What types of short-term memory exist, and how long do they last for? Read this article by Dominique de Quervain.

We use the term “short-term memory” in everyday language to describe a memory span of several hours to several days. In psychology and neuroscience, however, “short-term memory” refers to memory that only lasts from a few milliseconds to a few minutes.

There are several forms of short-term memory:

• Sensory memory: a snapshot of sensory experiences lasting only a couple of hundred milliseconds up to one second.
• Short-term memory: information storage of up to several seconds, without manipulating the information.
• Working memory: refers to information that is stored in short-term memory and is processed or manipulated.

Short-term forms of memory do not depend on the synthesis of new proteins nor do they depend on the hippocampus (H.M. had intact short-term forms of memory).

Short-term forms of memory can transform into long-term memory:
Let’s suppose you want to remember a phone number you are looking at. The information passes through the sensory memory storage into your short-term memory storage. From there, you rehearse the number, and you try to associate it with something familiar that helps you to remember it. Processing information held in short-term memory in this way is called working memory. If you remember the number the next day, then the information has been successfully transferred into episodic long-term memory, which requires protein synthesis (for building and stabilizing synapses) and depends on the hippocampus.

Learn more about short-term forms of memory in the book chapter recommended below.

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References

Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind; 5th Edition. Michael Gazzaniga, Richard B. Ivry, George R. Mangun; Page 384 (“9.3 Mechanisms of Memory”) - 389 (excluding “Long-Term Forms of Memory”).

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