The Working Memory Model and Multi-Store Model

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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. The multi-store model of memory is the first attempt into explaining the way that memory works and has led to further research into memory being undertaken but this explanation of memory is overly simplistic due to its one way system of memory. Lab research to support the multi-store memory was carried out by Peterson and Peterson; in their study, participants were presented with a trigram consisting of 3 consonants which they were asked to recall in the correct order after a delay of 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds. Rehearsal of the trigram was prevented by counting backwards in 3s from a random 3 digit number. The findings of Peterson and Peterson’s research were that after 18 seconds, fewer than 10% of the trigrams were remembered by the participants. Although Peterson and Peterson’s research as lab experiments are scientific, controlled,

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