Multi-Store Model of Memory

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Memory is to do with how we encode, store and retrieve information. The multi-store model of memory was suggested by Atkinson and Shiffrin who said that we have 3 different memory stores: sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory and formed a linear model to demonstrate the process. A key aspect of the model is that the memory stores have different characteristics which include capacity, duration and encoding. Capacity refers to how much information that can be stored, duration is how long the memory lasts and encoding is how the memory is taken in and stored to be recalled later. We have sensory memory stores where information from the outside world is taken in unconsciously so if it is not looked at consciously it can be lost via decay as the duration is very short (possibly up to 2 seconds). It is a brief memory of things we have seen (iconic memory) and things we have heard (echoic memory) which help us make sense of the world. We can hold sounds in our sensory memory for a couple of seconds allowing us to hear whole sentences in speech. The majority of information is lost but what we pay attention to is passed on to short term memory. All of our senses – sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing – have a separate store within sensory memory. Sperling found that up to 9 items can be held at any one time in sensory memory after asking participants to remember some or all of letters using a tachitoscope. Short term memory is a temporary, limited capacity store and can hold 7 +/- 2 items according to Miller who called this ‘Miller’s Magic Number’. This capacity can be increased using chunking. Chunking is where we add smaller pieces of information together to make larger ‘chunks’ to make things easier to remember, for example telephone numbers or vehicle registration plates. Once the short term memory is full, any incoming information displaces the
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