the multi-store model of memory

• what does the msm assume?

  there are separate and distinct stores for memory, each linked together but with their own capacity and duration.
• what is capacity?


  a measure of how much can be held in memory
• what is capacity represented in?

  bits of information, such as number of digits
• what is duration?


  a measure of how long a memory lasts before it is no longer available
• what is coding?


  the way information is changed so that it can be stored in memory
• what are the 3 types of coding?


  visual, acoustic and semantic
• what is short-term memory?

  your memory for events in the present or immediate past
• what is long-term memory?

  your memory for things that have happened in the more distant past
• what is environmental stimuli?

  all information we process every day but have no recollection of
• whats the capacity of the sensory register?

  very large/unlimited
• whats the duration of the sensory register?

  less than 1 second
• whats the encoding type of the sensory register?

  sense specific
• whats the capacity of the stm?

  7±2 items
• whats the duration of the stm?

  18-30 seconds
• how is the stm encoded?

  acoustically
• whats the capacity of the ltm?

  unlimited
• whats the duration of the ltm?

  up to a lifetime
• how is the ltm encoded?

  semantically
• what is the first step in remembering something?

  paying attention
• what may sensory memory for visual stimuli be called?

  iconic memory
• what may sensory memory for aural stimuli be called?

  echoic memory
• what may sensory memory for touch be called?

  haptic memory
• what is filtering?


  environmental information that we consider irrelevant is filtered out by a bottleneck filter and forgotten
• what happened in H.M.?

  a patient had his hippocampus removed and he lost the ability to form new long-term memories
• who claimed that the capacity of the short term memory was 7±2?

  george miller
• who coined the ‘serial position effect?

  murdock
• what is the primacy effect?

  words at the start of the list have been processed through stm and are in ltm
• what is the recency effect?


  words are still in stm and so are easily accessible
• what is the serial position effect?

  The tendency to remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than those in the middle.
• what area of the brain is associated with the stm?

  pre-frontal cortex
• what area of the brain is associated with ltm?

  hippocampus
• who investigated the duration of stm?

  margaret and lloyd peterson
• what did peterson and peterson find?

  short term memory has a duration between 18 and 30 seconds
• who investigated the duration of ltm?

  bahrick et al
• what did bahrick et al find?

  90% accuracy for face and name recall after 34 years. 80% accuracy for name recognition after 48 years. 40% accuracy for face recognition after 48 years. 60% accuracy for free recall after 15 years. 30% accuracy for free recall after 30 years
• what is the support for the msm?

  the serial position effect or location of brain associated with stm and ltm
• what is the counter for the msm?

  data from lab study - ecological validity/mundane realism
• what is the alternative for the msm?

  working model of memory
• what is the practical application for the msm?


  improve recall ability
• what are the issues and debates of the msm?

  uses both idiographic and nomothetic methods to provide support for the mode