The Multi-Store Model of Memory and Memory Stores

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards reviewing the Atkinson-Shiffrin Multi-Store Model of Memory (sensory register, STM, LTM), supporting experimental and clinical evidence (Glanzer & Cunitz, Patient HM, Korsakoff's syndrome), and key model evaluations.

Multi-Store Model of Memory (Modal Model)

A foundational model of human memory proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968) asserting that memory processing works like a computer and information must pass sequentially through three distinct stages: the sensory register, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Coding

The memory variable defined as the process of changing information from the environment so that it can be stored in memory.

Capacity

The memory variable that measures the total amount of information that can be held within a memory store.

Duration

The memory variable that defines the time period during which information is held in a memory store.

Sensory Register

The initial memory store that constantly receives stimuli from all senses (sights, sounds, smells, and textures); it has a very brief duration (typically $0.5\,\text{seconds}$ or up to a couple of seconds), a large capacity, and coding specific to each sense.

Stroop Effect

A sensory register memory phenomenon discovered by J. R. Stroop in the 1930s, demonstrating that an individual will name a printed colour word more easily and quickly if the ink colour matches the printed word (such as the word 'red' printed in red ink).

Short-Term Memory (STM)

A temporary memory storage system that processes incoming sensory memory, holding information for an estimated duration of $18$ to $30\,\text{seconds}$ (about $20\,\text{seconds}$), with a capacity of $7 \pm 2$ items and primarily acoustic coding.

Miller's Capacity Finding ($7 \pm 2$)

Research by George Miller (1956) demonstrating that the capacity of short-term memory allows most individuals to retain about seven items (ranging from five to nine items), with number recall outperforming letter recall and acoustic coding outperforming visual coding.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

The continuous storage system of the brain functioning like a computer hard drive; it has unlimited duration and unlimited capacity, retaining all memories formed from $2\,\text{minutes}$ ago to years ago, with primarily semantic coding.

Memory Cues (Prompts)

External stimuli or prompts (such as the owner's name or the first word of a restaurant) that facilitate the retrieval of long-term memories that may not be retained strongly.

Serial Position Effect

A memory effect investigated by Glanzer & Cunitz (1966) showing that when recalling a list of common words, participants remember words from the beginning and the end of the list significantly better than words in the middle.

Primacy Effect

The tendency to recall words from the beginning of a list more successfully because early items have undergone rehearsal and transferred into long-term memory.

Recency Effect

The tendency to recall words from the end of a list more successfully because those items are still actively present in short-term memory at the moment of recall.

Patient HM Study (Milner et al., 1966)

A psychometric case study of patient HM who underwent epilepsy surgery that destroyed his hippocampus; his condition confirmed distinct memory stores as he suffered severe anterograde amnesia while retaining working memory and motor skills.

Anterograde Amnesia

A neurological condition resulting from brain injury (such as hippocampal damage) characterized by the inability to form any new episodic or semantic long-term memories, leaving patients trapped in experiences that only last as long as short-term memory.

Procedural Memory

A specific sub-type of long-term memory responsible for motor skills (such as riding a bicycle), which remained intact in Patient HM despite the loss of his ability to make new episodic or semantic memories.

Korsakoff's Syndrome

A brain damage condition occurring in chronic alcoholics that severely impairs long-term memory while leaving short-term memory largely intact, providing clinical evidence that STM and LTM are located in separate brain regions.

Maintenance Rehearsal

The mechanical repetition of information to sustain it in short-term memory or facilitate transfer, identified as the primary rehearsal mechanism within the original Atkinson-Shiffrin Multi-Store Model.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A form of rehearsal that involves actively integrating and connecting new material to existing knowledge, cited as a limitation of the Multi-Store Model which recognized only maintenance rehearsal.

Working Memory Model (WMM)

A model of memory cited as an alternative to the Multi-Store Model, proposing that memory processing is not strictly linear but consists of interactive components within memory stores.