Sensory Memory – We are constantly processing information gathered through our senses. Through selective attention, your mind determines what of the huge amount of incoming information is important and ignores the rest. When you concentrate on your professor’s lecture or the discussion that is going on you use selective attention

to deem this information important. Although sensory information is only kept in your mind a few seconds, by concentrating on a certain piece of information, you can transfer it to your short-term memory.

Short-Term Memory – Information in your short-term memory lasts only about a minute. When you meet someone and they tell you their name, chances are, an hour later, you won’t remember their name. By reciting and rehearsing information like names, lists or phone numbers, you can increase your retention of the information. Short-term memory is limited, however. The average number of items you can keep in short-term memory is seven. To remember larger amounts of information you must group it into common themes, memorize “chunks” of information at once, or use other

strategies to improve retention.