Professor Karim Nader explains that short-term memories are more sensitive to disruption than long-term memories.

So one of the defining properties of memories is that they exist in different qualitative states over time. So new memories will be acquired and exist in a dynamic state called short-term memory, and that is sensitive to disruption. During short-term memory, you can manipulate memories, you can make them stronger, you can make them weaker. Over time, a memory will stabilize into long-term memory and during that state the memory seems to be resistant to disruption. The same qualitative states are seen when you reactivate a consolidated memory and induce reconsolidation. Initially the memory exists in the dynamic state during which you can strengthen the memory or you can weaken the memory and over time the memory will be restabilized.

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