Multi - store model of memory

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) - how memory system processes information

What are the three stores to the MSM

• sensory register

• STM

• LTM

Features of the Sensory memory store

• Duration - seconds

• capacity - unlimited

• coding - modality specific (depends on the sense)

Features of the Short term memory store

• Duration - approximately 18 seoncs

• Capacity - limited (7 +-2)

• Encoding - acoustically

Features of the Long Term Memory Store

• Duration - unlimited

• capacity - unlimited

• encoding - semantically

Describe the process of MSM

• Information enters from environment which is stored in sensory memory for a few seconds

• if paying attention info will pass on to the STM store

• most info not remembered decays or is displaced by new information

• info in STM kept through maintenance rehearsal and transferred to LTM through elaborative rehearsal (adding meaning)

• retrieve info from LTM to STM through retrieval

EVALUATION INTO MSM

• BRAIN SCANNING RESEARCH - hippocampus active when doing LTM and prefrontal cortex active when doing STM

  back up theory of distinct stores for LTM and STM

• Research into the different features of STM and LTM - artificial study so undermines the validity of research

CASE STUDIES THAT SUPPORT THE MEMORY STORE MODEL

• HM - had epilepsy and removed hippocampus, STM was unaffected but cannot lay down new LTM memories - distinct areas

CASE STUDY THAT UNDERMINES THE MSM

• States that STM is a unitary store (only - one type of STM)

  • KF - motorcycle accident, (suffered amnesia) - STM memory impairment - visual intact but acoustic memory damaged (verbal)

  • Shows that structure of memory is more complex