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What is long-term memory?

Our long-term memories define us

What turns a short-term memory into a long-term one?
How do we make a (long-term) memory?
Where is memory?
Storing memories
Remember the three Rs
Do memories leave traces in the brain?
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The ability to learn and to establish new memories is fundamental to our lives; we rely on our memories to do the simplest of things - remember who we are, recognise the words we read and the sounds we hear. More than any other aspect of the mind, our memories represent everything about us as entities, they are our heart and soul. But after more than a century of intense study how much to we really understand about how and where our long-term memories are stored and retrieved?

What turns a short-term memory into a long-term one?

When we talk about memory we're really talking about long-term memory. Our short-term or working memory capacity is about thirty seconds. Anything that sticks around for longer has already made it to at least the first stage of long-term memory which can, with regular servicing, last our whole lifetime.

Some of what is known about the human memory system is backed up with hard data, other pieces of the jigsaw are held together with educated speculation. What does seem evident though is that structurally, long-term memories are stored in a different place than short-term memories and almost certainly in a very different way. We know this through the observation of patients with memory deficits (see the page on the Hippocampus). For long-term memories to survive for decades it's thought we have recall them from time to time, otherwise they will fade as part of the natural process of forgetting. Studies have shown that every time we remember something we strengthen the connection to it, which helps us remember it even after a gap of many years.

Serious research into memory began with the pioneering work of German Hermann Ebbinghaus, who wrote a ground-breaking treatise called 'Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology' in 1885. In it he made claims about memory which are still largely true today: "he who learns quickly also forgets quickly"; "relatively long series of ideas are retained better than relatively short ones" and as anyone who has observed or cared for a person with dementia will recognise, "old people forget most quickly the things they learned last". Ebbinghaus' work brought about the science of cognitive psychology which, since the invention of brain scanners such as PET and MRI, has become cognitive neuroscience. Today the largest neuroscience conference attracts well over thirty thousand delegates each year.

How do we make a (long-term) memory?

It's something of an understatement to say that memory is incredibly complex. Our memories have many facets to them and don't exist as complete chunks of information nor in one specific brain region. Memories are usually made up of all sort of ingredients - take a simple stroll in the park: who were you with? What was the weather like? Where did you go? What did you wear? What did you talk about, eat, drink and smell? Were you happy or sad? Our brains can store each facet of this one memory in a different place and then bring it all together again coherently, in a blink of an eye.

Where is memory?

Modern brain imaging research has shown that it takes more than one area of the brain to make and store a memory - the two most likely suspects are the prefrontal cortex and the temporal cortex. Within the temporal cortex sits the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped collection of cells which seems to be crucial for helping us to process all the different bits of a memory and bind them together. It's also closely associated with our emotional memories and it's the place that helps us turn new information into a lasting memory (see the page on the hippocampus).

Remember the three Rs

Once something is committed to memory how is it stored? How do we get it back? A huge amount of research has been devoted to answering these questions. It's thought that how and where memories are stored depends on what sort of memory it is. Psychologists have many ways to classify memories. 'Declarative' or explicit memory is the sort that you consciously store and recall (a phone number). 'Procedural' or implicit memory can be thought of as memories for things we do that have been learned and we no longer need to consciously think about them (riding a bicycle). There are lots of subsets of these memories types like semantic (based on meaning), episodic and autobiographical (based on events that happened to you), sensory, spatial and so on. Each bit deals with a specific type of experience. Different types of memory may be stored in different ways and in different places.

How we remember can also be categorised.

Recall - is usually how we try and remember facts, figures and names. We use recall for very deeply entrenched memories, such as basic information about ourselves (name, address etc, things we might need to know instantly), but recall also lets us down frequently - which is why many of us find names or numbers hard to remember. Aided-recall is similar but uses clues: a good example of aided recall is wordplay - where we learn a phrase that helps us to remember other information.
Recognition - If you can't recall the information then you'll be relying on recognition. There's more information in our heads than we can actually remember. But show us the answer and we'll recognise it. It's how many people scrape through multiple choice exams or daytime TV quiz shows.
Re-learning - if you once learned something then forgot it - a foreign language for example - you'll find it much easier to re-learn and remember it second time around. This shows us that a lot of what we think we've forgotten is still there in the brain somewhere.

Do memories leave traces in the brain?

Where memory research diverges and disagrees is on the question of exactly what might be going on in the brain, at a molecular level, when we create or recall a memory.

Any theory needs to take into account two essential properties of our memories - first, because a lot of the information needs to be maintained over a long time there has to be some degree of stability. Second, because the mind needs to learn and adapt, the system also needs to be highly flexible.

