The multi store model of memory - AO1

Question 1

Who was the MSM created by?

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shriffen (1968)

Question 2

What are the features of the stores in the MSM?

Answer 2

1. Sensory register
2. Short term memory
3. Long term memory

Question 3

What is the sensory register?

Answer 3

All stimuli from the environment pass into the sensory register. This part of memory comprisies several registers, one for each sense.
All information found in the STM or LTM stores were initially gathered by the sensory register.

Question 4

How is the sensory register coded?

Answer 4

Modality specific
E.g ionic = vision, echoic = sound

Question 5

What is the capacity of the senory register?

Answer 5

Very large
Only what is paid attention to is passed to the STM

Question 6

What is the duration of the sensory register?

Answer 6

Very brief
Less than half a second

Question 7

What is short term memory?

Answer 7

Information is mainly coded acoustically and lasts about 18 seconds unless its rehearsed, so STM is more of a temporary store.
Capacity of STM is 7±2 items however Cowan’s research suggests that it is more likely five than nine
Maintenence rehearsal occurs when we repeat information to ourselves over and over again

• We can keep the information in out STMs as long as we rehearse it
• If we rehearse it long enough, it passes into our LTM

Question 8

What is long term memory?

Answer 8

Potentially permanant memory store for information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time. Psychologists believe that duration may last for up to a life time
Bahrick et al (1975) found that may of their PPs were able to recognise names and faces of their school classmates almost 50 years after graduating.
The capacity of LTM is thought to be limited
* According to MSM, when we want to recall information from LTM, it has to be transferred back into STM by a process calles retrieval