Top questions about memory answered

Introduction

We know that the science of psychology appeared over one hundred years ago. It would be difficult to offer exact definition of it and we are sure that psychology cannot provide undisputable answers to the questions that we have. Part of it: mnemonics is sometimes can be called the science of shadows as we cannot define exactly what parts of brains store which information. We can make intelligent guesses and we might be right, but ‘might’ is not definitely. So, as I am going to talk on memory in general in the article you should have in mind that the concepts presented here may be wrong and disputable. However, I do not invent those and I am not going to give you one hundred percent guarantees that it is as I say. However, we do have memory and some processes that happen in our brains are crystal clear for scientists and we need to look at those in order to understand mnemonics better too. 

This article will again be more of a theoretical type and will not provide a lot of tips for you to follow in memory improvement. But I hope it will be useful and maybe even interesting. Be patient with me if you notice mistakes or you disagree with what I say. I am just an ordinary guy interested in the topic. 

Memory and images

Things and phenomenon which we do understand do not disappear from our consciousness without any trail. They stay in our cerebral cortex as images which we can recall in our thoughts when the very same objects or phenomenon are no longer in front of our eyes. If you have ever been to New York you will probably be able to imagine Manhattan, the skyscrapers, the Statue of Liberty and a lot of other peculiarities connected with the city. 

Images are ‘pictures’ of previously seen and understood things and phenomenon that are recalled in our thoughts. The foundation for that is the activated stimulating ‘trails’ of the cerebral cortex (temporary connections that were formed by understanding things and phenomenon. 

Images can be:

Visual, as if we see things that are not in front of our eyes.

Audio, as if we hear the voice of the person we know or sound of the music we love.

Smell, we imagine the smell of some material which is not close to us.

Touching, we feel in our thoughts as if we are touching something rough or soft.

Images are similar to perceptions and the former appear from the latter. However images are not so clear and vaguer than perceptions. They are also not so complete.

For example, you can be asked to describe your own car. You would be able to give some general guidelines, but I think most of us would fail to give a very thorough description due to the fact that we will not be able to remember a lot of tiny details: tyres, lamps, wheel, trunk or mirrors. You will remember something, but not much. It is very usual for most of our images. Some people, let’s say artists can have their images as powerful as their perceptions, but for most of us perceptions are much stronger.

The concept of memory

The fact that humans have images shows that our understandings leave some trail in our cerebral cortex (that stay there for shorter or longer period of time). The same can be said about our thoughts and feelings. Encoding, storage and retrieval of earlier experienced things is called memory.  If people could not store and retrieve what has been experienced their minds could not develop. They could not acquire new knowledge and their intellectual level would remain as of a newly born baby. Therefore, it is a task of any person to enrich his memory.

In the process of encoding there usually happens connection of one phenomena with other things or phenomena. For example, when we try to remember a name of a new acquaintance we always associate it with a specific person, his appearance and other features. When we want to remember some historical fact we try to associate it with other historical facts. So, while encoding we associate new things with things that are already there in human consciousness. 

Even ancient Greeks noticed that the essence of memory is determination of connections between things and phenomena. There could be three types of associations:

1.  Adjacency (in space and time). For example, when I think about my home, other images connected with it (neighbor house, inner yard and etc.) arise.

2. Likeness (when I see a picture of an acquaintance I remember him too).

3. Contrast (when I find myself in a traffic jam I remember how peaceful it was near the sea last year). 

This kind of classification was already used by Aristotle in the fourth century. Aside from these connections meaningful connections have a very important role in modern psychology. They are also associations, but much more complex. The foundation of those is understanding connections among phenomena (understanding of connections between cause and effect). For example, an employee knows that if he is going to be late for work without any valid reason, he will lose his job. This connection (between being late for work and being fired) is a meaningful connection between cause and effect. These kind of associations play a very important role in human’s life.

Physiological basis for memory

No other function of psychic life is so much connected to consciousness as memory is. If everything were remembered unconsciously the concept of memory would not be clear. Memory can only be clearly defined when remembering process is conscious.

