Multi Store Model

Multi Store Model

Who made it and what does it describe?

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968, 1971):

• How information flows through the memory system

• suggests memory is made up of three stores linked by processing

Multi Store Model

What is missing?

Stimulus from the environment

Multi Store Model

What is missing? (+capacity, duration, coding)

sensory register

Capacity:

• Theoretically unlimited - environmental stimuli enters memory via SR

  • If pay attention → moves to STM

  • If not, filtered out by the bottleneck filter

Duration:

• <1 sec

Coding:

• Iconic - visual sensory memory

• Echoic - auditory sensory memory

Multi Store Model

what is missing?

iconic

Multi Store Model

What is missing?

Echoic

Multi Store Model

What is missing?

other sensory stores

Multi Store Model

What is missing (+capacity, duration, coding)?

STM

• Coding: acoustically (Baddeley (1966))

• Capacity: limited (Miller (1956): 7+/- 2)

• Duration: 18-30 secs unless rehearsed (Petersen et al (1959) - increasing retention intervals decreased accuracy of recall of consonant syllables in 24 Ps when counting down from a 3 digit number (preventing mental rehearsal))

Multi Store Model

What is missing?

response (remembering)

Multi Store Model

what is missing, and what is it?

retrieval

needed for remembering, when info is transferred back into the STM + will continue to pass through the maintenance loop after

Multi Store Model

What is missing?

prolonged rehearsal

Multi Store Model

What is missing, and what is it?

maintenance rehearsal (rehearsal loop)

when we repeat new info to ourselves, allowing it to be kept in STM: prolonged maintenance rehearsal → LTM, lack of maintenance rehearsal → forgetting

Multi Store Model

what is missing? (+capacity, duration, coding)

long term memory store (LTM)

• Coded: semantically (Baddeley (1966)

• Capacity: potentially infinite

• Duration: at least 46 yrs (Bahrick et al (1975) photo recognition of graduating classmates of Ps → 90% to 70% b/w 15 to 46 years of graduating)

Multi Store Model

Evaluation: supporting evidence for STM + LTM = distinct stores + ISSUE w/ STM’s presentation

case study = KF’s STM = impaired following a motorcycle accident, but his LTM remained intact → suggests that they are stored differently + separately BUT MSM incorrectly represents STM as a single, unitary store → KF had poor STM recall for auditory stimuli, but increasingly accurate recall for visual stimuli suggests there may be multiple types of STM

Multi Store Model

Evaluation: oversimplifies LTM

MSM sees LTM as a single unitary store BUT Tuvling et al: types of LTM = procedural, semantic + episodic. ALSO doesn’t represent how types of LTM are retrieved - some unconsciously (eg: procedural) whilst others must be consciously (eg: semantic) → not reflected in the universal process of info being consciously transferred to STM during retrieval

Multi Store Model

Evaluation: contradicting evidence

MSM suggests amount of maintenance rehearsal determines the likelihood info = pass into the LTM BUT Craik and Watkins (1973) TYPE of rehearsal = more important (elaborative, instead of prolonged rehearsal, is needed to transfer info from the STM into the LTM, by making links with existing knowledge)

Multi Store Model

Evaluation: alternative

WMM → theorises STM is not a unitary store, but made up of different stores (phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer) → suggests that MSM = too simplistic a model of memory as STM is unlikely to be a unitary store

Multi Store Model

Evaluation: support for LTM and STM being distinct (coding)

Baddeley (1966) → list of ten words - one at a time → had to write down as many as they could remember in 30s: 1) acoustically similar, 2) semantically similar: 2 = higher recall, difficulty remembering acoustically similar words STM, not in LTM, + vice versa for semantically similar words → supports coding + the idea that LTM + STM are coded differently