short-term memory

American  

noun

1. information retained in the brain and retrievable from it over a brief span of time (long-term memory ).

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short-term memory British  

noun

1. psychol that section of the memory storage system of limited capacity (approximately seven items) that is capable of storing material for a brief period of time Compare long-term memory

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short-term memory Cultural  

1. Retention of information that undergoes little processing or interpretation and can be recalled for only a few seconds. Short-term memory can retain about seven items.

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A popular example of short-term memory is the ability to remember a seven-digit telephone number just long enough to dial a call. In most cases, unless the number is consciously repeated several times, it will be forgotten.

Etymology

Origin of short-term memory

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Their short-term memory deteriorated, as did their spatial awareness.

From BBC

Transient global amnesia is a sudden, temporary interruption of short-term memory.

From BBC

By the end of kindergarten, children who were randomly selected through a lottery to attend Montessori preschools outperformed their peers in reading, executive function, short-term memory, and social understanding.

From Science Daily

She became worried about dementia when she noticed her short-term memory fading and that she was dropping things and tripping over her own feet.

From The Wall Street Journal

Pathway’s architecture organizes short-term memory very differently than the transformer, with an update mechanism that resembles what is found in the brain, and, crucially, has the same storage pattern as long-term memory, according to Stamirowska.

From The Wall Street Journal