In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take, the relationships we were afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make.
Lewis Carroll
Memory is defined as the means by which we draw on our past experiences in order to use this information in the present. It is what we use to remember where we have been, we are coming from as a person, the paths we took and the results of each decisions we took. Our memory defines who we are, the people we met, the things we did, the words we say… It is the sum of all our actions, those that are at the core of who we are today. Because we remember the road that lead us here, we are able to avoid insanity (i.e., the action of engaging oneself on the same path over and over again and expecting a different outcome). Our memory is our conscious of the times gone.
But what do we mean by “memory” and how does it work? In psychology, memory is broken down in 3 stages: the exposition to an event, its storage, and finally the ability to retrieve a memory at later time. There are called encoding, storage, and retrieval. In today’s post I am going to try and give an overview of those 3 stages. Let’s start at the beginning.
The first stage, encoding, is the process of receiving an analysing information. As we go along our day, we will be exposed to various sensorial stimuli, pictures, sounds, touch, or odour. Those stimuli from the outside world are going to be analysed by our sensory centres in the brain and those centres will be able to tell us whether we already encounter a given stimulus or if it is a new one. Then, the brain will be able to combine the different sources and create a wholistic picture of the event we are currently exposed to. It is going to transform the separate information in a way that will create a specific image, composed of sound, colour, interaction, and touch. It is making the event memory-ready.
Then comes the storage of the event: it is the creation of a more or less permanent record allowing us to retain the information contained in the event over periods of time. However, we do not permanently store every stimulus we encounter in our life.
The short-term memory, or working memory, is the first place where the event is stored. The short-term memory is able hold few items, very simple ones (generally numbers or few sentences), for up to 30 seconds. For example, we can memorise a phone number in order to instantly dial it, but we won’t necessarily remember it afterwards. In order to remember more permanently factual items of the sort (phone numbers, facts, poems, birthdates…), we have to rehearse and actively try to remember them. Then, those items will be moved to the long-term memory, alongside life experiences (we do not have to actively try to remember the wonderful time we spent at an amusement park for example).
The long-term memory is made of all the memories we have and encompasses everything from the things we learned in the past, to what we wore yesterday, or good and bad experiences we had with people. It is thought that long-term memory has a vast storage capacity, many information lasting from encoding to the day we die. The long-term memory is composed of 2 main types: on the one hand, the explicit or declarative memory, consisting of information consciously stored or actively retrieved, holds the semantic (facts and numbers) and episodic memories (specific temporal personal experiences); on the other hand, the implicit or procedural memory consist of implicit learning, such as motor skills (we do not actively remember how to ride a bike, we just know how to).
When what we remember at neither facts or experiences, nor motor skills, but rather sensory information, it is stored in the sensory memory. Those are not concrete memories; they are images or sounds associated with a main memory, such as the sound of the waves on holidays. The stimuli stored belong to the iconic memory (from the visual sensory store), the echoic memory (from the auditory sensory store), or the haptic memory (from the tactile sensory store). The sensory memory contributes to the long-term memory by building a sensory picture associated with the event stored and can help the recall of given memory.
Which brings us to the last stage of memory: retrieval, the calling back of stored information in response to specific cues or activities. Recalling a memory can be an active process of trying to access stored information to bring it back to the consciousness, or it can happen unconsciously when something in our environment triggers a memory that float back to the surface. For me, two things are really useful when I try to actively remember something: the social context at encoding (when did the thing that I’m trying to remember occurred and with who was I or what was my situation then?) and the physical context of the information encoded (did I read it, write it, or heard it?). Everybody has their own trick to try remember something, and a lot of research have looked at the impact of the conditions at encoding on retrieval, specifically when looking at semantic memories. The presence of music in the background, unexpected noises, being able to write down the words or just read them are a few examples of the things researchers have found to impact recall.
What about unconscious retrieval of memory? “random” thoughts or memories are more often than not triggered by external stimuli: a glimpse of colour, what someone just said, a touch on your arm, a taste in your mouth, a smell around you. Those trigger the sensory memory, bringing back all the memories stored in the long-term memory associated with that specific sensory stimulus. The importance you once gave to a memory usually impacts which memories will be brought back to your consciousness first. A famous example of such event is the “madeleine de Proust” (Proust’s sponge cake, in In Search of Lost Time), when a simple cake will bring long-forgotten childhood memories back, recollecting of the past without any conscious effort on your part.
We are all different in the eye of memory; some of us will have an incredible ability to store random facts and small details while others struggle with dates and need to stick to general information. Some of us will have the ability to recall mainly positive, happy memories, while others keep in time their failure and the things they wish they could change. If there is an evolutionary advantage at remembering bad experiences (to try not find yourself there again), dwelling on the past does not bring positivity to the present. It is important to learn from our mistakes… and move forward.
Memory truly is a fascinating topic and we still have a lot to learn about its complexity. What researchers have already found is that there are ways to boost encoding and retrieval of specific (mainly fact-semantic) items… and one of them is drawing.
But that’s a story for another day...
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