Multi-Store Model of Memory: Key Features

Multi-Store Model of Memory

• Developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968.
• An information processing model.
• A linear model.
• Represents memory as passive stores.
• Consists of sensory register, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Three Key Features of Each Store

• Coding: The format in which information is stored.
• Capacity: The amount of information each store can hold.
• Duration: How long information is retained in each store.

Sensory Register

• Coding: Modality-specific, meaning it depends on the sense organ (e.g., visual, auditory).
• Capacity: Potentially unlimited, very large.
• Duration: Extremely short, around 250 milliseconds.

Short Term Memory

• Coding: Primarily acoustic (sound-based).
• Capacity: Approximately 7 items, plus or minus 2.
• Duration: 18-30 seconds.

Long Term Memory

• Coding: Primarily semantic (meaning-based).
• Capacity: Potentially unlimited, very large.
• Duration: Potentially unlimited, very large.

Moving Information Between Stores

• Attention: Transfers information from the sensory register to short-term memory.
• Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information to keep it in short-term memory, aiding transfer to long-term memory.
• Elaborative Rehearsal: Connecting new information with existing knowledge in long-term memory to enhance memory encoding..
• Displacement: New information pushes out older information in short-term memory.
• Decay: Information fades over time without rehearsal.

Research Evidence for the Multi-Store Model

• Glanzer (1966): The primacy-recency effect points to separate processes for long-term and short-term memory.
• Sperling: Demonstrating the large capacity of sensory memory through partial report experiments, showing a capacity greater than short-term memory.
• Baddeley: Demonstrated acoustic coding in short-term memory and semantic coding in long-term memory by comparing recall of word lists.
• Jacobs: Empirically showing the capacity of short-term memory to be similar to 7 items +/-2.
• Miller: Introduces the concept of chunking, explaining how items can be mentally grouped together to increase short-term memory capacity.
• Peterson & Peterson: Using trigrams and a backward counting task, determined the duration of short-term memory.
• Wagenaar: His long-term memory study of his diary showed high recall after a year and 5 years, highlighting the capacity of long-term memory.
• Bahrick: Using photographs of school friends, his study supports the high recall duration of long-term memory even after an extended time, demonstrating potentially unlimited duration.

Additional Evaluations

• Limitations of research: Many studies are artificial, lacking ecological validity and mundane realism.
• Inference: Inferences about memory based on experimental behaviour can be inaccurate.
• Evolutionary theory: The large capacity and short duration of the sensory register aligns with evolutionary principles and our need to rapidly process sensory information.
• Simplicity of the model: The model is overly simplistic, as short-term and long-term memory are not entirely passive or unitary. Modern views recognise a more active role in both types of memory.
• Face validity: Some assumptions, like the fixed capacity of short-term memory, lack face validity. Memories for smell and taste are possible in the long-term, differing from the model's predictions.

Explore the Multi-Store Model of Memory proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. This quiz covers the coding, capacity, and duration of the sensory register, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Test your understanding of this fundamental information processing model.