Multi store model

• MSM - multi store model. Made by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968.
• MSM - how information flows through the memory system. Suggests that there are three stores linked by processing.
• MSM Three stores - sensory register, short term memory, long term memory.
• Sensory register MSM - a stimulus from the environment passes into the sensory register. This has several stores, one for each of our five senses. There are two main stores: iconic and echoic.
• Iconic memory - visual information is coded visually
• Echoic memory - sound or auditory information is coded acoustically.
• MSM Sensory register - material only lasts briefly, the duration is less than half a second. The capacity is very large. Little of what goes into the sensory register passes further into the memory system. But it will pass if you pay attention to it.
• MSM STM - the limited capacity store, it can only contain a certain number of things. The STM is coded acoustically and lasts around 18 seconds.
• MSM Maintenance rehearsal - occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over. Information is kept in our STMs as long as we rehearse it. If it is rehearsed enough, it passes into our LTM
• MSM LTM - This is the potentially “permanent“ memory store for information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time. The capacity is unlimited and can last for A lifetime. LTMs are coded semantically.
• MSM Retrieval - when we want to recall memory, it has to be transferred back into the STM. None are recalled directly from the LTM.
• The case of HM supports the MSM. HM‘s hippocampus was removed due to severe epilepsy. He was unable to encode new LTMs, but his STM was unaffected. This shows that memories from the STM have to be sent and stored in the LTM, like the MSM shows.
• The case of Clive Wearing shows support for the MSM. Wearing suffered brain damage as a result of a virus, and he is no longer able to lay down new LTMs. However he can hold a conversation as he has a working STM. This shows that the STM and LTM are separate stores.
• The MSM is supported by research that shows the STM and LTM are separate stores. Baddeley found that we mix up words that sound similar in the STM but in the LTM we mix up words with similar meaning. This supports the separation of the STM and the LTM.
• The MSM is too simple as there is evidence suggesting the STM is not one single store. Shallice and Warrington ( 1970 ) studied KF, a patient with amnesia. His STM for digits was poor when they were read aloud to him but it was much better when he read them to himself. This shows that short term memories can be stored differently.