MSM

• Information processing model - Information enters our mind via sensory memory (SM) which then passes on to short term memory (STM). STM can hold up to 7 items +/-2. If it doesn’t get transferred into long term memory (LTM), it will be lost from SM and STM. LTM has unlimited capacity but takes longer to retrieve info than STM.
• Sensory memory Information into this store comes from - the sensesThere are subcomponents, one store for each of your sense, e.g.

  ◦Iconic – visual (sight)

  ◦Echoic – sound (sound)
• Capacity of sensory memory is very high as all information from the five senses arrives at the sensory register.
• Duration of sensory memory is very short, less than 1/2 second
• Long-term memory

  Capacity is potentially limitless

  Duration is potentially a lifetime

  Mode of representation (encoding) is semantic - based on meaning
• Memory can be disrupted or interfered with by what we have previously learned or by what we

  will learn in the future. This suggests that information in long term memory may become

  confused or combined with other information during encoding thus distorting memories
• Retrieval– a rapid scan of the stored information to move it back into STM for remembering
• Encoding – the process whereby information enters LTM
• Retrieval – the process of bringing information out of storage when needed
• Input > sensory register > short term memory > long term memory
• To get from sensory memory to STM you need to pay attention
• To get from STM to LTM you need elaborate rehearsal
• To keep something in STM without displacing it you need maintenance rehearsal
• To get something from LTM to STM you need to retrieve it
• Peterson and Peterson (1959) found that the average person can remember 5-9 items
• Describe part of the theory

  The MSM is Atkinson and Shiffrin’s 1968 model of how memory works in terms of three stores: sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). It suggests that memory flows sequentially through the stores, information initially comes from our senses and flows through a sequence of stages. Sensations we process from the environment enter the sensory store. Information can be lost from the sensory store by fading away (decay).
• Only if a person pays attention will the information move into the STM store.

  Adding meaning to the information through elaborative rehearsal can move it to the long- term memory store. Memories can be retrieved from the LTM to the STM or can decay through displacement or interference
• The supporting case of HM found that after a surgical procedure removing the hippocampus he lost the ability to form new memories such as new facts or faces. He was able to recall childhood events but was unable to recall experiences a few years before his surgery.
• This evidence supports the fact that short term memory and long-term memory are separate, as shown by the MSM, because after removal of his hippocampus, he was unable to form new STM or LTMs but could still retrieve some LTM from his childhood, showing two distinct parts of memory. It also shows that new memories are formed in the STM and transfer to LTM, as HM was unable to form new LTM when his STM was damaged.
• The HM case study shows evidence that there are unitary memory stores for ST and LTM, which shows the MSM theory is accurate and valid and can be used to explain how memories are formed and retrieved in a sequential process.
• However, there is also refuting research from HM as he was able to improve his performance on a simple motor task - drawing a star whilst looking at his hand in the mirror. However, he was never able to remember that he had done the star task many times before.
• This refutes the idea of long-term memory as a single unitary store as depicted in the MSM as he was unable to store any new memories about events that had happened to himself (declarative memory) but his procedural memory which he used to learn the star task was intact.
• This is a weakness of the MSM theory of memory, because it demonstrates that the MSM description of the LTM being one unitary process is inaccurate and doesn't include different types of LTM. Therefore, this suggests that the MSM is invalid or incomplete and not a sufficient theory to explain all types of LTM.
• The sensory register stores has a high capacity and can process information from the five senses, but duration is less than 1/2 seconds and most of this information will decay.

  The short-term store can only hold 5-9 chunks of auditory information for up to 30 seconds without rehearsal. Repeating the items can prevent decay in STM through maintenance rehearsal.
• Elaborative rehearsal, when meaning is added to the memory, moves the information into the long-term memory which has unlimited capacity and duration and long term memories are stored semantically, e.g., knowledge about the world such as the capital city of France.
• There is supporting research from Peterson and Peterson (1959) who asked participants to remember a single trigram, then count backwards in threes - this was used as an interference task to prevent rehearsal in STM. The interference task initially lasted 3 then 6 seconds and then moved up to 9, 15 and 18 seconds. Correct recall of the trigram dropped rapidly after 15-18 seconds.
• It can be concluded that decay occurs in the short term store after a period of about 15 seconds. This supports the MSM as it shows that the short term store has a very limited duration of a number of seconds and information decays quickly in the STM without rehearsal, as stated in Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model.
• This is a strength because the findings of research support the limited duration of acoustic STMs which increases the validity of the MSM of memory, showing it is accurate.
• However, there is also refuting research from KF who suffered brain damage after a motorcycle accident.

  Research showed KF had a very limited capacity of only two chunks in his STM. Additionally, their short term memory for digits was poor when they were read out loud, however it was much better when they were presented visually.
• This refutes the theory because the MSM is unable to explain the differences in short term capabilities for auditory and visual information.
• This is a weakness of the MSM of memory because the short term memory is represented as one single unitary store by the MSM which does not explain different types of STM that are visual or verbal. Therefore the theory lacks validity and is outdated as it is unable to explain how everyone’s memory functions.
• The MSM was a useful model of the memory system in its day. It encapsulated many research findings describing the nature ofmemory stores and the processes that connect them. However, further research established that the model was oversimplified – for example, there is more than one type of short-term memory and long-term memory, and more than one type of rehearsal. The MSM eventually gave way to the working memory model, which was able to accommodate these findings more successfully.
• The MSM is Atkinson and Shiffrin’s 1968 model of  how memory works in terms of three stores: sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). It suggests that memory flows sequentially through the stores, information initially comes from our senses and flows through a sequence of stages.
• Sensations we process from the environment enter the sensory store.  Information can be lost from the sensory store by fading away (decay).

  Only if a person pays attention will the information move into the STM store.

  Adding meaning to the information through elaborative rehearsal can move it to the long-term memory store. Memories can be retrieved from the LTM to the STM or can decay through displacement or interference.

   
• The sensory register stores has a high capacity and can process information from the five senses, but duration is less than 1/2 seconds and most of this information will decay.  

  The short-term store can only hold 5-9 chunks of auditory information for up to 30 seconds without rehearsal. Repeating the items can prevent decay in STM through maintenance rehearsal
• Elaborative rehearsal, when meaning is added to the memory, moves the information into the long-term memory which has unlimited capacity and duration and Long term memories are stored semantically, e.g., knowledge about the world such as the capital city of France.