multi store model

• sensory register

  • capacity: very large
  • duration: milliseconds
  • coding: visually acoustic
• short term memory

  • capacity: 5-9
  • duration: 18 seconds
  • coding: acoustic
• long term memory

  • capacity: unlimited
  • duration: lifetime worth
  • coding: semantically
• types of long term memory (LTM)

  procedural:

  • our memory of how to do things (motor memory).
  • usually recalled with little conscious.
  • difficult to describe.
  • example - learning to ride a bike.

  semantic:

  • our memory of knowledge of the world.
  • includes facts and what words and concepts mean.
  • consciously recalled.
  • examples - names, colours, education.

  episodic:

  • our memory of personal events (time stamped).
  • includes when events occurred, whom with and where.
  • consciously recalled.
  • unique to individual.
  • examples - getting married, holiday, first day of school.
• sensory register

  • stimulus from the environment passes into the STM along with other sights and sounds.

  coding:

  • depends on the sense

  capacity:

  • high

  duration:

  • very brief - less than 1 second
• attention

  • attention needs to be paid to the information for it to pass into the short term memory.
• short term memory - STM

  • stm is a limited capacity and duration store.
• long term memory - LTM

  • a permanent memory store.
• rehearsal

  • we repeat material to ourselves.
  • if we rehearse it long enough it asses into our long term memory.
• retrieval

  • in order to recall information we have to retrieve it from our long term memory back to short term memory in order to say it.
• EVALUATION - multi store model

  • P: supported by research into coding, capacity and duration.
  • N: evidence has suggested STM is not just one store.
  • N: oversimplifies STM.
  • N: research uses artificial tasks.
• EVALUATION - types of LTM

  • P: support from the Clive Wearing case study who had difficulty recalling events that happened to him but semantic memories were unaffected.
  • P: brain scan studies have shown there are different stores for LTM.
  • P: identifying LTM stores has real life applications.
  • N: problem with clinical evidence - lack of control when dealing with brain damage.
  • N: Tulving suggested there may only be 2 types of LTM.