The Multi-Store Memory Model
In the picture featured above you can see the Multi-Store memory model. This diagram is an explanation of memory that sees information flowing through a series of storage stores. You can see that the model is composed of three main stores: sensory, short term memory and long term memory.
The first store is the sensory store. Here we hold information such as impressions and data from our senses for a short-duration of time. We pass sensory stimuli from the environment through the sensory store. Within the sensory store there are five stores, one for each of the senses. The main stores are for the iconic and econic senses.
The second memory store is the short term memory. This is a temporary store for holding small amount of data from brief periods of time. This is known as a limited capacity store of memory. Maintenance rehearsal occurs when information is repeated over and over again - this is the only way information can be kept in the short term memory. Longer periods of rehearsal leads to the information to pass to the long term memory. The final store is called the long term memory. This is a permanent store holding unlimited amounts of information. Memories that have been rehearsed for a long period of time are stored in the long term memory. When we want to recall information from out long term memory we to transfer it back to the short term memory by a process called retrieval. No memories can be recalled straight form the long term memory.
One limitation of the multi-store memory model is that the multi-store model suggests that the short term memory is a unitary store - there is one type of short term memory. Studies of people who have suffered from amnesia suggest that there could be another short term memory store specifically for non-verbal sounds (such as noises). Study of a patient named KF with amnesia. KF's recall was very poor when digits were read aloud to him, but his recall was much better when he was able to read the digits to himself first. This suggests that there is at least one store for auditory information and one store for visual information - the multi-memory store suggests that there is just one. Because of this, the model is limited in terms of it's validity - the model cannot be used to accurately measure short term memory processes because it doesn't consider the different processes.
The multi-store memory model proposes that information is retained and transferred to the long term memory from the short term memory from maintenance rehearsal - the more information is rehearsed the more it is remembered. Craik and Watkins found that there is an elaborative rehearsal where new information is linked to pre-existing knowledge or rehearsal is based on thinking about what the new information means The multi-story memory doesn't consider this key process and is therefore limited in its applicability to studying real life memory. Because of this the multi-store memory model has limited application to when trying to understand memory because not all information moves to the long term memory as initially indicated by Atkinson and Shiffrin.
