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Very Long Term Memory

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Introduction
Throughout the duration of someone’s life they retain, and lose, memories. At any one moment a person is receiving hundreds of pieces of information, but only a small portion of that information is absorbed. A memory retained for a long period of time, such as a childhood memory, or even something that happened a few hours ago, is stored in long term memory (or LTM). Other incoming information is passed through sensory memory, (which has a capacity of a 0.5-4 seconds), and then stored in short term memory (STM). Short term memory has a limited capacity of 30 seconds; in order to transfer a memory to LTM an individual would have to rehearse the memory multiple times, through a series of techniques.
Memory can be defined as the organisation, storage, and retrieval of information. This process is termed encoding. Encoding is the coding of external information into a form for long term storage by the brain. Improvement of encoding can result in an increased likelihood of retrieval, creating the impression of an improved memory. Encoding can be improved many different ways. One of which is the use of maintenance rehearsal which is the use …show more content…

The results found that the participants presented with photos of ex-classmates within 15 years of graduating were approximately 90% accurate in their recognition of names and faces, and after 48 years between graduating and testing participants recalled 80% of names and 70% of faces. However, participants who were asked to free recall names only accurately recalled 60% after 15 years, and 30% after 48 years. (McLeod, S. A.,

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