Multi Store Model

details of sensory register, short term and long term memory and research into them, pros and cons f MSM

Multi Store Model

cognitive computer model of memory developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin, shows memory as a passive process and consists of 3 distinct stores

Sensory Register

coding: iconic and echoic

capacity: unlimited

duration: 0.05 sec

Moving Info from Sensory Register to Short Term Memory

attention

Short Term Memory

coding: acoustic

capacity: 5-9 items

duration: 18-30 seconds

maintenance rehearsal keeps information in the STM

Moving Information from STM to LTM

transfer (elobarative rehearsal added on later)

to get info from LTM to STM retrieval is used

Long Term Memory

coding: semantic

capacity: unlimited

duration: lifelong

Details of Miller’s research 1956

• investigated capacity of STM

• made observations in everyday life

• most things come in a set of 7 (days of the week, deadly sins etc)

• therefore capacity must be around 7 items

• also made observations on chunking (people could remeber 5 words as easily as they could remeber 5 letters)

Detals of Jacobs’ research 1887

• investigated capacity of STM

• carried out the digit span test

• researcher gives e.g 4 digits and then participant asked to recall in correct order

• then goes up to 5 etc until participant can’t recall right order

• mean span for digits 9.3 items, mean span for letters 7.3

Details of Baddeley’s research 1966

• investigated coding of STM and LTM

• gave diferent lists of words for participants to rmeber

• acoustically similair, accoustically dissimilar, semantically simlar, semantically dissimilar

• immediate recall did worse with acoustically similair words

• delayed recall (20 minutes) did worse with semantically similar words

• STM codes acoustically, LTM codes semantically

Peterson & Peterson research 1956

• investigated duration of STM

• tested 24 undergraduate student who each took part in 8 trials

• each given a consonant trigram to remember (YCG, BDT whatevs) and a three digit number to count back from to prevent rehearsal

• on each trial they were told to stop after different amount of time (retention interval)

• results showed STM has short duration of 18-30 seconds

Details of Harry Bahrick 1975 research

• investigated duration of LTM

• 392 participants from Ohio, USA aged 17-74

• they were either shown photos are asked to recall the names of their classmates

• within 15 years of graduation 90% - 60% accurate

• 48 years 70%-30% accurate

• LTM duration very long

Pros of MSM model

• supported by research

• pioneering model to be later expanded by further research

• case studies

  • HM, damaged LTM but intact STM shows they are separate stores

• credibility on a common sense level (face validity)

Cons of MSM model

• later research proves that STM and LTM aren’t unitary stores

• it’s not how much rehearsal you do that matters, but the type

• supporting research mostly uses artificial materials nad has little external validity so can’t easily be generalised

• only assumed that LTM has unlimited capacity

• over-simplified, sees memory as a linear process with unitary stores, may not be accurate