MSM

Who proposed the Multi-store model of memory?

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

How does the MSM describe memory?

A linear proces made up of three separate stores: sensory register, STM, LTM

What is coding?

the format in which information is stored.

What is capacity?

Amount of info that can be held in a memory store

What is duration?

Length of time info can be held in a memory store

Features of the sensory register

Coding: each sense has a store- modality specific

Capacity: very large

Duration: approximately 250 milliseconds

What is the sensory register?

A short duration store that holds information we have gained through the 5 senses. If attention paid, transfers to STM, otherwise lost via decay

Features of the STM

Coding: acoustic- confusion when materials sound same

Capacity: 7 +/- 2 (5-9 items)- can increase capacity by chunking items as reduces no.separate items

Duration: 18-30 seconds- can extend by rehearsal

No rehearsal- info lost via decay (displacement/fades over)

How does the MSM suggest information transfers to LTM?

Prolonged rehearsal. The information can be retrieved from LTM into STM (pulls into current thinking)

Features of the LTM

Coding: semantic

Capacity: unlimited

Duration: potentially forever

Forgetting often caused by interference or retrieval failure

Empirical evidence: Glanzer and Cunitz's serial position findings (1966)

Provides strong support for the MSM through their research on the serial position effect

Found people tend to remember words from the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list better than those in the middle

Suggest early words were rehearsed and stored in the LTM whilst most recent were still in STM

If a distraction was added before recall, recency effect disappeared showing that STM was disrupted due to imites capacity and duration, while LTM remained intact

Supports MSM's claim that STM + LTM are separate and functionally distinct stores

Clinical case studies: HM and Clive Wearing

Support, both had brain damage

Could hold info in STM but couldn't form new LTM due to damage to hippocampus

HM could remember a number for a short time but forgot it when distracted

Shows that STM and LTM operate separately as LTM is impaired while STM functions normally, rehearsal is essential for transferring information between them

Supports the MSM's idea of a linear memory process involving multiple stages

Cannot generalise from a case study

Challenging the simplicity of STM: KF case

Key criticism: STM is treated as a single unified store

Case of KF, studied by Shallice and Warrington (1970) challenges this as in the STM tests, KF had difficulty recalling verbal information but recalled visual material well

Suggests that STM is not one system but made up of different components for different types of information

Supports the WMM wich has seperate systems for verbal and visual processing, highlighting a major limitation in the MSM's explanation of STM