What type of memory is iconic and echoic?

Types of Sensory Memory

Each sense has a different type of sensory memory linked with it, including:

Iconic memory. This is associated with things that you see. It has a large amount of storage but stores the memory for less than a second. The brighter the image, the longer it stays in your iconic memory.

Echoic memory. This is associated with sound and hearing. Your brain takes a few seconds to process echoic memories. Once the sound enters your ear, your temporal lobe processes it. Research shows that echoic memory is essential to learning a language and that people who have trouble speaking may store echoic memories for shorter amounts of time.

Haptic memory. This type of memory is related to your sense of touch. It can include sensations like pressure, pain, itching, or something that feels good. Haptic memory allows you to identify things you’re touching.‌

Olfactory memory. This is associated with smell. Once you take in a smell, it travels quickly to the parts of the brain that help form long-term memories. Olfactory memory helps you identify tastes because molecules from the food you chew go into your nose. Without smell, you would only be able to taste basic flavors like sweetness.‌

Gustatory memory. Associated with taste, gustatory memory has a close relationship with olfactory memory. It helps you identify foods through the five basic flavors your tongue identifies through the gustatory receptor cells:

• Salty
• Sweet
• Bitter
• Umami
• Sour

Examples of Sensory Memory

Iconic memory examples. Iconic memories are visual. When you flip a light switch, the brief image in your memory that remains of what you saw before you turned off the lights is an iconic memory.‌

Or imagine that you’re riding in a car and see cows grazing in a field. After you pass the field, the short memory that remains of the cows is an iconic memory. If you pass a row of businesses on a road, your short memory of which businesses were there and what their signs looked like is also an iconic memory.‌

Echoic memory examples. The ability to listen to a song and recognize it involves echoic memory. Your echoic memory records each note and helps your brain connect the tones, allowing you to recognize it as a song.‌

Another example is the ability to understand language. A similar process happens with speech and echoic memory. This form of memory records each syllable or sound and connects it to the next syllables, helping your brain recognize words and sentences that you can understand.‌

Haptic memory examples. Anything that uses the sensation of touch also uses your haptic memory. For example, when you feel a raindrop on your skin, your haptic memory records that sensation, helping you recognize what ‘s happening.

Haptic memory is also involved when you play a musical instrument. It helps you sense where your fingers are so you can play the right notes. Similarly, haptic memory helps you find the right keys when you’re typing on a computer.

Olfactory memory examples. Your olfactory memory plays a role in taste, but it can also conjure up old memories and emotions. For example, when you smell something from your childhood, it helps your brain bring up other memories associated with that smell. This sense can also convey emotions. When you smell a candle and it reminds you of a peaceful feeling, your olfactory memory is at play.

Gustatory memory examples. Similar to smells, tastes can help you recall old memories. For instance, if you eat something that once made you sick to your stomach, you may have nausea the next time you eat that food. This is an evolutionary advantage that helps you avoid poisonous foods by remembering things that may be harmful.

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 that involves registering 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.

How Does Sensory Memory Work?

During every moment of your existence, 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 each and every detail about what you experience at every moment.

Instead, your sensory memory creates something of a quick "snapshot" of the world around you, allowing you to briefly focus your attention 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 briefly retain an impression of an environmental stimulus even after the original source of information has ended or vanished. By attending to this information, we can then transfer important details into the next stage of memory, which is known as short-term 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 of the participants were only able to report about four or five letters, some insisted that 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 letters 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 were to report the middle row and those who heard the low-pitched 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 were focusing their attention on the indicated row before their visual memory faded, they were able to recall the information. When the tone was sounded after sensory memory faded, the recall was nearly impossible.

Types of Sensory Memory

Experts also believe that different senses have different types of sensory memory. The different types of sensory memory have also been shown to have slightly different durations.

• 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 memeory 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 involves the very brief memory of a touch. This type of sensory memory lasts for approximately two seconds.

A Word From Verywell

Sensory memory plays a vital role in your ability to take in information and interact with the world around you. This type of memory allows you to retain brief impressions of a vast amount of information.

In some instances, this information may be transferred to short-term memory, but in the majority of cases, this information is quickly lost. While sensory memory may be very brief, it plays a critical role in the attention and memory processes.

What type of memory is iconic memory?

What memory type would iconic and echoic memory occur in?

What type of memory is echoic?

How is iconic and echoic memory different?