That's why so much research is focused on synapses - the connections between neurons. Synapses are the main site of information exchange and storage in the brain. They form an unimaginably vast but also constantly fluctuating network whose ability to change and adapt, called synaptic plasticity, may be the fundamental basis of learning and memory. But if this system is constantly changing, then how do our memories stay put? Perhaps, as the dominant theory suggests, whenever a new memory is formed then in a process called 'translation', a protein is synthesised at the synapse which represents that memory. New theories are challenging this all the time. Some focus more on what's going on inside the neuron whilst another suggests that our memories are created and simultaneously copied many times like back-up files on a computer, to help keep the memory alive in case one of the copies is erased or forgotten.

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YOUR COMMENT

NotZebedee
Through repeated abuse of canabis and ecstasy during my teens/twenties, followed by abuse of cocaine in my twenties/thirties, I have ruined my memory function. I estimate that I can remember no more than 1% of the last 10 years. For example, I cannot remember my daughter's christening, although I'm told I was there - only 3 yrs ago. I dont remember my sons first words - even though I was there with my wife - 5 yrs ago. This is a persistent problem for me now - I remember very little. As a result, I feel robbed of life's pleasures - what use is an existence in which that you can recall life for no more than a few days? I've generally forgotten most of my great experiences in a matter of days - in effect I have no long term memory! These drugs have seriously affected my ability to remember; both autobiographicaly, and long term. REASON FOR THIS POST: I hope I can act as a deterent to people in their teens/early twenties that are living a similar druggy life. It may seem clever to bang 20 tablets a weekend and smoke an ounce of dope per week but please be careful. For your own sake cut down on the drugs. Would you like to wake up one day in your thirties and not remember much of the last 15 years. Add to that an incapacity to remember the next 15 years too. What value is there in living a life that you cant remember eh? Its pretty pointless - take it from me.

chrissy
All my life I have written descriptions of places and events, with as many details as possible, in an effort to truly recall a special day or a fascinating dream. Reading them years later I find this doesn't really work for me. Everything's there: the exact meal, the quality of the sunlight, what we were wearing. Photos help but the true interior memories have faded, except for tantilising little flashes. I'm like Rosina - I marvel at the enormous bank of words and verbs I can fish out of my memory, unused for about 40 years, in at least 3 languages.

Jo
I am currently suffering from short term amnesia. I am told my cognitive ability and sense of reasonong is very good.But when an event is passed sometimes as little as fifteen minutes gone and other times several hours have passed but i will suddenly realise that i cannot remember anything from my immediate past.Conversations, where i have just been or more frightening what i have just done. My only comfort is that when i do whatever it is i will have behaved rationally. According to my Diary i have recently had a brain scan which shows an area of concern in the frontal lobe. Can anyone tell me if this area deals with short term memory. I have also found a link on the net between the virus linked with pneumonia spreading from the lungs to infect part of the brain causing memory loss.If there is a connection here i would be interested to know as i earlier in the year i was diagnosed with pleurisy and pneumonia.

Graham
In response to Pat, when I can't remember a name I often retrieve the initials (and even the number of syllables) before the name comes back to me. I hope this isn't a function of ageing because I'm only 32! I think it reflects the partial retrieval of information associated with people's identities. When we see a face and instantly remember the name that goes with it the same memory processes operate but it happens so quickly that we are not aware of it.

Gillian
The internet has made a mess of my ability to remember. I used to be able to recall where I had read something by the distinctive nature of a book or journal(shape, weight, age, pictures). However, a page on a computer has no distinguishing features, and it is always in the same location- so I can no longer think: oh yes, I was in the garden, reading New Scientist, such and such was on the cover, so I will find it in,,,,,. Its all the same now. Yes, I know web pages have an identity, but it is not a specific as the physical print.

unknown
Have you ever heard that a person can recall all if not all of their memories even from the age of 3? What is this and if so how is this possible?

Maureen Lynas
I have used my knowledge of how memory works to develop an effective reading scheme for KS1 called Action Words. Each word has a meaningful action so that information is passed to the brain through the kinaesthetic, visual and auditory channels. The words are put into an emotional context and the children have more channels through which to access a word when they are trying to recall it. Maureen Lynas

pat
As I have become older recalling names takes more time. Interesingly I have found that when I am trying to put a name for example to an actor or actress several minutes before recalling the actual name I can usually say what the initials of the first name or second name or even both are. In almost all cases it has been correct - does that indicate the way such information is stored and indexed in my brain? Is this a common occurrence or unusual?

Rosina
A strange thing I have noticed about languages is that they improve with age! I studied French in a bookish way at Grammar School. Years later when I went to France for one of my daughter's friend's wedding, I found that, with the help of a little gem dictionary, the syntax came much more easily to my memory than I'm sure it did when I was 15! Remembering individual words is another matter! I find the same with other languages I have learned -they don't go away -at least, not until I lose the language facility, which will happen some time!


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