Sample response

One model of memory is the “Multi-Store Model.” This model was the first to separate memory into sensory, short-term and long-term memory.  The model argues that we are bombarded with sensory stimuli.  When we pay attention to the stimuli they pass through sensory memory and into short-term memory.  There the information is held until either other information displaces it or, if we rehearse it, it is moved to long-term memory.  When we remember something, we are moving that information from long-term memory back into short-term memory so that it can be used. This simple model was supported by a study by Glanzer and Cunitz.

The researchers read fifteen lists of 15 words to participants and asked them to recall the words from each list in any order. The study used a repeated measures design. The words were read one at a time and then the participants were either asked to recall the words immediately after the list was finished, with a 10-second delay or with a 30-second delay. During the delays, the participants were asked to count backward from 100. When there was no delay, they found that participants remembered the first few words and the last few words on the list. This indicates that the words earlier on the list were most likely rehearsed and moved into LTM – what is known as the primacy effect.  The words at the end of the list were still in STM – what is known as the recency effect.  However, when they were asked to count backward, they only remembered the first few words on the list.  This shows that through rehearsal some of the words had been placed in LTM, but counting backward had displaced the information in STM.  This study is evidence that the Multi-store model is correct – and that long-term and short-term memories may be stored in different places and that information in STM may be displaced.

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