... the systems imply their functions. Sensory memory is associated with the auditory and visual senses. We are constantly bombarded by information from the environment, but so the cognitive systems are not overloaded, only a small amount of information is attended to through our senses, held for a very limited time in sensory memory, then moved to short term memory. Short term memory refers to immediate memory and is characterised both by a very limited capacity fragility of storage. Information held there is subject to displacement and will be lost after a few seconds unless rehearsed or transferred to long term memory. Long term memory is potentially permanent, with unknown capacity. This modal model however is seen by most contemporary researchers as over-simplified. It assumes that both short and long term stores are unitary. Shallice and Warrington (1970, 1974) found that short ter memory did not operate in this way, when ...

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