Compare And Contrast Two Models Of One

One type of cognitive process is memory. Memory has the ability to recover information about past events or knowledge. Memory refers to the processes that are used to obtain, store, retain and later retrieve information. Two models of memory processes are long-term memory system and multi-store memory model. One model of memory is the long-term memory system. The long-term memory system is created of two different systems of memories. The basic separation is between Explicit, also called declarative memories, and Implicit, also called non-declarative memories. Explicit memories are consisted of fact-based information that can be consciously retrieved. The Explicit memory is divided into sub-categories. These are: semantic memory, which is a memory for general knowledge, episodic memory, which is memory for personal events and experiences. The second type of memory system is called implicit memories. Implicit memory is based on memories that we are not conscious or aware of. Implicit memory is also divided into sub-categories such as procedural memory and emotional memory. Procedural memory is non-conscious memory for skills, habits and actions. Emotional memory seems to be formed in the limbic system and they may persist even after the brain damage.

The case study of HM was carried out by Milner and Scoville (1957). Researchers were studying amnesia. HM was nine years old when he suffered from head injury. Aftermath of his head injury was an epileptic seizure. In order to stop the seizure doctors decided to remove tissue from his lobe, including the hippocampus. After the surgery HM was able to recall his past but he was unable to form new memories. HM suffers from anterograde amnesia which is the failure to store memories after trauma. He is able to have normal conversations but he cannot recognize people’s faces and does not remember the present. HM was studied for 44 years before he was put into the MRI scanner. In 1997 the researchers used the MRI scanner which showed the HM’s affected areas of his brain. By using the MRI scanner the researchers are able to have better chance of testing which areas are damaged instead of speculating. The second model of memory is the multi-store model. The multi-store model of memory is based on three stages: Sensory memory, Short-term memory and Long-term memory. The Sensory memory is related on different senses such as hearing and vision.

First sensory input stays in sensory memory for a few seconds. The rest of sensory input decays in sensory memory and only small part of it flow into short-term memory. Then selective attention is needed in order to send the information into short-term memory. The short term memory has to be rehearsed in order to encode and retrieve the information and send into the long–term memory. In Short term memory the unnecessary information is displaced and in long term memory is not available and is lost. The short-term memory capacity is limited to around seven items and its duration around 6-12 seconds. The differences between long-term memory and multi-store model are following: the strength of the long-term memory system is that it can be accessed, as opposed to short-term memory, as shown by studies. This seems to support the multi-store model.

Long–term memory model includes emotions and experiences while multi-store model is excluding emotions and it’s based on rehearsal, encoding and retrieval. The multi-store model is very simplistic and reflects the knowledge available in 1960s. The brain does not store memories in one unified structure in either of the two models. Basically different types of memory are stored in different regions of the brain. The everyday experience of memory problems is the problem of failed recall, forgetting which is common in both two models as well. In conclusion the long-term memory and multi-store model share common memory problems such as forgetting and they differentiate in their working processes through deferent sub-categories.