The Rehearsal Loop allows the rehearsal of information resulting in it being transferred into either the Long Term Store, or due to maintenance rehearsal, the information will be able to stay stored in the Short Term Store. The main characteristics of the Short Term Store are its size, which is limited and can only store up to seven pieces of information (plus or minus 2) at a given time, its duration, which is less than thirty seconds, and its encoding, favouring acoustic sounds (recognising information by how its sounds). The main and contrasting characteristics of the Long Term Store are again its size, which is unlimited, its duration, which is a lifetime, and its encoding, favouring semantic forms (recognising information by its meaning). The theory of the Multi Store Model claims that the memory consists of two separate storage areas. Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) came up with the theory of the “Serial Positioning experiment”.
In addition information in the short term memory store is encoded acoustically; this theory is supported by Conrad’s 1964 case study where an experiment was conducted that confirmed Atkinson and Shiffrin’s theory that the STM encodes information acoustically. Their findings showed after rehearsal the info is transferred from the STM to Long term memory store if not rehearsed information is lost through decay. When in the LTM, the material can last for up to a lifetime when rehearsed or is of semantic value. LTM encodes information that is semantic. There are many strong points to consider in terms of the multi store model of memory.
Findings from neuropsychological studies support the view that the capacities for retaining the two types of information are separable. These studies have demonstrated existence of normal phonological, but disrupted semantic effect on short-term memory tasks, and vice versa (Hanten & Martin, 2000; Martin & Saffran, 1997; Patterson, Graham & Hodges, 1994). Collette et al. (2001) carried out a positron emission tomography (PET) study contrasting brain regions activated during serial recall of word vs. non-word lists in which the lists were composed of either one or three items. Combining across the word and non-word lists, greater activation was seen for the three items compared to one item memory load condition in the left medial frontal area, the anterior cingulate gyrus, the left thalamus and the left insula.
However if the information receives attention, it will pass on to short term memory. The information held in short term memory is in a fragile state. The information is rehearsed and the information stays since it is in the 7+-2 capacity for short term memory. By maintenance rehearsal, the information can be transferred to long term memory. In long term memory there is a much larger capacity and the duration is possibly lifelong.
They found that participants recalled more words from the beginning (the primacy effect) and the end of a list of words (the recency effect). This suggests that the earlier words in the list had been transferred to long term memory and that words later in the list were still in short term memory. Terry (2005) tested recall for serial position effects in the recall of television adverts which supports earlier laboratory experiments. Case studies such as the case of Clive Wearing have also been used to support the existence of different memory
New information that enters the short term store displaces (pushes out) any information that is already there, meaning that information that is not rehearsed and passed to the long term store is forgotten. When information enters the long term store (also know as long term memory) it remains there for up to a life time (Bahrick et al, 1975). The capacity of the store is potentially unlimited, and encoding is primarily in a semantic format (information is stored by its meaning). Evaluating the multi-store model The multi-store model has fairly high face validity. This means that at first impression it seems to offer a plausible explanation as to how information passes through memory and is either stored or forgotten.
The information from the sensory memory will then be encoded and passed into short term memory. Short term memory has scarce capacity and duration nevertheless if the information is processed further by rehearsals, then it can be transferred to long term memory. The capacity and duration of the long term memory is unlimited whereas short term memory has a short duration and can only hold small amounts of information. Various studies have been performed to support this; Glanzer and Cunitz illustrated a functional dissociation where they gave their participants list of words presented one at a time and tested their free recall. Some participants were asked
A controlled process does require undivided attention and an amount of mental effort is usually needed. The stroop effect is the observation that it takes longer to name the colour of the ink a word is printed on if the word names a different colour than it does to identify a block of colour. The experiment relates to characteristics of normal waking consciousness. The Independent variable is the use of the automatic process, the list of 25 words that’s colour is correspondent to the
If attended to this information enters the short term memory. Information from the STM is transferred to the long-term memory only if that information is rehearsed. If rehearsal does not occur, then information is forgotten, lost from short term memory through the processes of displacement or decay. Sensory Memory • Duration: ¼ to ½ second • Capacity: all sensory experience (v. larger capacity) • Encoding: sense specific (e.g. different stores for each sense) Short Term Memory • Duration: 0-18 seconds • Capacity: 7 +/- 2 items • Encoding: mainly auditory Long Term Memory • Duration: Unlimited • Capacity: Unlimited • Encoding: Mainly Semantic (but can be visual and auditory) Evaluation of the Multi-Store Model Strengths Many memory studies provide evidence to support the distinction between STM and LTM (in terms of encoding, duration and capacity).
Outline the multi-store model and working memory model The multi-store model of memory is when information appears in Sensory Memory if attention is given to this it transfers to Short Term Memory, if the information is then rehearsed; it appears in the Long Term Memory. If at any time attention or rehearsal is not given to the information the trace decays and so because of this, we forget, however this need for rehearsal for transference into the Long Term Memory has been criticised as some information can be retained without any form of rehearsal. Within the multi-store model of memory, both Long Term Memory and Short Term Memory differ from each other in various ways; the duration of short term memory is 18 seconds, where as the duration of long term memory is a lifetime. The capacity of short term memory is found to be 7 + OR – 2, compared to long term memory’s unlimited capacity. As far as coding is concerned, there are also differences between short term and long term memory; short term is acoustic and long term is semantic.