Multi-Store Model of memory

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Multi-store model of memory A01

The Multi-store model describes how information flows through the memory system. It consists of three parts.

The sensory register recieves a stimulus from the environment e.g. smell, sounds etc and is stored into one of five sensory stores. One of which is iconic memeory and echoic memory. Duration in this component is less than half a second and has a high capacity. The key process for this store to pass further into memory is attention.

Short-term memory (STM) has a limited capacity store, between 5 and 9 items of information which is coded acoustically and lasts about 30 seconds. Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to ourselves. If it's rehearsed long enough, it passes into long-term memory.

Long-term memory (LTM) is the third component with a unlimited capacity, such as seen with the Bahrick study. LTM is also coded semantically. In order to recall this information back it has to be transferred back into STM through retreival. 

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Multi-store model of memory A03

  • There is supporting research evidence for MSM. Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when using our STMs. But we also mix up words that have similar meanings when using our LTMs. This is a strength as it clearly shows that coding in STM is acoustic and coding in LTM is semantic, therefore these two memory stores are separate and independent.
  • However a criticism is that there may be more than one type of STM store. Shallice and Warrington studied a patient called KF who suffered with amnesia. KF's STM for digits was very poor when read aloud to him. However his recall was much better when he was able to read the digits himself. This is a limitation of MSM as research shows that there must be at least one STM store to process visual information, and another to process auditory.
  • Another weakness is that many of the stimuli used in research for the MSM are artificial. In everyday life we form memories related to names, peoples faces etc. However a lot of the materials these studies use are digits, words and letters. Therefore the research conducted for the MSM may be limited as it does not reflect real-life scenarios, and consequently limits the MSM as an explanation for a memory system.
  • A final criticism is that there is more than one type of LTM. Research evidence shows that there may be different types of long-term memory, for example stores for facts of the world, another store for personal events and another of how to do things. This presents a problem for MSM as it does not account for different LTM memory stores.
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