Memory

Explanations > Memory

Memory is a funny and frustrating thing. We try to remember all sorts of things but then forget them or find them annoyingly on the tip of the tongue.

• Multi-store model: Memory as a series of stores.
  • Sensory memory: buffering recent data.
  • Short-term memory: A limited number of slots.
  • Working memory: Short-term memory with processing.
  • Long-term memory: Holds your entire life.
• Storing (encoding) memories:
  • Enhancing memory: Ways to improve recall.
  • Encoding specificity principle: Memory is related to context.
  • Association and emotion: Emotions are bound up in memories.
• Remembering (recall and recognition):
  • Two-process theory: Recognition always beats recall.
  • Interference theory: Memories that interfere cause confusion and forgetting.
  • Multiple-route recall: Two ways that recall happens.
• Recall effects:
  • Zeigarnik effect: We remember that which is incomplete.
  • Von Restorff Effect: We remember that which stands out.
  • Primacy Effect: we remember what came first.
  • Recency Effect: we remember what came last.

So what?

In changing minds, there are many times when you want people to store and recall different things -- and sometimes maybe not recall things. Therapy, for example, works very strongly with memories, uncovering and changing trauma from early life. A sales person is also interested in what people remember from the last visit or the marketing materials.

Understanding how memory works can help you manage both your own memory and also the memories of others.

See also

Theories about memory