The Multi-store Model Of Memory Flashcards
What is the multi-store model
A linear model (this means information flows though the system in one direction) that represents how memory is stored, transferred between the stores, retrieved and forgotten
What are the three stores
Sensory register, short term memory and long-term memory
What are the characteristics of each store
Coding, capacity and duration
What is coding
Coding refers to the format or the ‘type’ of information stored in each memory store
What is capacity
Capacity refers to the volume of information/ data which can be kept in any memory store at any time
What is duration
Duration refers to the amount of time that information can be stored in each memory store
How does the multi-store model work
Information gathered by the sensory organs enter the sensory register Only the small amount that is paid attention to passes to short-term memory for further processing, the rest of the information is lost very quickly Information in short-term memory that is actively processed enough (mainly through rehearsal) transfers to long-term memory
What is the role of the sensory register
This part of the memory system receives and stores information from the environment through our senses. If the information in the sensory store receives enough ATTENTION, it is transferred to the STM.
↪️However if we do not pay attention to the information it DECAYS and is forgotten.
What is the coding in the sensory register
Sensory memory is modality specific, meaning that information is stored in the form it arrives; each of the five senses has its own memory store (a sub-store). Therefore it depends on the sense
↪️e.g visual information enters the iconic store and sound information enters the echoic store
What research is there to support the sensory register’s coding
Crowder (1933) found that the SR only holds information in the iconic store for a few milliseconds, but for two to three seconds within the echoic store. This supports the idea of sensory information being coded into different sensory stores.
What is the capacity of the sensory register
Very high/ large
What research is there to support the coding of the sensory memory store being large
Sperling (1960) flashed a 3x4 grid of letters onto a screen for one-twentieth of a second, and asked participants to recall the letters of one row.
As the information would fade very quickly, he sounded different tones (high, medium or low) to indicate which row had to be recalled (1st, 2nd or 3rd).
Recall of letters in the indicated row was high, which suggests all the information was originally there, indicating that the capacity of the SR is large
What is the duration of the sensory register
All sensory memory stores have limited duration (about 0.5 to 3 seconds ➡️3 is the maximum
↪️varies depending on the sense being used
What research is there to support the limited duration of the sensory register
Walsh and Thompson (1978) found that the iconic sensory store has an average duration of 0.5 seconds, which decreases as individuals get older. This suggests duration of sensory memories is limited (↪️links to evolution) and dependent on age
What is the role of short term memory
Short term memory temporarily stores information received from the SR (information that has been paid ATTENTION TO).
How is information in STM transferred to LTM
Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat (rehearse) material to ourselves repeatedly. If information is successfully rehearsed in STM it will transfer to LTM
How is short term memory coded
Short term memory tends to encode information acoustically (according to how it sounds). We encode the information being transferred from sensory memory to short term memory by verbalising it. We either say it out loud to ourselves, or we repeat it to ourselves mentally
What research is there to support the coding of the short term memory
Alan Baddeley (1966) gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember.
Group 1: had acoustically similar words (words that sounded similar)
Group 2: had acoustically dissimilar (words that sounded different)
Participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order. When they did this task immediately, they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words.
This finding suggested that information is coded acoustically in STM
What is the capacity in short term memory
STM has a limited capacity, as only a small amount of information is held in the store.
Between five and nine items (7+/- 2) can be held, though capacity is increased by chunking information into meaningful chunks. For example 500654356 is easier to remember as 500 654 356 (➡️three chunks)
What research is there to support the capacity of the STM
Miller (1956) conducted a study to investigate the capacity of the STM. Miller used the immediate digit span test to find out the capacity of the STM.
Participants were read a series of numbers and repeated them back to the researcher in the same order that they heard them. The number of digits they had to recall was increased until the participants were unable to recall them accurately.
Miller found that the average digit span was 7+/- 2 (the magic number 7). He repeated this research using different stimuli (words, dots, musical tones) and concluded that the capacity of the STM was limited to 5-9 items or ‘chunks’ of information.
What is the duration of STM
The amount of time that information remains within STM without being lost is limited to a maximum of about 30 seconds (minimum is 18).
This can be extended by rehearsal of information, which if done long enough will result in transfer of information into the LTM
What research is there to support the duration of the STM
Peterson & Peterson (1959) tested 24 undergraduate students - each student took part in eight trials. On each trial the student was given a trigram (e.g YCG) to remember and was also given a 3-digit number
The student was then asked to count backwards in threes from that 3-digit number until told to stop. This counting backwards to prevent any mental rehearsal of the trigram. On each trial, they were told to stop counting after a different amount of time (3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds). This is called the retention interval.
FINDINGS: around 90% of trigrams were recalled correctly after 3 seconds compared to only 5% after 18 seconds. This suggests that STM may have a very short duration unless we rehearse the information
How is long term memory coded
LTM is semantically coded
What research is there to support the coding of the LTM
Baddeley modified the experiment to test long term memory. He extended the length of the word lists from five words to ten words and prevented the participants from rehearsing (by interrupting them after each presentation. Each list was presented four times and then recall was tested after a 20-minute interval. Under these conditions, he found that acoustic similarity had no effect on recall but students had difficulty recalling words that were semantically similar (i.e similar in meaning). Baddeley concluded from this that words were similar in meaning interfered with each other, and so information in LTM is coded semantically
What is the capacity of LTM
The potential capacity of LTM is unlimited. Information may be lost due to decay, retrieval failure nd interference, but such losses don’t occur due to limitation of capacity
What research is there to support the capacity of LTM being unlimited
Linton(1975) conducted an experiment on her own long term memory. Over many years she it a daily diary of events on cards, giving each day a key word. When she tried to recall any day’s events by being given a key word she could do so with an accuracy of 70%, even up to seven years later. This shows the huge capacity of long term memory as an estimated 11,000 items were recorded on the cards.
What is the duration of LTM
Long term memories can last a lifetime. Many elderly people have detailed childhood memories. Information can decay over time if it is not used
What research is there to support the duration of LTM being able to last a lifetime (Bahrick 1984)
Bahrick(1984) tested 733 adults who had taken or were taking a high school or University course in Spanish. The participants who were not currently enrolled in a Spanish course had not studied Spanish for periods ranging from 1 to 50 years. He concluded that some memories are relatively permanent, fading only because of the detrimental effects of aging.
What research is there to support the duration of LTM being able to last a lifetime (Bahrick 1975)
Bahrick(1975) investigated the duration of long-term memory using 392 American University graduates. The graduates were shown photographs from their high-school yearbook and for each yearbook and for each photograph participants were given a group of names and were asked to select the name that matched the photographs.
↪️Bahrick found that 90% of participants were able to correctly match the names and faces 15 years after graduating, and 70% of the participants were able to correctly match the names and faces 47 years after graduation. Therefore, he concluded that people could remember certain types of information, such as names and faces for almost a lifetime. These results support the multi-store model and the idea that long-term memory has a lifetime duration (at least 47 years) and is semantically encoded.
Give a strength for Bahrick et al’s 1975 study
A particular strength of Bahrick et al’s 1975 study is the use of meaningful stimuli, and a methodology which is high in mundane realism. This suggests that the findings have high ecological validity because they can be easily generated to real-life, due to the stimuli reflecting those which we would often try to learn and recall in our day-to-day lives: information with personal and meaningful value
