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From: ron@brl-smoke.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Memory
Message-ID: <1221@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 19:43:48 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.1221
Posted: Fri Feb 21 19:43:48 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Feb-86 08:12:40 EST
References: <1214@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL)
Lines: 15

> What's the curent medical/psych thought about short-term & long-term
> memory? As I (vaguely) recall, at one time it was either being
> postulated or had been accepted that stuff remained in short-term memory
> for about 7 minutes, and, if it wasn't transferred over to long-term
> memory by then, it was lost. I can't make that hypothesis jibe with my
> personal experience, and so I'd like to see info on what the current
> thought in this field might be.

What I recall is that short term memory has a limit of seven items.
If you don't dump to long-term memory, you will overflow the short term
memory if you have more than seven things to remember.

I don't recall any time limits.

-Ron