Attention & Sensory Memory
As we know attention is a limited resource. And what gets our attention is often sparked by sensory experiences. Once the stimulus is recognized, it gets encoded into your short-term (or working) memory. Then you decide how to proceed — either act on the stimulus, forget it, or store it in long-term memory. The amount we can store in our short term memory is limited to anywhere between 4 and 7 things at a time, depending on the individual, the stimulus and the moment. Information overload can limit this ability for our short term memory to work well, which is why we talk frequently in marketing comms about the need for a value proposition to be single-minded.
For more highlights on the subject, check out Mel DeStefano’s InVision article here http://bit.ly/2GOBLDm or for something more in-depth, pick up a copy of Nobel-winning economist’s Dan Kahneman’s book “Thinking Fast and Slow”
