Short Term Memory

Short Term Memory

1. What is it? What does it do?

   • Short term memory is one of the three unitary stores that make up the multi-store model. Its responsible for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time.
     • This is where information that has been attended to in the sensory register transfers to.

2. Duration

   • Very short duration, when not being actively rehearsed, information lasts from 18-30 seconds
   • Fortunately through rehearsal, information can be maintained for much longer sequences of time., and through elaborate rehearsal can even be transferred for storage in the long term memory.
     • For example mental repetition and saying words aloud can help information stay longer in the STM.

3. Capacity

   • There is a very limited capacity. This is often displayed as +7 or -2 chunks of information. Meaning that the minimum amount of information STM can hold is 5 chunks and the maximum 9.
   • This severely limits the amount of information that can be attended to at any one time.
   • Information in the STM is highly susceptible to interference, Any new information that enters can quickly displace old information.

4. Encoding

   • Coding in the STM is thought to be mainly acoustic.
     • For example, when a person is presented with a list of words and numbers, they will attempt to hold them in their STM by verbally repeating. Rehearsal is a verbal process regardless to whether the information is presented acoustically or visually.