• Question: how much memory does the average brain contain

    Asked by anon-228641 to Jolel, Emily, Amber, Alex on 11 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Jolel Miah

      Jolel Miah answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      memory in the brain should not viewed as a memory bank like a data card but seen as a an organ to process stuff.

    • Photo: Emily Mattacola

      Emily Mattacola answered on 12 Nov 2019:

      There are a couple of theories abut how memory works in the human brain. The multistore model of memory argues that we have three different places we store information; sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Short-term memory has quite a small capacity of an average of 7 bits of information (ranging from 5-9 in most people). Long-term memory is thought to have an infinite capacity, according to the theory.

      We don’t really think that the capacity of our long-term memory is infinite though. There is a limit, it’s just really hard to say for sure what that limit is. If we try to think of our brains as computers, it’s estimated that we have 2.5 petabytes of memory capacity. A petabyte means over 1000 terabytes, or a million gigabytes, so the average adult human brain has the ability to store the equivalent of 2.5 million gigabytes digital memory. Given that most phones have 32-64 gigabyte capacity, that’s pretty amazing!

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