Short-Term Memory (STM) and Memory Span

• 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 of short-term memory (STM) and memory span with this quiz. Explore concepts such as the phonological loop, verbal and visual STM, recency effect, and related models.