short-term memory
nounDefinition of short-term memory
: memory that involves recall of information for a relatively short time (such as a few seconds)
But short-term memory is the primary bottleneck in human information processing. Only a few items—the usual estimate is seven, plus or minus two—can be held in mind at once, and the items are immediately subject to fading or being overwritten.— Steven Pinker
—abbreviation STM
— compare long-term memory, working memory
Examples of short-term memory in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Short rallies ending in errors are relegated to our short-term memory, quickly dismissed as being irrelevant and extraneous to the final outcome. — Craig O’shannessy, New York Times, "Love Long Rallies? That’s Not What the French Open Is About," 9 June 2019 Caswell, now in his late 80s, struggled with a series of health problems, including battles with colon cancer, diabetes and short-term memory loss, according to police and Pederson. — oregonlive.com, "A Mouseketeer mystery: Dennis Day’s extraordinary life and heartbreaking death," 6 July 2019 When Almanza did not return home, his nephew called police about 8 p.m. Almanza has high blood pressure and diabetes, and his brain injury affects his short-term memory, police said. — Sara Coello, Dallas News, "Haltom City police searching for man with brain injury and diabetes who's been missing for a day," 20 June 2019 Solving a simple algebra problem involves the visual cortex — to process the symbols — and the parts of the brain used for computation and short-term memory. — Quanta Magazine, "In Brain’s ‘Rich Club,’ Meetings of the Mind," 24 Oct. 2013 For a short-term memory to become a long-term memory, it must be strengthened for long-term storage, a process called memory consolidation. — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, "Human memory: How we make, remember, and forget memories," 4 Mar. 2019 Initially this occurs in areas of the brain associated with short-term memory, which leads to cell death and corresponding neurological symptoms, Dr. Tan explains. — Sarah Jacoby, SELF, "How Exactly Do Different Kinds of Alzheimer’s Medications Work?," 6 Dec. 2018 The idea is to improve the ability to remember these short-term memory events. — Bradley J. Fikes, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Mounting toll of Alzheimer's in lives, dollars in San Diego spelled out in reports," 20 Apr. 2018 As the subjects completed a test of short-term memory, the researchers recorded the electrical signals associated with correct answers. — NBC News, "Memory-boosting brain implants are in the works. Would you get one?," 23 Apr. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'short-term memory.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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