Topic 1- Evaluation of Multi Store Model

Question 1

What is the difference in Coding, Capacity and Duration of SR, STM and LTM with Research for each?

Answer 1

SR:

Coding = Separate sensory stores for different Sensory Inputs ( Crowder 1993)

Capacity = Huge (Sperling 1960)

Duration = Brief: varies
between different sensory stores
Walsh & Thompson (1978)

STM:

Coding= Mainly acoustic other codes used too (Baddeley 1966 immediate recall study)

Capacity = Small: 5-9 chunks of information (Jacobs 1887)

Duration = Short: Max 30s ( Peterson and Peterson 1959)

LTM:

Coding= Mainly semantic, other codes used too (Baddeley 1966 delayed Recall study)

Capacity = Huge (Anokhin 1973)

Duration = Potentially for a lifetime (Bahrick et al 1975)

Question 2

Why is the MSM influential?

Answer 2

The MSM was the first cognitive explanation of memory and thus was influential, inspiring interest and research, and formed the basis for the working memory model leading to a greater understanding of how memory works.

Question 3

What are 3 advantages of the MSM?

Answer 3

1. There is considerable research evidence for the existence of the separate memory stores of the SR, STM and LTM (see studies of coding, capacity and duration).
2. The model is supported by amnesia cases. Patients either lose their LTM or their STM abilities, but not both, supporting the idea that STM and LTM are separate memory stores

Scott Bolzan is an example of retrograde amnesia, where he lost access to his LTMs (though not his procedural LTM), but could still create new memories by transferring STMs to LTM.

3. The serial position effect (Murdock, 1962) supports the MSM’s idea of there being separate STM and LTM stores. Words at the beginning and end of a list are recalled better than those in the middle. Words at the beginning of the list, the primacy effect, are recalled because they’ve been rehearsed and transferred to LTM, while words from the end of the list, the recency effect, are recalled as they’re still in STM.

Question 4

What are 3 disadvantages of the MSM?

Answer 4

1. The main criticism of the MSM is that it is over-simplified, as it assumes there are single STM and LTM stores. Research indicates several types of STM, like one for verbal and one for non-verbal sounds (see Working memory model, page 63), and different types of LTM, like procedural, episodic and semantic memories (see Types of LTM, page 69).
2. Cohen (1990) believes memory capacity cannot be measured purely in terms of the amount of information, but rather by the nature of the information to be recalled. Some things are easier to recall, regardless of the amount to be learned, and the MSM doesn’t consider this.
3. MSM describes memory in terms of structure, namely the three memory stores and the processes of attention and verbal rehearsal. However, MSM focuses too much on structure and not enough on processes.