MSM A03

• • Onse strength of the multi store memory model is that the different stores of the multi store model have been proved to be associated with different parts of the brain which proves the existence of the stores.
  • HM had his hippocampus removed due to seizures, led to him being unable to form new LT memories (known as anterograde amnesia)however his personality,intellect and details from his childhood remained intact showing his pre-existing ltms which were in this store before the surgery were still inact .because he was unable to transfer new info to the LTM, This showed evidence for the processing between the different stores which evidently the hippocampus plays a role in.
  • Furthermore... HM's inability to form new long-term memories after surgery while retaining his short-term memory capacity as his memory for new motor skills was unaffected,) suggests that STM and LTM are distinct memory systems.
• counter/elab

  OTOH may not be fully accurate as brain damaged patients have trauma which causes them to act a certain way- less to do with memory than other factors. (Squire also found that the hippocampus was active when ltm is engaged) 
• • model oversimplified,-suggests stm and ltm are unitary stores
  • has become apparent that STM and LTM are more complicated that previously thought and there are a number of qualitatively different types of both
  • eg., WMM proposed by Baddeley and Hitch showed STM comprises different components (e.g. central executive, Visuospatial etc.)
  • different types of LTM have been identified, namely episodic (memories of events), procedural (knowledge of how to do things) and semantic (general knowledge).
  • unlikely that different kinds of knowledge are all stored within a single, long-term memory store.
• • MSM applied to explain why Eyewitnesses see events like crimes first hand but are notoriously unreliable when they report on what they saw and many falsely accused by eyewitnesses. 

  - case of Ed Honacker served 10 years for rape, victim identified him as her attacker, but DNA evidence proved his innocence.

  • might happen because of inattention. If distracted, key details might not reach STM. Other details might not reach LTM if they are not rehearsed – if victim refuses to think/talk about the crime because traumatic no MR. which explains likelihood of misidentification .
• Although H.M seem to back up the Multi Store Model, other evidence contradicts it. Shallice & Warrington (1970) report a victim of a motorbike accident (K.F.) who also had his hippocampus removed, he could still add memories to LTM even though his STM was so damaged he couldn't repeat back more than 2 digits. MSM cannot explain this as it is suggested info needs to enter STM and be rehearse to enter into LTM therefore undermining the validity MSM by suggesting there abilites to do with memory which it hasn't explained