MSM

• MSM

  Represents HOW memory is stored, transferred between the different stores, retrieved and forgotten
• How many stores are in the MSM and what are they?

  -Sensory store

  -LTM

  -STM
• What does the sensory store contain?

  - A sub store called the echoic store for auditory information

  -The SENSORY store receives MEMORIES for our senses so it has a huge capacity but a duration of less than half a second

  -So INFORMATION from the sensory store will ONLY pass to the STM if we pay attention to it
• What does the STM contain?

  -capacity of 7+/-2 and has a duration of 18-30 secs

  -Maintenance rehearsal happens when we repeat new information to ourselves, allowing it to be kept in the STM, if the maintenance is prolonged it can transfer to the LTM, but can be forgotten if not rehearsed.
• What does LTM contain?

  -Unlimited capacity

  -Very long duration

  -Described as being semantically encoded

  -In order to remember information, RETRIEVAL must occur where the information is transferred BACK to STM and through the maintenance rehearsal loop afterwards.
• Evaluation- STM not unitary


  -A weakness is that evidence also suggests the STM store is not unitary:

  -The MSM incorrectly describes the STM as being a single store yet Shallice and Warrington found that their amnesiac patient KF had poor STM recall for auditory stimuli, but increasingly accurate recall for visual stimuli.

  -This suggests there may be multiple types of STM.

  -This is a weakness as it shows the MSM cannot fully explain all aspects of memory
• Eval strength

  -One strength of the MSM is that evidence supports the view that memory is made up of different stores:

  -This means case studies have shown there are separate stores for STM and LTM.

  -Evidence from KF who suffered brain damage in a motorcycle accident. His STM was damaged for verbal short-term memory (e.g. he only had a digit span of 2 digits) but mostly unaffected for visual short-term memory whilst his LTM remained completely intact.

  -This is a strength as it supports the idea that memory is made up of different stores which supports the MSM
• Mini eval strength

  Positive-MSM acknowledges the qualitative differences between STM and LTM, which is supported by Baddeley and Miller