Weaknesses of MSM

Weaknesses of MSM

1. Simplistic & inflexible

   • Cannot account for...
     • Memory-improvement strategies
     • Some things more distinctive than others
     • STM as more than a unitary store
       • Improved by WMM

2. Focus on structure over process

   • Flow of information = interactive
     • Not sequential
   • Information form LTM needed to encode STM
     • E.g reading letters

3. Over-emphasis on rehearsal

   • Supposedly only way to transfer to LTM
     • BUT people acquire knowledge continually without conscious rehearsal
   • Research evidence
     • Craik & Lockhart
       • Transfer relies on how meaningful information is
       • Cannot account for this
         • Participants spent same time on each word
     • Craik & Tulving
       • Participants recalled more words processed semantically than superficially
       • 'levels of processing'
         • Accounts for forgetting despite rehearsal
           • Never made meaningful sense