Some claim that memory is only bound to chemical processes that happen in our minds. They state that memory depends only on our brains in the same manner as our consciousness depends on physiological structure. Others tend to put mind to the first place and do not connect consciousness with matter, but consider it to be a spiritual thing. They consider memory to be a spiritual expression of the mind.

1. Encoding – the ability to transfer past to present is the first mark of memory.  Memory can be compared to a warehouse of experienced events where everything can stay and last as long as human psychic life can go on. The process of memory starts with encoding which is setting of connections between things and phenomena. Most of what is stored in our memory is remembered unconsciously. However, by means of our will we can remember consciously. Learning at school or studying at university or changing your profession one needs to make some efforts to remember. Without these conscious efforts you would not learn a lot of things long term.

2. Storage and forgetting of mastered information is the second process of memory. Our minds help us to organize and connect the information we remember. When, for example you remember a Western movie you might start also remembering Clint Eastwood and other things connected with the actor. Clarity of our reminiscences is different. We will remember some things better and others worse. Some things, even if they happened twenty years ago, we do remember very clearly, yet we cannot remember some things that happened two weeks ago at all. Storage of reminiscences is the reason why we suddenly remember things from the past (that happened many years ago) that are connected with the thing we are doing at the moment. A lot of earlier remembered things are forgotten, because previous stimuli are not strengthened. If one wants to retain something in his memory, one has to repeat those things. Material which has been well understood will stay in your memory much longer than that which has been learnt by heart without proper understanding.

There has been noticed interesting fact about the process of storage: material that is being learnt is remembered better not right away, but after some time. It maybe a day or two, or even more. We can state that the material that has been mastered got anchored in our cerebral cortex it has become easier to recall.  

We better remember material that is learnt in the afternoon and repeated before going to bed and revised when we wake up. There are not strong impressions through the night that could push out and delete material that we have learnt. 

Forgetting process isn’t as negative as most of us think. If we never forgot our brains would be overloaded with unnecessary information, which would hinder for other new and useful connections to be formed. Forgetting is necessary for us so that we could store in our memory only those things that are significant for us.

Why do we forget?

 

We always forget some information. We forget scientific facts, past events, names, faces, titles, actions and etc. Why does it happen? What information do we forget first? If somebody asked you what you did on the fifth of June last year you would probably not be able to do it. 

Unless it is a very important day for you, you will probably not remember it. We forget these kind of details, because we usually do not need information that is that old. This information just occupies space in our brains. But if information is not necessary why keep it there. So, our mind deletes it. It happens automatically. When we forget details we can concentrate on more important concepts, make broader conclusions that would be more important for us than some specific details or images from the past. Too large amounts of information can cloak our memories and paralyze them. We tend to remember only those details that are necessary for us. If we want to visit some acquaintance we do not have to remember every house, shrub and stone on the way to his house in order to get there. Two or three details would be enough.

We should also remember that new information coming over old one usually makes us to forget the old stuff. I remember studying German at university. All the time English words would come to my mind instead of German ones. It was very difficult for me to learn to think in German (I am still not good at it). But as time goes on new connections and associations are formed and we can learn new language.

We also tend to forget stressful information, because defensive mechanisms start working and push those out of our memory.

Reminiscences sometimes become faded and disappear somewhere. We feel and see a lot, but do not remember much from that. Various small details of life are easily forgotten and those reminiscences that were once very clear become weaker and weaker until they mix with other impressions as well as ideas and finally fade or become too general for us to remember them clearly. 

However, we should also remember that nothing disappears from our memories. Everything is store in our subconscious mind. It means that those memories that finally fade do not completely disappear, they go to our sub consciousness and stay there till (and if) they are awakened by some strong or unexpected event.

3. The third process of memory is recall and retrieval. We can remember (recall) a lot of understood and done things quite easily, without any conscious efforts. However, we more often remember things by making conscious efforts. Recall is connected to great efforts of our will. It sometimes makes us feel stressed. Our minds have to be very active in order for it to become a reality. 

