Acquisition, Storage, and the Modal Model: Working Memory and Memory Routes

Notes

PSC 100 COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Winter Quarter 2026 Lecture 8 The Acquisition of Memories and the Working-Memory System: Lecture Outline Lecture Outline • Acquisition, Storage, and Retrieval • The Route into Memory • A Closer Look at Working Memory • Entering Long-Term Storage: The Need for Engagement • The Role of Meaning and Memory Connections • Organizing and Memorizing • The Study of Memory Acquisition Clive Wearing Amnesia from a viral infection • Unable to form new memories • Can remember skill sets (e.g., how to play music) • Keeps detailed notes of his day (but may question their authenticity) • Remembers his wife • Cannot remember he was with his wife a few minutes before Acquisition, Storage, and Retrieval One way to frame learning and memory: • Acquisition • Storage • Retrieval Analogy to creating, storing, and opening a computer file The Route into Memory: Modal Model An information-processing view of memory (from 1960s) Updating the Modal Model (1) The modal model (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968; Waugh & Norman, 1965) • Sensory memory (e.g., iconic memory, echoic memory) • Lasts less than a second • Sensory memory plays a minimal role in modern theorizing • Short-term memory (...