Outline and Evaluate the Multi-Store Model of Memory Essay Example

Outline and Evaluate the Multi Outline and Evaluate the Multi-Store Model of Memory Paper Outline and Evaluate the Multi-Store Model of Memory Paper Outline and Evaluate the Multi – Store Model of Memory ( 12 marks ) Information from the environment enters sensory memory, encoded through one of the 5 senses depending on the type of information. If attention is paid to this information it will enter short term memory ( STM )which, according to Miller, has a capacity of 7+/- 2 bits of information. It can last up to 18 seconds, without rehearsal, according to Peterson and Peterson. Baddeley found that information in STM is encoded mainly acoustically, although Brandimonte showed that sometimes it is done visually. If maintenance rehearsal takes place it will remain in STM or be forgotten through decay or displacement. Elaborative rehearsal will then transfer information into long term memory ( LTM ) which has unlimited capacity and, according to Bahrick, can last a lifetime. Baddeley found that LTM encodes mostly semantically. Information can be retrieved from LTM to be used in STM when needed and can be forgotten through decay or displacement. ( 157 words ) A particular strength of this model is that it is supported by evidence from clinical amnesics, 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. ( 75 words ) 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. ( 39 words ) Empirical research also provides evidence of separate stores for example research on primacy-recency 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 STM ( 77 words ) 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. rigrams, so the results can not necessarily be applied to everyday life. ( 60 words ) 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. ( 54 words ) There are 496 words in total.