Factors affecting the duration of STM and LTM

Factors affecting the duration of STM

Rehearsal: We can extend the duration of STM by rehearsing information. For example, if we look up a phone number in a directory, we tend to repeat it over and over in our in our heads in order to hold it in our memeory for long enough to dial the number corectly.

Some researchers distinguish between maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal in STM. Maintenance rehearsal just keeps information in the short term store for e.g. by repeating something over and over.

With elaborative rehearsal, the information is used and changed in some way.

The way that information is rehearsed is important to whether it will ultimately be made more permanent. It it throughelaborative rehearsal that information passes into the long…