The ability to learn and to establish new memories is fundamental to our lives; we(1)______on our memories to do the simplest of

The ability to learn and to establish new memories is fundamental to our lives; we(1)rely on our memories to do the simplest of things—remember who we are, recognize the words we read and the sounds we hear. More than any other (2)aspect of the mind, our memories represent everything around us as (3)existence. But after more than a century of(4)intense study, to what(5)extent do we really understand about how and where our long-term memories are stored and(6)regained?
    When we talk about memory we’re really talking about long-term memory. Our short-term or working memory(7)capacity is about thirty seconds. Anything that(8)sticks around for longer has already made it to at least the first stage of long-term memory which can, with regular servicing, last our whole lifetime.(9)Some of what is known about the human memory system is backed up with hard data, others are held together with educated speculation. What does seem evident though is that structurally, long-term memories are stored in a different place and almost certainly in a very different way from short-term memories. We know this through the observation of patients with bad memory. For long-term memories to survive for decades, it’s thought we have recall them from time to time, otherwise they will fade as part of the natural process of forgetting.(11)Studies have shown that every time we remember something we strengthen the connection to it, which helps us remember it even after a gap of many years.