Multi-Store Model and the Working Memory Model

declarative memory

Memory of facts and events that can be consciously recalled ("knowing what"); it includes both episodic memory (memory of specific events that have occurred at a given time and place), and semantic memory (general knowledge, in the form of both schemas and facts, that is not linked to time and place)

procedural memory

The unconscious memory of skills and how to do things ("knowing how")

Multi-Store Model

An explanation of memory, developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin, based on three separate memory stores (sensory, short-term and long-term), and how information is transferred between these stores. It also argued that short-term memory is limited in both capacity and duration.

sensory memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

attention

The focusing of mental resources on select information

short-term memory (STM)

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is either stored in long-term memory (LTM) or forgotten

rehearsal

The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in short-term memory or to encode it for storage in LTM.

rehearsal loop

To transfer information from STM into LTM, you must rehearse the information through the rehearsal loop a number of times so it becomes 'remembered'

retrieval

The process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored in long-term memory

long-term memory (LTM)

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system in the brain

Miller's Magic Number

7 +/- 2, which Miller (perhaps not entirely seriously) said was the approximate number of items of information we can hold in our short-term memory. Later research, including fMRI studies, indicate the number may be more like 4.

chunking

Combining small pieces of information into larger clusters or chunks that are more easily held in the available short-term memory slots

serial position effect

Our tendency to recall best the first items on a list (known as the primacy effect), along with the last items on a list (known as recency effect); it is seen as part of the evidence in favor of the Multi-Store Model

primacy effect

Tendency to remember information at the beginning of a body of information better than the information that follows (except that which comes at the end). This may reflect the opportunity for rehearsal of the first items, and possibly an early transfer into longer-term memory.

recency effect

Tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well. This is probably because the most recent items are still in our limited short-term memory (STM) store.

Working Memory Model

A newer understanding of short-term memory, proposed by Baddeley and Hitch, that argues STM is not a single store of memory but instead made up of two types of STM (auditory and visual-spatial information), and interaction with information that is retrieved from long-term memory (LTM). The model includes additional elements, too, such as the central executive and episodic buffer.

central executive

The part of Alan Baddeley's model of working memory that oversees the visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop, and episodic buffer; it is responsible for shifting and dividing attention

phonological loop

Repetition of verbal and auditory information to aid with encoding it into memory, as part of the Working Memory Model

visuospatial sketchpad

Creating mental images to remember visual information, as part of the Working Memory Model

episodic buffer

Part of Baddeley's Working Memory Model, it temporarily holds several sources of information active at the same time, while you consider what is needed in the present situation. This means - auditory and visual information together, as well as information from long-term memory.

dual task paradigm

A procedure in experimental Psychology that requires an individual to perform two tasks at once, in order to compare performance with single-task conditions; typical findings: if the tasks use different systems (for example, visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop), both are minimally affected, but if they use the same system, performance suffers significantly (which indicates support for the Working Memory Model view of STM)