How Your Memory Works

What's up with forgetting? You run into your boss in the store and you
can't remember her name--it's embarrassing. You're there to buy four items
and you can't remember three of them--it's annoying. You're giving a speech
and suddenly you can't remember what you were going to say next--it's
humiliating. And let's not forget tests: All year you've been studying uropean
history! and suddenly you're drawing a blan"--who was #harles the $ald again?
Where are they stored! these memories? %ow come you can't find one
when you need it! but later--when you're playing tennis--there it suddenly is?
&f course memories aren't the brain's e'uivalent of videotapes that you simply
haul up from some archive. $ut then what are they?
How Your Memory Works
Part II: How memories are made
(emory-ma"ing is a four-step process. You might say experience goes through
four stages before it becomes a memory. &r! stated more simply! there are
four types of memory:
sensory memory
wor"ing memory
short-term memory
long-term memory
verybody has all of the memory types. )ensory memory is the
persistence of sensations. *t's li"e the ghostly trail a cursor leaves behind
when you move it across a laptop screen too 'uic"ly. Whatever you see!
whatever you hear! ta"es a few seconds to fade from consciousness.
)ensory memory creates the flow from perception to perception that
ma"es life more li"e a movie than a slide show. *f you could turn it off! you'd
be living in the +ow! man--awesome, You'd be li"e a -en master! dude.
You'd also be! li"e! a .ombie! dude.
/he importance of seven
*f sensory memory is the cursor's ghost! wor"ing memory is the screen itself!
the interface between memory and action! between memory and sensation.
/his is where the raw material for future memories pours into your brain! and
where existing memories appear when you need them. *t's here that you lin" a
face to a name and say! 01r. 2ivingston! * presume?0
Wor"ing memory lasts only a few minutes.
(ore importantly! it has a very small capacity. &n average! only seven
items fit in this stage of memory at a given time. And nothing gets into or
comes out of long-term memory without passing through this window first.
0)even0 therefore is a limit that conditions everything we "now. *t's
undoubtedly why 0seven0 looms so large in myth! history! and everyday life.
)even seas! seven deadly sins! seven days in the wee"! seven digits in a phone
number3 it goes on and on. very system for improving memory attac"s this
limitation.
%old 'em or fold 'em
)hort-term memory is li"e a holding tan". /hin" of it as your brain's 4A(. 5ust
as 4A( can fill up! so can short-term memory. 5ust as everything in 4A(
disappears when you turn your computer off! so does the stuff in the short-
term memory holding bin. (emories stay here only a day or two at most. And
why do they linger here? (ainly! it seems! because you can't 6ust send them
helter-s"elter into storage. You have to process them first.
/hin" of long-term memory as your computer's hard drive--a hard drive
of virtually unlimited si.e. *f you save a memory here! you've got it for good.
*f you don't! you lose it forever.
7etting it out
/he big problem with a memory is not getting it stored but getting it out. &n
a hard drive! at least you have a directory tree and files with names. *f you
want to find a particular fact! you wor" your way from category to
subcategory through your directory tree to a certain file and then do a search.
$ut what if you had a trillion files in a directory with a billion branches?
Would you be able to find one particular phrase that was stored 89 years ago?
/hat's the feat your memory! and 6ust about everyone else's! pulls off
routinely.
And it's why memories go through such extensive processing as they
move into long-term memory. /hey get sorted and slotted into various
categories! cross-referenced! and--so to spea"--intricately hyperlin"ed.
/he hyperlin"s group the memories into clumps the way a coo" might
arrange spices by cuisine: cumin! coriander! and cinnamon go over here
because they're all *ndian spices. You want them handy because if a dish calls
for cumin! it may very well call for coriander and curry powder! too. &regano!
basil! and thyme go over here because they're all *talian spices.
