What is Short-Term Memory?
Your brain's sticky note for things you need right now
Short-term memory is your brain's sticky note. It holds onto information just long enough for you to do something with it, then lets it go. It's the mental buffer between sensing something (a phone number, an instruction, a face) and either using it immediately or moving it into longer-term storage.
Short-term memory is closely related to working memory but slightly different: short-term memory holds, while working memory holds and manipulates. The capacity is famously limited. Most people can hold around four to seven discrete items for about 15 to 30 seconds without rehearsal. Beyond that, the information is either consolidated into longer-term memory or simply lost. This is why writing things down is so much more powerful than trying to remember them; you free the buffer for whatever's coming next.
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Short-Term Memory