multi-store model

• Multi-store model


  An information processor model that is linear, meaning information is moved through in one direction, and the stores are passive, meaning they just hold on to information
• Stores in the multi-store model

  • Sensory register
  • Short-term memory
  • Long-term memory
• Sensory register


  • Directly receives sensory information
  • Coding is modality specific (depends on the sense organ)
  • Capacity is very large, potentially unlimited
  • Duration is very short, around 250 milliseconds
• Short-term memory


  • Coding is acoustic
  • Capacity is 7 items plus or minus 2
  • Duration is 18-30 seconds
• Information flow through the multi-store model

  1. Sensory information is detected by sensory neurons and received by the sensory register

  2. Information that is paid attention to moves from the sensory register to short-term memory

  3. Information can be passed from short-term memory to long-term memory through rehearsal (maintenance or elaborative)
• Maintenance rehearsal


  Keeping information in short-term memory by repeating it again and again
• Elaborative rehearsal


  Passing information from short-term memory to long-term memory by linking the new information to knowledge already in long-term memory
• Long-term memory


  • Coding is semantic (stored as part of a set of meaningful connections)
  • Capacity and duration are very large, potentially unlimited
• Information not passed into long-term memory is lost from short-term memory, either due to displacement or decay
• The multi-store model is a simplistic model, as research shows short-term memory and long-term memory are not unitary and passive stores
• Some basic assumptions of the multi-store model lack face validity, such as the fixed capacity of short-term memory
• Much of the research on the multi-store model uses artificial tasks that lack ecological validity and mundane realism
• Experiments are necessary to make measurements and inferences about memory, even though the inferences could be wrong
• The large capacity and short duration of the sensory register is supported by evolutionary theory, as quick reactions for survival would require taking in as much information as possible