Recognition is a separate form of recall. It happens when we repetitively understand something. We may see a person in the street and it may seem that we had seen him somewhere, but until he comes to us and greets us we cannot remember. However, when we hear his voice we do remember that we saw each other at the party last month. Recognition happens easier than recall, because it needs repetitive understanding. Therefore, recognition has an important part in remembering. 

We should also have in mind that recognition is not remembering yet. A student may recognize the material he has read, but he has learnt it only when he can remember it without looking at the book. We can define the quality of remembering only from recall.

Special memory features

Specific memory features have influence for skills and activities of any person. Those who have weaker memory need a lot of time and efforts in order to remember what they are learning than those who strong memory. A lot of professions need good memory. 

Humans are usually divided into four groups according to how they remember and recall information in their memory:

a. Those who remember fast and for a long time and forget slowly (very good memory).

b. Those that remember fast but not firmly and forget fast.

c. Those that remember slowly, but once remembered they remember it for a long time.

d. Those that remember very slowly and forget fast (weakest memory).

People can also be divided according to analyzers that participate most while storing and recalling information. Some need to look at the text to remember it, while others need others to hear somebody else reading it for them. It means that the former have visual memory and the latter – audio. 

Other people help themselves to remember by means of motions, moves and gestures. I hope you have heard the saying that ‘hand has a memory’. It is motoric memory we are talking about here. A lot of sportsmen have it and it helps them to achieve great results. 

Emotional memory is remembering, storing and recalling various feelings, emotions and experiences.
We not only remember the fact that we got angry, but also our inner state at the moment. Those experiences are always connected to some activities and therefore encourage us to take certain actions or deters from them.

Let us look at some features of memory:

a. amount of things or facts that a person is able to remember within some span of time.

b. exactness of remembering.

c. speed of remembering.

d. storage of remembered material.

e. ability to fast remember things that are necessary at a given moment. 

A person who has developed most of the abilities has the best type of memory. It does not happen very often. Most of us have a few of the abilities partially developed.

A few conditions for better remembering

A lot of people who are complaining that they cannot remember well are unaware of a few necessary things that must be there to remember successfully. 

1. If one wants to remember some material well and for a long time, one has to be interested in what he tries to remember and to pay close attention to it in the process of encoding and recall. 

2. Emotions have deep impact for remembering process. Everything that is connected to joy, sadness, and anger is remembered better than in a state when a person is indifferent. Of course, positive emotions produce better results than negative ones. 

3. It is important to understand really well what you want to remember. If you do not understand the ideas, thoughts and concepts you are learning you will remember those worse and for a short period of time. 

4. It is also important to set yourself a task to remember well and for a long time. 

5. Trying to remember the material one has to do something active so that a person would be forced to think. 

6. Knowledge that is already there helps to remember too, because new knowledge is easier acquired when the material is associated with things one already knows. 

7.  Remembering is work and sometimes a very difficult one and it is crucial to have patience, perseverance while trying to remember long term. All the above mentioned qualities are a must in order to improve your memory.

Significance of memory

Significance of memory is great. It is a condition for unity of psychic life and wholeness, because it connects what we experience now with the things that we have ever experienced. If there were no memory all our psychic life would be limited to what we experience now. Animals lacking expanded memory cannot properly connect present time with the past. They only live in present impressions. 

Memory also helps our minds to organize material by raising the old facts that can add to the new facts. 

The whole understanding of life is possible, because of what we have now memory adds what has already been and intellect and imagination something that can or should be. Working, learning and studying are all based on memory. 

One should not overvalue the significance of memory. Learning, studying and working requires other faculties such as imagination, logical thinking, intellect as well as personal character qualities that have already been mentioned in the article.

Ok, I believe it is time to finish the article and keep other thoughts for the next one. Hope this one was useful.

See also:

Human memory

Photographic eidetic memory

Short term memory

Long term memory

Memory problems