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Long-term memory exists to store information for later retrieval. However, when we retrieve information from memory, we are not getting a replica, but rather a reconstruction. Our memories are fluid, not static, meaning that they change as a result of our current beliefs and perceptions about the past, present, and future. A memory is not simply a photograph or audio clip, but rather becomes colored by our thoughts and feelings at the time, and our current beliefs about what the memory should represent.

Short-term memory is characterized by its limited capacity and quick loss of information. In a test of capacity, such as a digit span task, it can hold only approximately seven (five to nine) items. You can try the digit span task on yourself. Read these numbers out loud at a rate of about one per second: 6, 3, 9, 7, 4, 6, 2, 3, 9, 4. Now, close your eyes and try to recite them back, in order. How many can you remember? After a few tries, most people can remember about seven numbers in a list. Very few people can remember more than nine digits in a row. This is the limited capacity of short-term memory. Now, close your eyes again and try to repeat the numbers you read a few sentences ago. More difficult, isn't it? This is a demonstration of the quick loss of information in short-term memory. Interestingly, in the Welsh language, numbers have many more syllables than in English, and the digit span of bilingual speakers is lower when they read the numbers in Welsh than when they read the numbers in English. This may be because it takes more time to read the numbers in Welsh, so that they need to remember the earlier numbers on the list after twenty seconds have gone by rather than only ten.