What Is Echoic Memory?

The sensory memory of sound is called echo memory. The echo memory is held for about 5 to 10 seconds.
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The sensory memory of sound is called echo memory. The echo memory is held for about 5 to 10 seconds.

Chinese name

Echo memory

Foreign name

echoic memory

Echo memory lasts longer than image memory and may be related to the way the sound unfolds over time. For example, when you understand a spoken sentence, the increments of the sound reach your ears one by one. Echo memory can help you gather these increments to form a coherent whole. Research on echo memory illustrates an important feature of sensory memory: they are easily replaced by new information. If someone reads a series of words for you, each word will replace the previous word in the echo memory. Researchers initially thought that the physical similarity of sounds determined whether one stimulus replaced another stimulus in echo memory. However, subsequent research has shown that the way in which a hearing stimulus is classified is also important. When you hear the sounds of the outside world, you divide the flow of information that reaches the ear into units-you decide which sounds match to form a whole. Echo memory depends on how you organize your auditory experience ^[1] .