The multi-store model

• MSM

  • multi-store model - based on 3 separate memory stores + how info is transferred between them
  • environmental stimuli pass info to sensory register - passed by attention to STM - passed by maintenance rehearsal to LTM or lost by displacement of forgetting - brought from LTM back to STM by rehearsal
• Role of sensory register

  • info held at senses
  • large capacity
  • short duration of milliseconds
• Role of STM


  • info held to be used in immediate tasks
  • limited capacity - 5 items
  • limited duration - a few mins unlessed rehearsed
• Role of LTM

  • may have unlimited capacity and duration
  • forgetting may be due to lack of accessibility
• AO3 - Research evidence 


  • Glanzer + Cunitz - recall stronger for first and last words on list - serial position effect - primary - first 5 or so + recency - last 5 or so effects - supports separate stores for LTM + STM + middle words displaced by later words
  • Scoville + Miller - HM case study - surgery to cure seizures removing hypocampus on HM - lost ability to make new mems + found performing tasks easier than expected as he had done them before but couldn't remember - supports separate stores (unable to form LTM) + good recall of events prior to surgery + STM unaffected.)
  • case study - Clive Wearing suffered damage to LTM - could remember procedural but not episodic or semantic mems - supportd diff types of LTM stored separately in the brain
  • however research typically conducted on individuals - not generalisable + assumes everyone's LTM formed in same way - eg. Clive Wearing.
• AO3 - limitations

  • studies use digits / letters - not everyday materials w/ real life meaningful mems
  • Craik + Watkins - types of rehearsal more important that amount + elaborative rehearsal needed for LTM - suggests MSM doesn't fully explain how LTM is achieved
  • research suggests multiple types of LTM + STM + rehearsal suggesting the MSM is oversimplified