Describe and Evaluate the Multi-Store Model of Memory (12)

The Multi-Store Model was put forward by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968 to try and help explain memory. It states that memory has three different stores which are: sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory. The model says that sensory memory is the first store in which information arrives from the sense organs and is either stored as heptic, iconic or echoic memory. Sensory memory has a limited duration of 200-500 milliseconds and decays rapidly. The model suggests through attention information goes into short term memory which is the store of immediate memory. The model suggests that short term memory has limited capacity. This has been suggested by Miller (1956) who said it had a capacity of 7+/-2 items and the duration is seconds to minutes at most and it encodes acoustically and visually. The model suggests information is then rehearsed and will transfer to Long Term Memory if it is made meaningful to you (semantic encoding). Long Term Memory has potentially unlimited duration and capacity.

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