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PSYCHOLOGY Y1
Worksheet:
r Studies on Multi-Store Memory Model

Name: Breanna Liao Score:

Level: Year 1 Date: April 22, 2022

Directions:
1. Fill out the table. (For the “strength” and “limitation” columns, provide one evaluation with justification.)
2. Answer “Additional Questions”

Study Outline Strengths Limitations

Aim: The study of Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) aims to The independent The participants were
identify whether the short-term memory and the long- variable, which was he limited to only 240
term memory are existent and, most especially, presence of the 30 army-enlisted men,
separate. second distraction task, which decreases
is highly controlled. representativeness
Glanzer and Cunitz With this, the internal and the population
Method and Design: The method used in the study was validity of the validity. Eliminating
(1966) an independent measures design. Since it was an experiment is high. The the capabilities of
experiment, the independent variable was the variable was very much women and people of
presence of the 30 second distraction task and the operationalized through other genders and the
dependent variable was the number of words correctly a specific task one outside environment
recalled from different parts of the list. group of a certain apart from the
condition has to do. military, we cannot
Participants: 240 army-enlisted men participated in the Surely enough, there generalize the serial
study, who were also divided into two separate will be changes to the position effect to other

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 conditions, none of which experienced both. The first results due to the people. Males in
condition required an immediate recall, while the independent variable. military might have
second condition had participants recall after a delay Additionally, we can some differences in
and distraction. say that the memory
independent variable characteristics due to
causes the dependent their special form of
Procedure: For first condition (immediate recall), half of variable due to the training. Additionally,
the participants were presented with recordings of 20- natural method of the memorizing a list of
word lists consisting of common one-syllable nouns. study being an words are forced and
They were asked to do a free-recall task for two experiment. A cause- tested upon the
minutes right after hearing the words from the and-effect relationship participants, which
recordings. Meanwhile, the participants in the second is established, offering may decrease
condition (recall after delay/distraction), which are the evidence of the two ecological validity.
other half, had to count backwards from a given separate mechanisms The fact that the
number for 30 seconds. This served as a filler task in of memory and participants were
between the end of the list of words and the start of supporting the multi- directly asked to
recall, causing delay and prevention of rehearsing the store memory model memorize a list of
words to be recalled. through the limited words, if is sure
variables. enough that these
Results: As the researchers are known for their study men have attempted
on serial position effect, the results from the first to do their best and
condition showed the said effect in its aspects, namely not necessarily their
the primary effect, wherein the participants were better natural way.
at remembering the words that the start of the list in the
recording, and the recency effect, which made recall
easier at the end of the list of words. The probability of
recall was from 0.50-0.75 during the first positions of
words on the list, and decreased to around 0.25-0.50
and 0.00-.25, eventually, it increased by the end of the
list, with 0.75-1.00 probability. The results from the
second condition showed that the participants were
able to preserve the aforementioned primacy effect,
but the recency effect had disappeared. A graph was
presented with the position of the word on the list as
the x-axis, while the probability of recall in the y-axis.

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 The first condition exhibited a U-shaped graph, while
the second condition had a similar start with the first,
but had a lower point by the end.

Conclusions: The researchers explained this result as

people tend to repeat the words they hear if given the
purpose of memorizing them. The first words on the list
to be memorized tend to get repeated and rehearsed
more often and they enter the long-term memory,
which is unaffected by the delay and the
aforementioned filler task. Even so, the latter part of
the list of words are not rehearsed enough. With the
lack of rehearsal, the trace of these last words in short-
term memory decreases in just 30 seconds, so the
recency effect fades away after the distraction. With
one effect disappearing while the other not, the idea of
the short-term memory and long-term memory being
separate memory storages is supported.

Aim: The study of Sperling (1960) aims to investigate The study highlights a Once again, the
the existence and duration of the sensory memory, in certain sensory artificiality of the
particular, the iconic memory, which serves as a memory, the iconic experiment explains
storage for visual information. memory, which adds the decreased
depth to the visual ecological validity of
Sperling (1960) information that we the study. There are
Method and Design: The method used in this study attain. Additionally, they some aspects of the
was a laboratory experiment, with an independent were able to control the experiment that
measures design. The participants were divided into possible confounding people do not
two separate conditions, none of which they have variables by providing typically apply or use
encountered both: the whole-report condition and the the same letters and in their everyday
partial-report condition. The independent variable was same tones of sound to situations, such as
the part required to memorize, while the dependent the participants. the tachistoscope,
variable was the recall percentage of the words from Through this, the the assignment to

