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Models of Memory

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Outline and Evaluate Models of Memory. (12 Marks)
There are roughly four models of memory in total, but two stand out and are used in this particular specification.
Atkinson and Schifrin’s (1968) “Multi-Store Model” is one of them.

Their model suggests that the memory consists of three stores, a sensory store, a short-term store and a long-term store; all three have a specific and relatively inflexible function. It stressed that information for our environment such as the visual or auditory and haptic (by touch) initially goes into the sensory memory or empirical register. However, it has very limited capacity, and its duration is very brief, so if we do not notice this much we would forget it, but if we pay attention to it or think
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If we then decide to remember the information, it would then go back to the short-term memory where it would be rehearsed.
In the Long-term memory, information is encoded as declarative semantic or episodic according to Tulvig. It is also encoded as semantic memory as stated by Baddeley. The only problem with this is that the test lacks ecological validity as it was carried out in a laboratory, and that the study could be criticized in terms of demand characteristics where the people involved could have already known what results they were aiming for, in which case the results would be biased. There was also experimenter bias, as the person involved already knew what he was aiming for and didn’t allow for natural course of events. Also the group was not a representative of all the undergraduates tested. On a Positive note, the study has good reliability as the group was partially quite big.
This study has been supported by several theories and psychologists as well as statements.
The primacy effect supports this study, as it stresses that through research those who had to recall a list of items, recalled the first ones and last ones better than those through the middle as earlier items were rehearsed better and transferred to the Lon-term memory whilst later ones were in the short-term memory. As it also suggests, rehearsal was prevented by an interference task, meaning that the
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