multi store model

• sensory register

  Atkinson and shiffrin - memory made up of 3 stores linked by processing - sensory register (SR) - information held at each of senses - constantly receiving and coding modality specific information but most receives no attention - information remains here for very brief period - very large capacity - limited duration
• STM

  attention focused on SR data encoded and transferred into STM (through acoustic coding) - can be lost through displacement (can only hold 7 +/- 2 items) or decay (duration only 18-30 seconds so if maintenance rehearsal doesn't take place memories fade)
• LTM

  information rehearsed and understood (elaborative rehearsal) can be transferred to LTM (through semantic coding) - can hold unlimited amount of information and can hold it for up to a lifetime - when needs to be recalled from LTM it is retrieved from LTM to STM - direct link between rehearsal in STM and strength of long term memory
• EVALUATION - supports memory is made up of different stores

  case studies shown separate strokes for STM and LTM - KF suffered brain damage in motorcycle accident, verbal STM damaged (digit span of 2 digits) - visual STM and LTM unaffected - memory has separate STM and LTM stores otherwise all memory would have been damaged equally
• EVALUATION - STM not unitary

  MSM argues inly one type of STM research shows might be false - KF STM damaged fro verbal STM (digit span of 2 digits), unaffected for visual STM - MSM insufficient to fully explain STM on its own
• EVALUATION - Murdock

  separate STM and LTM - Murdocks serial position research found no matter how many words a person is shown and asked to recall the item at the beginning of the list will have greater recall than middle (primacy effect) and words at end of list greater recall than middle (recency effect) - primacy effect supports rehearsed information passing to LTM and recency effect supports separate STM not having time to decay
• EVALUATION - suggests LTM isn't unitary

  MSM argues only one type of LTM research shows might be false - Clive Wearing - had brain damage lost episodic memory (no memory of wedding) but had use of procedural memory (could play the piano) - if LTM unitary Clive's LTM would have been affected equally