$ut spices can belong in more than one category. #innamon goes with
curry powder if you're coo"ing *ndian food! but with nutmeg if you're whipping
up dessert. )o when you're filing a memory! you want to hyperlin" it so that
no matter what you're thin"ing! you'll be able to decide if it's relevant. /he
processing consists of your brain as"ing! 0What are all the topics to which this
memory might be relevant?0
:art ***: /he neural networ"
4emembering is 6ust thin"ing.
And a thought! from the physiologist's point of view! is 6ust a pulse of
energy moving through a networ" of neurons. instein discovering relativity?
nergy pulse. )ha"espeare writing a sonnet? nergy pulse.
/he networ" in 'uestion is that s'uishy gray ball of neurons "nown as
brain cells. ach of us has approximately ;99 billion of these babies. And each
neuron is connected to others through many threadli"e parts called axons and
a smaller number of cordli"e parts called dendrites.
)o the number of connections among brain cells is well into the trillions.
And the number of patterns that are possible in a networ" of trillions! with so
many switches? <or all practical purposes! it's infinite.
*n short! there is no limit on how many different thoughts we can thin"
or how many memories we can store.
very time we ta"e in some information! react to the world! thin" a
thought! or remember something! a pulse of energy moves through the 6ungle
of neurons in our noggins! mapping a route from cell to cell! and that map is
what we call a thought.
*t's not 6ust a linear dot-to-dot! because the signal can split anywhere
along the networ" and travel in two or more directions at once.
$ut the new signal tends to follow the established path instead of
bla.ing a new one. /hat's learning. As more signals pulse through! the routes
become ever more tamped down until at last a signal moving through this
area is li"e a cab driving through an empty city.
)o where are particular memories stashed? /he answer is: everywhere.
You can't remove the memory of that day at the beach when you stepped into
the tub of melted butter by removing certain cells. /he memory is in the
pattern! not the physical cells. /he brain will build that same pattern again
using different cells if it has to.
/hat's good news! because it means that if we pay attention to how we
store memories--if we process them properly on the way in--we'll be able to
retrieve them later when we want. And that's where mnemonics comes in.
:art *=: $uilding a better memory
/he first mechanism for good remembering is paying attention. You can't
remember what you never noticed. *t sounds obvious! but memory problems
often start right there. At least mine do: *'m absent-minded.
/he second mechanism is rehearsal! another obvious one. )aying or doing
something over and over tends to ma"e it stic". /hat's how most of us learned
the multiplication tables! and it's the method by which a lot of education is
conducted. Although it wor"s pretty well! it's cumbersome.
*f you rely only on rehearsal! people tend to loo" at you funny! because
you're constantly muttering things li"e 0#harles the $ald! >ing of <rance! ?@A
A1.0
2in"ing and slotting
/he third mechanism is where it gets interesting. /he brain remembers by
forming lin"s and slotting new information into existing framewor"s. /his is
where you can wor" on improving your own memory processing to ma"e sure
you'll be able to retrieve a memory later.
(nemonics is the science of remembering. *t's a bag of tric"s designed to
help a person remember data! especially isolated! picayune details--the type
we have the hardest time holding onto.
(nemonics relies on lin"ing! clumping! and framing information. 7ree"
orators invented it so they could give speeches without using notes! and
people have been refining and expanding their techni'ues ever since.
$rea"ing the memory barrier
&nly seven items can pass through the gate of wor"ing and short-term
memory. /ry to get an eighth item through! and something will scrape off.
(nemonics brea"s this barrier of nature with a tric". /he secret is that the
seven items can be big or small. *f one of the items is a suitcase! you can
snea" in a pair of soc"s! clean underwear! and two pairs of shorts and it only
counts as one item. /o see this process in action! ta"e a loo" at these ten
letters:
7 $ * 4 A & / 7 1
4ehearse them for a minute. )ay them over and over again. /hen cover
them up! wait ten minutes! and try to write them down. 1id you get them all?
* didn't thin" so.
+ow! try the same letters arranged this way:
$*7 41 7&A/
* bet you could loo" at them for three seconds and write them all down
tomorrow. *t's easy because instead of dealing with ten letters! your wor"ing
memory only had to ta"e in one item: a phrase.
