Alternatives to the MSM

MSM devised more than 40 years ago

New research is improving our understanding of the memory

Two further suggested theories of how memory words are through levels of processing and the working memory model

Craik and Lockhard (1972) - proposed contrasting view to MSM - levels of processing

Suggested LTMs created by semantic processing rather than elaborative rehearsal 

Recognised there are different ways to process info - deeper process the longer memories last

Doesn't disagree with existence of seperate stores as proposed by MSM but memory best explained in terms of depth of processing instead 

Primary memory - info processed at lower level but more enduring memories are created through deeper levels of processing 

Found early stages of analysis use physical features of info (shape) whereas later stages use semantic analysis and comparisons allowing info the enter LTM

Craik & Tulving (1972) - demonstrated importance of meaning 
Asked Ps questions about shape, sound and meaning of nouns
Ps recalled words they'd processed in terms of sound and meaning better - deeper processing

Mandler (1967) - asked Ps to sort word cards into piles based on catefories 
Recall best for those who used more categories and poorest for those who used least
Suggests act of organising info made it memorable without consious rehearsal

Approach criticised by Morris et al (1977) - performance dependent of what Ps are required to recall
Conducted rhyming recognition test - had to recall words which rhymed with stimulus word
Words best recalled were not those deeply processed but phonetically - other expanations of memory not just depth of processing

Baddeley & Hitch (1974) - propsed another explanation to memory

Used term "working meory" to refer to memory used when doing complex tasks

Main component of model is central executuive which directs attention to particular tasks, determining how slave systems are used

Slave systems - phonological loop, later divided to have seperate sections for words you hear and words that you say and are silently repeated

Visio-spatial sketchpad - used to plan spatial tasks - Logie (1995) suggested it should be divided to inner scribe and visual cache

Baddeley (2000) - added episodic buffer as a general store which intergrates info from all slave systems 

Shallice & Warrington (1970) - studied KF - showed STM works independently to LTM -KF had no issue with long term learning but some of STM was impaired
Forgot auditary info faster than visual - suggest it was phonological loop damaged - supports existence of seperate slave systems 

Dolcos et al (2007) - used fMRI scans to study effect of dual task performance on brain activity
As predicted by WMM - different areas of prefrontal cortext were activated when performaing 2 tasks affecting same store than when 2 tasks affecting different stores were completed - supports WMM 

However, Eslinger & Dasmino (1985) - studied patient who performed well on reasoning tasks but not problem solving - both include central executive 
Suggests could be subcomponents to section 
Leads to major criticism of WMM - stores are poorly defined and concept of CE is too vague - also only looks at STM - limited model of memory