Short Term Memory

 

         

         Short-term memory can store a small amount of information in the mind and keep it readily available for a short period. Short-term memory is essential for daily functioning. Short-term memory exists for a very brief moment. When information is transferred to short-term memories from sensory memories that are not rehearsed or actively maintained, they last mere seconds. Short-term memory is limited and can only hold seven items at once, most of the information kept in short-term memory will be stored for approximately 20 to 30 seconds, or even less. Some information can last in short-term memory for up to a minute, but most information spontaneously decays quite quickly, unless rehearsal strategies are used such as saying the information aloud or mentally repeating it. However, the information in short-term memory is also highly susceptible to interference. Any new information that enters short-term memory will quickly displace old information. Similar items in the environment can also interfere with short-term memories. This is why you can find it difficult to remember something you were told when you are in a noisy environment and also the same reason you struggle to remember things when you are trying to remember more than one single detail.

    In 1956, in an influential paper titled "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two," psychologist George Miller suggested that people can store between five and nine items in short-term memory. More recent research suggests that people are capable of storing approximately four chunks or pieces of information in short-term memory. 

 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHORT-TERM    MEMORY AND WORKING MEMORY

     Researchers have agreed that working memory and short-term memory significantly overlap, and may even be the same thing. The distinction is that working memory refers to the ability to use, manipulate, and apply memory for a while (for example, recalling a set of as you complete a task), while short-term memory refers only to the temporary storage of information in memory, in sensory Memory there is no storage whilst in short-term memory there is storage. The Baddeley-Hitch model of working memory suggests that there are two components of working memory: a place where visual and spatial information are recorded (visuospatial scratchpad), and a place where auditory information are recorded (phonological loop). In addition, the model suggests there is a "central executive" that controls and mediates these two components as well as processes information, directs attention, sets goals, and makes decisions.