Short term Memory

www.medicinenet.com defines short term memory as ‘a system for temporarily storing and managing information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. Short term memory is also termed as recent or intermediate memory.

Short term memory or the recent memory can hold information for no longer than about 20 seconds. After that, it disappears unless we actively prevent that from happening by rehearsing it. The limited duration of the short term memory suggests that its contents spontaneously decay over time.

According to the black box model of memory, short term memory is a component of the information processing system (IPS) in which new information must remain for a minimum of 20 seconds or the information will be lost. The short term memory acts as a link between the sensory memory and the long term memory.

It is suggested that human short term memory has a forward memory span of approximately (7±2) items, but the memory span varies widely with populations tested and with materials used. Memory span also varies among individuals.

It is very difficult to demonstrate the exact capacity of the short term memory due to the fact that it will be recalled. There is currently no way of defining the basic unit of information to be stored in the short term memory store.