The Multi Store Model Of Memory

Question 1

Who created the multi store model

Answer 1

Created by Atkinson and shiffrin

Question 2

What are the stores of the multi store model

Answer 2

Sensory register
Short term memory
Long term memory

Question 3

What is meant by the term coding

Answer 3

The different information types or formats the brain uses to store memory is called coding

Question 4

What is meant by the term capacity

Answer 4

Capacity is how much information can be held by a store

Question 5

What is meant by the term, duration

Answer 5

How long information can be held in that store before loss

Question 6

Describe the function of the sensory register

Answer 6

This store is not under cognitive control like STM or LTM, sensory information coming from the senses is detected and recorded automatically, all information in the short term and long term memory stores are initially gathered by the sensory register, from sensory information such as sight, taste, sound, smell or touch. Information is then passed onto the STM store by paying attention to sensory information

Question 7

How is the sensory register coded

Answer 7

The store depends on the sense organ that information comes from. Ionic - vision
Echoic- sound
Haptic- touch
Gustatory- taste
Olfactory- smell
Or we can just say the coding is modality specific

Question 8

What is the capacity of the sensory register

Answer 8

Very large, has to contain all the sense impressions for all the senses in the moment. However only what is payed attention to is passed. Onto the STM (potentially unlimited)

Question 9

What is the duration of the sensory register store

Answer 9

Very short, as low as 250 milliseconds. As so much information is held, (1/4) it cannot be retained for very long. However each store has a different duration.

Question 10

What happens to information that isn’t payed attention to in the sensory register

Answer 10

Information is lost

Question 11

How is the short term memory store coded

Answer 11

Information in the short term memory store is stored acoustically (in the form of sound/ spoken words)

Question 12

What is the capacity of the short term memory store

Answer 12

Miller suggested this is small, approximately 7 items plus or mins 2 items (5-9) and this can be improved by chunking, making small sets/ groups of items. This reduces the number of items overall.

Question 13

What is the duration of short term memory

Answer 13

Short, 18-20 seconds. However duration of information can be extended by verbal rehearsal

Question 14

How does the short term memory store transfer information to the long term memory store

Answer 14

STM passes information to LTM through maintenance rehearsal. Information is passed back from the long term memory store with retrieval, and information can be lost via displacement or decay.

Question 15

What capacity and duration does the long term memory store have

Answer 15

Unlimited capacity and duriation

Question 16

How is the long term memory store coded

Answer 16

Coded semantically, this is in the form of meaning.

Question 17

What supporting evidence for the multi store model was there from case studies

Answer 17

The case study of henry molaison- he had severe epileptic seizures- this was cured through operations involving to removal of his hippocampus. This left him with a memory imparment. He could make short term memories however he couldn’t make long term memories. This supported the claim that the short term and long term memory stores were separate, which was suggested by atkinson and shiffrins multi store model.

However, as this is a case study we have difficulty generalising findings from it to other settings, meaning it may not represent the full population.

Question 18

What supporting evidence was there for the multi store model from brain scanning

Answer 18

Brain scanning has demonstrated that there are two separate stores. For example, Beardsley in 1997 found that the prefrontal cortex was active during short term memory stimulation but not long term memory. And squire et al found that the hippocampus is active during long term memory stimulation but not short term memory.

Squires research can also be supported by the case study of HM because the removal of the hippocampus caused him to be unable to make new long term memories.

Question 19

What supporting research was there provided by glanzer and cunitz in 1966

Answer 19

They asked participants to listen to a list of words and then they were asked to recall them in order. However, in one condition the participants had an interference task between listening and then recalling. Both groups easily recalled words at the beginning of the list as the early words were stored in the LTM (primary) . And the words at the end of the list were recalled well. Because they were stored in the STM. (Recency) The words in the middle found to be the hardest to recall. this showed the primary and recency effect that proved that there were two separate processes

Question 20

What evidence was there against the multi store model from case studies

Answer 20

Patient KF -in 1970 KF suffered brain damage from a motor cycle accident, his long term memory was normal, but his short term memory was not. He experienced difficulty with verbal information, but not visual. This showed that the multi store model was too simple as it showed there was more than just unitary memory stores. As well as this, the MSM suggests that if there is damage to the stm there should also be damage to the LTM store. But there isn’t.

Question 21

How can studies on the first spread can be applied in supporting evidence of the multi store model

Answer 21

Controlled lab studies on capacity, duration and coding support the existence of separate short and long term memory stores.

Question 22

What supporting research for the multi store model is there from Bahrick et al

Answer 22

Bahricks aim was to investigate the duration of long term memory

He used a sample of 392 American ex- high school student aged between 17 and 74. The time since leaving high school was up to 48 years. The participants were tested in four ways: free recall of the names of as many of their ex classmates as possible
- a photo recognition test- they were asked to identify their former classmates from the photos
- a name recognition test and a name and photo matching test. The findings were that in the recall group, there was 60 precent accuracy after 7 years and 20 percent accuracy after 47 years.
In the recognising group after 47 years, there was 60 precent accuracy. This showed that the duration of long term memory is potentially unlimited