Decay

=Decay =

Decay is usually associated with STM. Whether or not LTM decays or if there is damage to the process of retrieval of information stored in LTM in widely debated so when we refer to memory decay it is a characteristic of STM only. Decay, along with chunking are the two unique characteristics of STM. Decay in STM is fast as study show STM lasts from seconds to 10 minutes (Cowan, 2008). So for information to be remembered we must say the word out loud or mentally for it to reenter our STM. There is still debate however on whether or not decay is spontaneous or just caused by competition. As we described the capacity of STM of being 7 items, one theory on decay caused by competition is that the intake of new information is competitive with the old information and will push the old information out to fit in the new information.

