the.com/short term memory
the mental sticky note that peels off in about twenty seconds if nobody reads it twice.
means a brain system that holds a small amount of information active and available for immediate use, then drops it unless it gets rehearsed or encoded further.
from the term crystallized in mid-20th-century cognitive psychology, especially the 1950s-60s work distinguishing it from long-term storage, though philosophers had poked at fleeting versus lasting memory for centuries before anyone put it in a flowchart.
capacity limitfamously pegged at seven items, plus or minus two
real capacitymodern estimates say closer to four chunks
decay speedgone in about 15-30 seconds unrehearsed
chunking trickgrouping digits fools the limit, not the brain
for instance
phone number recall — classic test: dial it before you forget it
digit span test — standard iq subtest measuring this exact limit
dory finding nemo — 2003 film built a character entirely on the joke