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 both conditions. construct validity of the which only a certain
study is relatively high. row should be
memorized, and
Participants: No set of characteristics or sampling different tones of
technique was specified in the study, as long as the sound that signify
participant was able to perform the experiment without which row was to be
predetermined knowledge regarding the procedure. It memorized. The
was inferred that each participant has the “multi-store participants were
memory model.” tested; therefore, it
was implied to their
Procedure: Sperling used the “partial-report technique” minds that they were
in his experiment. The participants from both expected to do well or
conditions were presented with a tachistoscopic image at least do their best
of a 3x4 grid of alphanumeric characters, which was in their conditions.
flashed for only 50 milliseconds. This lessens the
generalizability of the
study to other cases
The participants in the whole-report condition were in our daily lives
tasked to write down all characters in the image where people simply
according to their positions. In the ones that are not take in varied
certain, they were asked to guess. On the other hand, information in
the participants in the partial-report condition were only different situations.
required to write down one of the rows from the image. This study can be
The instruction assigning which row to recall was done applied to a school
through a sound, which was released 50 milliseconds setting only per se,
after the visual presentation. Therefore, the where students are
participants saw the grid image first before knowing definitely required to
which row in the grid to take note of. The high tone memorize a certain
indicated the top row, the middle tone for the middle set of information at a
row, and the low tone for the bottom row. certain point.

Results: The participants in the whole-report condition

were able to recall an average of 4 out of 12
alphanumeric characters (35%). Meanwhile, the
participants in the partial-report condition were able to

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 recall an average of 3-4 characters from the assigned
rows. With the fact that the row which the participants
should pay attention to was randomly selected right
after the presentation of the image, 75-100% of the
entire grid was accessible to the partial-condition
participants.

Conclusions: With the multi-store memory model, we

can conclude from this experiment that after we have
been exposed to visual information, its trace stays in
our memory for a short period of time. If paid attention
to, some parts of this trace can be transferred into the
short-term memory. If not, the information gets lost.

Aim: The study of Craik and Tulving (1975) aims to The study supports the The small number of
investigate how the levels of processing, shallow or idea of Craik and participants may
deep, affect recall. Lockhart (1972) that influence a difficulty
memory is not simply a for the study to be
structured model to generalized to other
Method and Design: The method used in this study enhance it, it requires people and settings,
Craik and Tulving was an experiment, with a repeated measures design other strategies to do
(1975) decreasing population
and an independent measures design. The repeated so. The way the and ecological
measures design allowed the participants to go researchers in the validity. These 20
through the same condition at first, and the study operationalized participants, although
independent measures design right after required the each level of inclusive to both men
participants to respond to a free-recall task or a processing was high and women, have
recognition task. With this, the variables present would and of-quality and the gone through a
be the structural processing questions, phonetic response of the tedious and lengthy
processing questions, and the semantic processing participants being amount of time in the
questions. In addition, the different tasks provided to limited to “yes-or-no” experiment proper.
the participants would be a variable that change the and enumeration surely This may influence
course of the experiment. quantifies the them to be
dependent variable. knowledgeable than

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 Participants: As it was presented in the research report With all these expected, knowing
itself that apart from the two procedures presented considered, the that the next step
above, there are a total of 10 experiments done, the construct validity is would offer to them. A
participants were relatively small, with a total of 24 high. bias may be raised in
males and females, all of which went through the 10 this issue in terms of
experiments. how they will respond.
It is hard to apply this
in the real-world
Procedure: In the first part of the procedure, all of the situation, knowing
participants were presented with 60 words one-by-one that they are well-
using a tachistoscope for 200 milliseconds. Before aware that they are
showing each word, the researchers asked one of the taking tests. The
three types of yes-or-no questions, each pressure for them is
operationalizing a different level of processing: the on a different level,
structural processing and the phonetic processing, most especially that
which are both shallow processing, and the semantic the contents of these
processing, which is a deep level of processing. The tests are not the
participants were asked with one of such type of usual. Overall, it may
questions, then the word is revealed, before they were be difficult to
required to press of the buttons, either yes or no, to generalize the study
respond. A whole list of words has been prepared for due to the procedure
the participants. being inapplicable
and the participants
In the second part of the procedure, they went through being limited from
either one of the two tasks: the free-recall task, others.
wherein they were to recall all the 60 words from the
list they can in any order, or the recognition task,
where they were given a longer list of words, a total of
120 distractors and the original 60, and required to pick
out the ones they had seen earlier.

