What Are Visual & Auditory Registers?

Memory is the process of storing and remembering information to be recalled later. In addition to long-term and short-term memory, information constantly enters our brains through one or more of the five senses, and is forgotten almost immediately after entering. These are called sensory registers, and include visual and auditory registers.

Sensory Registers

• When we experience anything through one of the five senses --- sight, sound, smell, taste and touch --- this information is relayed to the parts of your brain that process sensory information. This sensory information, however, is only accessible by your memory for a very short period of time before it's forgotten. Typically, these memories last no longer than a second or two, and are called sensory registers.

Visual Register

• The visual register, also known as iconic register, holds images of everything that we see. These images, however, only last about one-quarter of a second, and are usually instantly forgotten as that information will be immediately replaced by new information. An example of visual register is when a line of print is flashed before your eyes for a fraction of a second; all the letters you can immediately recall represent the visual register of that information.

Auditory Register

• The auditory register is also known as echoic register, and holds echoes of sound that we hear. Auditory register information lasts a bit longer than visual register, up to four seconds, before it, too, is forgotten. One way to prevent auditory register memories from fading is through repetition. If you are trying to remember a specific phrase, simply repeating the phrase and emphasizing different words in the phrase can lengthen the amount of time before that information fades.

Short-Term and Long-Term Memory Memory

• Visual and auditory registers are different from both short-term and long-term memory. Short-term memory can last for a period of several seconds up to a minute. An example of short-term memory is remembering a phone number that has just been recited to you, or recalling the name of a person you have just met. Long-term memory, on the other hand, lasts far longer, anywhere from minutes to years. The ability to remember the date of your birthday is an example of long-term memory.