A-Level Psychology: Memory Models

The memory topic is built on two models, and A-level questions probe them at the level of components, evidence and criticism. This quiz works through both models with the precision the exam expects.

The multi-store model questions cover its architecture and its numbers: the sensory register's brief, modality-specific traces; short-term memory's limited capacity, mainly acoustic coding and 18–30 second unrehearsed duration; long-term memory's semantic coding and potentially permanent storage. A dedicated question tests the standard "too simplistic" criticism — the model treats STM and LTM as unitary stores when the evidence says both are subdivided — the exact evaluation point that upgrades a description into an answer.

The long-term memory item (types of long-term memory were removed from the AQA specification from September 2025, though Pearson Edexcel still names episodic and semantic memory) distinguishes three types: episodic, semantic and procedural, tested through their defining features (conscious recall versus implicit skill, personal events versus facts) and how they are typically acquired.

The working memory model questions cover the components — central executive as attentional controller, phonological loop with its phonological store and articulatory process, visuo-spatial sketchpad, and the later-added episodic buffer as the integrator — and, critically, the evidence: dual-task studies showing interference when two tasks compete for one slave system but not when they use different systems, the finding that justifies the model's whole architecture.

Every explanation states the component-function-evidence chain explicitly. Pair this set with the Forgetting and Eyewitness Testimony quiz to complete the compulsory memory topic.

• Specify coding, capacity and duration for each store of the multi-store model
• Evaluate the multi-store model using the unitary-store criticism
• Distinguish episodic, semantic and procedural long-term memory
• Name and define each component of the working memory model
• Use dual-task evidence to justify separate slave systems

Practice material written by Zestly on memory models, following the AQA A-level Psychology (7182) topic list as an example: the multi-store model with the coding, capacity and duration of each store, and the working memory model with its supporting dual-task evidence. Types of long-term memory are also included: AQA removed them from first teaching in September 2025, but Pearson Edexcel still names episodic and semantic memory.