Evaluation of the Multi-Store Model of Memory (MSM)

Evaluation of the Multi Store Model of Memory (MSM) for AS AQA A Psychology.

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  • Created by: Rebecca
  • Created on: 10-04-14 15:47
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  • Evaluation of The Multi-Store Model of Memory
    • Problems
      • Oversimplification of STM and LTM as single stores
        • There is further evidence that both the STM and LTM are further fractionated
      • The idea of rehearsal is too simplistic
        • There are two types of rehearsal: Elaborative and Maintenance
        • Some types of information are not open to rehearsal e.g. smells
        • Rehearsal is not essential for the transfer of information into LTM - some information sticks automatically and immediately
      • MSM presents memory as a one-way process
        • Logically, information must also flow backwards to make sense of incoming information
      • The nature of the experiments
        • Most were laboratory experiments
          • These typically lack mundane realism due to the artificial situation and tasks
            • This means that the results cannot be generalised to the wider population
      • Other research involves case studies of single individuals
        • These individuals had brain damage
          • These individuals could have had an abnormal brain which made the damage possible
            • This therefore means there is low population validity
              • The results cannot be generalised
    • Support
      • Evidence from brain-scanning techniques
        • Modern techniques of scanning the brain can be used to show the STM and LTM activities are processed in different areas of the brain
          • If you ask a person to do a STM task, the prefrontal lobe will be activated
          • If you ask a person to do a LTM task, the hippocampus will be activated
            • This shows that the STM and LTM must be separate stores
              • If you ask a person to do a STM task, the prefrontal lobe will be activated
              • This supports the MSM of memory
      • Evidence from case studies
        • Patient HM had an operation to remove his hippocampus to eliviate his severe epilepsy
          • After the operation, it was found he couldn't form new long-term memories, although this STM was intact
            • This shows that the STM and LTM are separate stores
              • This supports the MSM of memory
      • Research Evidence
        • Glanzer and Cunits (1966) - Serial Position Effect
          • They found that when participants were asked to recall a list of words in any order, they remembered:
            • The words they had encountered first as they were already in their LTM
              • This shows a functional dissociation between STM and LTM
                • The words they encountered last as they were in their STM
            • The words they encountered last as they were in their STM
          • After this, the participants were asked to do an interference task
            • They could not remember the last words as they had been displaced in STM by the new task
    • Conclusion
      • The Multi-Store Model of Memory by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
        • Is a useful starting point which stimulated much research
        • BUT it is too simplistic

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