Terms of Short-Term Memory

Why does general short-term memory seem to be so… short?

In general, animals seem to have a fairly short time span for active memory of recent experiences. A study of 25 species of animals, found that their average short-term memory was about 27 seconds. Assuming the mind function being used is the subconscious, is there a reason or benefit for this limitation?

The subconscious is a very useful, and perhaps fundamental, function of the mind. It allows vast amounts of memories to be saved, and allows quick access for quick reactions, which are most probable to be beneficial for that individual based on its unique past experiences. By subconscious memory, I’m referring to memory access of any animal, where it is not awarefully or intentionally accessing the memories, or making connections of cause and effect between details of the memory. I further explained my understanding of the subconscious in a post from 4 months ago; Subconscious Subjection. 

The subconscious seems fairly effective, but of course it has limitations, such as detail and quantity of memories. In order for the subconscious to be effective in its function, it has to have focus on certain memories and aspects of memories (as I further explained in a post from 10 months ago; Fundamental Focus). This focus causes a limit on which factors in memory are prioritized, in order to trigger a suitable reaction to those particular factors, by the individual. 

When it comes to any particular experience of an animal, there must be a limit of time leading up to the experience, for the subconscious to save memories of factors connected to that experience. In the circumstances of receiving neurochemical positive or negative reinforcement (more detail in this post; Reinforcement Mechanisms), the subconscious must focus on certain factors within a time frame, which the animal had sensory perception of before the reinforcement. 

For eg, a young rabbit has the experience of being attacked by an eagle, but survives and escapes. Its subconscious will have a time limit on factors which the rabbit perceived before the instance of attack and receiving negative reinforcement via pain and fear. The negative reinforcement it saves in memory, causes the rabbit to avoid various factors (such as the sound or sight of a large bird in the air) which might be relevant to avoid being attacked again. But, it is likely only factors which the rabbit perceived very recently before being attacked, are relevant enough for the subconscious to focus on. If the subconscious linked memory of factors which the rabbit perceived 10 mins prior (such as the smell of berries, or the sound of a tree falling), those factors would likely be unrelated and irrelevant to the cause of being attacked.

Since the subconscious is limited in its connection of cause and effect between factors, as it utilizes conditioning through trial and error, it will save many general factors in memory, leading up to an experience of reinforcement. The factors aren't necessarily relevant or related to the cause of reinforcement, so focus on factors within a shorter time period should increase effectiveness of the function of the process of the subconscious. 

On the other hand, this short memory span can lack effective connection of relevant factors, if some factors of causation occurred too early before the experience. In a typical simple natural environment, it is likely much less common for circumstances to be complex enough for factors which were perceived much time prior to an experience, to be relevant, but it can happen. For eg, in another scenario, the rabbit finds tasty vegetables on an island of a slow river (on the mainland, most food has been eaten by other animals). It took the rabbit 15 mins to find the food on the island, after swimming to it. Even though the cause of finding food is swimming to an island, the subconscious does not link memory of swimming, with the positive reinforcement of the food, as the 15 mins exceeds its short-term memory span. 

A shorter active memory, should cause a narrower range of factors to be focused on in any experience, increasing the probability that the factors which are actually relevant to the cause of experience, are saved in memory and linked with the reinforcement. These aspects of an increase of probability for effectiveness of the subconscious, seem to be some of the; Terms of Short-Term Memory.