what is the memory essay

Psychology Discussion

Essay on memory: (meaning and types).

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Read this Comprehensive Essay on Memory: Meaning, Nature and Types of Memory !

Meaning and Nature :

Memory is one of the important cognitive processes. Memory involves remembering and forgetting.

These are like two faces of a coin. Though these two are opposed to each other by nature, they play an important role in the life of an individual.

Remembering the pleasant experiences makes living happy, and on the other hand remembering unpleasant experiences makes living unhappy and miserable. So here forgetting helps individual to forget unwanted and unpleasant experiences and memories and keeps him happy.

In this way, remembering the pleasant and forgetting the- unpleasant both are essential for normal living. In the case of learners, remembering is very important, because without memory there would be no learning.

If learning has to progress, remembering of what is already learnt is indispensable, otherwise every time the learner has to start from the beginning.

The memory is defined as ‘the power to store experiences and to bring them into the field of consciousness sometime after the experience has occurred’. Our mind has the power of conserving experiences and mentally receiving them whenever such an activity helps the onward progress of the life cycle.

The conserved experience has a unity, an organisation of its own and it colours our present experience.

However, as stated above we have a notion that memory is a single process, but an analysis of it reveals involvement of three different activities- learning, retention and remembering.

This is the first stage of memory. Learning may be by any of the methods like imitation, verbal, motor, conceptual, trial and error, insight, etc. Hence, whatever may be the type of learning; we must pay our attention to retain what is learnt. A good learning is necessary for better retention.

Retention is the process of retaining in mind what is learnt or experienced in the past. The learnt material must be retained in order to make progress in our learning. Psychologists are of the opinion that the learnt material will be retained in the brain in the form of neural traces called ‘memory traces’, or ‘engrams’, or ‘neurograms’.

When good learning takes place –clear engrams are formed, so that they remain for long time and can be remembered by activation of these traces whenever necessary.

Remembering:

It is the process of bringing back the stored or retained information to the conscious level. This may be understood by activities such as recalling, recognising, relearning and reconstruction.

Recalling is the process of reproducing the past experiences that are not present. For example, recalling answers in the examination hall.

Recognising:

It is to recognise a person seen earlier, or the original items seen earlier, from among the items of the same class or category which they are mixed-up.

Relearning:

Relearning is also known as saving method. Because we measure retention in terms of saving in the number of repetition or the time required to relearn the assignment. The difference between the amount of time or trials required for original learning and the one required for relearning indicates the amount of retention.

Reconstruction:

Reconstruction is otherwise called rearrangement. Here the material to learn will be presented in a particular order and then the items will be jumbled up or shuffled thoroughly and presented to the individual to rearrange them in the original order in which it was presented.

Types of Memory :

There are five kinds of memory. These are classified on the basis of rates of decay of the information.

a. Sensory memory:

In this kind of memory, the information received by the sense organs will remain there for a very short period like few seconds. For example, the image on the screen of a TV may appear to be in our eyes for a fraction of time even when it is switched off, or the voice of a person will be tingling in our ears even after the voice is ceased.

b. Short-term memory (STM):

According to many studies, in STM the memory remains in our conscious and pre-conscious level for less than 30 seconds. Later on this will be transferred to long-term memory.

c. Long-term memory (LTM):

LTM has the unlimited capacity to store information which may remain for days, months, years or lifetime.

d. Eidetic memory:

It is otherwise called photographic memory in which the individual can remember a scene or an event in a photographic detail.

e. Episodic memory:

This is otherwise called semantic memory which is connected with episodes of events. The events are stored in the form of episodes and recalled fully in the manner of a sequence.

Related Articles:

• 11 Factors that Influence Memory Process in Humans
• 7 Main Factors that Influence Retention Power | Memory | Psychology
• Essay on Forgetting: Causes and Theories
• Memory Types: 3 Main Types of Memory | Remembering | Psychology

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• How Memory Works

Memory is the ongoing process of information retention over time. Because it makes up the very framework through which we make sense of and take action within the present, its importance goes without saying. But how exactly does it work? And how can teachers apply a better understanding of its inner workings to their own teaching? In light of current research in cognitive science, the very, very short answer to these questions is that memory operates according to a "dual-process," where more unconscious, more routine thought processes (known as "System 1") interact with more conscious, more problem-based thought processes (known as "System 2"). At each of these two levels, in turn, there are the processes through which we "get information in" (encoding), how we hold on to it (storage), and and how we "get it back out" (retrieval or recall). With a basic understanding of how these elements of memory work together, teachers can maximize student learning by knowing how much new information to introduce, when to introduce it, and how to sequence assignments that will both reinforce the retention of facts (System 1) and build toward critical, creative thinking (System 2).

