memory, episodic memory, forgetting, interference, synapses, hippocampus
Let’s begin by considering how our memory works. Episodic memories begin as fleeting, relatively fragile ‘short-term’ or ‘working’ memories. These memories exist in the brain as patterns in the firing of neurons (the cells that make up the brain), and can be lost as quickly as they were created. This working memory allows you to remember, for example, where you parked your car, or the words at the beginning of this sentence that you must remember to understand what has been said by the end of it. If the information is of significant importance, or is rehearsed long or often enough, then it moves from working memory and is encoded in ‘long-term’ memory.
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