The multi-store model – Atkinson and shiffrin (1968) * The model consists of three stores * Sensory store, a short term store and a long term store
The sensory store * Information from our surrounding (e.g. visual or auditory) initially goes into the sensory memory. However it is only when you pay attention to it that it will be encoded and enter through into the short term memory * Holds information for a fraction of a second
Atkinson and shiffrin proposed three separate sensory store to accommodate different kinds of input * Iconic store for visual input (see) * Echoic store for auditory input (hear) * Haptic store for tactile input (feel/touch)
The short term memory * The short term has finite capacity and duration. * For the information to be passed on into the long term memory it must be rehearsed. * Items in the short term memory is mainly held as sounds
Long term memory * The long term memory is infinite and information remains stored in there forever.
Cognitive psychology – Human memory

KEY WORDS
Encoding – the way in which info is represented in the memory store, eg by sound, meaning or image
Capacity – the amount of info that can be held in memory at any one time
Duration – the length of time that memory can be held

Evidence for sensory memory - Sperling (1960)
Sensory memory – a set of limited capacity, modality – specific store that hold info for a very brief period of time * Used 3 rows of letters which he displayed for a brief exposures (50 milliseconds) to his participants * Participants were immediately asked to recall as many of the letters as possible * They could only recall 4 or 5 * The reason the participants could only recall 4 or 5 items in the whole report technique is because the image of the whole array fades during the time it takes to report back these 4 items.
For example
Its a bit like trying to read the credit that roll up the screen at the end of a film – while you are paying attention to one name, others are disappearing off the screen

| Capacity | Duration | Encoding | Forgetting | STM | Limited (approx 7 items) | Very limited | Mainly acoustic (by sound) | Mainly displacement | LTM | Unlimited | Unlimited (up to a lifetime) | Mainly semantic (by meaning) | Mainly interference |
Differences between STM and LTM
KEY WORDS
Displacements – A type of forgetting where the items currently in the limited capacity STM are pushed out before being transferred to LTM to make room for incoming items
Interference – A type of forgetting where info stored in LTM is confused with similar info
STM – A temporary store where small amounts of info can be kept for brief period; it is fragile store and info can be lost easily
LTM - A permanent