Multi-Store Model Flashcards
(19 cards)
what is the sensory register
Sensory register: The first store which holds the sensory information received through all the senses for a brief period of time. Examples include iconic (visual) and echoic (sound) memory.
what is short-term memory
Short-term memory: The memory for immediate events. These memories tend not to last for more than a minute or two, usually shorter, and disappear unless they are rehearsed. Capacity is limited to 7 plus or
minus 2 individual items.
what is long-term memory
Long-term memory: The memory for past events that can last for the life-time of a person. Its capacity is most probably unlimited
describe the multi-store model and who is it by
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
sensory memory goes to short term memory if attention is paid but if not then it decays
from the sensory
what are the 6 key features of the MSM
1) Information flows through a number of storage systems in a linear fashion (in a line)
2) There are three main storage systems which are unitary (each a single unit)
3) Each store differs in terms of:
i) Coding – the form in which the information is stored
ii) Capacity – how much information can be stored
iii) Duration – how long information can be stored for
4) Information can remain in short-term memory by maintenance rehearsal, and prolonged rehearsal (sometimes called elaborative rehearsal) will create a long term memory.
5) The more information is rehearsed, the better it is remembered
6) Information can be lost from each store, but in different ways
AO1 multi-store model
- Atkinson and Shiffrin developed the MSM. It makes a distinction between the separate stores of sensory, short term and long-term memory. It sees short term memory and long-term memory as unitary stores in which information is passes between in a linear way.
- Environmental stimuli enters the sensory register through our senses (e.g. iconic and echoic). The SR can hold an unlimited amount of information, but only for ½ a second, unless attention is paid.
- If attention is paid, the information will enter the STM. STM has a limited capacity of 7 +/- 2 chunks as found by Miller through the ‘digit-span-technique’. Peterson and Peterson found a limited duration of 18 seconds, by testing how well participants could remember a nonsense-trigram when counting backwards to prevent maintenance rehearsal. STM encodes acoustically as found by Baddeley when people found it harder to remember words that sound the same.
- Through maintenance or elaborative rehearsal, information can be taken from the STM to the LTM, which has an unlimited capacity. Bahrick found that after years, people are still able to remember names of classmates, suggesting an unlimited duration of the LTM. It encodes semantically as Baddeley found people had trouble remembering words that had similar meanings.
- If we want to talk about something in our LTM, it must be retrieved from our LTM to our STM, where it can then be recalled.
AO3 (1) multi-store model
- The MSM is strengthened by the fact that there is useful case study evidence that supports the model
- For example, HM underwent brain surgery to relieve his epilepsy however the hippocampus was removed from both sides of his brain. When his memory was assessed in 1955, he thought the year was 1953 and that he was 27 years old when he was in fact 31 years old. He has very little recollection of the operation and he could not remember speaking with someone just an hour earlier. His LTM was tested over and over again but never improved with practice but despite all this he performed well on tests of immediate memory span, a measure of STM
- The fact that HM had no memory for events that happened just hours or even minutes earlier but his almost-normal digit span showed that he could recall information that was presented to him immediately, shows that it is possible to suffer damage to one of these stores whilst still maintaining the other one. This case is important as it supports the central feature of the model, that there must be two separate and independent memory stores: short term memory and long term memory that operate independently of each other
- Using idiographic research may be criticized due to the focus of the research only being on one person, however it is known that many people with amnesia show a similar pattern of memory – one store is damaged, the other is OK. Clinical psychologists call this difference in performance a dissociation.
- Overall, the in-depth study of HM provides contextual, in depth knowledge about the interaction between the memory stores and provides us with a real world example of memory stores
AO3 (2) multi-store model
- A weakness of the MSM is evidence of more than one STM store
- For example, Tim Shallice and Elizabeth Warrington studied a client they referred to as KF who had amnesia. For KF’s STM, when digits came through auditory information he was very poor at recalling them whereas digits that came through visibly he was good at recalling them
- This is a weakness because it shows that there has to be more than one store for STM in the MSM as it is unlikely for singular store to be able to process one type of information, iconic, but not be able to process a different type of information, echoic.
- Case studies are useful in this context because they have a real world application as their experiences and their cases can’t be fabricated to support the idea.
- However, a limitation is that findings from case studies cannot be proved as they are based on individuals with brain damage. This is a problem because it may well be that their brain damage causes other difficulties such as paying attention therefore they may do not do well in memory tasks when being tested. Another problem is case studies cannot be replicated as this would be unethical, therefore it is difficult to test the validity of the results to investigate if there really are different types of LTM.
