multi-store model of memory

• What is the Sensory Register? (Sensory Store)

  - how it works

  - environmental stimuli ( the sound of someone talking) enter the sensory register, comprising five separate stores for each sense

  - the primary stores are iconic (for visual information, initially encoded visually) and echoic (for sound-based information, initially encoded acoustically).
• sensory store coding


  depending on the sense that is picked up - e.g. visual, auditory or tactile. (modality specific)
• sensory store duration


  less than half a second
• sensory store capacity


  huge capacity (millions or receptors)
• What is Short-term memory (STM)?


  Short term memory is your memory for immediate events. It temporarily stores information received from the sensory register.
• How is information transferred from the sensory register to Short term memory?

  attention
• What happens if information is not attended to when it enters the sensory register?

  leads to spontaneous decay
• STM coding


  acoustically (Baddely 1966)
• STM capacity


  between 5 and 9 items (Miller 1946)
• STM duration


  18-30 seconds unless it is rehearsed (Peterson and Peterson 1959)
• How is information transferred from STM to LTM?

  prolonged rehearsal i.e. verbally repeating a telephone number
• How is information transferred from LTM to STM?

  retrieval
• What is Long-term memory (LTM)?

  memory for events that have happened in the more distant past
• LTM coding


  semantically (Baddeley 1966)
• LTM capacity


  potentially unlimited
• LTM duration


  lifetime (Bahrick 1975)
• research support

  P: strength - research support

  E: Baddeley found that we mix up words that sound similar when using STM

  E: However we mix up words that have similar meanings when using LTM

  L: therefore STM and LTM are separate as claimed by MSM model
• counterpoint

  P: limitation - research uses artificial stimuli

  E: in real life, people make memories related to useful things such as faces, names, facts, etc

  E: However research uses digits, letters, and consonant syllables that have no relation to real-life memories

  L: therefore MSM is not a valid model for everyday memory
• more than one STM store

  P: limitation - more than one STM store

  E: KF had amnesia and had poor STM for digits read out loud to him

  E: but the recall was better for digits he read himself

  L: therefore there is evidence for more than one STM store
• elaborative rehearsal

  P: limitation - prolonged rehearsal not needed for transfer to LTM

  E: elaborative rehearsal - linking information to existing knowledge or thinking about what it means

  E: information can be transferred to LTM without prolonged rehearsal

  L: MSM only partly explains how long-term storage is achieved