Multi-store Model

• Sensory Memory - first component
  • pay attention
• Short-term Memory - second component
  • Elaborative rehearsal
• Long-term Memory - third component

Sensory

Capacity of 4 items and duration of 2 seconds - Has a store for each sense - Memory lost from decay

STM

Limited capacity of 7+/- 2 and duration of 30 seconds - to be maintained maintenance rehearsal is required otherwise is lost through decay

LTM

Unlimited capacity and duration up to a lifetime - recall is temporarily transferred to STM - can be lost through decay

Glanzer + Cunitz - Position Effect

Procedure:

• List of words read out to Pps and then they were asked to recall as many as possible
• Pps recalled the most words which had been at the start or end of the list

Primacy Effect - the first words had been subvocally rehearsed so had been transferred to LTM
Recency Effect - The most recently heard words were still in STM

Supports the multi-store model as supports idea of there being separate STM and LTM stores

Weaknesses - Lacks ecological validity as is a lab experiment and may not represent how memory works in real life situations

CW - Brain damage

• Had a brain infection which caused him to only have a STM span of 7 seconds
• He could no longer form new memories but could still remember some long term memories, especially his musical talent
• Supports idea of LTM + STM being separate stores

Brain Scanning

Brain scanning whilst Pps conduct different tasks using either STM or LTM have shown that different areas of the brain are used in these different tasks.

Brain Damaged Patients

• Lots of supporting evidence for the model comes from brain damaged patients
• Their brains are not normal and their memory may not function in the same way to a normal persons memory. It can not be generalised and is unreliable

Lack of ecological validity

Many of the supporting evidence is alos lab based and therefore lacks ecological validity as the procedures do not accurately represent how memory is used in real life.