Memory is essential for human lives as it facilitates growth and learning among the people. Memory involves three key processes including the encoding, storage and retrieval. Understanding of how human memory works has is considered important because it enables conceptualization of the processes are involved in making an individual remember something. Various models have been developed by different experts to facilitate understanding of how memory works. One of the most famous models of memory is the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model. Atkinson-Shiffrin Model brings a unique approach of how human memory works ( Galli, 2014) . The model is also widely regarded as complete as it describes various processes that occur in human memory and the characteristics of the individual processes. Atkinson-Shiffrin Model is sometimes referred to as the multi-store model because it describes that the memory is composed of three different stores.
Components of Memory in the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model
Atkinson-Shiffrin’s multi-store model explains that there are three parts of memory storage; the sensory register, the short term memory and the long term memory. Atkinson-Shiffrin model describes the characteristics of each of the three stores of human memory. According to the model, information obtained from the environment reaches the sensory memory first ( Norris, 2017) . The information them moves to the short-term memory with the attention process involved. Information in the short-term memory can be easily recalled.
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Characteristics of the components
All the three components according to the model have distinctive characteristics that make them unique. Also, the difference in their characteristic also informs their interdependence components of the human memory.
The sensory store
The sensory store is the first store of the multi-store model and it involves obtaining information from the environment using any of the five senses, hearing, taste, smell, touch and sight. The information that is collected by the sensory receptors is then processed by the nervous system before it is then transferred to the short-term memory. The sensory store keeps the information for a very short time which is only long enough before the information is transferred to the short-term memory ( Norris, 2017) . The sensory store is crucially important because without it, the information in the memory cannot be obtained.
The first characteristic of the sensory memory store is that information is stored in specific modality. The sensory memory has different forms of modalities, each performing role of storing particular type of information obtained. The second characteristic of the sensory memory is that the information is stored for a very short time and is replaced quickly with newly collected information from the stimuli. The third characteristic of the sensory memory is that the information that is stored in the SM does not give attention to the stimulus. Information is collected and stored from any stimuli without any form of restrictions ( Norris, 2017) . Lastly, the sensory memory store highly detailed information. All the details of the information obtained from the stimuli is stored in the SM.
Short-time memory store
The short term memory store is the second store of the human memory. The short term memory receives information collected and processed by the sensory memory. Only information collected by the sensory memory can be transferred to the short term memory store. The short term memory store has no mechanism of obtaining additional information as there is no direct link between the memory store and the stimuli from which information can be obtained and collected.
The first important characteristic of the short term memory store is that information is stored for just a short time, normally less than a minute ( Norris, 2017) . For the information to be stored in the short term memory for more time, there have to be active maintenance through rehearsal going. Meanwhile the information in the short term memory last relatively longer than it lasts in the sensory memory store. The second characteristic of the STM is that the information is highly vulnerable to interruptions and interference. Any slight interference affects the maintenance of the information and may result to loss of the information stored in the short term memory. Another key characteristic of the STM is that it cannot store huge chunks of information. This is because active maintenance can only facilitate storage of particular chunk limits.
Long term memory store
The long term memory is the third and final store of the human memory. It contains information relayed by the short term memory from the sensory information. Information collected from the stimuli but lost either in the sensory or short term memory does not reach the long term memory ( Norris, 2017) . Being the third and the last memory store, the processes in the stage involves conversion of the received information to knowledge an individual lives with.
The first and most significant characteristic of the long term memory of human being is that information stored stays for a very long time and may be as old as the lifetime of the information holder. Although it receives very few amount of information compared to the sensory and short term counterparts, it holds the greatest amount of information. Another characteristic is that it is the place where information collected from the stimuli is converted to knowledge ( Norris, 2017) . The information takes a long time enough to facilitate the conversation. The converted information may then be recalled when there is need. Information can flow back to the short term memory when recalled.
The difference between level of processing and the Multi-store memory
The model suggested by Atkinson and Shiffrin differ from the Craik and Lockhart’s les of processing in human memory in various ways. According to the levels of processing, information is processed in three major levels namely; shallow, intermediate and deep ( Galli, 2014) . The most significant different between the multi-store model and the multilevel model is that while the multi-store model focuses on the areas of storage of information in human memory, the multi-level approach takes keen interest in the levels of processing of information. The multi-storey model holds that memory has three regions of storage while the multilevel approach discuses that the human memory processing occurs in three different depths. Another significant difference between the multi-store and Multi-level approach of memory is that the multi-store approach states the possibility of loss of information stored in memory through decay whereas, the multi-level approach does not regard possibility of loss of memory through any process ( Norris, 2017) . According to the multi-store model, information at the short term memory decays unless maintained. On the contrary, the multilevel approach does not recognize the process of decay that results to information loss for data already gathered and stored in the brain. The third difference between the multi-store and multi-level memory approaches is that information that is deeply processed is store for long whereas, information remains in the brain for long if it is stored in the long-term memory( Galli, 2014) .
Methods used by Psychologists to measure memory
Memory is linked with the high knowledge of an individual as well as intelligence. Individuals with larger memories are considered more intelligent and more knowledgeable than their counterparts with shorter memories. People with larger memories are more knowledgeable because they can relate a lot of what they come to contact with in the environment with what is already stored in the memory. Therefore, the huge chunk of information in the memory informs the high level of knowledge ability and intelligence capacities for the individual with larger memories. The association of memory with the important aspect of human lives, knowledge informs the need for psychologists to measure memory of an individual ( Wilhelm, 2013) . Memory measuring by the psychologists involves collecting relevant data for the individuals and comparing them against the other’s to determine who has larger memory than the other. Due to the association of memory and knowledge, individuals whose data shows lager memories must be more knowledgeable. Psychologists used three key methods to measure the memories of individuals. The three methods include; recall, relearning and recognition.
The recall approach
The recall approach of measuring human memory is conducted through asking the subject to reproduce the original response in some form. For instance, if an individual interacted with visual or verbal information, the individual may be asked to reproduce the information they gathered from their interaction with the stimuli in written format ( Wilhelm, 2013) . Individual who list most of the information they obtained from the environment are considered to have larger memories.
The relearning approach
Relearning is the second approach of measuring memory and involves testing the length of time a subject can store the acquired information ( Wilhelm, 2013) . People who store more memories after some time are concluded to have larger memories than their counterparts who store information for a short while. Relearning scores of individuals are obtained from calculating the difference in chunk of the original trial from the chunk in the relearning trial.
The recognition approach
Recognition is the third approach of measuring an individual ‘memory. It involves asking the subject to choose from several. The subject that makes the highest number of picks is termed as having larger memory than the counterpart who manages to make just a few correct picks ( Wilhelm, 2013) . The recognition approach investigates an individual’s ability to use the information already stored in the memory to recognize its relationship with information obtained from the stimuli.
References
Galli G. (2014). What makes deeply encoded items memorable? Insights into the levels of processing framework from neuroimaging and neuromodulation. Frontiers in psychiatry , 5 , 61. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00061
Norris D. (2017). Short-term memory and long-term memory are still different. Psychological bulletin , 143 (9), 992–1009. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000108
Wilhelm, O., Hildebrandt, A., & Oberauer, K. (2013). What is working memory capacity, and how can we measure it?. Frontiers in psychology , 4 , 433. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00433
