Encoding, Storing and Retrieving Make Memory Work

This happens all the time. You’re at a gathering with family members or with friends. Stories and anecdotes are shared, but you don’t remember things happening exactly the way someone talks about them. And you might not remember a funny story about you, even though everyone else is laughing at your expense.

When you find yourself saying “I don’t remember it that way,” you’re correct. It’s our individual memory systems that influence what we have inside our memory banks.

Our memory comes from the capacity of our brain to hold and access information. Three mental processes work together to make our memory work—encoding, storing and retrieving. These three processes determine whether we remember or forget something.

Encoding can be compared to a door opening to accept information into our memory. Our minds automatically encode information that comes through the door when it opens to accept what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell from everything around us.

Storing is where the information is kept so it can become memory. As important as holding the information is the capacity of storing to select what we keep. Without a selection process, every bit of what we experience would fill our memory with useless facts.

Our brain uses sensory memory to keep information for only a few seconds. This capacity to eliminate unnecessary information lets our memory remain clear. An example of sensory memory is when you pass a stranger through a doorway or in an elevator. You might notice the color of that persons coat or hat, but you forget about it immediately afterwards.

The sensory memory part of storing allows us to use our senses to recognize the world around us without processing every single item into our memory. We recognize the smell of a fireplace, for example, because we have experienced that smell previously. Exactly where we first smelled a fireplace is not significant to our memory.

Another part of storing is short term memory that can hold information for a limited time. We can hold approximately seven small pieces of information in our short term memory. The seven pieces in our short term memory keep changing. One piece of memory we aren’t using drops off when a new memory replaces it.Rehearsing or repetition will keep it available to us longer. Examples of keeping short term memories would be learning dialogue for a play or cramming information to use in a test or exam. We retain information that is important to us. After the test, the information leaves our memory.

Long term memory makes up the last part of storing. These are the memories that stay for a person’s entire life. Our long term memory has an unlimited capacity. These memories will transfer back and forth from long term to short term whenever something we experience triggers the memory.

Retrieving information from our long term memory is done with clues that include associations when the memory was first made. We remember an event by placing ourselves into the same context we were in when it happened. For example, when you lose your keys, you may recall where you put them if you think about what you did beforehand. Our mood also can spark a hidden memory that might be changed. Two people discussing a past event will see it differently because their present moods are not the same as the time of the event.

Our perception of the events we experience influence what goes into our long term memory. What we think we see or hear is often different from what other people see or hear during the same event. That’s why witnesses in a trial often give different testimonies from each other. It’s not what we perceive, it’s what we believe we perceive.

Next time a long-time friend tells a story about you that doesn’t ring true, just realize the two of you remember the story differently.

Thanks for reading this blog. Look at my website at www.joevlatino.com. That’s where you will find information about my book of short stories “The Device.”