Short-Term Memory (STM) Quiz

• Short-term memory (STM) refers to the temporary storage of relatively small amounts of information.
• Early approaches to STM involved the digit span and related sequential verbal tasks.
• The concept of a phonological loop explains verbal STM by assuming a temporary store and an articulatory rehearsal process.
• Inherent in the memory span task is the problem of serial order and how it is maintained, a problem that has led to a number of detailed models.
• Free recall typically shows a marked recency effect, which has resulted in a number of influential models applied to both STM and LTM.
• Most current studies of visual STM focus on simple stimuli such as colors and shapes and the question of how these are bound into unified colored shapes.
• Spatial STM is separable from its visual equivalent and depends on somewhat different neural systems.
• Laboratory studies of both verbal and visual STM have been extended and enriched by studies of patients with STM deficits.

Test your knowledge about short-term memory (STM) and its components including digit span, phonological loop, verbal and visual STM, serial order maintenance, and influential models. Explore the differences between verbal and visual STM, and the impact of STM deficits on patients.