In order to use knowledge or skills, it is necessary to access long-term memory. This stores facts, memories and skills for minutes, years or a lifetime, depending on the type. This article by Animus Medicus, the shop for anatomy pictures.
What is long-term memory?
Long-term memory is a mechanism in the human brain. It is able to store information and skills over different periods of time and make them retrievable. The information contained in long-term memory is extremely important for everyday tasks. A weak long-term memory can be brought under control to a certain extent through cognitive training.
The Structure of Long-Term Memory
Long-term memory is made up of two major areas: “declarative memory” and “non-declarative memory.” Both are presented below:
- Declarative memory
Declarative memory is also known as knowledge memory. It is able to store knowledge, data and facts as well as memories of events in such a way that they can be recalled. The information stored here is explicit and can be reproduced word for word.
Two parts of declarative memory are semantic and episodic memory. Semantic memory stores specialist knowledge that is true for everyone. This includes, for example, the fact that the earth is a sphere. Episodic memory, on the other hand, stores facts about personal life. For example, people are able to remember their first kiss.
- Non-declarative memory
Non-declarative memory is also known as behavioral memory. Learned sequences of actions or skills are stored here. These enable a person to ride a bicycle, for example. The information stored here is implicit and cannot be reproduced word for word.
The non-declarative memory is divided into three areas. The procedural memory contains all of a person's abilities. For example, we are only able to swim thanks to the information stored here.
The second part is priming. Here, different aspects are linked to individual pieces of information. What color are clouds? White. What color is snow? White. What does the cow drink? Milk. Because we have primed our memory to the color white, we think that the cow must drink something white. But that is not the case; it drinks water.
The third part of non-declarative memory is conditioning. The best-known example of this is Pavlov's dog. Pavlov rang a bell every time he gave his dog something to eat. This led to the dog, over time, salivating when it only heard the bell without being given anything to eat.
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processes long-term memory
Various processes take place in long-term memory. The first is learning.This means that information is stored in such a way that it does not just remain in the short-term memory, but moves into the long-term memory. Only when this has happened do we have long-term access to such information.
The second process consists of the sub-areas "remembering, retaining and linking". People are now able to retain the information stored in long-term memory for a long time and recall it when needed. The stored information can also be linked in order to derive new information or skills from it. Information that is not used, repeated, consolidated and linked is deleted from long-term memory.
Differences to other memory areas
There are different memory areas in the human brain, each of which performs different tasks and has its own characteristics and abilities. The three most important are presented in the following table:
ultra-short-term memory | short-term memory | long-term memory |
Registers all sensory perceptions | Also called working memory | Can in principle store an unlimited amount of data |
filtering of impressions |
Stores information for about 30 seconds | Depending on the type of learning, information is stored for minutes, years or a lifetime |
separation of important and unimportant | Used for information that is not needed permanently stores and sorts incoming information so that we become aware of it for the first time | Stores factual knowledge, skills and memories |
forwarding important impressions to the short-term memory | Forwards important information to long-term memory; unimportant information is overwritten | Consists of different areas |
|
Characterized by limited storage capacity | Poor long-term memory can be due to circumstances (e.g. lack of sleep) or illness |
| Indispensable for concentration and attention
| Through training, the performance of long-term memory can be improved |
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Possible causes of poor long-term memory
Forgetting is not a fundamental error in the brain's long-term memory, but a completely normal process. If information is not needed or is needed too rarely, we forget it. The same applies to skills that we have acquired but do not practice regularly. However, there are various forms of forgetting that indicate poor long-term memory.
There are some people who are unable to store and remember new information. This is called anterograde amnesia. Problems recalling information stored in long-term memory is called retrograde amnesia. The opposite of this is hypermnesia, where one involuntarily remembers things stored in long-term memory.
There are many reasons that can lead to poor long-term memory. These include, for example, lack of sleep and high levels of stress. Psychological stress, such as the death of a loved one, can also affect long-term memory. But even positive effects such as falling in love occasionally have negative effects on long-term memory. Long-term problems with long-term memory can also be caused by illness. These include alcohol and drug addiction, but also Alzheimer's, dementia or Parkinson's.
Conclusion
A weak long-term memory can be traced back to many different causes. If these are caused by illness, not only the symptoms but also the causes of the illness themselves must be combated. For other problems, it is possible to improve long-term memory by slightly changing your lifestyle. Last but not least, it is advisable to carry out various memory exercises regularly in order to maintain the performance of your long-term memory. It is important to determine the individual causes of a poor long-term memory and to counteract it with individually adapted measures. If you have any questions, you will find many answers in our Help Center or contact us.