Atkinson and shiffrin ( MSM) 1968

Structure of the MSM

The structure of the MSM consists of three stores, sensory , short term and long term memory

what are the steps for transferring memory to the Long term store

• Memory is input from the sensory store from what we have seen, heard or touched

• Memory is transferred to the STM held for 15-30 seconds due to decay

• Unless memory is rehearsed to retain it for a longer amount of time ,then it transfers to the L

Structure of the MSM

The structure of the MSM consists of three stores, sensory , short term and long term memory

what are the steps for transferring memory to the Long term store

• Memory is input from the sensory store from what we have seen, heard or touched

• Memory is transferred to the STM held for 15-30 seconds due to decay

• Unless memory is rehearsed to retain it for a longer amount of time ,then it transfers to the L

What is the duration of the STM

15-30 seconds

What does duration mean

The amount of time information is held for

What did PETERSON AND PETERSON find out about the STM

• Through a trigram task they tested the STM with an interference task to block rehearsal ( this was counting backwards )

• Participants had to remember the trigram and count backwards in intervals of 3 seconds

• Correct recall was after short intervals but performance decreased after 15 second

• Assuming decay happens in the STM after 15 seconds resulting in poor recall

What is the capacity of the STM

7± 2 items

What is Capacity

How much memory can be stored

Encoding of STM

They believed that memory in the STM is held in verbal/ auditory form, this is due to the phonological similarity effect

• letters that sound similar are more difficult to remember than letters that don’t sound similar (acoustic or semantic)

• The similar sounding words are more confusing to the STM and suggest than encoding is done primarily ACOUSTICALLY

Encoding of LTM

Semantic encoding

Duration of LTM

infinite duration

Capacity of LTM

Infinite

How can LTM be forgetten

By decay or interference

EVALUATION OF MSM

Strength= case study support

• HM had brain surgery to treat his epilepsy this resulted in amnesia , his STM was intact but his LTM was impaired , he was unable to transfer information between the two stores showing the distinction in the MSM

Strength= application

• helps to understand memory processes to help teachers understand ways information is stored to help students remember better , teachers can help break down complex information to help students ability to hold and process information for their memory

Weakness= case study KC

• KC suffered a motorbike accident he was able to recall facts but showed impairment to remember events prior, this shows how the LTM is not just one simple store it is involved with different stores within for factual and autobiographical knowledge

What is the serial position effect

Recall of information at the beginning and end of a list is higher than the middle

How can the MSM be criticised - in terms of BADDLEY AND HITCH

• Baddley an hitch conducted an experiment with dual tasks , showing how we perform with similar task and different tasks simultaneously.

  We

• tend to perform worse with two verbal tasks or two visual tasks , but perform better with one of each, one verbal and one visual , tho scan not be explained by the STM leaving the study to be reductionist not going into further detail of the human memeory