Multi-store model of Memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968)

• Multi-store model of memory describes how information flows through the memory system. Represents how memory is stored. How its transferred, retrieved and forgotten.
• There are 3 stores: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory
• Sensory register:

  -contains one sub-store for each of the 5 senses

  -since it receives information from our senses it has a huge capacity

  -but a duration of less than a second

  -therefore, information will only pass from the sensory register to the short-term memory store if we pay attention to it.
• Short-term memory:

  -described as being acoustically encoded (Baddeley 1966)

  -capacity of 7+/-2 (Miller 1956)

  -duration 18-30 secs (Peterson and Peterson 1959)

  -Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat the new information for ourselves, allowing information to be kept in the STM.

  -Prolonged maintenance rehearsal allows the information to be passed to the LTM, whilst a lack of such rehearsal causes forgetting.
• Long-term memory:

  -described as being semantically encoded

  -unlimited capacity

  -very long duration (over 46 years, shown by Bahrick 1975)

  -In order to remember information 'retrieval' must occur, which is when information is transferred back into STM, which continue to pass through the maintenance loop afterwards.
• Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when using our Short Term Memories (STMs), but we mix up words that have similar meanings when using our Long Term Memories (LTMs).
• The major strength of the MSM is that it is supported by research studies that show that Short Term Memory (STM) and Long Term Memory (LTM) are qualitatively different.
• Coding in Short Term Memory (STM) is acoustic, while in Long Term Memory (LTM) it’s semantic, supporting the MSMs view that these two memory stores are separate and independent.
• Another strength of the MSM is that it comes from the case of Clive Wearing. He suffered from brain damage which resulted in severe amnesia and was unable to transfer information from his STM and LTM. This matters because it demonstrates that the MSM is sequential, and that if the ability to 'transfer' information from STM to LTM is broken, we cannot form new memories, thus supporting the linear nature of the model.
• One limitation of the MSM is that it states that ST is a unitary store, meaning that there is only one type of short-term memory. However, people that suffer from amnesia show that this is not true. Eg, Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied a patient, KF, who had amnesia. They found that KF's STM for digits were poor when they read them aloud to him. But his recall was better when he read them to himself. It's a limitation because STM says that there's one store but KF says there's one store for sound and one for visual.
• Another limitation of MSM is that there is more than one type of rehearsal. According to MSM, the more you rehearse the more likely you are to transfer it to LTM. Craik and Watkins (1973) found that there are two types of rehearsal. Maintenance rehearsal, which does not transfer to the LTM and elaborative rehearsal, which is added to existing knowledge, or you think about what it means. It's a limitation because research shows that elaborative rehearsal transfers information to the LTM, not maintenance rehearsal.