The multi-store model of memory

Question 1

Who created the multi-store model of memory (MSM)?

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968, 1971).

Question 2

What does the MSM do?

Answer 2

Describes how information flows through the memory system, it suggests that memory is made up of three stores linked by processing.

Question 3

How does information enter the model?

Answer 3

Through environmental stimulus.

Question 4

Where does relevant information go after it travels through the sensory register?

Answer 4

The STM store.

Question 5

The Iconic memory and Echoic memory are found in which part of the model?

Answer 5

Sensory register.

Question 6

What key process occurs in the sensory register?

Answer 6

Attention, (only the information that is payed attention to is processed into the STM).

Question 7

What are the two main sub-stores of the sensory register?

Answer 7

Iconic (visual) and Echoic (sound).

Question 8

How long does the material last in sensory resigsters?

Answer 8

Only very briefly - the duration is less than half a second.

Question 9

How much of hte information that goes into the sensory register passes through to the STM?

Answer 9

Very little, the information that does is selected through a key process known as attention.

Question 10

Information from an environmental stimulus goes through what?

Answer 10

The sensory register.

Question 11

What is the capacity of sensory registers like?

Answer 11

The capacity is very high (e.g. over one hundred million cells in an eye, each collecting data).

Question 12

How many stores are there in the sensory register?

Answer 12

5, one for each sense. (However, the main ones are iconic and echoic.)

Question 13

What is the sensory register?

Answer 13

The memory stores for each of the 5 senses.

Question 14

What is the capacity of the STM?

Answer 14

7 +/- 2.

Question 15

Information that reaches the STM last for roughly how long?

Answer 15

30 seconds (unless it is rehearsed).

Question 16

How can the duration of the STM be increased?

Answer 16

Through rehearsal, (repeating information over and over again).

Question 17

Why is the STM known as a limited capacity store?

Answer 17

Because it can only contain a certain number of ‘things’ before forgetting takes place.

Question 18

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 18

It is when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again, this helps keep the information in our STMs as long as we rehearse it for.

Question 19

How is information coded in the STM?

Answer 19

The STM is coded acoustically.

Question 20

Suggest why the capacity of the sensory register is so high?

Answer 20

There is so much environmental stimulus being taken in the whole time, an eye contains over a hundred million cells each collecting environmental stimulus.

Question 21

What is the duration of the sensory register?

Answer 21

Less than half a second.

Question 22

How does the MSM say that memories are transferred into the LTM from the STM?

Answer 22

Through prolonged rehearsal, where we repeat information long enough.

Question 23

What are the options for information that is in the STM?

Answer 23

• Prolonged rehearsal into hte LTM,
• Maintenance rehearsal back into the STM,
• Response (remembering),
  (- Forgetting.)

Question 24

What is retrieval?

Answer 24

The transfer of information back to the STM from the LTM.

Question 25

Which store is potentially permanent in its duration?

Answer 25

LTM.

Question 26

What is the believed capacity of the LTM?

Answer 26

Unlimited capacity.

Question 27

How is information stored in the LTM?

Answer 27

Semantically (through meaning).

Question 28

Haptic memory belongs to which store?

Answer 28

The sensory register.

Question 29

AO3 - Supporting research evidence.

Answer 29

A major strength of the MSM is the research support studies which show clearly that the STM and LTM are qualitatively different. Baddeley (1966) found we tend to mix up words that sound similar when using our STM and mix up words that mean similar things in the LTM, supporting the idea they are different stores.

Question 30

The MSM says that the STM is a unitary store, what does this mean?

Answer 30

That there is only one type of short-term memory.

Question 31

AO3 - Multiple types of rehearsal.

Answer 31

The MSM shows that the important part of rehearsal is the amount of repeats, however, Craik and Watkins (1973) disproved this idea. They discovered there are two type of rehearsal, maintainance rehearsal (described in the MSM) and elaborative rehearsal.

Question 32

Who created the idea of elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 32

Craik and Watkins (1973).

Question 33

AO3 - Multiple types of STM.

Answer 33

The MSM stated that the STM is a unitary store (only one type), however, evidence from those suffering from amnesia show this to be untrue. KF was a patient with amnesia and his recall for digits was very poor when read to but very high when he read them. This opposes the idea that the STM is unitary.

Question 34

(AO3) What is elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 34

The linking of information to existing knowledge, or thinking about what it means.

Question 35

A03 - Artificial materials.

Answer 35

Many research studies used to design the MSM are based upon artificial materials. This is a negative because in real-life we form memories related to much more significant and useful things than series of consonants etc.

Question 36

A03 - Multiple type of LTM.

Answer 36

There is lots of evidence to show that the LTM, like the STM, is a non-unitary store.

Question 37

What did KF suffer from?

Answer 37

Amnesia (loss of memory).

Question 38

AO3 - Case study support.

Answer 38

The case study of Clive Wearing, he contracted a virus that gave him ‘moment-to-moment’ memory. He could not transfer STM to LTM and had impaired ability in the LTM. This suggests that the STM and LTM are seperate stores.

Question 39

AO3 - Oversimplified.

Answer 39

The MSM model is too basic to fully explain the process of memory as it misses out complex ideas such as forgetting, there is also multiple types of STM, LTM and rehearsal that are not represented in the model.