Multistore Model of Memory

• Who made the MSM?

  Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
• Duration of Sensory Register

  <0.5 seconds
• Coding of Sensory Register(SR)

  Modality Specific
• Coding of visual information (SR)

  Iconic
• Coding of auditory information (SR)

  Echoic
• Capacity of Sensory Register

  Unlimited/Large
• Duration of Short Term Memory (STM)

  18 - 30 seconds
• Coding of STM

  Acoustic
• Capacity of STM


  7 +/- 2
• Duration of Long Term Memory (LTM)

  Unlimited
• Coding of LTM


  Semantic
• Capacity of LTM

  Unlimited/Lifetime
• How does info move from SR to STM?

  Attention
• How does info move from STM to LTM?

  Elaborative rehearsal
• Elaborative Rehearsal


  Attaching meaning to information
• How does info move from LTM to STM?

  Retrieval
• Maintenance Rehearsal

  Repeating info to keep in STM, without giving meaning
• Haptic Coding (SR)


  Touch
• Olfactory Coding (SR)


  Smell
• Gustatory Coding (SR)


  Taste
• MSM Evaluation

  Research support

  • Numerous highly controlled studies -> scientific
  • Low ecological validity

  Too simplistic/reductionist

  • Tulving (1985) posits that LTM more complicated (3 types not just 1)
  • Baddeley and Hitch (1974) propose an alternative model as argue that STM has multiple components