Multi-store memory model
Memory can be analyzed as interacting sensory, short-term and long-term stores.
Model The classification describes how this account is used here; it is not an evidence rating.
Central claim
Information processing flows through structurally distinct sensory, short-term, and long-term memory registers that differ in duration, capacity, and forgetting mechanisms, coordinated by active control processes.
Proposed mechanism
Attention selects some sensory information; control processes such as rehearsal maintain it and connect it with longer-term storage. The model separates hypothetical stores from the strategies that move or preserve information.
Evidence: (Spielman et al., 2020)
What would it predict?
A delay with distraction should affect immediate recall differently from recall supported by established long-term knowledge. Distinct effects are more informative than a single overall memory score.
An original test formulation derived from the account, not a claim that this exact study was performed.
Evidence and status
OpenStax presents Atkinson and Shiffrin's (1968) multi-store model alongside evidence on brief sensory retention, short-term duration, and long-term consolidation. The architecture organizes a wide range of memory findings.
Evidence: (Spielman et al., 2020)
Major contributors
Richard Atkinson; Richard Shiffrin
A selective attribution, not a complete intellectual genealogy or a sole-founder claim.
Apply the explanation
Original teaching scenario
A new access code can disappear during an interruption, while a familiar home address remains available without continuous rehearsal.
Constructed for learning. This scenario does not report an empirical result.
Common confusion: Single-system or purely anatomical memory accounts
The modal model proposes functional stages and control processes such as rehearsal, not three literal anatomical compartments or a single undifferentiated memory trace.
Compare: Where does a dual-task cost come from?
Evidence: (Spielman et al., 2020)
Limits and alternatives
- The stores are functional proposals, not literal boxes in the brain. Repetition is not sufficient for all durable learning, and a single short-term store misses important differences between tasks.
Evidence: (Spielman et al., 2020)
Textbook connection
Direct coveragePsychology 2e: 8.1 How Memory Functions
This section directly discusses the account presented here. The profile is an original synthesis, not a reproduction of the textbook.
Related explanations
Compare: Where does a dual-task cost come from? · Inspect research methods
Sources and inspection notes
Checked October 21, 2026. An inspection date is not a publication date. Original experiments described by a textbook are not individually re-audited unless a separate primary source is listed.
- Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/8-1-how-memory-functionsTextbook section inspected, October 21, 2026
Supports the introductory account and historical framing. Does not independently verify every original experiment cited by the textbook.