A measure of short-term memory that measures how much information someone can retain from a briefly displayed stimuli (often simpler stimuli than other methods). Participants are asked whether a change occurred after a brief delay from the original stimuli.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The retention of a small amount of information for a brief period of time. It can hold information for 15-20 seconds and can hold 5-7 items.

Short-term memory (STM)

- Free recall
- Cued recall
- Change detection
- Digit span
- Repeated recall

Types of recall

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

A measure of short-term memory. It is the number of digits someone can remember

digit span

Based on a 1956 review of memory research, psychologist George Miller concluded that the capacity of short-term memory is limited to approximately seven items, plus or minus two. This range, from 5 to 9 items, is often referred to as the 'magic number' in psychology.

The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two

The retention of information in short-term memory is influenced by two factors: memory trace decay and interference.

Factors Affecting Short-Term Memory Retention

A friend quickly recites a list of 12 grocery items for you to remember. Without writing them down, you walk to the store. A minute later, you find you can only recall about 6 or 7 of the items. Which of the following best explains this common memory failure?

a subject is asked to recall a stimulus (with no cues).

Free recall

a subject is given retrieval cues to aid in recall.

Cued recall

Comparing how memories are recalled well after the events and how they were called immediately after. A technique often used to study flashbulb memories.

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