Some Short-Term Memories Die Suddenly, No Fading Summary

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090429091806.htm

          This experiment was conducted by researchers at the University of California. Before people believed that when memories are stored, some goes to the long term section and other go to the short term section. It is said that the ones that goes to the short term section goes unprocessed and groes more innacurate and imprecise by the second. But the researchers proved them wrong.
          They discovered that their subjects could hold temporary memories (like color and shape) for atleast 4 seconds before the memories suddenly disappear, though until then they remained quite accurate.

          To test the accuracy of short-term visual memory, Weiwei Zhang and Steve Luck designed experiments to measure two things. The probability the memory could be held and the precision of that memory. Both of the tests were tested on 12 adults. The first test was to show them 3 squares with colors, flashing for one tenth of a second. Then after 1, 4 or 10 seconds, they are shown a spectrum of colors with the 3 colors that appeared before, only that now they are colorless and one of them is highlighted. They ask you to select a color in the spectrum that best resembles the highlighted square's original color. The closer they click to the color, the more accurate. The second one is basically the same, except it tests shapes. 
          They concluded that the subject either had the memory, or doesn't, depending on how close they choose to the color/shape. Also that the probability of having the memory lies between 4 and 10 seconds, and the memories did not slowly "fade away".
          This can be important in real life because  it would provide away to help us avoid the confusion that might occur if we tried to make decisions on the basis of weak, inaccurate memories. Also that they are incorporating these findings into research for short-term memory dysfunction in people with schizophrenia.