This is a visual of Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model from information processing theory. Here’s how it works – adapted from Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

We all experience incoming information through our sensory memory.

Think of this as anything we
see,
touch,
hear,
smell,
and taste in the moment.

Sensory memory is instantaneous
and much of it is forgotten.

But some of the information moves to working memory. Working memory is what we are thinking in the moment. Here, the information is either forgotten or moved into long-term memory through a process called encoding, where the brain categorizes the information.

We can help ensure information moves from working memory to long-term memory through a rehearsal process. If you’ve ever repeated a phone number over and over again to remember it, or you’ve paraphrased information or put events in a sequence, then you’ve engaged in a rehearsal process.

Later, your working memory can retrieve information back into working memory.