- Describe the multi-store model
- Explain encoding, storage, retrieval
- Give reasons we forget
How Memory Works
You can probably remember your first day of school but not what you had for lunch last Tuesday. Memory is selective — and that’s a feature, not a bug.
The multi-store model (Atkinson & Shiffrin) describes memory as three stores: sensory memory (a fraction of a second), short-term memory (~30 seconds, ~7 items), and long-term memory (potentially unlimited). Rehearsal moves information along.
Key points
- Encoding: getting information in — deeper processing sticks better.
- Storage: keeping it — sleep consolidates memories.
- Retrieval: getting it back out — cues and context help.
- Forgetting: decay, interference, or motivated forgetting — and false memories feel just as real.
Loftus showed witnesses a car crash, then asked about the ‘smashed’ vs ‘hit’ cars. ‘Smashed’ witnesses remembered higher speeds — and later recalled broken glass that never existed. Words rewrite memory.
Practice
Without sleep and spaced rehearsal, little transfers to long-term memory; short-term memory fades within seconds to minutes.
Elaborative rehearsal: connect ideas to what you know, test yourself, use vivid examples — not just re-reading.
- Memory has sensory, short-term and long-term stores.
- Deep processing and sleep build durable memories.
- Forgetting comes from decay, interference and reconstruction errors.
- Memories can be false yet feel true.