that the MSM is correct in saying that the STM and the LTM are separate stores.
What happened to K.F and what does it say about the MSM?
- Suffered brain damage from a motorist accident. This lead to his STM being affected yet his LTM being unaffected.
- Shows that the MSM is correct in saying that the STM and the LTM are separate stores.
- He had poor recall of info that was just read to him yet he could recall the same info if he read it to himself. This suggest that the STM is more complex than the MSM suggests.
What are two positive evaluations for the evaluation of the MSM?
- The MSM was the first cognitive explanation of memory, which has influenced other psychologist (Baddeley and Hitch) into researching memory and formed the basics of the working memory model.
- The serial position effect (Murdock 1962) supports the idea of there being separate STM and LTM stores which increases the validity of the MSM.
What are two negative evaluations for the evaluation of the MSM?
- The MSM has been criticized for being too simplistic and reductionist. It assumes there is a single STM and LTM store. However, Atkinson and Shiffrin suggest that there are several types of STM and LTM.
- The MSM describes memory in terms of structure, though three types of memory stores and the process of attention and rehearsal. However critics argue that the MSM focuses too much on the structure of memory an not enough on the processes.
What did Murdock do into looking into effects for Primary and Recency effects in recall?
- Presented participants with lists of 10 to 40 words, one word at a time, at a rate of one word per second. After the list was finished, they were asked to recall as many words as they could in any order.
What were Murdock’s findings?
- He found that the probability of recalling any rod depended on the position in the list. Words presented at the start or at the end were more often recalled, yet the ones in the middle were often forgotten.
- Concluded that words early in the list are stored in the LTM because they had time to rehearse them acoustically and words from the end were stored in STM.
How do Murdock’s findings support the MSM?
- When participants remember the first and last pieces of info, it is thought to be because they are recalling info from two separate stores (primary = LTM and Recency = STM).
