The Multi-Store Model - MSM

• AO1 - The multi store model 

  Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)

  Atkinson & Shiffrin proposed 3 separate memory stores, linked through a series of processes, that vary in terms of their:

  Duration

  • How long the store can hold info for

  Capacity

  • How much the store can hold

  Coding

  • In what form the info is stored
• AO1 - The multi store model 

  Key features

  • 3 different types of memory
  • Model describes these as “memory stores”
  • SM, STM, & LTM
  • Any stimulus you come across has been in one or more of these stores – in this sequence!
  • Each store retains a different amount of info, in a different way, and for a different length of time
• Multi-Store Model

  
• Store 1: The sensory register / sensory memory

  Info enters the system from the environment. For humans, this info takes the form of sensory input. 

  We receive info 

  from our senses every 

  single second of every day. 

  It holds this 

  sensory info for each 

  of our five senses.
• Store 1: The sensory register / sensory memory

  Coding: The sensory register is modality specific. It encodes info based on what that information is i.e. sight is visually encoded, hearing is auditorily encoded etc.

  “ICONIC MEMORY”: 

  visual info from the eyes – things you SEE. Stored as images.

  “ECHOIC MEMORY”: auditory input from the ears – things you HEAR. Stored as sounds.
• Store 1: The sensory register / sensory memory

  Capacity: Very high! There are over 100 million cells in the eyes alone, each taking in stimuli.

  Duration: Very low! Duration is approx. 0.5 secs.

  UNLESS we pay attention to the info
• Store 2: Short term memory

  When we pay attention info, like a buzzing screen or someone else’s conversation in a restaurant, we move it from sensory register into short term memory (STM).

  Store 2: Short term memory

  Coding: Acoustic

  Capacity: Between 5 and 9 items (7 + or - 2: the MAGIC number!)

  Duration: Less than 30 secs without rehearsal 
• Store 2: Short term memory

  Rehearsal 

  If info in STM is rehearsed, can be retained for longer. Consistent rehearsal is shown by the rehearsal loop in the MSM.

  Rehearsal is a key assumption of the MSM

  Needed to transfer information from STM to LTM.  We can rehearse information out loud as a child would do learning times tables by rote (repetition) or we can rehearse sub-vocally, in our heads.
• Store 3: Long term memory

  Rehearsal 

  If information is rehearsed enough, moves into long term memory (LTM) 

  Stored for a potentially indefinite period of time

  Store 3: Long term memory

  Coding: Semantic

  Capacity: Potentially unlimited

  Duration: Up to a lifetime

  When we want to recall information, it has to be transferred back into STM (retrieval). According to the MSM, this is true of all our memories. None of them are recalled directly from LTM
• AO3 - Evaluation

  (-) Too simplistic a model

  The MSM suggests that both LTM and STM are single, unitary stores. However, research doesn’t support that idea.

  The Working memory model suggests that STM is divided into a number of different stores. Research also found there to be different types of LTM, for example procedural, episodic and semantic memory

  = this suggests that the MSM provides a simplistic model of memory and does not take into account the different types of STM and LTM
• AO3 - Evaluation

  (-) Not all memories need to be rehearsed