What is Long-term memory?
Long-term memory
Long-term memory (LTM) is the stage of the Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model where informative knowledge is held indefinitely. It is defined in contrast to short-term and working memory, which persist for only about 18 to 30 seconds. Long-term memory is commonly labelled as explicit memory (declarative), as well as episodic memory, semantic memory, autobiographical memory, and implicit memory (procedural memory).
Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model
Information is postulated to enter the long-term store from the short-term store more or less automatically. As Atkinson and Shiffrin model it, transfer from the short-term store to the long-term store is occurring for as long as the information is being attended to in the short-term store. In this way, varying amounts of attention result in varying amounts of time in short-term memory. Ostensibly, the longer an item is held in short-term memory, the stronger its memory trace will be in long-term memory. Some extraneous variables include: participant differences (Personal ability of an individual, these differentiate each participant and their capacity levels), demand characteristics (Which is the participants knowledge about experiment and what they bring to the experiment), experimenter effect (which is the effects the researchers have on participants through their expectations and possibility of bias behavior for self-fulfillment results), non-standardized instructions and procedures (The effect on participants if they receive different instructions, and if no consistency in procedure, also impacts from variations of conditions).
Atkinson and Shiffrin cite evidence for this transfer mechanism in studies by Hebb (1961) and Melton (1963) which show that repeated rote repetition enhances long-term memory. One may also think to the original Ebbinghaus memory experiments showing that forgetting increases for items which are studied fewer times. Finally, the authors note that there are stronger encoding processes than simple rote rehearsal, namely relating the new information to information which has already made its way into the long-term store.