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Multi Store Model

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Outline and evaluate the Multi Store Model (12 marks)
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) multi-store model of memory (MSM) shows the distinction between the separate unitary stores of sensory, short-term (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) and two processes (attention and rehearsal). All information passes through the system in a linear fashion.
External stimuli/ information first enter the sensory store directly from our five senses. It remains in the sensory store for a maximum duration of around 2 seconds before it decays and is replaced with new information. If information in the sensory store has been paid attention to then it can be passed on to the short term memory/store (STM).
According to George Millar (1956), the STM can store around 7 +- 2 chunks of information. It is encoded primarily in an acoustic format (Alan Baddeley, 1996) however it can also be encoded visually. Furthermore it remains there for around 12-30 seconds without being rehearsed. When there information is rehearsed it can remain there for as long as it’s being rehearsed (maintenance rehearsal) and will be able to stop any new information from entering the store. Transfer from the STM to the LTM is achieved through elaborative rehearsal. New information which enters the STM displaces any information which is already there; consequently the information which is not rehearsed and passed to the LTM is forgotten (decay occurs once again).
When information enters the LTM it can remain there for a life time (Bahrick et al, 1975) due to the capacity of the memory being potentially unlimited. Furthermore the LTM is encoded primarily in a semantic way (Baddeley, 1996).
A strength of the MSM can be identified as a model which has clear predictions about memory which means psychologists are able to conduct studies to test it. This is strength because psychologists need to be pushed into conducting research if they want to find out about human behaviour. Without research we would not be able to change the way we think about the causes of behaviour.
Secondly, another example of a strength of the MSM is that it provides an account for memory in terms of both structure and processes. The structures are the three stores, and the processes are attention and verbal rehearsal. Case studies of brain damaged patients can provide evidence for separate stores which function independently for example Clive Wearing. This case study was able to demonstrate how the STM and LTM are different stores as one of the stores is more impaired than the other, therefore illustrating that these therefore must be independent of one another.
However, a weakness of the MSM is that much of the scientific evidence which supports the MSM lacks validity and lacks mundane realism because it is carried out in a laboratory. This is an artificial environment and also the material participants have to remember is unlike information we have to remember in everyday life e.g. trigrams (Peterson and Peterson, 1959) , so the results can not necessarily be applied to everyday life
However, another weakness of this model is that it is reductionist; it is much too simple of an explanation of a complex process because it explains little about STM and LTM but merely describes them as fixed structures and does not take into account, for example, that there are different types of LTM e.g. procedural or episodic.
In conclusion, the MSM can be criticised for focussing to much on the structure and too little on process and can be seen as just a oversimplified description of the MSM.

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