AQA · A-Level · Psychology
Course version: 7182-2025 · Exams from 2027
The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and…
Full specification wording
Memory: The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration.
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) pictured memory as three boxes: information arrives at the senses, attention passes it on, and rehearsal transfers it.
Checked against the AQA 7182-2025 specification (opens in a new tab) on .
- Point 1 of 4
- 4 key terms
Study notes
From the checked teaching notes for this specification point.
The idea
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) pictured memory as three boxes: information arrives at the senses, attention passes it on, and rehearsal transfers it. The sensory register codes by modality (e.g. iconic, echoic), has a huge capacity (Sperling), but a duration under half a second. Coding: Baddeley (1966) found short-term memory codes acoustically and long-term memory codes semantically. Capacity: Miller (1956) put the short-term span at seven plus or minus two chunks, against an effectively unlimited long-term store. Duration: Peterson and Peterson (1959) found short-term recall collapsed after 18 seconds without rehearsal, while Bahrick (1975) found 70% accuracy on faces after 48 years. Evaluation carries most marks: patient KF had a damaged verbal span but an intact visual one, so the short-term store cannot be one box.
What earns the marks
- Names the three stores in order and the two processes between them, attention into the short-term store and rehearsal into the long-term store.
- Sensory register: codes by modality (e.g. iconic for visual, echoic for auditory), has a very large capacity (Sperling), and a duration of less than half a second.
- Coding stated separately for the other stores, credited with Baddeley (1966): acoustic confusions immediately, semantic confusions after a delay.
- Capacity stated as seven plus or minus two chunks for the short-term store (Miller) and as unlimited for the long-term store.
- Duration stated as roughly 18 to 30 seconds unrehearsed (Peterson and Peterson) against up to a lifetime (Bahrick, 48 years).
- Evaluation: KF had poor recall of spoken digits but normal recall of visual material, so the short-term store is not one unitary thing.
- Evaluation: the single rehearsal route is too simple, since prolonged rehearsal can leave no lasting trace and elaborative processing produces one without it.
Common mistakes and how to put them right
Giving one feature for one store and moving on; the marks are for coding, capacity and duration named for the sensory register, the short-term store and the long-term store.
Confusing maintenance rehearsal, which holds material in the short-term store, with the prolonged rehearsal that Atkinson and Shiffrin said transfers it.
Quoting Miller's span as seven items rather than seven chunks, which loses the point that chunking is what makes the span stretch.
Using KF as evidence against the long-term store when the case is about the short-term store having more than one part.
Exam tips
- In extended essays, evaluation carries more weight than description, so keep the tour of the three stores concise to leave time for analysis.
- Use a case study as an argument rather than a story: say what the patient could and could not do, then say what that proves about the model.
- If the command word is 'outline', evaluation earns nothing, so do not spend time on it.
Try the lesson
The start of the Memory: The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration. lesson, made from checked teaching notes for this specification point.
Have a go first
According to the multi-store model of memory, what is the primary method of coding in short-term memory?
Listen
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) pictured memory as three boxes: information arrives at the senses, attention passes it on, and rehearsal transfers it. The sensory register codes by modality (e.g. iconic, echoic), has a huge capacity (Sperling), but a duration under half a second. Coding: Baddeley (1966) found short-term memory codes acoustically and long-term memory codes semantically. Capacity: Miller (1956) put the short-term span at seven plus or minus two chunks, against an effectively unlimited long-term store. Duration: Peterson and Peterson (1959) found short-term recall collapsed after 18 seconds without rehearsal, while Bahrick (1975) found 70% accuracy on faces after 48 years. Evaluation carries most marks: patient KF had a damaged verbal span but an intact visual one, so the short-term store cannot be one box. A strong answer earns marks for these points. Names the three stores in order and the two processes between them, attention into the short-term store and rehearsal into the long-term store. Sensory register: codes by modality (e.g. iconic for visual, echoic for auditory), has a very large capacity (Sperling), and a duration of less than half a second. Coding stated separately for the other stores, credited with Baddeley (1966): acoustic confusions immediately, semantic confusions after a delay. Capacity stated as seven plus or minus two chunks for the short-term store (Miller) and as unlimited for the long-term store. Exam tip: In extended essays, evaluation carries more weight than description, so keep the tour of the three stores concise to leave time for analysis.
See it
Put the events in order
Put these events in the order they happened, earliest first.
- 1. Peterson and Peterson found short-term recall collapsed without rehearsal
- 2. Miller put the short-term span at seven plus or minus two chunks
- 3. Bahrick found high accuracy on faces decades later
- 4. Baddeley found short-term memory codes acoustically and long-term semantically
- 5. Atkinson and Shiffrin pictured memory as three boxes
Watch it explained
What is the one idea the video explains? Say it in a sentence.
Read the described scene instead
Atkinson and Shiffrin pictured memory as three boxes in sequence: the sensory register, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Information arrives at the senses, attention passes some of it on, and rehearsal can transfer it further. Each store differs in coding, capacity, and duration. The sensory register codes by modality: iconic for visual input, echoic for auditory input. Sperling showed its capacity is very large, but its duration is less than half a second. So information must be attended to quickly or it is lost. Short-term memory codes acoustically: Baddeley found immediate confusions between similar-sounding words. Its capacity is seven plus or minus two chunks, according to Miller, and chunking is what lets the span stretch. Peterson and Peterson found unrehearsed recall collapsed after about eighteen seconds. Long-term memory codes semantically: after a delay, Baddeley found confusions between similar-meaning words. Its capacity is effectively unlimited. For duration, Bahrick found seventy percent accuracy on faces after forty-eight years, so long-term memory can last up to a lifetime. Patient KF is useful only if you say what it proves. KF had poor recall of spoken digits but normal recall of visual material. That pattern is difficult for a single short-term box. It suggests short-term memory is not one unitary store, which challenges the model's simple structure. Do not give one feature for one store and move on; coding, capacity, and duration should be named for each store. Keep maintenance rehearsal, which holds material in short-term memory, separate from prolonged rehearsal, which Atkinson and Shiffrin said transfers it. Also, Miller's span is seven chunks, not seven items. And KF is evidence about short-term memory, not long-term memory. To recap, coding, capacity and duration separate the sensory register, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Attention and rehearsal are the transfer processes. Evaluation matters: KF shows short-term memory is not unitary, and the single rehearsal route is too simple because prolonged rehearsal can leave no lasting trace while elaborative processing can produce one without it.
Key words
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Coding
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Capacity
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Duration
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Rehearsal
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See every definition
- Coding
- One of the features of each store, alongside capacity and duration, with short-term memory coding acoustically and long-term memory coding semantically.
- Capacity
- One of the features of each store, alongside coding and duration, with the short-term span at seven plus or minus two chunks against an effectively unlimited long-term store.
- Duration
- One of the features of each store, alongside coding and capacity, with short-term recall collapsing after 18 seconds without rehearsal.
- Rehearsal
- The process that transfers information into the long-term store.
Label the diagram
Some boxes have lost their names. Pick the right name for each number.
1Box 1
2Box 2
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