Models of memory Matt Jarvis Hodder & Stoughton © 2017

Defining memory Memory of what we are currently thinking about Memory of how to do things Memory for finding our way around We have many types of memory Memory for facts Memory of events Hodder & Stoughton © 2017

The multistore model Developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in the 1960s The main idea is that we can think of memory as a series of stores Each store has different characteristics Hodder & Stoughton © 2017

Evaluation of the multistore model For There are case studies of brain-damaged patients who have either severely impaired short-term memory and almost normal long-term memory or vice versa There are experiments showing that information appears to move from a store in which it is accessible as long as attention remains on it to a permanent or at least very long-term store Against The idea of short-term memory appears too simple as there is evidence showing that different types of information (audio, visual, etc.) are handled separately The idea of long-term memory also appears too simple as there is evidence to show that people can suffer damage to one or more types of long-term memory, e.g. for facts, events or skills, without impairment to the others Hodder & Stoughton © 2017

A modern view of long-term memory Three long term stores have been proposed: Procedural memory Memory for skills Episodic memory Memory for events Semantic memory Memory for facts However, these do not really function separately. To remember going to the beach (episodic) you still need to know what a beach is (semantic). Hodder & Stoughton © 2017

A modern view of short-term memory Working memory has replaced the old idea of short-term memory. It differs in having several stores Hodder & Stoughton © 2017

Conclusions The multistore model set the future of memory research by establishing the principle of separate stores The modern view of long-term memory sees separate systems for semantic, episodic and procedural memory The modern view of short-term memory sees separate systems for processing different types of information Current research suggests that our understanding of short- and long-term memory are too simple Hodder & Stoughton © 2017