Outline and Evaluate the Multi-Store Model

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The multi store model describes memory in terms of information flowing through a system. It can be described as a model with an input, process and output. There are three different memory stores: sensory memory; short-term memory; and long-term memory. Information reaches our sensory memory through our senses, and has a very small capacity, of maybe 1-2 items, and duration of only half a second. To transfer the information into the short-term memory store, we must pay attention to it. The short-term memory store has a capacity of 7+/-2 items and duration of up to 90 seconds. To keep information in the short-term store, we use maintenance rehearsal, or to transfer it into the long-term store (which has an unlimited capacity and duration), we use elaborative rehearsal. If we do not rehearse the information, it will be lost from our short-term store, and if we want to bring back information from our long-term store, we use retrieval. Each store encodes information in different ways, with the short-term store visually and acoustically encoding information, and the long-term store using semantic processing (giving information meaning). The multi-store model does not take into account people with brain damage or amnesia. For example, a man called KF was studied, who had brain damage. When he was asked to repeat after the researcher, he was unable to do it, (acoustic) but when he was asked to say what he could see in the picture, he was able to do it (visual). This suggests that the short-term store does not use acoustic processing, but visual. The model suggests rehearsal helps to transfer information into LTM but this is not essential. It does not explain why we able to recall information which we did not rehearse (e.g. gossip from a celebrity magazine) yet unable to recall information which we have rehearsed (e.g. reading your notes while revising). Therefore, the

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