Memory

Part 1: Defining memory, Atkinson-Shiffrin’s multi-store model of memory

Year 9 Psychology
Have a think of the following questions:
What is memory? How does it work?
 MEMORY: ENCODING, STORAGE AND
RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION

• When human memory works properly, effective encoding leads to orderly

storage, and orderly storage enables easier retrieval.
• Definition of memory: encoding/processing, storage and retrieval of
information acquired through learning.
• Memory is essentially a neurological representation of some prior event or
experience.
 MEMORY: ENCODING, STORAGE AND
RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION
• Encoding: the process of converting information into a useable form
so that it can be represented and stored in memory.

• Storage: the retention of information in memory over time.

(retention: to retain or to keep)

• Retrieval: the process of locating and recovering the stored

information from memory so that we are consciously aware of it.
 MEMORY: ENCODING, STORAGE AND
RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION
To further study memory, Psychologists have come up with a number of
models trying to describe and explain our memory and how it works.

• Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model (we will focus on this :)

• Baddeley and Hitch’s model of working memory
• Craik and Lockhart’s levels of processing framework
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model(1968)
• One of the earliest models of memory
• Proposed that memories are formed sequentially and information passes
from one component to another in a linear (straight line) fashion.
• The model represents memory as consisting of three separate
components: the sensory register, short-term store and the long-term store.

(Don’t need to copy down the diagram below)

5-9
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model
• Below is a contemporary representation of the Atkinson–Shiffrin multi-store
model showing the transfer of information through the memory stores.
• The original model refers to short-term memory as ‘working memory’ and the
two terms are often used interchangeably.
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model
We will look at the following key components in more detail:
• Sensory memory:
Iconic & echoic memory
• Short-term memory (STM):
Duration, capacity, maintenance & elaborative rehearsal, chunking
• Long-term memory (LTM):
Procedural & declarative memory
 Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model
Sensory memory
•The entry point of memory, where new incoming sensory information
is stored for only a short period of time
•The information is retain as an exact copy of the information (‘raw’,
original sensory form). I.e., the information has not been processed yet.
•Unlimited storage, but with very limited duration (think about how
long can you remember a picture when it is first shown to you. Or think
about how long you can remember something a person said to you)
•Iconic memory (1/3 of a second) and echoic memory (4 seconds)
 Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model
Sensory memory
Read only:

• It can be difficult to pay attention to so much sensory information!

• Therefore, it can be difficult to test due to the short duration (by the
time you write it down, the memory is gone).
• Information about the capacity of sensory memory is based on
Sperling’s research in 1960. He tried to find a way to test the capacity
by avoiding the limitations of the duration.
 Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model
Sensory memory
Iconic memory:
• Icon (a Greek word, meaning image)
• Iconic memory describes visual sensory memory, which is, the brief sensory memory for
incoming visual information.
• Retained for about a third of a second.

• Read only:
George Sperling, American psychologist, in 1960, conducted the best-known experiment on
iconic memory. Participants stared at a screen and rows of letters were flashed very briefly—for
just 1/20th of a second. Then, the screen went blank. The participants then immediately repeated
as many of the letters as they could remember seeing. He also completed a series of experiment
later involving rows of letters and different pitch tones sounded to the participants. Subsequent
research by other psychologists has found that the typical duration of iconic memory is about 0.2
to 0.4 seconds (Cowan, 1995)
Photographic memory
• If you find yourself learn and remember things better after seeing it, then you
might be a photographic learner.
• Using various visual strategies and/or aids can help you remember things
longer. Eventually, you might still remember less and less and the memory
starts to ‘fade’.
• However, there are people with perfect photographic memory in the world.
Let’s try it now!

How good is our photographic memory?

You’ll need a pen and paper to write some responses down.
Questions
1. What colour is the girl’s dress?
2. Where are the girl’s arms?
3. Is the cat looking to its right or its left?
4. How many red flower ‘spikes’ are there?
5. What colour is the girl’s hair?
6. How many stripes are there on the bottom of the girl’s
dress?

If you correctly answered all these questions, then you may

have eidetic memory.
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model
Sensory memory
Echoic memory:
• From the word ‘echo’
• Echoic memory describes auditory sensory memory, which is, the brief sensory memory for
incoming auditory information. (You can think of sound lingering as an echo)
• Retained for about 3 to 4 seconds.

Why is echoic memory way longer than iconic memory?

• We need the longer time to process what we hear and make sense of it. The relative longer
duration of echoic memory is important for understanding speech. You perceive speech by
blending successive spoken sounds you hear.
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model
Sensory memory
Activity: How bad is your auditory memory? Please close your eyes for the first round.
Start from 42s in (See if you get tricked )
Question time!!
Type of sensory memory Duration

Iconic memory About 0.2 to 0.4 seconds

(1/3 of a second)

Echoic memory About 3 to 4 seconds

Have a think:
Are there any benefits of these specific durations?
Considering the many trillions of bits of information detected by our
senses everyday and in our lifetime, if we processed everything that
reached sensory memory, it would probably lead to confusion,
frustration, ‘sensory overload’ and inefficiency in daily living.
Sensory memory conclusions
• Although sensory memory stores ALL information provided
by our sensory receptors. The information fades rapidly in the
sensory registers, so much so that we are rarely aware of our
capability for storing sensory information.
• Sensory memory also works as a filter to keep out irrelevant
and unimportant information.
• When you attend to information in sensory memory, it is then
transferred to the short-term memory (STM). Only the
information selected for transfer to STM receives further
processing.
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model