Multi-Store Model of Memory

Question 1

What are the three stages of memory?

Answer 1

1. Encoding
2. Storage
3. Retrieval

Question 2

What’s capacity?

Answer 2

• the size of the storage space
• determines how much information can be stored there

Question 3

What’s duration?

Answer 3

• how long a store can hold information for

Question 4

What’s coding?

Answer 4

• the format in which information is stored

Question 5

What’s sensory coding?

Answer 5

• two main types of coding are acoustic (sound) and visual (images)
• used to store sensory information

Question 6

What’s semantic coding?

Answer 6

• storing information through its meaning

Question 7

What’s the sensory register?

Answer 7

• the first storage system within the MSM
• a temporary memory store that holds sensory information while we process it
• automatic response

Question 8

Sensory Register Coding

Answer 8

• information stored in raw, unprocessed form
• echoed store for auditory information
• iconic store for visual information
• haptic store for tactile information
• gustatory store for taste information
• olfactory store for smell
• information passes on to STM

Question 9

Sensory Register Capacity

Answer 9

• very large/unlimited

Question 10

Sensory Register Duration

Answer 10

• limited duration
• less than half a second
• evidence that duration decreases with age

Question 11

What’s the Sperling Experiment

Answer 11

• lab experiment
• 4x3 grid of letters
• showed participants grid for 50ms and made them repeat back the letters
• found that they could repeat back 4/5 from the whole grid, and 3 letters from any row without knowing which row in advance
• proved that sensory register has large capacity but short duration

Question 12

What’s short term memory?

Question 13

What’s short-term memory?

Answer 13

• temporarily stores information for an ongoing task, received from the SR
• active memory system

Question 14

STM Coding

Answer 14

• info arrives from SR in raw form
• main form of coding is acoustic

Question 15

STM Capacity

Answer 15

• limited capacity
• 5-9 items
• capacity can be increased by chunking

Question 16

STM Duration

Answer 16

• 18-30 seconds
• can be extended by rehearsal

Question 17

What’s chunking?

Answer 17

• Miller (1956)
• when we group individual letters together into meaningful units
• e.g. flowersuncloud into flower sun cloud

Question 18

What’s long-term memory?

Answer 18

• used to retain information for a long period of time
• info stored for longer than 30 seconds
• several types of LTM

Question 19

LTM Coding

Answer 19

• form in which LTMs are stored
• mainly semantic (by meaning)
• Baddeley (1966)

Question 20

LTM Capacity

Answer 20

• very large/unlimited

Question 21

LTM Duration

Answer 21

• unlimited
• depends on individual’s life span

Question 22

What was Bahrick’s experiment?

Answer 22

• investigated the duration of LTM
• tested 400 participants’ ability to recall names of school classmates 15 years and 48 years later
• showed them a set of photos and a list of names
• tested both their recall and recognition memory

Question 23

What were Bahrick’s results?

Answer 23

• 15 years after leaving school, recall was 60% accurate and recognition was 90% accurate
• 48 years after, recall had dropped to 30% but recognition was still 80%

Question 24

Bahrick Evaluation

Answer 24

STRENGTHS
- information tested is relevant to participants’ own lives
- high ecological validity

WEAKNESSES
- little control over extraneous variables e.g. how much time each participant spent with certain classmates

Question 25

Baddeley (1966)

Answer 25

- participants given lists of words to learn - words were either acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, or semantically dissimilar - had to recall either immediately (STM) or 20 minutes later (LTM)

Question 26

Baddeley (1966) Findings

Answer 26

- when recalling immediately, participants struggled mostly with acoustically similar words - proved that STM uses acoustic coding - when recalling after 20 minutes, participants struggled mostly with semantically similar words - proved that LTM uses semantic coding - strength of MSM

Question 27

MSM Strength - Supported by Case Studies

Answer 27

The Case of HM - hippocampus removed from both sides of his brain during surgery - LTM lost but STM stayed - supports the idea that there are different STM and LTM stores

Question 28

MSM Weakness

Answer 28

- over-simplified - assumes there are single STM and LTM stores - research indicates that there are several types of STM, and several types of LTM (procedural, episodic, semantic)

Question 29

MSM Weakness - Rehearsal

Answer 29

Craig and Watkins (1973) - found that what matters is the type of rehearsal - maintenance rehearsal (STM) - elaborative rehearsal (LTM)

Question 30

MSM Weakness - Artificial

Answer 30

- most of the research studies use digits, letters, etc. - this doesn't represent how we use memory in everyday life

Question 31

MSM Strength - Neuroimaging

Answer 31

- frontal cortex is associated with STM - hippocampus is associated with LTM