MULTI-STORE MODEL OF MEMORY

• A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called the sensory register, STM, LTM. it also describes how information is transferred from one store to another.
• Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968, 1971) created the MSM and describes the information flow through the memory system.

  
• sensory register- the memory stores for each five senses.

  • iconic sensory register- visual coding
  • echoic sensory register- acoustic coding

  information lasts for only half a second in the sensory register
• Sensory Register - Information enters here when we perceive something using our senses. It lasts only a few seconds as there are limited capacity and duration. The SR has no storage capacity so if new info comes in old info will be lost.
• The model consists of three main components; Sensory Register, Short Term Memory and Long term memory
• information can only pass further into the memory system only if you pay attention to it
• STM- mainly acoustically coded and lasts 18 seconds unless it is rehearsed. a temporary store with limited capacity. 7+/-2.
• maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again. if information is rehearsed long enough it will pass onto the LMT.
• LTM- potentially permanent memory store for info that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time. coded semantically.
• info can be retrieved from LTM and transferred to STM by retrieval.
• (+) one strength of MSM is support from studies showing that SRM and LTM are different. such as the results from Baddeley's results. as well as research on capacity and duration. these all claim and show that LTM and STM are separate and different.
• coding - how info is represented in our memories. there are two types of coding; acoustic (sound) and semantic (meaning).
• (-) despite the research support, many of the research was completed with artificial material and stimuli. this does not represent hoe memory works in everyday life.
• (-) one limitation is that there is evidence there is more then one STM store. a case study, KF, who had amnesia. his STM was poor for digits when read to him but better when he read them himself. this suggests that MSM is wrong in claiming there is only one STM store.
• (-) another limitation is that prolonged rehearsal is not needed for transfer to LTM. other studies found that the type of rehearsal is more important then the amount of it. Elaborative rehearsal is needed for long-term storage. this suggests that MSM cannot fully explain how long -term storage is achieved.