- Despite this, evidence suggests that MSM is wrong in claiming that there is just one type of STM store processing different types of information e.g. auditory, visual etc. .
- Thus decreasing the validity of supporting evidence for the MSM
AO3 (3) multi-store model
- A weakness of MSM is that prolonged rehearsal is not needed for transfer to LTM
- According to MSM, the more you rehearse something, the more likely it is to transfer to LTM. But researchers found that the type of rehearsal is more important than the amount. Elaborative knowledge is needed for long-term storage. This occurs when you link the information to your existing knowledge, or you think about what it means
- This is a weakness as it means that information can be transferred to LTM without prolonged rehearsal but the multi-store model only mentions prolonged rehearsal for information to transfer to your long term memory to your short-term memory, showing that the model is limited
- However, it can be argued that memory can still transferred to your long term memory with just prolonged rehearsal just like in the model, showing that although it may be lacking information it is still useful to explain memory transfer through out all the stores (sensory register, STM, LTM)
- Despite this, MSM does not fully explain how long-term storage is achieved
- Thus reducing the validity of the MSM for memory
explain the ao3s for the multi-store model
strength - case study evidence (HM) hippocampus removed thought in 1955 thought it was 1953 was 31 year old but thought he was 27, couldn’t remember speaking with someone just an hour earlier shows that there’s two separate stores that operate completely independently of each other, however idiographic research, overall provides real world example of memory stores
weakness - more than one STM store, KF case study done by Warrington and Shallice (had amnesia, for his STM poor at recalling digits that came through auditory info but good at visible ones), weakness because shows there has to be more than one store for STM in MSM and one store cant process one type, iconic and not a different one, echoic, case studies are useful cuz they have a real world application as they cant be fabricated to support the idea, however cannot be proved as they are based on individuals with brain damage (brain damage could’ve caused difficulties in paying attention = poor memory test)/cannot be replicated cuz it would be unethical = difficult to test, despite this evidence suggests MSM is wrong to claim one type of STM store processing different types of info e.g. auditory, visual etc
weakness - prolonged rehearsal not needed to transfer to LTM, type of rehearsal is important according to researchers not how much its rehearsed, you need to link the info to existing knowledge = elaborative knowledge for LTM storage meaning info can go to LTM without prolonged rehearsal which is the only way to according to MSM, showing its limited, however prolonged rehearsal does work so still valid so even tho lacking info still useful, despite this MSM does not fully explain LT storage
what are the five types of information/senses processed into the sensory register
iconic - visual
echoic - hearing
olfactory - smell
tactile - touch
gustatory - taste
describe multi store model
info go into sensory memory through sense
if attention paid goes to stm
if attention not paid then it decays
in STM to keep something there its maintenance rehearsal
if attention not paid then displacement decay
to put stm into ltm we use prolonged rehearsal
to put ltm into stm to use it we use retrieval
info in ltm can be lost in different ways like interference or decay or retrieval failure
strengths of MSM
supporting evidence
limitations of MSM
fails to explain why info can travel to LTM without rehearsal
the STM and LTM should not be considered a unitary store
what did sperling do?
1960
capacity and duration for SR
what did Baddley do
Coding for STM & LTM
STM - immediately after hearing
gave participants acoustically similar and dissimilar words and semantically similar and dissimilar words
acoustically similar poor - 10%
acoustically dissimilar best - 60-80%
acoustically dissimilar words recalled more accurately meaning STM not getting confused based on words suggesting STM relies on acoustic coding
LTM - recall order after 20 mins
gave participants acoustically similar and dissimilar words and semantically similar and dissimilar words
semantically similar worst - 55%
other lists better - 70-85%
semantically dissimilar recalled the worst than semantically similar suggesting coding is semantic
what did Jacobs do
1887
capacity of STM
found participants recalled more digits than letters
avrg span for digits = 9.3
avrg span for letters = 7.3
7 +/- 2
we remember info in small chunks like phone numbers
what did peterson and peterson do
1959
duration of STM
trigram
recall each trigram after a delay of seconds, with inference task it got harder
the longer the time delay the more forgetting occurred and after 3 seconds 90% of the trigrams were recalled but after 18 seconds only 5%
so lasts for a little longer than 18
what did Bahrick et al do
1975
duration of LTM
sample of american ex-high school students aged 17-74 were asked to recognise classmates when shown names and faces
90% accuracy in face and name recognition even with those who left after 34 years
after 48 years 80% for name and 40% for face
free recall less accurate 60% after 15 years and 30% after 48 years
