Multi-store model

Who made the MSM? AO1

Atkinson & Shiffrin

MSM AO1

• Proposed that memory wasn’t a single store but contained 3 stores: SR, STM & LTM

• Also proposed that each store has its own capacity, duration & coding characteristics

• 1. Information is detected by sense organs & enters the sensory memory which has several sensory stores eg echoic & iconic

• If this info is attended to, it’s transferred to the STM

• 2. Info is then transferred from the STM to the LTM only if it’s rehearsed, allowing for retrieval

• 3. If maintenance rehearsal doesn’t occur, then info is forgotten & lost from STM through the processes of displacement or decay

MSM strengths AO3

• P - lots of research to support the fact that memory isn’t a singular entity & at least 3 separate memory stores exist, supporting the MSM’s premise

• E - cognitive psychology studies have demonstrated significant differences between SM, STM & LTM. For example, Peterson & Peterson found that the SM has a duration of 18-30 seconds, where as Bahrick found the LTM can retain memory for decades & may be unlimited aswell as that the STM encodes acoustically where as the LTM encodes semantically Similarly, Miller found the STM has a capacity of 7±2 where as the LTM has an unlimited capacity.

• T - these coding, capacity & duration differences strongly supports the MSM’s claim that memory is divided into distinct stores which all have their own characteristics. Reinforces idea that memory processes occur in specialised, separate systems

  HOWEVER studies like Miller & Peterson & Peterson lack mundane realism as memorising triagrams or digits doesn’t reflect the complexities of real life memory, potentially questioning the studies internal & ecological validity & therefore the MSM’s

• P - case study support

• E - Clive Wearing suffered from amnesia & could use his STM to remember things for about 20 seconds but then he would forget everything - he couldn’t form new episodic LTMs

• T - this supports the MSM because it shows that he was unable to rehearse info from the STM to LTM, supporting the MSM’s distinction between these stores as well as supporting the process of maintenance rehearsal

• HOWEVER he could still play the piano, showing his procedural memory was still in tact, suggesting that the LTM isn’t a unitary store as the MSM claims & there must be more than one type of LTM. Therefore the MSM could be oversimplified & WMM may be a more comprehensive explanation

MSM limitations AO3

• P - case study research from Shallice & Warrington contradicts the MSM’s claim that the STM is one single store

• E - Patient KF suffered from amnesia after a motorcycle accident & suffered impairment of verbal info. However his memory for visual memory was largely unaffected

• T - this suggests that there must be at least a store for visual info & another for verbal in the STM, contradicting the idea that the STM is a unitary store, therefore reducing the MSM’s internal validity. This research supports the WMM’s proposal of the STM having several components like the phonological loop & visuospatial sketchpad, suggesting that the WMM may be a more accurate model than the MSM

• HOWEVER patient KF was a case study on a singular person, perhaps suggesting the findings lack generalisability to the wider population, therefore questioning the internal validity of findings