the multi-store model of memory Atkinson and Shiffrin(1968)

components
1. sensory information store (SIS)
  1. information coming in through the senses is briefly held in the SIS as a sensry image
  2. can only hold several items simultaneously
  3. images fade within a few seconds unless attended to and recoded so that they can pass into STM
2. short-term memory (STM)
  1. can hold 7 +/- units for up to 30 seconds
  2. after 30 seconds the information decays or is displaced with new information
3. long-term memory (LTM)
  1. potentially unlimited capacity and duration
  2. information can be lost through decay, distortion or failure to locate or retrieve it
Research evidence into STM and LTM
1. Murdock (1962)
  1. presented ppts with a list of words, one at a time, which they recalled in any order (free recall)
    1. counted frequency that each word was recalled
      1. words at the beginning and end of the list were recalled more often than those in the middle
        more efficient recall at the beginning and end of the list was called the primacy and recency effects respectivey
      2. earlier words rehearsed so primacy effect was due to them being retrieved from LTM recency effect due to retrieval of words still in STM
2. Glazer and Cunitz (1966)
  1. elaborated Murdock's procedure
    1. treated it as a controlled condition and added an experimental condition
      1. in which, before recalling the list of words, ppt had to carry out an interference task by counting backwards for 30 seconds
        ppts who were allowed immediate recall produced same effect as Murdock
        ppts who were given the interference task produced primacy effect but not recency effect
        they thought this was due to prevention of using STM for later items
physiological evidence for a separate STM and LTM
1. Scoville and Milner (1957)
  1. case study- HM
  2. HM was brain damaged due to an operation that was meant to remove the hippocampus from both sides of his brain to reduce the severe epilepsy he suffered
    1. personality and intellect intact
    2. couldn't form new LTM
      1. suggests hippocampus may function as a memory 'gateway' through which new memories pass before entering permanent storage
Evaluation of MSM
1. strengths
  1. strong evidence
  2. does provide an account of memory in terms of structure and process
  3. clear predictions about memory- psychologists can conduct studies to test
2. weaknesses
  1. evidence suggests STM and LTM aren't unitary stores
    1. Shallice and Warrington (1970)
      1. case study- KF
        KF suffered brain damage resulting in difficulty dealing with verbal information but had a normal ability to process visual information
        suggests STM isn't a single store
    2. Schachter et al. (2000)
      1. Spiers et al. (2001)
        studies memory in 147 patients with amnesia
        in all cases, procedural memories and perceptual-representation systems were intact but other 2 systems weren't
        LTM not a unitary store
      2. suggested there are 4 LT stores
  2. rehearsal vs. processing
    1. Craik and Lockhart (1972)
      1. proposed different kind of model to explain lasting memories
        suggested that enduring memories are created by processing, rather than through maintenance rehearsal
        things processed more deeply are more memorable
  3. how separate are STM and LTM?
    1. Logie (1999)
      1. pointed out STM relies on LTM and so can't come 'first'
    2. Ruchkin et al. (2003)
      1. said STM is part of LTM activated at any given time
  4. Craik and Tulving (1975)
    1. presented ppt with words to recall later
      1. shallow processing (structural or phonetic) involved attending to the case of a word or its sound
        deep processing (semantic) also used
    2. structural processing- 18% accuracy phonetic- 50% semantic- 80%

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the multi-store model of memory Atkinson and Shiffrin(1968)

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	Created by Bethan Stevenson about 10 years ago