Outline and evaluate the Multistore Model of Memory.

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Outline and evaluate the Multistore Model

The multistore model is an attempt to explain how human memory processes and stores information. It was devised by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. They proposed that human memory consisted of three separate unitary stores that information flows through and is processed at each stage.

In the multistore model, a stimulus from the environment enters the sensory register and is processed echoically, iconically or haptically. If attention is paid, information is coded acoustically then transferred to short-term memory. To retain information in short-term memory for a limited time, maintenance rehearsal must take place. Information can then be maintained and transferred to long-term memory through elaborative rehearsal.  The information can then be retrieved for use in the short-term memory, once it has been coded semantically in long-term memory.

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There is empirical evidence to support the rehearsal process outlined in the multistore model. For example, in Murdoch’s 1962 study, he found that when participants were asked to recall a list of words, they could remember more words from the beginning and the end of the list, whereas words from the middle of the list were more likely to be forgotten. This is known as the primacy-recency effect. This supports the multistore model, as it shows the importance of rehearsal that is proposed in the model. Because the words at the beginning of the list are rehearsed and transferred to ...

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