The Information Processing Model

The Information Processing Model

The Atkinson & Shiffrin information processing model suggests that there are three main components of memory in humans. They are the sensory register, working memory or short-term memory and long-term memory.

• Stimuli from the five senses (such as light, flavours, sounds, scents or textures) first go into the sensory register where most are immediately forgotten. Information that matters to us for any reason is then passed on to working memory. Let us call these stimuli information.
• In working memory, we evaluate the new information against what was already in our long-term memory. Here is where “thinking” takes place. It is the most active part of the memory system where we try to make sense of new information and link it to what we already know.
• If new information is determined to be useful, we store it in our long-term memories, possibly forever.

The two most important factors in retaining information are that first you must pay attention to the information you wish to remember and secondly, it takes time to process the information received to bring it into consciousness for processing. So, it will not be very wise to try to remember too much information at once especially without attention-getting cues.

It is also useful to know that working memory has a capacity of 5-9 bits of information (Purves 2010), but each unit may contain subunits. So instead of learning a list of 24 items like on a shopping list, you would remember better if you grouped the 24 items into 4 groups of 6 or based on their category.

Long term memory has a very large capacity and can keep information for very long periods of time. The more you interact with learning material, the longer you remember it. It is believed that if you remember something 12-24 weeks after you learned it, it is possible that you will remember it forever.