What is the difference between short-term and long-term memory?

Memory is the ability to access information you have previously encountered and stored. This could be literally anything you have seen, heard, touched, smelled or tasted in your life ; such as the name of your best friend, the meal you ate for lunch yesterday, or where you placed your keys. There are different types of memory which are typically split by the type of information and length of time the memory exists. Broadly, memory is split into short-term and long-term.

Short-term memory is very much what we use on a minute by minute, day by day basis and revolves around the present, what you are experiencing in the moment. The duration of short-term memory is from seconds to minutes, dependent on how much attention is given. Generally, people can hold around 7 individual items in their short-term memory at any one time before it gets a bit tricky, think about remembering a phone number. Long-term memory on the other hand, is what matters to many of us most. These are the memories that make people who they are, consisting of the important events, people and skills you have gained over your life. They can last a lifetime and the capacity is essentially infinite.