Model of Memory

The Multi Store Model (MSM) is an explanation of how memory process works. It was first described by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shriffin in 1968. It has three components to it; which are Sensory memory, Short term memory (STM), Long term memory (LTM). Information from the environment is enters the sensory memory, and is encoded through the sense organs but only lasts for 0.5 seconds. If attention given the information passes to STM, which has 7+/-2 according to Miller and it can last up to 18 seconds as there is evidence provided by Peterson and Peterson (1959). If maintenance rehearsal is done, the information stays in the STM and eventually decays or get displaced whereas if an elaborative rehearsal is done then the information gets transferred to the LTM. It has an unlimited capacity and can last forever. Baddely discovered that the LTM mostly encodes semantically in 1966. The information can be retrieved from the LTM and place in STM, which can be displaced or decayed with time. Although the MSM is quite useful, it has some strengths and weaknesses.

One of the strengths is that there are evidences that support the stores of the MSM. For example the limited duration of the sensory store was collected in the study of Sperling in 1960. Medical technology such as MRI and PET scans which shows different brain patterns when patients are performing tasks associated with STM and LTM supports that there are two types of memory as the brain patterns differ for STM and LTM.

On the other hand there are weaknesses such as the MSM model is a linear model with information flowing from STM to LTM. However, Loggie (1999) pointed out that STM relies on LTM and cannot always comes first as the MSM suggests. For example you cannot chunk AQABBCITVIMB unless their meanings are not retrieved from LTM first. This idea is further justified by Ruchkin (2003). He demonstrated this by asking participants to recall pseudo-words. Brain activity was monitored and they found

...