We do not remember our experiences as an exact recording; rather as bits and pieces that are reconstructed and interpreted each time we recover the memories, which means they are subject to all the distortions and changes.
How well we can ever recover experiences and knowledge from LTM is highly dependent upon how the material was interpreted in the first place.
How People retrieve the needed knowledge? still unknown - Pattern-matching mechanism coupled with a confirmatory process that checks for consistency with the required knowledge.
While short-term memory is limited, “
no one has ever proved that they’ve filled up long-term memory” said Dr. Eric Kandel, of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.