Dual-Process Theory

Think back to a time when you learned a new skill, such as driving a car, riding a bicycle, or reading. When you first learned this skill, performing it was an active process in which you analyzed and were acutely aware of every movement you made. Part of this analytical process also meant that you thought carefully about why you were doing what you were doing, to understand how these individual steps fit together as a comprehensive whole. However, as your ability improved, performing the skill stopped being a cognitively-demanding process, instead becoming more intuitive. As you continue to master the skill, you can perform other, at times more intellectually-demanding, tasks simultaneously. Due to your knowledge of this skill or process being unconscious, you could, for example, solve an unrelated complex problem or make an analytical decision while completing it.

In its simplest form, the scenario above is an example of what psychologists call dual-process theory. The term “dual-process” refers to the idea that some behaviors and cognitive processes (such as decision-making) are the products of two distinct cognitive processes, often called System 1 and System 2 (Kaufmann, 2011:443-445). While System 1 is characterized by automatic, unconscious thought, System 2 is characterized by effortful, analytical, intentional thought (Osman, 2004:989).

Dual-Process Theories and Learning

How do System 1 and System 2 thinking relate to teaching and learning? In an educational context, System 1 is associated with memorization and recall of information, while System 2 describes more analytical or critical thinking. Memory and recall, as a part of System 1 cognition, are focused on in the rest of these notes.

As mentioned above, System 1 is characterized by its fast, unconscious recall of previously-memorized information. Classroom activities that would draw heavily on System 1 include memorized multiplication tables, as well as multiple-choice exam questions that only need exact regurgitation from a source such as a textbook. These kinds of tasks do not require students to actively analyze what is being asked of them beyond reiterating memorized material. System 2 thinking becomes necessary when students are presented with activities and assignments that require them to provide a novel solution to a problem, engage in critical thinking, or apply a concept outside of the domain in which it was originally presented.  

It may be tempting to think of learning beyond the primary school level as being all about System 2, all the time. However, it’s important to keep in mind that successful System 2 thinking depends on a lot of System 1 thinking to operate. In other words, critical thinking requires a lot of memorized knowledge and intuitive, automatic judgments to be performed quickly and accurately.

How does Memory Work?

In its simplest form, memory refers to the continued process of information retention over time. It is an integral part of human cognition, since it allows individuals to recall and draw upon past events to frame their understanding of and behavior within the present. Memory also gives individuals a framework through which to make sense of the present and future. As such, memory plays a crucial role in teaching and learning. There are three main processes that characterize how memory works. These processes are encoding, storage, and retrieval (or recall).

• Encoding . Encoding refers to the process through which information is learned. That is, how information is taken in, understood, and altered to better support storage (which you will look at in Section 3.1.2). Information is usually encoded through one (or more) of four methods: (1) Visual encoding (how something looks); (2) acoustic encoding (how something sounds); (3) semantic encoding (what something means); and (4) tactile encoding (how something feels). While information typically enters the memory system through one of these modes, the form in which this information is stored may differ from its original, encoded form (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).

• Retrieval . As indicated above, retrieval is the process through which individuals access stored information. Due to their differences, information stored in STM and LTM are retrieved differently. While STM is retrieved in the order in which it is stored (for example, a sequential list of numbers), LTM is retrieved through association (for example, remembering where you parked your car by returning to the entrance through which you accessed a shopping mall) (Roediger & McDermott, 1995).

Improving Recall

Retrieval is subject to error, because it can reflect a reconstruction of memory. This reconstruction becomes necessary when stored information is lost over time due to decayed retention. In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted an experiment in which he tested how well individuals remembered a list of nonsense syllables over increasingly longer periods of time. Using the results of his experiment, he created what is now known as the “Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve” (Schaefer, 2015).

Through his research, Ebbinghaus concluded that the rate at which your memory (of recently learned information) decays depends both on the time that has elapsed following your learning experience as well as how strong your memory is. Some degree of memory decay is inevitable, so, as an educator, how do you reduce the scope of this memory loss? The following sections answer this question by looking at how to improve recall within a learning environment, through various teaching and learning techniques.

As a teacher, it is important to be aware of techniques that you can use to promote better retention and recall among your students. Three such techniques are the testing effect, spacing, and interleaving.

