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Strengths and weaknesses of the multi-store model
Multi-store model has made an important contribution to memory research.
The information-processing approach: * Enabled psychologists to construct testable models of memory. * Therefore, provided foundation for later important work.
Most modern researchers would agree that there is a basic distinction to be made between a: * Short-term, temporary, limited-capacity store (STM), * And a more robust and permanent long-term memory (LTM). * As we have seen, there is plenty of evidence to support this distinction.
The Multi-Store Model is generally regarded as a good scientific practice to explain things in the simplest possible way that can account for all known facts.
It is too oversimplified, therefore fails to reflect to the complexity of human memory.
EXAMPLE:
* It takes no account of different types of things we have to remember. * It places great emphasis on amount of information we can handle at any one time but doesn’t explain the nature of information. * Some things are easier to remember than others because they are more interesting, more relevant, funnier etc.
Role of rehearsal in transferring material from STM to LTM is central in multi-store model.
However, there is considerable evidence that simple repetition is one of the least effective ways of passing on information.
EXAMPLE:
* Craik and Lockhart found that things are remembered better if processed semantically (i.e. in terms of their meaning).
* Kulik and Brown have described a special type of remembering called ‘flashbulb memory’, which is where the insignificant details surrounding highly emotional and shocking events (e.g. the destruction of