Describe and evaluate the multi-store model of memory - Essay Example

This essay will focus on the “multi-store model of memory developed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin in the year 1968” (Kipp & Shaffer, pp. 300, 2009). Multi-store memory model revolves around three basic types of memories, namely, “sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory” (Nash & Bernstein, pp. 209, 2006). Therefore, it is essential to understand the types in detail. Many a times, one realizes that they have seen an object and have a picture of it in their mind.

However, within a fraction of a second, it fades away. Other times, one asks another to repeat a certain thing just to realize they know it already. These instances depict the sensory memory. According to an experiment, when subjects are asked to report all the three letters they can see in a brief flash of a letter array, they usually can report only four of five letters. The number of reported letters is independent of the number of displayed letters. However, according to demonstration of a partial-report procedure, subjects are able to store a dozen or more items in a very short-term memory" (Gegenfurtner & Sperling, pp. 1, 1999). Another type of memory is the short-term memory.

Whenever a person is thinking about a certain situation, their short-term memory begins its functioning. At any one time, the short-term memory may get its input from the external environment i.e. the surroundings of a person or from the long-term memory of that individual. An example of the former case may be a thought process of a conversation a person is into while the example of the latter may be the thoughts occurring about an event that happened in the distant past, which may be stored in the long-term memory.

The short-term memory of any individual may show increment by recoding information. “Miller (1956) summarized evidence that people can remember about seven chunks in short-term