... stored in LTM only after it has been stored in STM, and even then, storage in LTM is a probabilistic event. Originally, Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed that the probability of storage in LTM is a function of the time an item was maintained in STM. More recently, Anderson (1983) suggested that the probability of storage is a function of the number of times an item enters STM. Subjects' control of the storage of information appears to be limited, as shown, for example, by low levels of free recall in list learning. Furthermore, in more meaningful tasks subjects' recall of presented information is not improved when they are instructed to study that information for later recall (Craik & Lockhart, 1972). This finding implies that subjects cannot achieve reliable storage of information in many of the standard memory tasks. Anderson (1983) goes even so far as to argue that subjects' inability to control storage in LTM is beneficial since they cannot predict what information will be ...

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