Briefly outline the multistore model of memory (6 marks)

The Multistore Memory Model was proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. It is made up of 3 stores: the sensory register, the short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). Information is detected by the sense organs and is sent to the sensory register. The sensory register has a very small duration of only ¼ - ½ a second, but it has the capacity to obtain all sensory experience. If the information in the sensory register is given attention it then enters the short-term memory. The short-term memory has a slightly larger duration of up to 18 seconds without rehearsal (according to Peterson and Peterson 1959), but this is still quite short. The capacity of the short-term memory was investigated by Miller (1956), who found that the short-term memory can obtain 7 +/- 2 items of information. If this information is not rehearsed or consolidated it will decay and we will forget it. Rehearsal techniques include the "chunking" of several pieces of information into fewer "chunks" of information, which is often used to help us remember our phone numbers and bank card numbers. If the information is consolidated it can then enter the long-term memory.The long-term memory has a potentially unlimited duration and capacity, and it is from this store that information can be retrieved and used.