How Your Memory Works

Remembering is a common experience in our daily life. Outwardly, all acts of remembering look alike but inwardly, these acts are not exactly similar, though there are some common elements.

Remembering is something about what has happened in the past. It is in effect, present knowledge of some event or fact that has occurred before. It involves acquiring, followed by recalling or recognition of the event. The study of remembering is not complete without knowing what is forgetting. Forgetting is the difference between what we have learned and what we have retained.

It is interesting to know how we recall events, recognize them and retain them in our memory. Recalling is a response to stimulus. In every day life, recalls take place in every ones life without his or her knowledge. You recall how to swim after years out of the water. You recite a poem learned in childhood. When the act of 'acquiring' takes place, a stimulus and a response occur together and at that time of recall, the stimulus tends to evoke the same response with which it was associated previously.

At times we experience the stimuli setting off a sudden recall while you are out on your way to office, driving. 'Did I switch off the lights?' Such an experience can take place for a few seconds and usually is not remembered for long. In contrast, at times a recall may set off a chain of thoughts that may lead to some form of creativity.

We normally forget words to songs. With only a little practice, one can ride a bicycle after years of not being on one. This example proves that motor learning is retained longer than verbal learning. We may retain some facts, some poems for a life time; but generally, verbal materials do not stick with us. Forgetting is not just a passive decay that occurs with time, as at times it has proved to be a boon. In many skills, we may forget what not to do, and this may be as important as remembering what to do.

Learning is more than just reading a text book or looking over notes. Learning requires active rehearsal of what is to be learned and this means recalling relevant information, looking for general ideas which hold the details together, memorizing key facts. This involves one's own organization. People tend to remember things, which are favorable to their own attitudes and forget the unfavorable ones. With the passage of time, pleasant memories stand out in our memories while the troubled ones are forgotten. Here lies the important feature of remembering: we tend to rehearse within us thinking about the pleasant affairs we went through, but not the unpleasant ones.

Of course, studies show that people do remember some unpleasant experiences, but try to forget the very painful ones consciously.