Ronaldo was on the state champion soccer team in high school and has fond memories of his experiences with the team. When his so
n asks Ronaldo about his old coach and what it was like to play on such a great team, Ronaldo remembers only a couple of things about the season, even though he spent hours everyday with the team. This is an example of
Transience is the decreasing ability to retrieve and access memories over time. It normally occurs with aging, but decay of or damage to the hippocampus and temporal lobe can cause extreme forms of it. It occurs with both short and long term memories. Memories that are mundane and not detailed are more likely to not be retrieved due to transience as opposed to important or memorable events.
