The traditional model of memory has guided research for decades, but may now be due for a change.

Multiple Memory Systems theory proposes that the brain stores different types of LTM in separate modules.

New research shows that activation of brain regions for different types of LTM information overlap.

Building a model of the phenomenon you’re studying can help you understand how that thing works. Roadmaps are models of the highways and roads between here and there. We use them to predict how we might get to our desired destination even if we encounter roadblocks, weather, and bad traffic. Scientists use models a lot in their work. Good models should simplify what the scientist is studying, making it easier to describe, explain what you’re studying, and to predict how it will function in a new situation. Scientists test their models to see if they’re accurate. If they encounter a problem with the model, then the model is changed to accommodate the problem, and our understanding moves forward.

Human memory has been the subject of study in psychology almost since the beginning of the discipline in 1879. Over the years, several models of memory have been proposed. One particularly influential model of memory is called the Atkinson-Shiffrin model (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968), aimed at describing how memory is structured and how it works. This model breaks memory up into three essential components.

First, information enters Sensory Memory (lasting only a few seconds before being passed along into the system). From there, information is passed to Short........

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