MSM Model

• • •Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) suggested that memory is made up of three unitary (separate/different) stores:The sensory registerShort-term memoryLong-term memory
• •This is a structural model (representation) of memory that they called the multi-store model of memory.•They suggest that each store is different (unitary) and information is transferred from one store to another in a fixed, linear sequence.•
• •MSM is an explanation of how memory processes work based on the idea that there are three separate stores (SM, STM, LTM)••This model attempts to show how information flows from one storage system to another.
• •The model sees sensory memory, STM and LTM as permanent structural components of the memory system.
• Rehearsal is a key control process
• •The sensory register is the memory stores for each of our five senses e.g. iconic store for visual information, echoic store for sound information. Therefore, each store of the stores are coded differently (iconic visually, echoic acoustically etc.).
• •A stimulus from the environment (e.g. the sound of someone’s name) passes into the sensory register. It receives all of the information (it has a high capacity e.g. over one hundred million cells in one eye, each storing data) and holds it very briefly. The duration of the sensory register is less than half a second.
• Very little of what goes into the sensory register passes further into the memory system. But it will if you pay attention
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  There is lots of support for the MSM from research studies. For example, Baddeley (1966) found that we tend to mix up acoustically similar words when we are using our STMs and mix up semantically similar words when we are using our LTMs
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  This clearly supports that coding in STM and LTM is semantic, which supports the view that these two memory stores are separate (unitary) and qualitatively different as proposed by the MSM
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  However, this research relied on artificial stimuli which had no real meaning to participants. Therefore, we should be cautious about generalising the findings to more meaningful information
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  •As such, the research isn’t particularly strong support for the MSM as we can’t determine that coding is different between STM and LTM with meaningful information.