multistore model of memory

Multistore model of memory
“Outline the key features of the multistore model” (6 marks)
The multistore model of memory (R Atkinson and R Shiffrin 1968) suggests that memory is constructed of three separate stores; sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Sensory memory is made of the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste). The sensory memory is constantly receiving information but not paying attention to it so it is not remembered. For information to enter short-term memory it must be attended to, however STM is very fragile and without rehearsal information will be lost. Once this information is rehearsed it is then able to enter LTM which is limitless, the information is now stored there for retrieval later.

"Outline and evaluate the multi store model of memory" (12 marks)
The multistore model of memory (R Atkinson and R Shiffrin 1968) suggests that memory is constructed of three separate stores; sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Evidence to support the limited duration of the sensory store was collected by Sperling(1960). In this study participants were shown a set of digits for 50 milliseconds then asked to recall them recall was higher when participants were asked to remember less words. This shows that the information that gets stored in sensory memory decays rapidly. Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) produced a study to back up the distinction between STM and LTM. They did this by using a serial recall test, they discovered that participants remembered most of the words from the beginning and the end of the list. This was because words at the beginning of the list a recalled more effectively to be placed in LTM however the words at the end of the list were more recent and stored in STM for participants to recall. The multi memory store model make the process of memory oversimplified, since the first suggestion of it in 1968 many other psychologists have elaborated on the model as new technologies have become available to show that memory is not as simple as these three steps. The model indicates that ther is one STM and one LTM when by studying amnesia patients we can see that there is more depth to LTM; semantic memory, episodic memory, procedural memory, perceptual-representation. Some amnesia patients remember different types of information stored in LTM but not all types showing that there are many branches to LTM. Overall the main idea about the multistore model of memory is correct, however it is not as simplistic as the original model by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin.