What Is Sensory Memory?

Key Takeaways

• Sensory memory is a brief memory that allows people to retain impressions of sensory information for a short time after the stimulus ends.
• There are three types of sensory memory: iconic (visual), echoic (auditory), and haptic (tactile), each lasting for different durations.
• Sensory memory helps us briefly focus on important details, which can then be transferred to short-term memory.

Sensory memory is a very brief memory that allows people to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimulus has ceased. It is often thought of as the first stage of memory, involving the registration of a tremendous amount of information about the environment, but only for a very brief period.

The purpose of sensory memory is to retain information long enough for it to be recognized.

Patrick Fraser / Getty Images

How Sensory Memory Works

Sensory memory is the brief, automatic storage of sensory information that allows the brain to hold the sights, sounds, and other sensations long enough to make sense of them.

Your senses are constantly taking in an enormous amount of information about what you see, feel, smell, hear, and taste. While this information is important, there is simply no way to remember every detail of what you experience at every moment.

Instead, your sensory memory creates a quick “snapshot” of the world around you, allowing you to briefly focus on relevant details.

So just how brief is a sensory memory? Experts suggest that these memories last for three seconds or less.

While fleeting, sensory memory allows us to retain a brief impression of an environmental stimulus even after the original stimulus has vanished. By attending to this information, we can transfer important details to the next stage of memory, short-term memory.

Key Characteristics

• Limited: Sensory memory has a limited duration and capacity. It lasts very briefly and is almost immediately replaced by new information.
• Automatic: Sensory memory is an automatic process; it occurs automatically without conscious control.
• Compartmentalized: The type of memory stored is specific to the sensory modality. In other words, echoic memory stores auditory information, iconic memory stores only visual information, and haptic memory stores only tactile information.
• Detailed: Information stored in sensory memory is highly detailed.

Types of Sensory Memory

Experts believe that different senses have different types of sensory memory. Each type of sensory memory has a slightly different duration.

• Iconic memory: Also known as visual sensory memory, iconic memory involves a very brief image. This type of sensory memory typically lasts for about one-quarter to one-half of a second.
• Echoic memory: Also known as auditory sensory memory, echoic memory involves a very brief memory of sound, a bit like an echo. This type of sensory memory can last for up to three to four seconds.
• Haptic memory: Also known as tactile memory, haptic memory involves the very brief memory of a touch. This type of sensory memory lasts for approximately two seconds.

Examples of How You Use Sensory Memory

• Examples of iconic memory include situations in which you briefly have an image in your head after the stimulus is gone. For instance, after turning off a flashlight, there is a brief image of the light in your memory. Or, after glimpsing an exit sign on the interstate, you can briefly see the image in your mind.
• An example of echoic memory would be the brief memory of the blare of a car horn or the sound of an instrument, even after the noise has ended.
• An example of haptic memory might include the brief memory of something brushing up against your skin.

In each case, the very brief, lingering memory you have allows you to recognize and process it.

Why Sensory Memory Matters

Sensory memory plays an essential role in how we experience the world. It’s this type of memory that allows your brain to hold on to the sights, sounds, and other sensations long enough for you to make sense of them.

Without sensory memory, your perception and experience of the world would feel disjointed. Imagine watching a movie one frame at a time or hearing music as a series of random, unrelated sounds.

While sensory memory is brief, it helps to smooth out your experience and lets your brain make connections. It helps you:

• Follow a conversation
• Read smoothly
• Perceive motion as continuous
• Understand spoken language
• Recognize visual scenes
• Experience the world as stable and coherent

Most of this happens automatically. You aren’t conscious of it, but it plays a huge role in how you experience the world. It serves as the foundation for many processes, including attention, learning, and other types of memory.

Sperling’s Sensory Memory Experiments

The duration of sensory memory was first investigated during the 1960s by psychologist George Sperling. In a classic experiment, participants stared at a screen, and rows of letters were flashed very briefly—for just 1/20th of a second. Then, the screen went blank.

The participants then immediately repeated as many of the letters as they could remember seeing. While most participants could report only four or five letters, some insisted they had seen all the letters but that the information faded too quickly as they reported them.

Inspired by this, Sperling then performed a slightly varied version of the same experiment. Participants were shown the three rows of four letters per row for 1/20th of a second, but immediately after the screen went blank, participants heard either a high-pitched, medium-pitched, or low-pitched tone. 

If subjects heard the high-pitched tone, they were to report the top row; those who heard the medium-pitched tone were to report the middle row; and those who heard the low-pitched tone were to report the bottom row.

Sperling found that participants were able to recall the letters as long as the tone was sounded within one-third of a second of the letter display.

When the interval was extended to over one-third of a second, the accuracy of the letter reports declined significantly, and anything over one second made it virtually impossible to recall the letters.

Sperling suggested that because the participants focused on the indicated row before their visual memory faded, they could recall the information. The recall was nearly impossible when the tone was sounded after sensory memory faded.

Modern Research on Sensory Memory

More recently, researchers have suggested that sensory memory is not just a passive “snapshot” of the senses. Instead, they suggest it is a continuous process that allows the brain to predict and interpret incoming information.

Researchers are also exploring how sensory memory interacts with other processes, including:

• Perception
• Attention
• Short-term memory

Some studies also suggest that sensory memory can be influenced by experiences and expectations.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the “Everything Psychology Book.”

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