Describe and evaluate the multi-store model of memory (16)
AO1:
-Consists of three stores: sensory register, short term memory, long term memory
-Sensory register: sense specific coding, capacity of all sensory experience, duration of less than 0.5s
-Short term memory: mainly acoustic coding, capacity of 7+-2 increased by chunking, duration up to 30s
-Long term memory: mainly semantic coding, potentially unlimited capacity, duration 30s-lifetime
-attention transfers info from sensory register to STM. Maintenance rehearsal keeps info in STM, and
transfers it to the LTM. retrieval of info from LTM to STM
AO3:
-Supporting evidence:
Baddley: found that when ppts recalled lists of words immediately they made the most mistakes with
acoustically similar words, whereas after 20 minutes it was semantically similar words that they made
more mistakes on.
This supports the multi store model of memory that suggests that acoustic coding is used in STM, and
semantic coding is used in LTM
-Supporting evidence:
Jacobs: provides supporting evidence for the MSM and the limited capacity of STM. The study measured
digit span and found that the average digit span for letters was about 7, and about 9 for numbers. This
supports the idea that STM has a limited capacity of 7+-2. This limited capacity also supports the MSM in
that the STM has different features compared to the LTM, which has a potentially unlimited capacity,
unlike what this study shows us. This study therefore provides supporting evidence for the MSM
-Oversimplification:
portrays STM and LTM as unitary stores, but research suggests that they’re made up of multiple
components. In LTM, research on brain damaged patients suggests that there are 3 types of LTM:
episodic, semantic, procedural, which have different functions. In STM, the WMM model portrays STM
as an active process that involves multiple stores, each with a different cognitive function. By grouping
different types of LTM together, and different stores in STM together, the MSM fails to explain the
complexity of memory. This oversimplification therefore reduces the extent to which it can accurately
explain how memory works.
Outline and evaluate research into duration of short term memory (8)
AO1:
-Peterson and Peterson:
participants are given a trigram (three-letter nonsense syllable) and then asked to count backwards from
a certain number for a specified time. They are then immediately asked to recall the original trigram
-after 3 secs 80% recalled accurately but after 18 secs, less than 10% recalled accurately = STM has
limited duration
AO3:
-artificial task so lacks mundane realism - recalling trigrams doesn't reflect how memory is used in
everyday life = low ecological validity = reduces the extent to which the results from this study can be
generalised to duration of STM in real life
-control over extraneous variables like maintenance rehearsal by ppts counting backwards before recall.
This increases the internal validity as we can be more sure that the accuracy of recall was only affected
by the time before recall, rather than an extraneous variable. This increases the extent to which we can
be certain that the results accurately depict duration of STM
AO1:
-Consists of three stores: sensory register, short term memory, long term memory
-Sensory register: sense specific coding, capacity of all sensory experience, duration of less than 0.5s
-Short term memory: mainly acoustic coding, capacity of 7+-2 increased by chunking, duration up to 30s
-Long term memory: mainly semantic coding, potentially unlimited capacity, duration 30s-lifetime
-attention transfers info from sensory register to STM. Maintenance rehearsal keeps info in STM, and
transfers it to the LTM. retrieval of info from LTM to STM
AO3:
-Supporting evidence:
Baddley: found that when ppts recalled lists of words immediately they made the most mistakes with
acoustically similar words, whereas after 20 minutes it was semantically similar words that they made
more mistakes on.
This supports the multi store model of memory that suggests that acoustic coding is used in STM, and
semantic coding is used in LTM
-Supporting evidence:
Jacobs: provides supporting evidence for the MSM and the limited capacity of STM. The study measured
digit span and found that the average digit span for letters was about 7, and about 9 for numbers. This
supports the idea that STM has a limited capacity of 7+-2. This limited capacity also supports the MSM in
that the STM has different features compared to the LTM, which has a potentially unlimited capacity,
unlike what this study shows us. This study therefore provides supporting evidence for the MSM
-Oversimplification:
portrays STM and LTM as unitary stores, but research suggests that they’re made up of multiple
components. In LTM, research on brain damaged patients suggests that there are 3 types of LTM:
episodic, semantic, procedural, which have different functions. In STM, the WMM model portrays STM
as an active process that involves multiple stores, each with a different cognitive function. By grouping
different types of LTM together, and different stores in STM together, the MSM fails to explain the
complexity of memory. This oversimplification therefore reduces the extent to which it can accurately
explain how memory works.
Outline and evaluate research into duration of short term memory (8)
AO1:
-Peterson and Peterson:
participants are given a trigram (three-letter nonsense syllable) and then asked to count backwards from
a certain number for a specified time. They are then immediately asked to recall the original trigram
-after 3 secs 80% recalled accurately but after 18 secs, less than 10% recalled accurately = STM has
limited duration
AO3:
-artificial task so lacks mundane realism - recalling trigrams doesn't reflect how memory is used in
everyday life = low ecological validity = reduces the extent to which the results from this study can be
generalised to duration of STM in real life
-control over extraneous variables like maintenance rehearsal by ppts counting backwards before recall.
This increases the internal validity as we can be more sure that the accuracy of recall was only affected
by the time before recall, rather than an extraneous variable. This increases the extent to which we can
be certain that the results accurately depict duration of STM
