OUTLINE AND EVALUATE THE MULTI-STORE MODEL. (paper 1)
In the MSM, the senses pick up information and automatically sends it to the sensory
register which has an unlimited capacity. The information here decays after a fraction of a
second unless it is acknowledged. If acknowledged, the information is passed to the STM
where it is coded acoustically and only 7+-2 items can be stored. With maintenance
rehearsal, information will stay in STM for 18-30 seconds. To get this information to LTM,
which has an unlimited capacity, you must rehearse it repeatedly using the rehearsal loop.
Here, information is coded semantically and will stay here for a lifetime. You may retrieve
info from LTM to STM in order to be available for conscious thought.
Evidence to support the MSM comes from Clive Wearing who, due to encephalitis could no
longer transfer new memories from STM to LTM suggesting the two stores are separate like
the model depicts because the damage is affecting the transfer of information. However,
Clive’s case shows that LTM is more complex than a unitary store as his procedural was
intact but his episodic had been damaged suggesting the MSM is too simplistic.
Another piece of evidence to support the MSM comes from Baddeley who found that during
brain scans, the prefrontal cortex was active for STM whereas it was the hippocampus that
was active for LTM suggesting they are in fact in separate parts of the brain. However, MSM
has been criticised for only focusing on the structure of the memory rather than the
processes that allow for memory making it a limited explanation.
A final piece of evidence to support the MSM comes from Glanzer and Cunitz who found
that we remember more words from the start and the end of a list of words suggesting that
words from the start have gone into LTM and the words from the end are in STM. However,
this study was an artificial lab experiment and so does not reflect everyday life and so
cannot be used alone in explaining memory.
In the MSM, the senses pick up information and automatically sends it to the sensory
register which has an unlimited capacity. The information here decays after a fraction of a
second unless it is acknowledged. If acknowledged, the information is passed to the STM
where it is coded acoustically and only 7+-2 items can be stored. With maintenance
rehearsal, information will stay in STM for 18-30 seconds. To get this information to LTM,
which has an unlimited capacity, you must rehearse it repeatedly using the rehearsal loop.
Here, information is coded semantically and will stay here for a lifetime. You may retrieve
info from LTM to STM in order to be available for conscious thought.
Evidence to support the MSM comes from Clive Wearing who, due to encephalitis could no
longer transfer new memories from STM to LTM suggesting the two stores are separate like
the model depicts because the damage is affecting the transfer of information. However,
Clive’s case shows that LTM is more complex than a unitary store as his procedural was
intact but his episodic had been damaged suggesting the MSM is too simplistic.
Another piece of evidence to support the MSM comes from Baddeley who found that during
brain scans, the prefrontal cortex was active for STM whereas it was the hippocampus that
was active for LTM suggesting they are in fact in separate parts of the brain. However, MSM
has been criticised for only focusing on the structure of the memory rather than the
processes that allow for memory making it a limited explanation.
A final piece of evidence to support the MSM comes from Glanzer and Cunitz who found
that we remember more words from the start and the end of a list of words suggesting that
words from the start have gone into LTM and the words from the end are in STM. However,
this study was an artificial lab experiment and so does not reflect everyday life and so
cannot be used alone in explaining memory.
