Long-term memory (LTM) is memory that lasts from days to years. It differs from working memory and short-term memory, which both last from seconds to hours. Biologically, short-term memory is a temporary potentiation of neural connections that can become long-term memory through the process of memory consolidation.
As long-term memory is subject to fading in the natural forgetting process, several recalls/retrievals of memory may be needed for long-term memories to last for years. Individual retrievals can take place in increasing intervals in accordance with the principle of spaced repetition.
Sleep is considered a necessary factor for establishing well-organized long-term memories.
Autobiographical memory - memory for particular events within one's own life - is generally viewed as either equivalent to, or a subset of, episodic memory.
A further major way to distinguish different memory functions is whether the content to be remembered is in the past, retrospective memory, or whether the content is to be remembered in the future, prospective memory.
For example, the movie Memento, about a man afflicted with Anterograde amnesia, reflects on the nature and meaning of memory (and implications of memory loss); and the paintings of Howard Hodgkin, whilst apparently abstract, are said by the artist to be representations of his memories (and their emotional associations).
It differs from working memory or short-term memory, which is suggested to store items for only around 30 seconds (though nobody has successfully been able to isolate the time dependence of any of these suggested memory types).
Biologically, short-term memory is a temporary potentiation of neural connections that can become long-term memory through the process of rehearsal and meaningful association.
As long-term memory is subject to fading in the natural forgetting process, several recalls/retrievals of memory may be needed for long-term memories to last for years, dependent also on the depth of processing.
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