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Memory is the faculty by which the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information. It is a record of experience that guides future action. Learn about the types, functions, disorders, and strategies of memory, as well as how memory relates to mental health and personal memories.
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. [1]
- Overview
- How Memories Are Formed
- How Long Do Memories Last?
- Using Memory
- Organizing Memory
- Types of Memory
- Why We Forget
- How to Improve Memory
- How to Protect Your Memory
- A Word From Verywell
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Memory refers to the psychological processes of acquiring, storing, retaining, and later retrieving information. There are three major processes involved in memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval.
Human memory involves the ability to both preserve and recover information. However, this is not a flawless process. Sometimes people forget or misremember things. Other times, information is not properly encoded in memory in the first place.
Memory problems are often relatively minor annoyances, like forgetting birthdays. However, they can also be a sign of serious conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and other kinds of dementia. These conditions affect quality of life and ability to function.
In order to create a new memory, information must be changed into a usable form, which occurs through a process known as encoding. Once the information has been successfully encoded, it must be stored in memory for later use.
Researchers have long believed that memories form due to changes in brain neurons (nerve cells). Our understanding today is that memories are created through the connections that exist between these neurons—either by strengthening these connections or through the growth of new connections.
Changes in the connections between nerve cells (known as synapses) are associated with the learning and retention of new information. Strengthening these connections helps commit information to memory.
This is why reviewing and rehearsing information improves the ability to remember it. Practice strengthens the connections between the synapses that store that memory.
Much of our stored memory lies outside of our awareness most of the time, except when we actually need to use it. The memory retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness.
How Long-Term Memory Retrieval Works
You can't discuss what memory is without also talking about how long memories last. Some memories are very brief, just seconds long, and allow people to take in sensory information about the world.
Short-term memories are a bit longer and last about 20 to 30 seconds. These memories mostly consist of the information people are currently focusing on and thinking about.
To use the information that has been encoded into memory, it first has to be retrieved. There are many factors that can influence this process, including the type of information being used and the retrieval cues that are present.
Of course, this process is not always perfect. Have you ever felt like you had the answer to a question just out of your reach, for instance? This is an example of a perplexing memory retrieval issue known as lethologica or the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.
The ability to access and retrieve information from long-term memory allows us to actually use these memories to make decisions, interact with others, and solve problems. But in order to be retrievable, memories have to be organized in some way.
One way of thinking about memory organization is the semantic network model. This model suggests that certain triggers activate associated memories. Seeing or remembering a specific place might activate memories that have occurred in that location.
Thinking about a particular campus building, for example, might trigger memories of attending classes, studying, and socializing with peers.
Certain stimuli can also sometimes act as powerful triggers that draw memories into conscious awareness. Scent is one example. Smelling a particular smell, such as a perfume or fresh-baked cookies, can bring forth a rush of vivid memories connected to people and events from a person's past.
In order to identify a scent, a person must remember when they have smelled it before, then connect it to visual information that occurred at the same time. So, when areas of the brain connected to memory are damaged, the ability to identify smells is actually impaired.
At the same time, researchers have found that scent can help trigger autobiographical memories in people who have Alzheimer's disease. This underscores just how powerful memories can be.
While several different models of memory have been proposed, the stage model of memory is often used to explain the basic structure and function of memory. Initially proposed in 1968 by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin, this theory outlines three separate stages or types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
Forgetting is a surprisingly common event. Just consider how easy it is to forget someone’s name or overlook an important appointment. Why do people so often forget information they have learned in the past?
There are four basic explanations for why forgetting occurs:
•Failure to store a memory
•Interference
•Motivated forgetting
•Retrieval failure
No matter how great your memory is, there are probably a few things you can do to make it even better. Useful strategies to deal with mild memory loss include:
•Write it down: The act of writing with a pen and paper helps implant the memory into your brain—and can also serve as a reminder or reference later on.
