Multistore Model of memory

• Who came up with the multistore model of memory? (MSM)

  Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
• What is the MSM?

  Describes how information flows through the memory system. The model suggests that memory is made up of three stores.
• What are the three stores within the MSM?

  Sensory register, Short term memory and Long term memory
• What is the sensory register?

  - All stimuli from the environment pass into the sensory register.

  - There are separate sensory registers for each sense: the iconic store codes visual information and the echoic store codes auditory information.

  - Information only lasts for a brief moment unless attention is directed to that register, which then transfers the information to STM.
• What is Short term memory?

  - Information in STM is coded mainly acoustically and lasts about 18 seconds unless it is rehearsed, so STM is more of s temporary store.

  - STM is a limited capacity store because it can only contain a certain number of 'things' before forgetting occurs.

  - Capacity id STM is between 5-9 items of information.

  - Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again.

  - We can keep information in our STMs as long as we rehearse. If we rehearse it long enough it passes into long term memory
• What is Long term memory?

  - Potentially permanent memory store for our information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time.

  - LTMs are coded mostly semantically.

  - Psychologists believe that its duration may be up to a lifetime

  - According to the MSM, when we want to recall information from LTM, it has to be transferred back into STM by a process called retrieval
• Evaluation of MSM- Strengths

  - Research supports the idea that LTM and STM are different stores Glanzer and Cunitz/Case study of HM/Case study of KF
• Evaluation of MSM- Weaknesses

  - There is evidence to suggest that there is more than one type of STM (Shallice and Warrington)

  -There is evidence to suggest that there is more than one type of rehearsal (Craik and Watkins)