Cognitive Approach: Multi-Store Model Flashcards

a cognitive process used to encode, store, and retrieve information

Proposed by Atkinson and Schiffrin; proposed that human memory consists of three memory stores: sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory.

each store is a unitary structure and has its own characteristics in terms of duration and capacity

Receives information through the sensory stores

• sensory memory has a large capacity, but a very brief duration
• info held only lasts for fractions of a second
• attention is required from info to move from sensory memory to short-term memory
• Attention: information that is not tended to decays and is forgotten

Where we hold information we are currently paying attention to

• has a capacity of 7+/- 2 chunks of information at once, Millers magic number (1956)
• capacity can be increased through chunking: converting a string of items into a number of larger chunks
• information held in short-term memory only last for approximately 30 seconds
• information in short-term memory only enters long-term memory through rehearsal
• If rehearsal does not occur; information if forgotten and lost through displacement or decay

Place for storing large amounts of information for indefinite periods of time

• has unlimited duration and capacity
• elaborative rehearsal is the process of relating information to prior knowledge, making the information meaningful, thus making it easier to store for a longer period of time.
• retrieval of information from long-term memory may be impossible at times, the memory is intact, but unreachable, so in turn forgotten

There are two types of long-term memory: explicit memory and implicit memory

Information that can be intentionally and consciously recalled; you have to consciously work to remember

Our unconscious, automatic memory; do not have to actively recall

• Simple explanation and model
• Easy to test
• Research supports assertions of separate stores

• Reductionist approach to explain memory
• Doesn't account for other factors involved in memory formation
• rehearsal is not enough to explore transfer of information into long-term memory

Clanzer and Cunitz (1966): serial position effect