Outline and Evaluate the Multi Store Model of Memory (12 marks)

A particular strength of this model is that it is supported by evidence from clinical amnesiacs, and as this is based on real people rather than experiments, it is more ecologically valid and therefore can be applied to everyday life. For example, H.M. underwent brain surgery to cure severe epilepsy but this resulted in the inability to transfer information from STM to LTM so that he could not form long term memories, supporting the concept that there are separate stores.

Other evidence to support  this model comes from medical technology such as MRI and PET scans which show different brain patterns when patients are performing tasks associated with STM and LTM, therefore showing there are separate stores in memory.

Empirical research also provides evidence of separate stores for example research on primacy-regency effect. Glanzer and Cunitz found that participants who were asked to remember lists of words could remember the first and last few words but the ones in the middle were more difficult. This supports the idea that there are separate stores as the first words in the list have been stored in LTM whereas the last words are still in.

However, much of the scientific evidence which supports multi – store lacks validity 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, so the results can not necessarily be applied to everyday life.

However, another weakness of this model is that it is a much too simple 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.

MSM 2008