Multi-store Model of Memory

• Studies (excluding Bahrick):

  :( lack mundane realism

  > artificial task - difficult to generalise the findings to real-life examples, as the research does not reflect most memory activities where what we are trying to remember is meaningful

  > lowers external validity
• Studies (excluding Bahrick):

  :) high control over extraneous variables

  > controlled setting (specify to study)

  > more likely to establish cause and effect between the IV and DV

  > increases internal validity
• Studies (excluding Bahrick):

  :) high reliability

  > controlled environment

  > research could be repeated in the same conditions to check for similar results = consistency
• Studies - Bahrick:

  :) high in mundane realism

  > research assessed real-life memories of classmates, which is something you could find yourself doing in everyday life

  > may be easier to generalise the findings of the duration of the LTM to other real-life applications

  > increases external validity
• Studies - Bahrick:

  :( low control over extraneous variables

  > did not take place in a controlled environment

  > e.g. how much contact participants had with classmates after leaving school

  > cause and effect cannot be clearly established

  > reduces internal validity
• Multi-Store Model of Memory:

  :) RTS Baddeley

  > participants mixed up acoustically similar words when using the STM, but semantically similar words when using LTM

  > supports that they are separate unitary stores, as coding is different
• Multi-Store Model of Memory:

  :) RTS Clive Wearing

  > suffers amnesia, in which he cannot transfer information from his STM to his LTM e.g. when his wife re-enters the room after leaving seconds before, he greets her as if it is the first time he has seen her in years

  > supports because it shows the STM and LTM are separate stores and that information must flow through in a linear way

  discussion - low population validity
• Multi-Store Model of Memory:

  :( too simplistic

  > Shallice and Warrington - patient KF (suffered from amnesia) - found that his recall, in STM, for digits was poor when they were read aloud to him, but was better when he could see them

  > suggests there must be different stores within the STM, which casts doubt on the theory's assumption that STM is unitary