Multi-store memory model

MSM model:

Describes how info flows through our memory system

3 features of the MSM

• encoding: format that information is stored in

• Capacity: amount of information that is stored

• Duration: how long information can be stored for

Atkinson’s and Shiffrin’s (1968) MSM:

Sensory store: stimuli from the environment

• Encoding- 5 senses (touch, smell, sight, sound, taste)

• Duration: very high

• Duration ½ a second

Transfer (info to our STM)

Info passed only if attention is paid to it

Short-term: limited capacity store of temporary duration

• encoding- acoustically

• Capacity: 7±2

• Duration: 18-30 seconds

maintenance

Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to ourselves-we can keep material in STM as long as we rehearse it

Transfer (STM to our LTM)

If we rehearse it enough (prolonged rehearsal), STM will move to our LTM

Long-term: permanent memory store

• encoding: semantically

• Capacity: potentially unlimited

• Duration: up to a lifetime

Retrieval

When we want to recall info stored in our LTM, it has to transferred back to STM in process called retrieval

Strengths of the MSM model

• supporting evidence- controlled lab experiments

  • Baddeley’s found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when using our STM (so STM coding it acoustic), and we mix up words that have similar meaning when we use our LTM - supports MSM

    CA- not generalisable- uses a lab experiment where the words have no importance to participants which isn’t a valid model of how memory works

• Case study evidence- Patient HM- HM could remember events and some info before the surgery but couldn’t form new memories (STM could not move to LTM). Adds more weight to the theory that STM and LTM use different structures

Weaknesses of MSM model

• conflicting evidence- KF had amnesia: STM recall for digits were poor when he heard but they we were much better when he read them- MSM claims there’s only one STM but a better model is the WMM, which looks into active areas writhing the STM