There are three main types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. This three-part split comes from the Atkinson-Shiffrin model (1968), and most psychology courses still teach it. Working memory is often added as a fourth, because it describes short-term memory in active use. Long-term memory then divides into explicit memory (facts and events you can state) and implicit memory (skills and habits you perform without thinking).
Memory can also be split by what it holds: visual, verbal and spatial memory. This guide explains each type in plain terms and links to a test for the ones you can measure.
Types of memory at a glance
| Type | How long it lasts | Example | Test it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sensory | Under a second for sight, a few seconds for sound | The streak a sparkler leaves in the dark | Too brief to test online |
| Short-term | About 15 to 30 seconds without rehearsal | Holding a phone number while you dial | Short term memory test, digit span test |
| Working | As long as you keep using it | Adding numbers in your head | Working memory test |
| Long-term | Minutes to a lifetime | Your childhood address, how to ride a bike | No quick online test |
| Visual | Short-term or long-term | Remembering where a shape appeared | Visual memory test |
| Verbal | Short-term or long-term | Recalling words from a list | Verbal memory test |
| Spatial | Short-term or long-term | Remembering the order of positions you saw | Sequence memory test, chimp test |
Splitting memory by how long it lasts
Sensory memory
The briefest store. It holds a raw impression of what you just saw or heard for a fraction of a second, long enough for your brain to decide what’s worth keeping. The visual version fades in well under a second. You rarely notice sensory memory, but it’s the first gate everything passes through.
Short-term memory
Holds a small amount of information for a few seconds. This is where a phone number lives while you dial it. Capacity is famously limited, around seven items by George Miller’s 1956 estimate, and it fades within roughly 15 to 30 seconds unless you rehearse. Measure yours on the short term memory test.
Working memory
Short-term memory’s active cousin. It holds information while you work on it, like keeping numbers in mind while adding them. Alan Baddeley’s model from the 1970s describes separate systems for sound and for visual-spatial material, run by a control system. Usable capacity is smaller than passive short-term memory, near four chunks. Test it on the working memory test.
Long-term memory
The large, durable store for everything from yesterday’s lunch to your childhood address. It has no known capacity limit and can last a lifetime. Long-term memory splits into two branches:
- Explicit (declarative) memory is what you can put into words. Endel Tulving (1972) divided it into episodic memory, for events you lived through, and semantic memory, for facts such as the capital of France.
- Implicit (non-declarative) memory shows up in what you do, not what you say. It includes procedural memory for skills like typing or riding a bike.
Splitting memory by what it holds
Visual memory
Memory for images, patterns, and layouts. It’s what you use to recognize a face or recall where a shape sat on a screen. Test it on the visual memory test. Wondering if photographic memory is real? See photographic memory: what the science says.
Verbal memory
Memory for words and language. Because words carry meaning, verbal memory tends to be stronger than raw visual or numeric memory. Test it on the verbal memory test.
Spatial memory
Memory for locations and how things are arranged in space. It’s how you find your car or navigate a familiar route, and it’s the strength the memory palace technique borrows. The sequence memory test and chimp test both lean on it.
Why the distinctions matter
Knowing memory has separate systems changes how you read your own results, which is why the average memory score is reported per test rather than as one number. A strong digit span and a weak visual score isn’t a contradiction; they’re different faculties. It also explains why techniques are specific: chunking helps digit span, the memory palace helps spatial and ordered recall, and neither lifts everything at once.
To see how these systems connect and pass information along, read how memory works. To find your own strengths and weaknesses, take the memory quiz.
Frequently asked questions
How many types of memory are there?
Most textbooks name three main types: sensory, short-term and long-term memory. Many add working memory as a fourth. Long-term memory divides further into explicit memory (episodic and semantic) and implicit memory (procedural skills and habits). Counts differ between sources because they split the same systems at different levels of detail.
What are the two types of memory?
The most common two-way split is short-term memory versus long-term memory. Short-term memory holds a few items for seconds. Long-term memory stores information for minutes to a lifetime. Within long-term memory there is a second two-way split: explicit memory, which you can state, and implicit memory, which shows up in skills and habits.
What are the levels of memory?
The usual levels, or stages, are sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Information passes through them in that order. Sensory memory catches a brief impression, attention moves part of it into short-term memory, and rehearsal or meaning moves some of that into long-term memory.
How is memory measured?
Psychologists use three main methods. Recall asks you to produce the information with no hints, as in typing back a number or listing words you saw. Recognition asks you to pick the right answer from options, as in a multiple-choice question. Relearning measures how much faster you learn something the second time, a method Hermann Ebbinghaus used in 1885. Span tests, such as the digit span test, measure the longest sequence you can repeat back.
What is composite memory?
Composite memory is a combined score from a cognitive test battery. In the CNS Vital Signs battery, for example, it adds together the results of a verbal memory test and a visual memory test into one memory score. It is a summary of several tests, not a separate type of memory.
What types of memory tests are used in psychology?
Common ones include digit span (repeat a string of digits), word list recall (remember a list of words), visual recognition (spot shapes or pictures you saw before), and spatial span (repeat a sequence of positions). This site has free versions of several: digit span, verbal memory, visual memory and sequence memory.
What is the difference between short-term and working memory?
Short-term memory passively holds information, like repeating a number. Working memory holds and manipulates it at the same time, like doing math in your head. Working memory has a smaller usable capacity because processing and storing at once competes for the same limited resources. They overlap but aren’t identical.
Which type of memory does an IQ test measure?
IQ batteries include working memory and short-term span (like digit span) as subtests, but they measure much more, including reasoning and knowledge. Memory span correlates only modestly with overall IQ. A strong memory in one area doesn’t make someone high-IQ, and a high-IQ person can have an ordinary span.
Can you test all types of memory online?
You can test several: short-term, working, visual, verbal, and spatial memory all have playable tests here. Sensory memory is too brief to test casually, and long-term autobiographical memory is hard to measure with a quick online tool. The memory quiz samples the testable types in one run.