Cognitive Psychology: The Multi-Store Model of Memory

Flashcards covering key concepts of the Multi-Store Model of Memory from lecture notes.

What is a model of memory?

A representation of memory that helps us understand how it works.

According to the Multi-Store Model, what are the three ways memory stores differ?

Capacity, duration, and coding.

What are the three memory stores in the Multi-Store Model?

Sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

What are the features of sensory memory in terms of coding, capacity, and duration?

Encoding is related to the sense (visual, auditory, etc.), has high capacity and lasts up to 0.5 seconds.

What are the features of short-term memory in terms of coding, capacity, and duration?

Acoustic (sounds), 7 items or chunks of information (5-9), and less than 30 seconds unless rehearsed.

What are the features of long-term memory in terms of coding, capacity, and duration?

Semantic (meaning), potentially unlimited, and potentially up to a lifetime.

What did Baddeley's (1966a,b) research on encoding determine?

Coding in STM is acoustic, and in LTM it is semantic.

What did Bahrick's (1975) study reveal about long-term memory?

Participants could still recognize names and faces almost 50 years later.

What did the case study of Henry Molaison (HM) reveal about memory?

The loss of both hippocampi meant he could not learn new things.

What memory impairments does Clive Wearing suffer from?

He cannot create new memories or recall many past memories, lasting only between 7 and 30 seconds.

What is a strength regarding the credibility of the Multi-Store Model?

Many studies are empirical and can be falsified using scientific evidence, with controlled variables and objective data.

What is a weakness regarding the credibility of the Multi-Store Model?

Artificial stimuli are often used, and experiments are done in labs, lowering external validity.

What did the case study of KF (1970) reveal about short-term memory?

His short-term memory could deal well with new visual information but not with new verbal information, showing separate STM components.

What is a criticism of the Multi-Store Model regarding rehearsal?

It over-emphasises the role of rehearsal, while Levels of Processing theory suggests meaningful information is remembered without rehearsal.

What is an application of the Multi-Store Model of memory?

It can be applied to eyewitness testimony and education to improve methods and learning strategies.

What is the serial position effect?

People are more likely to remember words at the beginning and end of a list.

What does the serial position effect suggest about memory stores?

Suggests the STM and LTM memory stores are distinct.

What is a limitation of the MSM model?

The model is passive, describing processing as linear and an oversimplification.

What did the Working Memory Model (Baddeley and Hitch 1974) demonstrate?

Showed the STM is more than just one simple unitary store and comprises of different components.

What were the findings of the patient HM case study?

He could remember parts of his childhood but could not remember events occurring just before his surgery and Could not process new short term memories into in long-term memories after the brain surgery.