All the principles of mnemonics are tied up in that example.
Human Memory
Memory is the next part of our model of the user as an information processing system.
There are generally three types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory and
long-term memory.
Sensory memory
The sensory memories act as buffers for stimuli received through the senses. A sensory
memory exists for each sensory channel: iconic memory for visual stimuli, echoic
memory for aural stimuli and haptic memory for touch. Information is passed from
sensory memory into short-term memory by attention, thereby filtering the stimuli to
only those which are of interest at a given time.
Short-term memory
hort-term memory acts as a scratch-pad for temporary recall of the information under
process. !or instance, in order to understand this sentence you need to hold in your
mind the beginning of the sentence you read the rest.
hort term memory decays rapidly "#$$ ms.% and also has a limited capacity. &hun'ing
of information can lead to an increase in the short term memory capacity. Thst is the
reason why a hyphenated phone number is easier to rememeber than a single long
number. The successful formation of a chun' is 'nown as closure. Interference often
causes disturbance in short-term memory retention. This accounts for the desire to
complete the tas's held in short term memory as soon as possible.
Long-term memory
(ong-term memory is intended for storage of information over a long time. Information
from the wor'ing memory is transferred to it after a few seconds. )nli'e in wor'ing
memory, there is little decay.
Long-term memory structure
There are two types of long-term memory: episodic memory and semantic memory.
*pisodic memory represents our memory of events and experiences in a serial form. It
is from this memory that we can reconstruct the actual events that too' place at a given
point in our lives. emantic memory, on the other end, is a structured record of facts,
concepts and s'ills that we have ac+uired. The information in semantic memory is
derived from that in our own episodic memory, such that we can learn new facts or
concepts from our experiences.
Long-term memory processes
There are three main activities related to long term memory: storage, deletion and
retrieval.
Information from short-term memory is stored in long-term memory by rehearsal. The
repeated exposure to a stimulus or the rehearsal of a piece of information transfers it
into long-term memory. *xperiements also suggest that learning time is most effective
if it is distributed over time. ,eletion is mainly caused by decay and inerference.
*motional factors also affect long-term memory. -owever, it is debatable whether we
actually ever forget anything or whether it becomes increasingly difficult to access
certain items from memory. -aving forgotten something may .ust be caused by not
being able to retrieve it / Information may not be recalled sometimes but may be
recogni0ed, or may be recalled only with prompting. This leads us to the third provess
of memory: information retrieval.
There are two types of information retrieval: recall and recognition. In recall, the
information is reproduced from memory. In recognition the presentation of the
information provides the 'nowledge that the information has been seen before.
1ecognition is of lesser complexity, as the information is provided as a cue. -owever,
the recall can be assisted by the provision of retrieval cues which enable the sub.ect to
+uic'ly access the information in memory.
Face Recognition
The temporal lobe of the brain is partly responsible for
our ability to recognize faces. Some neurons in the
temporal lobe respond to particular features of faces.
Some people who suffer damage to the temporal lobe
lose their ability to recognize and identify familiar
faces. This disorder is called prosopagnosia.
hen the appearance of a face is changed! neurons in
the temporal lobe generate less acti"ity. Here is an
interesting e#periment$
%o you recognize the famous people in the pictures
below& 't may be difficult for you to recognize these
people when they are upside-down. To identify these
people! mo"e your mouse so the cursor is o"er each
picture. This will flip the pictures right-side up.
*xactly how people recogni0e faces is not completely understood.
!or some reason, it is difficult to recogni0e some faces when they
are upside-down. -ere is another example illustrating this
phenomenon.
These top photos loo' much the same. (et2s flip them over. In
the bottom left, the photo on the top left has been flipped over.
3hat happens if you flip over the photo on the top right4 To do
this, move your mouse over the photo on the bottom right. 5ow
how different are the photos4