Results: The memory performance for significantly

most of the participants from both conditions were
better for the words preceded by a “semantic
processing” question. Words that were processed
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 semantically had the highest rate of accurate recall.

Conclusions: The results of the study show that the

strengthening of memory traces in the long-term is not
only because of rehearsal but also through the levels
of processing. The deeper the information is
processed, the more likely it is to be remembered. The
long-term memory is a function of how the information
was processed at the stage of encoding.

Additional Questions:

1. What is the practical implication of the findings in Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) study? How is such information
relevant in our lives?

The findings in the study of Glazner and Cunitz (1966) show that the serial position effect, which includes the
primacy and recency effect, allows individuals to emphasize knowing the first and last parts if given a set of
information. This knowledge is relevant in our every lives in terms of our desire to highlight a certain part to
persuade others. As a student, for example, I would want to make an impactful start and end of my speeches and
recitations. With this, people are able to remember me and my response through the effect of the information of the
start and the end brings to others. Through the primacy and recency effect, we are able to convey information in
the ways we wish to by putting a certain order to how we send out information.

2. What are the criticisms about the Multi-Store Memory Model? Provide at least three (3) and explain the importance
of each criticism.

Let us test the multi-store memory model on the primary basis of the definition of memory, which is a cognitive
process where information flows from different stores that encode, store, and retrieve information.

A. The multi-store memory model is structure-oriented, rather than highlighting the process of memory.

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 Although memory highlights that different stores that contribute to the flow of information, the model only
emphasizes a part of the definition, which is the transfer of memory from one store to store, but gets lost in the
most valuable aspect of memory, which is the process to which information flows not only from one point to another
but also in various points. It is important to take note of this criticism as memory should not be boxed into structures
and storage, and should be studied in terms of different levels and a wider branch of processes.

B. It suggests that only rote rehearsal enables the transfer of memory from short-term to long-term.
In connection to the first point of criticism, the model specifies a specific criterion, which includes the duration and
capacity of the storage of memory, so that it could be transferred. It is difficult to simply limit this transfer of memory
from one point to another based on a well-defined requirement, such as attention and rehearsal. It is important to
take note of this criticism because it should be inclusive of other cases when other people would remember certain
things. The studies presented above provided results that are relatively positive, but this, I believe, is due to the
rehearsal and test-oriented nature of the experiments. We must be able to apply the model in scenarios that do not
necessarily require rehearsal but simply remembering a certain matter.

C. The multi-store memory model only flows in one direction, from the sensory memory to the long-term
memory.
It can still be argued that information can flow in the opposite direction of the model. As mentioned in our
Psychology book, chunking occurs in the short-term memory. However, we question how can chunking occur with
its origin already from the long-term memory. With chunking coming from prior knowledge, it requires access from
the long-term memory. Semantic processing at the stage of encoding is not possible without the long-term memory.
Given the semantic processing question “Is a certain word a type of fish?” per se, one who need to go back to their
prior knowledge of the different kinds of fish. If memory simply goes as the sensory memory to long-term memory,
we cannot then explain how we are able to respond to questions that would light up information from the past.

D. The long-term memory is not simply a unitary store.

The levels of processing surely support this criticism, as long-term memory could go in various forms: episodic,
procedural, and semantic. It is valuable to acknowledge this criticism as we are individuals who encounter different
forms of information, which would require different forms of processing and understanding. With this, we must be
able to expand the model, if possible, to cater to these wide range of information and processing.

E. The multi-memory memory model is oversimplified.

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 The storages in the model could not be simply be defined as for example: “STM” for short-term memory and “LTM”
for long-term memory. This should be further derived with subcomponents based in the different senses we use to
achieve such memory. Similar to the point of criticism before this, we must allow the model to provide solutions for
the forms of information that differ from the usual. We all live with different kinds of information, so we must be able
to respond to these in the sophisticated yet matched manner.

F. It is not inclusive to memory distortion.

There are cases wherein memory is not as clear to be applied to this model, such as cases of people with amnesia
and other disabilities of memory. It is valuable to adjust the model into another that allows us to understand the way
these kinds of people think and process the information they take in. With this, we are not limiting ourselves to a
standard of one-size-fits-all in terms of processing but also expand the way we think of ourselves and others.