<P> It is widely accepted that all forms of SM are very brief in duration; however, the approximated duration of each memory store is not static . Iconic memory, for example, holds visual information for approximately 250 milliseconds . The SM is made up of spatial or categorical stores of different kinds of information, each subject to different rates of information processing and decay . The visual sensory store has a relatively high capacity, with the ability to hold up to 12 items . Genetics also play a role in SM capacity; mutations to the brain - derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a nerve growth factor, and N - methyl - D - aspartate (NMDA) receptors, responsible for synaptic plasticity, decrease iconic and echoic memory capacities respectively . </P> <P> Iconic memory . The mental representation of the visual stimuli are referred to as icons (fleeting images .) Iconic memory was the first sensory store to be investigated with experiments dating back as far as 1740 . One of the earliest investigations into this phenomenon was by Ján Andrej Segner, a German physicist and mathematician . In his experiment, Segner attached a glowing coal to a cart wheel and rotated the wheel at increasing speed until an unbroken circle of light was perceived by the observer . He calculated that the glowing coal needed to make a complete circle in under 100ms to achieve this effect, which he determined was the duration of this visual memory store . In 1960, George Sperling conducted a study where participants were shown a set of letters for a brief amount of time and were asked to recall the letters they were shown afterwards . Participants were less likely to recall more letters when asked about the whole group of letters, but recalled more when asked about specific subgroups of the whole . These findings suggest that iconic memory in humans has a large capacity, but decays very rapidly . In a 2001 experiment, Vogel et al. presented a display of between 3 and 12 objects . After 900ms, a second display was presented that was either the same or had one object changed . The result was that the participants ability to decide if the two displays were identical was almost perfect with four objects, but steadily declined as the number of items in the display increased above four . This determined the capacity to be around four items . Another study set out to test the idea that visual sensory memory consists of coarse - grained and fine - grained memory traces using a mathematical model to quantify each . The study suggested that the dual - trace model of visual memory out performed single - trace models . </P> <P> Echoic memory represents SM for the auditory sense of hearing . Auditory information travels as sound waves which are sensed by hair cells in the ears . Information is sent to and processed in the temporal lobe . The echoic sensory store holds information for 2--3 seconds to allow for proper processing . The first studies of echoic memory came shortly after Sperling investigated iconic memory using an adapted partial report paradigm . Today, characteristics of echoic memory have been found mainly using a mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm which utilizes EEG and MEG recordings . MMN has been used to identify some of the key roles of echoic memory such as change detection and language acquisition . Change detection, or the ability to detect an unusual or possibly dangerous change in the environment independent of attention, is key to the survival of an organism . One study focusing on echoic sensory changes suggested that when a sound is presented to a subject, it is enough to shape an echoic memory trace that can be compared to a physically different sound . Change - related cortical responses were detected in the superior temporal gyrus using EEG . With regards to language, a characteristic of children who begin speaking late in development is reduced duration of echoic memory . In short, "Echoic memory is a fast - decaying store of auditory information ." In the case of damage to or lesions developing on the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, or hippocampus, echoic memory will likely be shortened and / or have a slower reaction time . </P> <P> Haptic memory represents SM for the tactile sense of touch . Sensory receptors all over the body detect sensations such as pressure, itching, and pain . Information from receptors travel through afferent neurons in the spinal cord to the postcentral gyrus of the parietal lobe in the brain . This pathway comprises the somatosensory system . Evidence for haptic memory has only recently been identified resulting in a small body of research regarding its role, capacity, and duration . Already however, fMRI studies have revealed that specific neurons in the prefrontal cortex are involved in both SM, and motor preparation which provides a crucial link to haptic memory and its role in motor responses . </P>

This is a sensory memory that contain mental traces of sound