Short-Term Memory

Short-term memory (STM) refers to what a person can remember from the immediate past. This is conceptually distinct from what a person can remember from all information stored during a lifetime, called long-term memory (LTM). There have been debates among memory researchers as to whether STM is a different memory store from LTM or whether STM is merely the information that is held in an active state within LTM. Regardless of how STM is conceptualized, in practical terms, it is one link in a much bigger chain of processes that begins with attention and perception and can lead to higher order cognition and learning.

This entry describes the modal model of memory, a model that helped define STM and was able to predict key features ...

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