GeneralAn Introduction To The Three Stages Of Memory

Memory is crucial to our well-being and survival. It helps us learn new skills and avoid repeating terrible mistakes. It also makes us who we are, as we are shaped by our experiences, connections, and decisions. It allows people of all tribes to pass on traditions and culture as well as make plans and look forward to the future.

That is why memory loss is so tragic. The person loses the sense of their identity and key events that made them who they are today. This is also why so many people make many efforts to improve their memory. It is not just important to remember facts and appointments. Memory loss also means a loss of our identity.

But how does memory work? What is the exact mechanism behind recalling memories, and how does the brain choose what to remember and what to forget?

Memory works in three stages to store important events. These stages are encoding, storage, and retrieval. Read on to learn more about these stages and how they work to create our memories.

Encoding

Encoding is the stage where you take in new information. This is when you begin to perceive new environments or start learning and developing new skills.

The encoding process is often very selective. For example, when you are in a new environment, such as when starting a new job, you may not take in all the information on the first day. Adjusting to a new environment, various new faces, and names, all while learning new skills and the organization, is quite overwhelming to the brain. Therefore it doesn’t encode everything, just what it believes is important.

This is often why you forget new coworkers’ names shortly after meeting them or can’t remember the specific instructions to a new process you just learned. You’ve taken in so much information that you couldn’t process all of it at once. This is why it takes several days, if not weeks, to adjust to a new job or organization.

Furthermore, events that are common occurrences are less likely to be selected for storage than distinct events. For example, you are unlikely to remember a walk you took about a month ago but will probably always remember what you were doing when a global crisis began.

During the encoding process, the brain has to decide what is important to keep and what isn’t. That’s why common memories are only remembered in the short term, whereas distinctive events are stored for long-term memory.

Storage

As you may have guessed, this is the stage where the brain stores particular information into short-term memory or long-term memory. Memories are stored in multiple parts of the brain, depending on the type of information they consist of. However, the hippocampus seems to play an important part in memory storage. In fact, people with amnesia or memory problems often have damage or other problems with their hippocampus.

Furthermore, memories are stored differently depending on if they are short-term or long-term memories. Research has shown that humans can only remember five to nine items in the short term, showing just how limited short-term memory is. However, long-term memory is theoretically unlimited, but memories are more likely to become long-term if accompanied by other associations.

Another interesting fact about the storage process is that the brain biochemically changes every time a memory is stored. Memories are simply electrical impulses that leave traces on our neural system. Therefore, the neural system has to alter itself to store the memory effectively. That means our nervous system and the wiring of our brains are directly affected by our experiences.

Retrieval

One of the reasons people struggle with memory is not because they have lost their memories; it is because they have trouble retrieving them. Therefore, failure to recall certain memories or information is often the first sign that something is wrong with a person’s memory.

Retrieval works slightly differently depending on if the information is short-term or long-term. Short-term memories are most often recalled sequentially. This information is more easily remembered if it is fresh and new. For example, if asked about your morning walk today, you will be able to recall it in detail. However, if you are asked about it again tomorrow, the details of the walk will be quite hazy.

For long-term information, the details are often stored with associations and are also recalled by them. For example, a certain smell may bring up memories of home and your childhood. Perhaps your parents made the exact food that emits that smell. You may not think of those specific memories of home on your own, but you can’t help but remember those times when encountering that scent.

Final Thoughts

Memory is a fascinating subject and yet so little about it is understood. The processes of memory formation and recall are still being researched, and scientists still have many questions. However, hopefully, this article gave you a good introduction to the three stages of memory and what is currently known about memory formation.

Marie Miguel Biography

Marie Miguel has been a writing and research expert for nearly a decade, covering a variety of health- related topics. Currently, she is contributing to the expansion and growth of a free online mental health resource with BetterHelp.com. With an interest and dedication to addressing stigmas associated with mental health, she continues to specifically target subjects related to anxiety and depression.

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