The Multi-Store Model Of Memory Flashcards
Who developed the MSM
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
What does the MSM attempt to explain
How information flows from one memory store to another
What are the 3 structures in the memory system
The sensory register
The short term memory
The long term memory
-> each store differs in terms of capacity, duration, coding & how info is lost from them
AO1 Sensory Register
Environmental stimuli received through the senses enters the SR, which is a short duration store retaining unprocessed impressions of information received through the senses.
-> It has a separate sensory store for each sensory input. E.g. iconic store for visual, echoic store for auditory
Some of the information received by the SR is attended to and selected for further processing in STM. If not attended to, sensory information is lost due to decay.
AO1 STM
If information in the SR is attended to:
-> acoustically coded into STM.
STM is a temp store for info received from the SR before it is transferred to LTM & info may be recalled at this point and then forgotten before it is transferred to LTM.
-> without rehearsal, information will decay very quickly
-info can be kept in STM using maintenance rehearsal (a rehearsal loop)
If there is sufficient rehearsal, or elaborative rehearsal, then the information may be transferred to LTM for more permanent storage.
What is maintenance rehearsal
repeatedly verbalising or thinking about the information
What is elaborative rehearsal
When information is organised in a meaningful way
AO1 LTM
Information is semantically coded into the LTM if sufficiently rehearsed in STM
-> the LTM is a permanent store holding vast amounts of information for long periods of time, with a infinite capacity, and a duration which could potentially be a lifetime.
- When info in LTM is needed, retrieved by STM + then recalled.
-> Sometimes we can’t access information from LTM (retrieval failure) so we need retrieval cues
Cons of MSM
- Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
- Over simplified
How is the MSM over simplified?
-> it assumes that there is only one type of STM, and one type of LTM, while research studies indicate that there are several types of STM (e.g. phonological loop for verbal information, visuo-spatial sketchpad for non-verbal), and that there are types of LTM too (e.g. episodic, semantic & procedural memory).
What are the 3 types of LTM for
- semantic: for knowledge and facts
- procedural: for motor skills
- episodic memory: for life events
What did Baddeley and Hitch (1974) claim
That the MSM could not explain the ability to multi-task; if there was only one time of STM, people wouldn’t be able to multi-task, but we are able to e.g. listen to the radio whilst driving etc
What supports the MSM (AO3 Pros)
- Scoville (1957 HM epilepsy treatment
- Murdock (1962) lab experiment
What was the Scoville (1957) HM case study
- Scoville attempted to treat a patient he referred to as HM’s epilepsy by removing several brain areas, including his hippocampus, which resulted in HM being unable to code new long term memories.
However, his STM was unaffected, supporting the idea that there are separate and distinct STM & LTM.
What did Murdock (1962) do that supports the MSM [free recall experiment]
-> presented participants with a long list of words to be recalled in any order
} words at the beginning and end were recalled better than those in the middle (serial position effect)
-> primacy effect: Words at the beginning recalled because they’ve been rehearsed and transferred to the LTM
-> recency effect: Words at the end are recalled because they’re still in the STM
This supports the idea of separate and distinct STM & LTM
