Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition

Distinguishing Between Long-Term Memory and Short-Term Memory • 149

Jimmy G. suffers from Korsakoff’s syndrome, a condition caused by a prolonged

defi ciency of vitamin B1, usually as a result of chronic alcoholism. The defi ciency leads

to the destruction of areas in the frontal and temporal lobes, which causes severe and

permanent impairments in memory. The damage to Jimmy G.’s memory has resulted

in anterograde amnesia, the loss of the ability to assimilate or retain new knowledge.

He cannot recognize people he has just met, follow a story in a book, fi nd his way to

the corner drugstore, or solve problems that take more than a few moments to fi gure

out. Jimmy also suffers from some retrograde amnesia, the loss of memory for events

that have happened in the past. Jimmy’s problem is similar to Clive Wearing’s, from

Chapter  5. He has forgotten much of his past and is unable to form new long-term

memories. His reality therefore consists of a few memories from long ago plus what has

happened within the last 30–60 seconds.

The severe disabilities suffered by Jimmy G. and Clive Wearing illustrate the impor-

tance of being able to retain information about what has happened in the past. The

purpose of this chapter is to introduce long-term memory by describing how it interacts

with short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM), and how it differs from

STM/WM. We then describe two types of long-term memory to lay the groundwork

for Chapter 7, in which we will consider how information becomes stored in long-term

memory and how it is retrieved when we need it.

Distinguishing Between Long-Term Memory and Short-Term Memory

Long-term memory (LTM) is the system that is responsible for storing information for

long periods of time. One way to describe LTM is as an “archive” of information about

past events in our lives and knowledge we have learned. What is particularly amazing

about this storage is how it stretches from just a few moments ago to as far back as we

can remember.

LONG-TERM AND SHORT-TERM PROCESSES

The long time span of LTM is illustrated in ● Figure 6.1, which shows what a student

who has just taken a seat in class might be remembering about events that have occurred

at various times in the past. His fi rst recollection—that he has just sat down—would be

I remember

my elementary

school

I started

college

Jim and I

went to the

football game

I went

shopping for

clothes

I was

walking to

class

30 sec

ago

Last Yesterday 5 min

week

One

year ago

10

years ago

LTM STM

I just

sat down.

● (^) FIGURE 6.1 Long-term memory covers a span that stretches from about 30 seconds ago
to your earliest memories. Thus, all of this student’s memories, except the memory “I just sat
down” and anything the student was rehearsing, would be classifi ed as long-term memories.
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