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Short-term and long-term memory:
Using the 3 R’s of memory, short-term and long-term memory can be
understood. The difference between short-term and long-term
memory is the amount of time the brain has committed the information
to memory.
Short-term memory:
Short-term memory is where information is stored at the registration
phase of memory. A typical short-term memory can remember
between 4 to 10 items at any one time. A telephone number is good
example of this. How many times have you dialled a number only to
find that you have forgotten it right after?
This is because the
telephone number was only registered in the short-term memory.
If you are focusing on dialling a telephone number and then can’t
remember the number after dialling it, there is nothing wrong with you.
This is something that happens to all of use, and it happens for a
reason. Read the passage below of a similar story:
A psychology professor arrived in a small town after a long day of a string of
professional engagements and found that he was too tired to give his last
lecture on memory to the faculty and students in the psychology department of
a small college. In a taxi on route to his destination, he had a solution to his
problem and offered the taxi driver a $100 dollars to present the lecture for
him. No one at the college knew who he was and because the lecture was
completely written out, all the taxi driver had to do was read it; he didn’t need
to know anything about memory. If the taxi driver did get into any difficulty, the
professor would be in the audience to help him out. Business had been slow for
the taxi driver and he accepted the offer. The taxi driver gave the lecture and it
went off flawlessly. At the conclusion of the lecture the students requested a
question and answer session. The taxi driver felt that he couldn’t refuse and
was presented with a very simple question on memory. He knew that the answer
he was looking for was in the lecture he just gave but couldn’t remember a
thing he said. He had been too busy concentrating on presenting the lecture to
remember anything about the lecture. Thinking quickly the taxi driver said,
“That is an easy question, my taxi driver can even answer it, and he just
happens to be in the audience.”
The story of the psychology professor provides a good example of
how our memory works. It illustrates the difference between long-
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