The multi-store model of memory Flashcards
What is the multi-store model?
An explanation of memory based on three seperate memory stores and how info is transferred between these stores
What are the three MSM stores
Sensory register
STM
LTM
How does info enter the sensory register
Through environmental stimuli
What is the sensory register
The place where info is held at each of the senses (eg eyes, ears) and the corresponding areas of the brain
How does info go from the sensory register to the STM
Attention
What is the STM
Where info is held so it can be used for immediate tasks.
What does maintenance rehearsal do?
Repetition keeps info in TM but eventually repetition will create a LTM,
Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed a direct relationship between rehearsal in STM and the strength of LTM- the more info is rehearsed, the better it is remembered.
What is LTM
Memory store that is potentially unlimited in duration and capacity
How do you get info from the LTM
Retrieval
The info passes back though the STM and then it is available for use.
MSM process
Environmental stimuli
Sensory memory
Attention
STM
maintenance rehearsal
STM
Maintenance rehearsal
LTM
Retrieval
STM
Who created the multi-store model
Atkinson and Shiffrin
AO3: msm
str: supporting evidence
str: case studies
lim: case study
lim: simplistic
MSM str: supporting evidence
Controlled lab studies on capacity, duration and coding support the existence of a separate short-and long-term store, which is the basis of the MSM.
Studies using brain scanning techniques have also demonstrated that there is a difference between STM and LTM.
Beardsley: found that the prefrontal cortex is active during STM but not LTM tasks.
This evidence provides strong support for the MSM.
MSM str: Case studies
Psychologists have also shown that different areas of the brain are involved in STM and LTM from their study of individuals with brain damage.
HM: brain damage was caused by an operation to remove the hippocampus from both sides of his brain to reduce the severe epilepsy he had suffered. HM’s personality and intellect remained intact but he could not form new LTMs, although he could remember things from before the surgery.
This provides support for the MSM’s notion of separate stores, as HM was unable to transfer information from his STM to LTM, but was able to retrieve information from before his surgery
MSM lim: case study
Difficult to generalise bc such small sample
- findings could be due to indiv differences
- could be due to trauma
MSM lim: simplistic
The MSM suggests that both STM and LTM are single ‘unitary’ stores. However, research does not support this.
The working memory model and its supporting research shows that working memory (STM) is divided into a number of qualitatively different stores
Research shows there are a number of qualitatively different kinds of LTM
For example, maintenance rehearsal can explain long-term storage in semantic memory but doesn’t explain long-term episodic memories
This suggests that the MSM may be overly simplistic.
