Multi-Store Model

Created by Atkinson and

What is the Multi-Store Model of memory?

Atkinson and Shiffrin envisage memory as a flow of information through a processing system of three stores; Sensory memory (SM), Short Term Memory (STM) and Long Term Memory (STM)

Sensory Memory (AO1)

Codes information from the environment and is stored by our senses. It has a duration of less than one second and if we pay attention to the information it gets passed onto the STM.

e.g. If a teacher is giving instructions and we are not paying attention, then the information will not be processed by the echoic store and therefore not passed onto the STM.

Short Term Memory (AO1)

Temporary store that encodes acoustically with a capacity of 5-9 items and a duration of 30s. Information stays in the STM by maintenance rehearsal and is moved into the LTM by elaborative rehearsal. If the information is not rehearsed it will decay or be displaced.

E.g. When learning a dance, if the 5-9 moves are not practiced after 30s they may be forgotten or if you try add a 10th move, a previous move may be displaced.

Long Term Memory (A01)

A store that encodes semantically with unlimited capacity and the duration of up to a lifetime.

e.g. someone in their 80s may remember their 10th birthday due to the meaning associated with it.

Information is forgotten by decay or interference.

e.g. when recalling a 6th birthday, events from your 5th birthday may be remembered instead as they were likely to be similar events

Strength of the Multi-Store Model (AO3)

I: There is supportive evidence from case studies of brain damaged patients that supports the distinction between the STM and LTM.

J: A case study on Clive wearing showed he developed anterograde and retrograde amnesia. He was not able to form new long term memories by elaborative rehearsal or retrieve old memories but he was able to retain information for 20-30s showing he had a short term memory.

E: This demonstrates the existence of seperate STM and LTM stores suggested by the MSM model.

Weakness of the Multi-Store Model (AO3)

I: Its explanation of the STM may be too simplistic

J: Dual task experiments show that we perform poorly at completing tasks of similar nature at the same time (e.g. two verbal tasks) but perform well when the tasks are of different nature (e.g. one visual and one verbal).

E: This dual capacity cannot be explained by the MSM model as the limited capacity of the STM is not defined as information dependent. Therefore the Working-Memory Model may be a better explanation of how memory is stored as it explains dual task performance.