Do you know how our five senses store memory? Let's learn about Sensory Memory!

Imagine that you suddenly saw a license plate number of a car or the name of a shop while walking down the street... That image stuck in your head for about a second, didn't it? Another time, a verse of a song you suddenly heard or a bird's song that resonated in your ears, didn't it? That's what we call sensory memory . This is the first and very short-term stage of our memory. This is the first gateway for the brain to receive information coming from our five senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin). Today, let's talk about this amazing process.

What exactly is Sensory Memory?

Simply put, sensory memory is the ability to retain information for only a few seconds when one of our senses is stimulated. This is like a temporary holding area where information enters the brain. From the information that comes here, the brain selects only what it thinks is important and sends it to the next stage, which is short-term memory .

Imagine you are walking on a busy street. The sound of traffic, people talking, signs in shops, smells... all of this is felt by your senses at once. All this information enters your sensory memory. But you don't remember it all. The brain selects only the thing that catches your attention, for example, the number of the bus you are looking for, and stores it in short-term memory. The rest of the information is erased in a few seconds. This process is what keeps our brain from being overloaded with unnecessary information.

Types of memories unique to our five senses

There is a different type of sensory memory associated with each of our senses. Shall we look at these in a table? That will make it easier for you to understand.

Now let's talk about each of these in a little more detail, with examples from our lives.

1. Iconic Memory

This is how visual information is remembered. This memory relies on a duration of less than a second.

• For example: When you turn off the lights in a room, a blurry image of what the room was like a second before remains in your mind, right? That's an Iconic Memory.
• Another example: When you're riding the bus, you pass a row of shops on the side of the road. After you get off the bus, you just remember, "Oh... there was a pharmacy over there, there was a bookstore over here," because of this iconic memory.

2. Auditory memory - Echoic memory

This is auditory memory. The brain temporarily stores the sound that enters the ear, giving it a few seconds to analyze it. This memory is extremely important for understanding a language and listening to what someone is saying.

• For example: When you listen to a song, when one note ends and the next note comes, the previous note is still in your brain. This is why the notes are connected together and you hear it as a song.
• Another example: When someone speaks to you, this echoic memory helps you understand the letters of a word they say by connecting them together to form a word, and the words together to form a sentence.

3. Haptic Memory

This is the memory associated with the sensations our skin feels. This includes everything from pressure, pain, tickling, heat, and cold.

• Example: When a raindrop falls on your hand, your brain remembers that feeling and tells you, "This is rain."
• Another example: When you type on the keyboard, this haptic memory helps you place your fingers exactly on the letters without looking. Similarly, when you play a musical instrument like the guitar, this memory helps you feel exactly where to place your fingers. This memory is also used to check if a mango is ripe by touching it.

4. Olfactory Memory

Smell is a very powerful sense that can evoke memories. As soon as the nose senses a scent, that information goes directly to the parts of our brain that control long-term memories and emotions .

• For example: When you smell the aroma of homemade sweets during the New Year, you may suddenly remember your childhood. Many old memories associated with that smell immediately come to mind.
• Another example: If the smell of incense in a temple brings you a sense of peace, then this is where olfactory memory comes into play. Smell is also very important for the sense of taste. When we eat food, we taste the taste precisely because its aroma particles reach our nose. Without smell, we only feel the basic tastes like sweet, salty, and sour.

5. Gustatory Memory

This is a memory related to taste. Like smell, taste can evoke old memories and emotions.

• Example: If you ever taste a pickle you loved as a child again, you might remember those old times.
• A more important example: If you eat a food and it makes you feel sick, you may feel nauseous the next time you see that food. This is actually something that helps us survive. Our brains help us avoid toxic or unhealthy foods in this way.

You probably understand by now how much we rely on sensory memory in our daily lives. It's a very fast, automatic process. However, if you have serious problems with your memory, especially your ability to remember things, it's best to talk to your family doctor about it.

Sensory memory, memory, brain function, five senses, Iconic memory, Echoic memory