The Multi-Store Model of Memory

How do we remember?

Memory is how we take in, keep, and get back information. Psychologists explain it with the multi-store model, which says memory is made of three separate stores that information passes through: the sensory register, the short-term store and the long-term store. This module follows information as it moves from one store to the next.

Three memory processes

Whatever the store, memory uses three processes:

Short-term or long-term?

The stores differ in how they code information, how much they hold, and how long they hold it. Compare the two main stores:

Match the process to its meaning

Which store?

Which store has an unlimited capacity and can last a lifetime?

• The long-term store
• The short-term store
• The sensory register
• None of the stores

How information flows

Information from the world first enters the sensory register through the senses. If we pay attention, it passes into the short-term store. If we rehearse it, by repeating it, it transfers into the long-term store. When we need it again, we retrieve it from the long-term store back into the short-term store. Without rehearsal, information in the short-term store is soon forgotten.

Match the store to what it does

True of the short-term store?

Select the TWO statements that are TRUE of the short-term store.

• It has a limited capacity
• Information is kept in it by rehearsal
• It has an unlimited capacity
• It codes information mainly by meaning

Follow the information

Put the stages in order, following information as it moves through the multi-store model.

• Information arrives through the senses
• It enters the sensory register
• Attention moves it to the short-term store
• Rehearsal transfers it to the long-term store

Complete the model

Maya is sent to the shop without a list. She reads the items off a note by the door, and those printed words reach her _____ register first. She repeats them under her breath the whole way there, and that repeating is called _____. At the shop she still forgets the last item, which shows that the short-term store has a _____ capacity. The way there gives her no trouble at all, because the route is already held in her _____ store, ready for her to _____ whenever she needs it.

The memory stores

Tap the TWO statements that are TRUE.

• The long-term store has an unlimited capacity.
• Rehearsal transfers information from the short-term store to the long-term store.
• The sensory register can hold information for a lifetime.
• The short-term store codes information mainly by meaning.
• Retrieval means turning information into a form that can be stored.

Everyday memory

Use the multi-store model to explain each everyday example.

• You look up a phone number and repeat it over and over to keep it in mind. Which process is this?
• A memory from years ago is still there when you need it. Which store is it held in?
• A sight vanishes almost instantly because you did not pay attention to it. Which store held it?

Describe the model

In English, describe how information flows through the multi-store model of memory, from the senses to the long-term store. This is written in English and is not auto-marked.

• Name the three stores in order
• Explain what moves information from the sensory register to the short-term store
• Explain what moves information from the short-term store to the long-term store
• Describe the capacity and duration of the long-term store in words