Sensory Memory
What is Sensory Memory?
Sensory memory is the first stage of memory that briefly stores information from our senses—such as sights, sounds, and smells—before it either fades away or is transferred to short-term memory. It acts as a filter, holding raw sensory input for just a few milliseconds to a few seconds, allowing the brain to process and prioritize what to focus on next.
The Basic Idea
Imagine that you’re at the movies, having just watched a new blockbuster hit. As you make your way towards the exit, the smell of buttery popcorn wafts into your nose. Suddenly, it’s all you’re focusing on—you look over to the concession stand and watch the kernels spill over into the popcorn machine. For a fleeting second, all you are thinking of is the smell of popcorn. Even as you step outside the theatre, a faint smell of popcorn seems to remain in your brain. You’d be able to describe it perfectly to someone.
It is thanks to our sensory memory that we are able to collect information from our senses and briefly retain it. Your sensory memory picked up on the smell of popcorn, even in an environment with multiple, diverse stimuli, and allowed you to hold onto that impression as you left the theatre.
Each of our five senses has a different kind of sensory memory, and depending on the sense, the memory can last anywhere from a quarter of a second to four seconds. Although our sensory memory is extremely short-term, it is what allows us to register the vast amount of information that we encounter in our daily environments. It is an automatic process that causes us to pay attention to specific stimuli within the environment to be able to transfer important information into our short-term memory.1
Self-awareness is your awareness of the world, which you experience through the five senses (sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell). Pay attention to your sensory impressions and be aware of those five ways that the world comes to you.
— Deepak Chopra, Indian-American guru, author, and advocate of alternative medicine2
About the Author
Emilie Rose Jones
Emilie currently works in Marketing & Communications for a non-profit organization based in Toronto, Ontario. She completed her Masters of English Literature at UBC in 2021, where she focused on Indigenous and Canadian Literature. Emilie has a passion for writing and behavioural psychology and is always looking for opportunities to make knowledge more accessible.
