ABSTRACT
Now we address a many-faceted question that is perhaps the fundamental problem for the science of memory processing: What is the fate of information acquired by an organism in its more distant past? In other words, how does an "older" memory's potential for influencing behavior differ from that of a more recently acquired memory, and why should such differences occur? Our specific interest here is with memories that were established rather well initially but are not needed for environmental adjustment (i.e., correct performance at the retention test) until several minutes, hours, days, or even years later.
