multi-store model of memory

• The multistore model or memory is a structural model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968
• the model consists of 3 stores: sensory register, stm, ltm
• the sensory register codes for sense-specific information, such as sound, sight, smell, touch, taste.
• paying attention to the sense-specific information from the sensory register transfers it to the stm.
• rehearsing the information in the stm transfers it to the ltm
• stm codes for acoustic information (sound)
• the information in the ltm is semantic (it has meaning)
• the sensory register is able to recall sense-specific information that is only milliseconds long (limited)
• the stm is able to recall memories taht are up to 18 seconds long (limited)
• the ltm is able to recall memories that are years old if enough rehearsal has occured.
• the capacity of the sr is very large
• the capacity of the stm is 7, +/- 2 chunks (5-9)
• the ltm has an unlimited capacity
• Clive Wearing 1985 was a musician and composer
• Clive Wearing contracted a disease and lost his memory, resulting in one of the most severe cases of amnesia ever recorded.
• Wearing lost his ltm completely (apart from his wife and his name and his handwriting)
• Clive Wearing's stm is impaired as he forgets information every 7 seconds
• if cues aren't given, information can be forgotten from any store
• each store in the multistore model has its own characteristics for encoding, capacity and duration.
• Clive Wearing's amnesia prevented him from passing information from the stm to the ltm
• Clive provides evidence supporting the multistore model of memory
• Wearing supports the MSM because his inability to transfer information from stm to ltm, and form new memories supports the linear nature of the model.