•Attach meaning to it: You can remember something more easily if you attach meaning to it. For instance, if you associate a person you just meet with someone you already know, you may be able to remember their name better.
•Repeat it: Repetition helps the memory become encoded beyond your short-term memory.
•Group it: Information that is categorized becomes easier to remember and recall.
•Test yourself: While it may seem like studying and rehearsing information is the best way to ensure that you will remember it, researchers have found that being tested on information is actually one of the best ways to improve recall.
While Alzheimer's disease and other age-related memory problems affect many older adults, the loss of memory during later adulthood might not inevitable. Certain abilities do tend to decline with age, but researchers have found that individuals in their 70s often perform just as well on many cognitive tests as those in their 20s.
By the time people reach their 80s, it is common to experience some decline in cognitive function. But some types of memory even increase with age.
To help protect your brain as you age, try some of these lifestyle strategies:
•Avoid stress: Research has found that stress can have detrimental effects on areas of the brain associated with memory, including the hippocampus.
•Avoid drugs, alcohol, and other neurotoxins: Drug use and excessive alcohol consumption have been linked to the deterioration of synapses (the connections between neurons). Exposure to dangerous chemicals such as heavy metals and pesticides can also have detrimental effects on the brain.
•Get enough exercise: Regular physical activity helps improve oxygenation of the brain, which is vital for synaptic formation and growth.
Human memory is a complex process that researchers are still trying to better understand. Our memories make us who we are, yet the process is not perfect. While we are capable of remembering an astonishing amount of information, we are also susceptible to memory-related mistakes and errors.
Natural Ways to Improve Memory
17 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
1.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Brain basics: The life and death of a neuron.
2.Kark S, Kensinger E. Physiological arousal and visuocortical connectivity predict subsequent vividness of negative memories. Neurorep. 2019;30(12):800-804. doi:10.1097/WNR.0000000000001274
Mar 7, 2024 · Learn how to sharpen your memory with physical, mental and social activities. Find out when to seek medical help for memory loss and what causes it.
- Include Physical Activity in Your Daily RoutinePhysical activity increases blood flow to your whole body, including your brain. This might help keep your memory sharp.For most healthy adults, th...
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How Memory Works. Memory is a continually unfolding process. Initial details of an experience take shape in memory; the brain’s representation of that information then changes over time. With ...
- Why do we create memories?Memory serves many purposes, from allowing us to revisit and learn from past experiences to storing knowledge about the world and how things work....
- What is encoding?Encoding is the first stage of memory. It is the process by which the details of a person’s experience are converted into a form that can be stor...
- What is retention and consolidation?Retention, or storage, is the stage in which information is preserved in memory following its initial encoding. These stored memories are incomple...
- How does sleep affect your memory?Sleep facilitates the retention of memories, though why exactly this is the case is not fully understood. Research has found that people tend to s...
- What parts of the brain are important for memory?The hippocampus and other parts of the medial temporal lobe are critical for many forms of memory, though various other parts of the brain play rol...
- How is memory stored in the brain?Memory involves changes to the brain’s neural networks. Neurons in the brain are connected by synapses, which are bound together by chemical mess...
- What is an engram?A memory engram , or memory trace, is a term for the set of changes in the brain on which a memory is based. These are thought to include changes a...
- What is retrieval?Retrieval is the stage of memory in which the information saved in memory is recalled, whether consciously or unconsciously. It follows the stages...
- What is a retrieval cue?A retrieval cue is a stimulus that initiates remembering. Retrieval cues can be external, such as an image, text, a scent, or some other stimulus t...
Memory loss is the unavoidable flipside of the human capacity to remember. Beyond the normal forgetting that happens every day throughout life, some decline in memory ability with age is typical ...
6 days ago · Learn about memory, the encoding, storage, and retrieval of past experiences in the human mind. Explore the different types of memory, such as short-term, long-term, and working memory, and how they relate to perception, attention, and learning.
