Our memory can be divided into three categories. The first type of "memory" is our sensory store which is highly transitory or short-term. Short-term memory and Long-term memory are the two other types of memory which are discussed below.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

The second type of memory is short-term memory or "working memory". The information stored in this type of memory can be retained for a few seconds or perhaps minutes depending on whether our attention is focussed on a single task or not. Short-term memory can be aided by breaking information into segments such as groups of numbers within a telephone number.

I has been theorised that a human brain can retain 5-9 elements in short-term memory. An incorrect application of this theory would be to limit the number of items on a website navigation menu to 9 items. It would also be unreasonable to limit the number of items on a drop down menu within a computer application for this reason. This limiting of items on menus is not necessary because menus lend towards recognition rather than recall.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Long-term memory stores items "permanently". This can happen due to repetition or rehearsal of the information with the goal of retaining it for an extended period of time, longer than is possible with short-term memory.

Long-term memory skills can be exploited by using recognisable and/or meaningful icons or symbols within a graphical user interface. The four different types of icons that can be used are outlined below:

- Resemblance - an image which is an analogy of the item being represented
- Exemplar - involves using something associated with the activity
- Symbolic - the icon is an abstract property of the object being represented
- Arbitrary - where there is no relationship between the icon and original object. In this case, learning what the icon means will be required

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