ABSTRACT
Brain lesions, even when they are minor, normally affect a patient's mnemonic efficiency. Memory disorders constitute a major impairment at the individual, familial, social, and professional levels. The experimental analysis of memory actually began in 1885 with the work of Herman Ebbinghaus, whose purpose was to study the evolution of memory with respect to time. Short-term memory is defined as transitional memory that serves to maintain the information temporarily. It is characterized by a rapid decline in the trace strength, a limited capacity and the absence of organization, and a weak sensitivity to interference laws. The material is maintained in short-term memory by sub-vocal rehearsal, and the longer it is maintained, the more likely it is to be transferred to long-term memory, whereas, long-term storage involves semantic coding. Memory is conceived as a subproduct of the depth of an encoded item; the deeper the analysis, the stronger and more durable the corresponding mnemonic trace.
