The big difference between working and long-term memory is that we are explicitly aware of the information in working memory, but we are not able to directly access the information in our long-term memory. We access long-term memory by bringing the information into working memory. For example, right now you are not aware of all the actors you have ever seen. They are stored in your long-term memory outside your consciousness. However, if I asked you to list all the actors, you would use your working memory to retrieve them one by one and reel them off. Your working memory can access your long-term memory and bring those memories to awareness. But remember it has a limit of seven items or chunks. Each actor would be an item. Try and hold all the actors you know in your explicit awareness. You might try to visualize a large group of them. But you still would only be aware of a few actors at any one time.