Long-Term Memory

Information that’s useful enough to be used again at a later date is transferred from your short-term to your long-term memory. Long-term memory refers to the capacity to store information anywhere from several hours to years into the future. As you might expect, this type of retention requires a more durable storage system. Theoretically, there are no limits to long-term memory, which means that you have the ability to store an unlimited amount of information permanently.

What you can remember, and where you store it
You can store a wide range of information in your memory, including experiences, stories, sounds, images, general knowledge, even actions like riding a bicycle. You can also memorize verbal information—things that can be translated into words—and non-verbal information, such as faces or images that have no intrinsic meaning.

Thus, based on the type of information to be memorized, you can categorize your memory as “explicit” or “implicit.”

1. Your explicit memory is the conscious recollection of data that can be expressed “explicitly” in words. Explicit memory is divided into “episodic” and “semantic”
   memory.     
1. Episodic memory is autobiographical. It allows you to remember what you ate last night or events that took place in your childhood.
2. Semantic memory is your retention of facts and general knowledge: knowing that Paris is the capital of France, for example, or that light travels at a speed of 186,282 miles/second. Although this type of memory can be verbalized, it differs from episodic memory in that you’re not able to remember the time or place where you learned these facts.

This type of memory is managed by a group of areas in the brain which includes a structure known as the hippocampus, located in the medial temporal lobe in the lower central part of the brain. Also, in most individuals, verbal information is processed by the left side, or hemisphere, of the brain, while non-verbal information is encoded and stored in the right hemisphere.

Your implicit memory, also known as procedural memory, is hard for your conscious mind to access. Instead, it’s connected to motor skills: remembering how to skate or ride a bike or play a musical instrument. When you are pedaling your bike, you don’t need to make a conscious effort to remember the series of actions required to maintain your balance. In fact, focusing on the mechanics of the action – whether riding a bike or swinging a golf club – can hinder your performance! Your procedural memory is processed by circuits such as the motor cortex, the cerebellum and the basal ganglia, which extend into several parts of your brain and manage your motor commands

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Finally, you have a temporal memory that enables you to remember sequences of events. This type of memory differs from episodic memory because in addition to being able to memorize facts, you can remember the order in which things occur. For example, not only do you remember what you did this morning, you also remember that you took your shower before having breakfast. Your temporal memory is also governed by the hippocampus and the pre-frontal cortex, which is located at the front of your brain.