Outline and evaluate the multi-store model of memory

by thenainoji (student)

AS and A Level Psychology

Outline and evaluate the multi-store model of memory (12 marks)

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model suggests that long-term memory and

short-term memory are like hypothetical stores of information. They believe

that memory has three stages; sensory memory, short-term and long-term

memory. Information first enters sensory memory where it undergoes encoding

and then transfers to short-term memory. Once there it’s rehearsed or verbally

repeated in order to undergo further encoding before being transferred to

long-term memory, otherwise it will decay.

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A big aspect of the model was rehearsal; information can’t reach long-term

memory unless it’s rehearsed. The more it’s rehearsed, the longer the memory

will be as the trace becomes stronger.

The model has been criticised as lacking ecological validity because the

evidence for the model comes mainly from laboratory based experiments using

meaningless verbal data.

It’s also criticised as being simplistic; the model assumes that both short and

long term memory consist of individual stores made up of one component each,

but research into the working memory model has demonstrated ...

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A big aspect of the model was rehearsal; information can’t reach long-term

memory unless it’s rehearsed. The more it’s rehearsed, the longer the memory

will be as the trace becomes stronger.

The model has been criticised as lacking ecological validity because the

evidence for the model comes mainly from laboratory based experiments using

meaningless verbal data.

It’s also criticised as being simplistic; the model assumes that both short and

long term memory consist of individual stores made up of one component each,

but research into the working memory model has demonstrated that short-term

memory possibly consists of different components.

Peterson and Peterson’s research supports the role of rehearsal. They found that

when groups of participants were asked to recall words from a list, but were

prevented from rehearsing them by having to count backwards in threes, recall

dropped from 80% after a three second interval, to 20% after an eighteen

second interval, suggesting that rehearsal is necessary to embed information in

the LTM. This is a strength of the model in its views on rehearsal.

One weakness of the model is that the model is oversimplified. It assumes there is only one long-term store and one short-term store. This has been disproved by evidence from brain damaged patients, suggesting several different short-term stores, and other evidence suggesting different long-term stores.

Another Strength of the model is that people with Korsakoff’s syndrome (amnesia that’s mostly caused by chronic alcoholism) provide support for the model. They can recall the last items in a list (unimpaired recency effect), suggesting an unaffected STM. However, their LTM is very poor. This supports the model by showing that STM and LTM are separated stores.

Second weakness of the model is that in the model, information is transferred from STM to LTM through rehearsal. But in real-life people don’t always spend time rehearsing, yet they still transfer information to LTM. Rehearsal is not always needed for information to be stored and some items can’t be rehearsed.

Gursharan Singh