Multi-store memory model

• The multi-store memory model was proposed by Atkinson Shiffrin, explanation based on three memory stores and how info is transferred between them
• What are the key steps of the sensory register?

  • Stimulus passes into sensory register
  • Sensory register comprises of two main stores : iconic (visually coded) and echoic (acoustically coded)
  • The material in the sensory register is help at each of the five senses. The capacity is very large but duration is short.
  • Only if paid attention to will the stimulus pass to STM
  • Information held in STM is used immediately
• What are the key steps/features in STM?

  • Limited capacity store
  • Capacity 7+-2
  • Coded acoustically and lasts about 18 seconds unless rehearsed
  • Information stored in LTM can return to STM through retrieval
  • We can keep information in STM if we rehearse it, if we rehearse it enough it goes into LTM
• What is the case study of HM?

  • Supports the MSM, shows LTM and STM are two seperate stores
  • After having hippocampus removed , STM was intact
  • LTM had been damaged, couldnt transfer new information into his LTM
  • Could remember people before incident, but cant remember new people
• Give two strengths and two limitations of MSM

  STRENGTHS:

  • Case of HM supports MSM
  • Controlled lab experiments support the existence of seperate LTM and STM stores

  LIMITATIONS:

  • MSM is oversimplified, does not take into account different types of STM and LTM
  • MSM model states that STM is a unitary store but this may not be true