Sensory Memory

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, describes sensory memory and ‘the ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimulus has been ceased.’ Sensory memory is the first level of memory. It contains information received immediately from one’s senses into the human brain. The information in the sensory memory is unprocessed and brief. Sensory information such as lights, smells and odors leaves a trace on the nervous system for a split second then vanish. For visual stimuli, the photographic memory persists for about 500 milliseconds.

Sensory memory allows us to take a ‘snapshot’ of our surrounding and to store the information around us for a short interval. If we want to use the information from the sensory memory then we must take a quick measure to transport them to the other region of our memory where the information stays for relatively longer period of time. The initial step is paying more attention. Attention allows us to focus on the parts of the stimulus and thereby to recognize some of its features.

Although, sensory memory can occur for any of the senses, most sensory memory research seems to focus visual memory (iconic memory) and auditory sensory memory (echoic memory). Research into olfactory, tactile and taste memories are less common.

Many researches show that iconic and echoic memories allow us to experience the world as a continuous stream.

We leave you to wonder what would it be like if we make our other senses equally usable in our day to day life!!