Human memory is powerful, complex, and a process that occurs mostly involuntarily. We’re capable of remembering all kinds of information – from how a person looked to how they smelled or what their voice was like.
Memories that are evoked by sensory cues, such as smell, touch, noise, taste, or sight are sensory memories. These are extremely brief and only last for a short period of time before being replaced by new sensory memories.
What are the characteristics of sensory memories?
Humans have 5 senses; hence sensory memories are categorized into five different types. All types have a few characteristics in common.
The first characteristic of sensory memory is that it does not require attention. These memories are created involuntarily as the brain takes in the information provided by your senses and processes it automatically.
Next, your sensory memories are stored in that part of the brain which is associated with the processes related to that particular sense which provided the memory.
For instance, if you look at a light bulb and close your eyes quickly, the image of that light bulb will flash across your mind just for a split second, making you feel as if your eyes are still open. This form of memory is an iconic sensory memory, and it is stored in the part of your brain that’s related to sight.
Apart from this, another characteristic of sensory memory is that it’s extremely brief, and once gone, there’s no way for the brain to recover it.
So, how do you remember things related to sensory memory?
We remember because sensory memories are processed and transferred to our short-term memory by the brain without having to do anything at all!
In fact, sensory memory is the first type of memory that the human brain uses to create your short-term and long-term memories. One can only lose their sensory memory in the case of illness or conditions such as schizophrenia or the Alzheimer’s disease.