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Sensory Memory 
Sensory memory, also known as 
sensory registers
(Coe 1996:72) or 
sensory 
buffers
(Dix 1998:27), is the first stage of memory. It is an area of conscious 
memory which acts as a buffer, temporarily storing information received 
through the senses. Each of our senses has its own sensory memory (Coe 
1996:71), e.g. 
iconic memory
for visual stimuli, 
echoic memory
for aural 
stimuli and 
haptic memory
for touch (Dix 1998:27). This type of memory 
acts as a temporary storage area for sensory information before it is passed 
on for processing. Information stored here is unprocessed, i.e. it remains in 
its physical form and is not decoded (Downton 1991:22). In effect, this 
means that the information stored here is extremely detailed and accurate. 
However, because of the limited capacity of sensory memory, information 
stored here is the most short-lived and is constantly being overwritten. In 
general, information is stored in sensory memory for anything between 0.2 
seconds (Downton 1991:22) and 0.5 seconds (Dix 1998:27) although 
echoic memory is more durable and lasts for approximately 2 seconds 
(Downton 
ibid.
). 
The existence of iconic memory can be demonstrated easily using the 
concept of persistence of vision – the principle upon which television and 
cinema work. By displaying a series of separate images in rapid succession, 
the eye is “tricked” into seeing a single moving image. Similarly, echoic 
memory can be illustrated by those instances where we are asked a question 
and we ask for the question to be repeated only to discover that we actually 
heard it after all. In a manner of speaking, sensory memory allows us to re-
play information and gives us a second chance to process information. Sen-
sory memory also serves as a route to short-term memory (STM) for the 
sensory information we receive (Dix 1998:27; Coe 1996:71). However, 
due to the brief duration of sensory memory, not all perceptions become 
proper memories (Raskin 2000:18). 
115 
1. Sensory Memory 
There are three types of memory: 

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