Richard Atkinson
American psychologist and university leader
American psychologist who proposed the 1968 multi-store model of memory with his student Richard Shiffrin. He later directed the National Science Foundation, led UC San Diego and the University of California, and in 2001 recommended dropping the SAT requirement.
Why this person matters
The 1968 chapter he wrote with Shiffrin gave introductory courses their standard picture of sensory, short-term and long-term memory, and stressed control processes such as rehearsal. His later administrative roles shaped US science funding and university admissions debates, a separate strand from his memory research.
Main contributions
The 1968 modal model of memory
With Richard Shiffrin, then his doctoral student at Stanford, he published "Human Memory: A Proposed System and Its Control Processes" in 1968. It separated memory structures (a sensory register, short-term and long-term stores) from the control processes that govern storage, retrieval and decision-making.
Control processes and formal modelling
The authors treated control processes as the main reason for the theory, and combined earlier psychological concepts with empirical research and quantitative modelling. UC San Diego describes the chapter as one of the most highly cited papers in the field.
Science policy and the SAT
He was deputy director and then director (1977 to 1980) of the National Science Foundation, chancellor of UC San Diego (1980 to 1995) and president of the University of California (1995 to 2003). In February 2001 he recommended ending the SAT as a UC admission requirement.
Context and limits
The model has been revised often. The sensory register was later folded into the short-term store. Baddeley and Hitch proposed a working memory with several components in place of a single short-term store, and levels-of-processing theory criticised rehearsal as the main route to long-term memory. Long-term memory is now thought to include episodic, semantic and procedural types. Evidence from patients such as H.M., who kept short-term memory but formed no new long-term memories, has been used to support separate stores.
In your introductory course
Memory.The Atkinson-Shiffrin model opens the memory chapter as the basic three-stage account that later models, including working memory, build on or revise.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 8.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1968
He and Richard Shiffrin published the chapter proposing the multi-store model of memory.
- 1977
He became director of the National Science Foundation, having served as its deputy director from 1975.
- 1980
He became chancellor of UC San Diego.
- 1995
He became president of the University of California.
- 2001
He told the American Council on Education that he was recommending the UC end its SAT requirement.
Sources
- Indiana University, Honors and Awards: Richard C. AtkinsonUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.
- UC San Diego Today, UC legend Dick Atkinson digs into memoryUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.
- UC San Diego Rady School of Management, Richard C. AtkinsonUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.
- Cambridge University Press, Human Memory: A Proposed System and Its Control Processes (reprint chapter page)Publisher. Abstract inspected.
- Wikipedia, Richard C. AtkinsonReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Atkinson-Shiffrin memory modelReference work. Reference article inspected.