Three Types Of Memory Essay

Memory is one of the most significant factors that distinguishes human from other organisms and it is the ability to store and recall things when needed such as knowledge, information and past events or experiences, which can be expressed into images, sounds and meaning. Matlin (2005) says that “Memory is the process of maintaining information over time". Memories contain the sense of self, cultural identities and the meaning of life and take place in the communication, movement and problem solving. Remembering and forgetting abilities both can be a blessing or a curse. Although, they are opposite to each other they are significant abilities in every individual life, but experiences and information can be remembered accurately or inaccurately …show more content…
There are three types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory and all of them have a different role. Mastin (2010b) summarised that the sensory memory is the shortest term stores sensory information which received through the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch but only for an instant. For example, the image of a person on the screen of a TV may remain in the mind a few seconds even when it is switched off, or a voice that we just heard. Some information can be deliberately ignored or perceived in our sensory memory, but it is out of the conscious control, indeed, the brain is controlling the receiving and storing sensory information. Sensory memory consists of three main types, Iconic memory for the visual information, echoic memory for the auditory information and haptic memory represents the information from touch. When paying attention and concentrating on one aspect, the information is passed from the sensory memory into short-term memory. Mastin (2010c) explains that the short-term memory focuses on the recent events or information, which can hold the information quite longer than the