The Multi-Store Model of Memory (MSM)

• Sensory register (SR)

  The memory stores for each of our five senses

  • Coding - Iconic: Visually, Echoic: Acoustically
  • Capacity - Huge (millions of receptors)
  • Duration - Very short - >0.5s
• Transfer from SR to STM

  Information passes further into the memory system only if you pay attention (so attention is the key process)
• STM

  • Coding - Acoustically
  • Capacity - 7 [+/-2] (Miller) or 5 (Cowan)
  • Duration - Up to 18 seconds
• Transfer from STM to LTM

  Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat (rehearse) material to ourselves over and over again. If we rehearse it long enough, it will pass into our LTM.
• LTM

  • Coding - Semantically
  • Capacity - Potentially infinite
  • Duration - Up to a lifetime
• Retrieval from LTM

  According to the MSM, when we want to recall information from LTM, it has to be transferred back into the STM by a process called retrieval.
• Who developed the Multi-Store Model of Memory?

  Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)