Memory is not well understood in detail, however some of the systems involved have been understood. Essentially memories are encoded in the patterns of interactions between neurons in the brain. Particular regions are specialised for long term memory storage and short term memory storage. I'm not clear on the details of our understanding of recall itself, but will simply note that recall does produce identifiable traces in images of brain activity such as MRI.
One thing that I have often wondered is, when you recall the memory of a particular event more than once, are you recalling the original "recording" of that event, or are you recalling your last recalling?
I.E. do you create a new "recording" of a particular event every time you recall it - and does that overwrite previous "recordings"?
If so, how does this affect the accuracy of the memory?
Is anyone aware of any research into this?