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    Multi-store memory model

    记忆多重存储模型

    Model
    Also called
    Atkinson–Shiffrin model, modal model of memory, multistore model of memory

    Proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968: information first enters a sensory register, selected items pass to a short-term store, and control processes such as rehearsal copy them into a relatively permanent long-term store, from which they can later be retrieved.[1]

    Select a box or arrow for details. Box sizes and spacing are schematic.

    Where “18 seconds” comes from: Peterson and Peterson (1959)

    Participants heard a three-consonant syllable, then counted backward from a number to block rehearsal and recalled the syllable at a signal. Eighteen seconds was the longest delay tested, not a fixed lifespan of short-term memory. Data from Experiment II, vocal group.

    Schematic of the three stores and main control processes as Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) described them; below, Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) data behind the “18 seconds.” Point at or tap parts of the figure for details
    Schematic of the three stores and main control processes as Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) described them; below, Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) data behind the “18 seconds.” Save as image (PNG)

    Key points

    • By their estimates, a visual image fades from the sensory register within several hundred milliseconds, unrehearsed items leave the short-term store within about 15–30 seconds, and long-term storage is relatively permanent.[1]
    • It separates fixed structure (the stores) from control processes that people choose to use, such as coding, rehearsal and search strategies; most of the 1968 chapter studies the latter.[1][3]
    • The often-quoted “18 seconds” comes from Peterson and Peterson (1959). With rehearsal blocked by counting backward, 18 seconds was their longest delay; recall had fallen to about 15%.[2]
    • Baddeley and Hitch’s (1974) working memory model, which splits short-term memory into several parts, is often presented as a revision or a rival.[3][4]

    An example

    On the phone, Lin hears a six-digit code and repeats it under her breath while looking for a pen. Once it is written down she stops repeating it, and it is soon gone. Her childhood address she still knows decades later. The code was held in short-term memory by rehearsal; the address is in long-term memory.

    Misreadings and limits

    Textbooks often draw it as a one-way pipeline with fixed numbers such as “18 seconds.” The original stresses that information flows both ways between short- and long-term memory, and its decay times are rough estimates.[1][3] Waugh and Norman (1965) also found that short-term forgetting depended mainly on how many new items intervened, not on seconds.[3]

    Sources

    1. 1 Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In K. W. Spence & J. T. Spence (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 2, pp. 89–195). Academic Press. doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60422-3
    2. 2 Peterson, L. R., & Peterson, M. J. (1959). Short-term retention of individual verbal items. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58(3), 193–198. doi:10.1037/h0049234
    3. 3 Malmberg, K. J., Raaijmakers, J. G. W., & Shiffrin, R. M. (2019). 50 years of research sparked by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). Memory & Cognition, 47(4), 561–574. doi:10.3758/s13421-019-00896-7
    4. 4 Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). 8.1 How memory functions. Psychology 2e. OpenStax. View source

    Last checked against sources: October 26, 2026