The retention of a small amount of information for a brief period of time. It can hold information for 15-20 seconds and can hold 5-7 items.

Short-term memory (STM)

Can hold a lot of information for years (even decades). Sometimes described as an archive of information.

Long-term memory (LTM) 

The retention of sensory information for a very brief period of time. An initial stage of memory that holds information for seconds or fractions of seconds.

Sensory memory

Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. Working memory is important for reasoning, learning and comprehension. Some of the manipulation of information takes place in working memory

Working Memory

Identifying some kind of stimuli that was previously present.

Recognition memory

- Short-term Memory
- Long-term Memory
- Affective System
- Motor System
- Sensory memory
- Working memory
- Recognition memory

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The “modal model” of primary and secondary memory, developed in the 1950s and 1960s, suggests that 	active information is held in a short term, limited capacity store of short-term memory, and that processing this information results in development of long-term memory. Most evidence at the time suggested short-term and long-term information being stored in different parts of the brain.

The Modal Model

Proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974, this model serves as an alternative to the more linear Atkinson-Shiffrin model. It conceptualizes short-term memory as a dynamic, multi-component working memory system. A key distinction is its inclusion of a feedback loop, suggesting a more interactive relationship between short-term and long-term memory. The model features a central executive that manages several specialized short-term systems: the visuospatial sketchpad for visual data, the phonological loop for auditory and written material, and the episodic buffer, which integrates information. This structure facilitates the active processing and manipulation of information before its potential transfer to long-term memory.

Baddeley and Hitch's Working Memory Model

Novak, J. D. & A. J. Cañas, The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them, Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, 2008, available at: http://cmap.ihmc.us/docs/pdf/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf

The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Amnesiac patients are often unable to retain information long-term, but can perform short term memory tasks well, which supports the idea that short-term and long-term memory use different structures within the brain. However, recent research has also shown that amnesic patients struggle with short-term memory related to complex or related stimuli, which has led researchers to believe that parts of the brain damaged in amnesia may be related to both short-term and long-term memory. Other patients seem to have problems with short-term memory, while their long-term memory remains intact.

Research Supporting the Modal Model

Recent research suggests that, rather than having a deficit in short-term memory, these patients have a general problem with encoding non-semantic information, in both short-term and long-term memory. Research does not support short term and long term memory being entirely independent from one another. Eventually, the modal model was rejected, and in its place, two different perspectives emerged. One perspective explores the processes supporting short-term memory, while the other explores how short-term processing and long-term performance are related.

Research Rejecting the Modal Model

Memory Systems of Brain ("Structural features")

Cognitive processes that a person can use to exert some sort of control over their memory (i.e. rehearsal). They
- 1) strategies that make things more memorable
- 2) strategies for attention (where to focus)

Control processes

This model has been supported in many ways by cognitive neuroscience that followed it, but research has also led experts to believe that brain mechanisms for retaining material short term exist in more domains than the visuospatial and phonological (p. 116). To account for this, Baddeley in 2000 proposed an additional, less specific component referred to as the “episodic buffer” (p. 116-117).

Research Supporting the Working Memory Model

Other researchers argue that information located in working memory is comprised of contents from long-term memory that are activated. Those who take this stance believe that activation of representations is affected by processes of attentional selection, so constraints on attentional focus limit the capacity of people’s short-term memory. Evidence for this view has also been observed in neuroscience studies. This more general perspective conceives of working memory as not located in a specific brain system, but rather in short-term activation of neural systems that serve other functions, which are coordinated by attention to achieve a goal

Research Challenging the Working Memory Model

In Baddeley and Hitch's model, storing memories in short-term memory is analogous to opening different files on a computer and adding information to them. Similar to how a computer file holds a limited amount of data and is formatted for a specific type of information, working memory has a limited capacity and uses distinct systems depending on the type of information received.

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