SM stands for sensory memory. It is the first stage of the multi-store model of memory. Information from the senses is stored very briefly in SM, before passing to STM if we pay attention to it.
SM is actually comprised of several stores, one for each sense. The best known are the iconic store (visual) which has a duration of around 0.5 seconds, and the echoic store (auditory/acoustic) which has a duration of around 2 seconds. These allow us to retain sights and sounds for long enough for us to tune in to them and start processing them.
A typical example of sensory memory is the way that even if we haven't been listening to someone, for example a teacher, we can still hear a kind of trace or echo in our head of what they said for a second or two, allowing us to pretend that we really were listening all along! This is the echoic store in action.
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