STM is a limited capacity store that maintains unrehearsed information for 20-30 seconds. The rehearsal loop enables refreshment of STM information. The VSS enables holding and manipulation of spatial data, while the executive manages the information needed for reasoning, which is brought into the STM for processing. STM data is replaced by a process of displacement, new data displacing existing data. LTM is an unlimited capacity store that can hold information over long periods of time.
Much research supports the permanent store hypothesis.
But, there is some evidence that recall might be socially dependent. Similarly, evidence indicates that a lot of recall for events is inaccurately recalled. That is, there is a lot of creativity in the recall process. So memory is not very much like a tape recorder or computer disk.