memory models

• Sensory register


  Part of memory that comprises several registers (sensory memory stores), one for each of our five senses
• Short-term memory (STM)


  More of a temporary store, information is coded mainly acoustically and lasts about 18 seconds unless it is rehearsed
• Long-term memory (LTM)


  Potentially permanent memory store for information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time, coded mostly semantically in terms of meaning
• The multi-store model (MSM) describes how information flows through the memory system
• The MSM suggests that memory is made up of three stores linked by processing
• Iconic and echoic are types of sensory registers
• Attention is the key process for information to pass from the sensory register into the memory system
• Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat (rehearse) material to ourselves over and over again to keep it in STM
• Information has to be transferred back into STM by a process called retrieval to be recalled from LTM
• The case of HM shows that STM and LTM are separate and independent memory stores
• Limitations of the MSM

  • Doesn't fully explain how long-term storage is achieved
  • Evidence of more than one STM store
• Elaborative rehearsal


  Linking information to existing knowledge or thinking about its meaning, needed for long-term storage
• The working memory model (WMM) is an explanation of how short-term memory is organised and functions
• Components of the WMM

  • Central executive
  • Phonological loop
  • Visuo-spatial sketchpad
  • Episodic buffer
• Central executive


  Supervisory role, monitors incoming data, focuses and divides attention, allocates subsystems to tasks
• Phonological loop


  Deals with auditory information, preserves order, consists of phonological store and articulatory process
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad


  Stores visual and/or spatial information, consists of visual cache and inner scribe
• Episodic buffer


  Temporary store that integrates information from other stores, maintains sense of time sequencing, links working memory to long-term memory
• Dual-task studies support the WMM by showing separate subsystems compete for the same resources
• Limitations of the WMM

  • Lack of clarity over the nature of the central executive
  • Dual-task studies use tasks unlike everyday life