Descirbe and Evaluate the Multi-Store Model 

The Multi-store model first starts of with sensory memory. Sensory memory is when a stimulus from the environment around us, such as the sound of a persons name, will pass into the sensory memory along with other stimuli such as tastes, feelings and sights. This part of the memory is not one store, but several, there is one store for each of the 5 senses. The 2 main stores are called ‘iconic memory’ (visual information which is coded visually) and echoic memory (sound or orditory information is coded acoustically). Material in sensory memory only has a duration of upto half a second. Sensory memory has a very high capacity though, with 100 million cells in each eye, all storing data. Very little of what passes into the sensory memory passes any further into the memory system unless attention is paid to it. Information in sensory memory is lost through decay.

\ Short Term Memory (STM) has a limited capacity store because it can only contain a certain amount of pieces of information before forgetting takes place. The capacity of the STM is roughly 5-9 pieces of information. Information in the STM is coded acoustically and the duration lasts for 18-30 seconds unless the information is rehearsed. Maintenence rehearsal occurs when we repeat to ourselves over and over again and we can keep information in the STM as long as it is rehearsed. Information in STM is lost through decay or displacement.

\ Long Term Memory (LTM) is the potentially permanent memory store. For information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged period of time, the rehearsal then passes information from the STM to the LTM. Psychologists believe that its capacity is unlimited and that the duration lasts for many years. The coding of the LTM is mainly semantic (it is coded by meaning). An example of the LTM’s duration is Bahrick in 1975 who had found that many of their participants were able to recognise the names and faces of their school classmates almost 50 years after graduating. We also see that LTM is coded semantically, in terms of meaning. Although this material is stored in the LTM, when we want to recall it, it has to be transferred to the STM by a process called retrieval. According to the Multi-Store Model, this is true of all memories. None of them are directly recalled from the LTM. Information in the LTM is lost (forgotten) through decay, retrieval failure and interference.

\ An advantage of the Multi-Store Model is that there is research support for it. Ibe piece of research is HM by Milner in 1965. During this time, memory was though to be monolithic and all of it just being stored through out the brain. HM had his hippocampus removed (which was vital in forming long term memories). However, after some research, it was found that although HM had lost his ability to form long term memories, he could still retain information long enough to recall things like numbers and recalling them when he repeated them to himself over and over again (maintenence rehearsal). This therefore proves that there is a distinction between long term and short term memory, but that there is also evidence for rehearsal in helping information be stored.

\ A disadvantage of the Multi-Store Model is that it is too simplistic in the sense that there is more than one type of rehearsal. Accordinv to the MSM, what matters in rehearsal is the amount that you do. So the more and more time you repeat a piece of information to yourself, the higher the chance that this information will be stored in the LTM. However, Watkins had discovered that there is another type of rehearsal. Elaborative rehearsal is when you pair a piece of information to yout existing knowledge or think about what it means. This is a limitation because MSM cannot explain it.

\ Another limitation of the MSM iis that it uses artificial stimuli. In normal life, we form memories related to useful things such as peoples names and faces. But research that backs up the MSM uses artificial stimuli such as digits and letters. This is a limitation because these things are arbitrary and do not reflect what people form memories of in their everyday life. \n