Models of Memory — The Multi-Store and Working Memory Models

The cognitive approach treats the mind as an information processor, and no topic captures this idea better than the study of memory. Psychologists have long tried to explain how information moves from the outside world into a form we can store and later retrieve. Two influential models attempt to answer this question: the multi-store model of Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) and the working memory model of Baddeley and Hitch (1974). Both are theoretical constructs, meaning they describe processes that cannot be directly observed but are inferred from behavior.

The multi-store model (MSM) proposes that memory is made up of three separate stores connected in a linear sequence. Information first enters the sensory register, a very brief store that holds incoming sensory data for a fraction of a s