The Multi-store model of memory

Multi-store model

A representation of how memory works in terms of 3 stores.

• Sensory register

• Short term memory

• Long term memory

Also describes how information is transferred from one store to another, what makes some memories last and others disappear.

Sensory register

The memory stores for each of our 5 senses like vision (iconic) and hearing (echoic).

Coding in the iconic sensory register is visual and in the echoic sensory register is acoustic. The capacity of SRs is huge. Information lasts for around 0.05 seconds for iconic but up to 3 seconds for echoic memory

Atkinson and Shiffrin

Made the multi-store model.

Describes how information flows through the memory system

Suggests memory is made of 3 stores (boxes) linked by processing (arrows)

Pathway of information to long-term memory

Environmental input and senses receive it. Gets put in the sensory registers

Passes onto STM when attention paid to information.

Held in STM if information is rehearsed.

Transfer to LTM when rehearsed elaboratively.

Goes back into STM through retrieval.

Information can leave STM or LTM through forgetting it

STM in the multi-store model

Mainly encoded acoustically and lasts about 18 seconds unless rehearsed. Temporary store.

Limited capacity as it can hold a certain number of things before you forget it. 5-9 items

Maintenance rehearsal

We repeat materials to ourselves over and over again. We keep the information in STM if we rehearse it.

Passes into LTM if we rehearse it long enough

LTM in multi-store model

Permanent memory store for info that has been rehearsed.

Encoded semantically. Duration up to a lifetime.

Retrieval

Transfer from LTM to STM

Murdock 1962

Gave participants 20 words to remember. Each word flashed up for a second before next word was shown.

Write as many as they can after the last word

Highest % recall at the start and end

U-shaped graph

Primacy effect

First words heard so they can be rehearsed so we can recall them from our LTM

Recency effect

Most recently heard words so we can recall them as they are still in our STM

S Squire

Identified the separate stores.

Prefrontal cortex was active when doing STM tasks.

Hippocampus was active when doing LTM tasks.

W Ranganath + Blumenfield

Hippocampus was used in STM tasks for new or complex information.

Suggested that separating STM and LTM is weak.

W Craik + Watkins

Rehearsal type is better than the amount.

Information can go into LTM without maintenance rehearsal.

Doesn’t explain how to get information into Long term storage

W Tulving

Proposed that LTM could be subdivided into different types of LTM.

Semantic and Episodic - Knowledge about the world and memories for events in your life.

Cognitive psychology focuses on different types of memory and ignores the MSM