• The testing effect . In most traditional educational settings, tests are normally considered to be a method of periodic but infrequent assessment that can help a teacher understand how well their students have learned the material at hand. However, modern research in psychology suggests that frequent, small tests are also one of the best ways to learn in the first place. The testing effect refers to the process of actively and frequently testing memory retention when learning new information. By encouraging students to regularly recall information they have recently learned, you are helping them to retain that information in long-term memory, which they can draw upon at a later stage of the learning experience (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014). As secondary benefits, frequent testing allows both the teacher and the student to keep track of what a student has learned about a topic, and what they need to revise for retention purposes. Frequent testing can occur at any point in the learning process. For example, at the end of a lecture or seminar, you could give your students a brief, low-stakes quiz or free-response question asking them to remember what they learned that day, or the day before. This kind of quiz will not just tell you what your students are retaining, but will help them remember more than they would have otherwise.
• Spacing.  According to the spacing effect, when a student repeatedly learns and recalls information over a prolonged time span, they are more likely to retain that information. This is compared to learning (and attempting to retain) information in a short time span (for example, studying the day before an exam). As a teacher, you can foster this approach to studying in your students by structuring your learning experiences in the same way. For example, instead of introducing a new topic and its related concepts to students in one go, you can cover the topic in segments over multiple lessons (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).
• Interleaving.  The interleaving technique is another teaching and learning approach that was introduced as an alternative to a technique known as “blocking”. Blocking refers to when a student practices one skill or one topic at a time. Interleaving, on the other hand, is when students practice multiple related skills in the same session. This technique has proven to be more successful than the traditional blocking technique in various fields (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).

As useful as it is to know which techniques you can use, as a teacher, to improve student recall of information, it is also crucial for students to be aware of techniques they can use to improve their own recall. This section looks at four of these techniques: state-dependent memory, schemas, chunking, and deliberate practice.

• State-dependent memory . State-dependent memory refers to the idea that being in the same state in which you first learned information enables you to better remember said information. In this instance, “state” refers to an individual’s surroundings, as well as their mental and physical state at the time of learning (Weissenborn & Duka, 2000). 
• Schemas.  Schemas refer to the mental frameworks an individual creates to help them understand and organize new information. Schemas act as a cognitive “shortcut” in that they allow individuals to interpret new information quicker than when not using schemas. However, schemas may also prevent individuals from learning pertinent information that falls outside the scope of the schema that has been created. It is because of this that students should be encouraged to alter or reanalyze their schemas, when necessary, when they learn important information that may not confirm or align with their existing beliefs and conceptions of a topic.
• Chunking.  Chunking is the process of grouping pieces of information together to better facilitate retention. Instead of recalling each piece individually, individuals recall the entire group, and then can retrieve each item from that group more easily (Gobet et al., 2001).
• Deliberate practice.  The final technique that students can use to improve recall is deliberate practice. Simply put, deliberate practice refers to the act of deliberately and actively practicing a skill with the intention of improving understanding of and performance in said skill. By encouraging students to practice a skill continually and deliberately (for example, writing a well-structured essay), you will ensure better retention of that skill (Brown et al., 2014).

For more information...

Brown, P.C., Roediger, H.L. & McDaniel, M.A. 2014.  Make it stick: The science of successful learning . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Gobet, F., Lane, P.C., Croker, S., Cheng, P.C., Jones, G., Oliver, I. & Pine, J.M. 2001. Chunking mechanisms in human learning.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences . 5(6):236-243.

Kaufman, S.B. 2011. Intelligence and the cognitive unconscious. In  The Cambridge handbook of intelligence . R.J. Sternberg & S.B. Kaufman, Eds. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Osman, M. 2004. An evaluation of dual-process theories of reasoning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review . 11(6):988-1010.

Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. 1995. Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition . 21(4):803.

Schaefer, P. 2015. Why Google has forever changed the forgetting curve at work.

Weissenborn, R. & Duka, T. 2000. State-dependent effects of alcohol on explicit memory: The role of semantic associations.  Psychopharmacology . 149(1):98-106.

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Memory Stages: Encoding Storage and Retrieval

Saul McLeod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

“Memory is the process of maintaining information over time.” (Matlin, 2005) “Memory is the means by which we draw on our past experiences in order to use this information in the present’ (Sternberg, 1999).

Memory is the term given to the structures and processes involved in the storage and subsequent retrieval of information.

Memory is essential to all our lives. Without a memory of the past, we cannot operate in the present or think about the future. We would not be able to remember what we did yesterday, what we have done today, or what we plan to do tomorrow.  Without memory, we could not learn anything.

Memory is involved in processing vast amounts of information. This information takes many different forms, e.g., images, sounds, or meaning.

For psychologists, the term memory covers three important aspects of information processing :

Memory Encoding

When information comes into our memory system (from sensory input), it needs to be changed into a form that the system can cope with so that it can be stored.

Think of this as similar to changing your money into a different currency when you travel from one country to another.  For example, a word that is seen (in a book) may be stored if it is changed (encoded) into a sound or a meaning (i.e., semantic processing).

There are three main ways in which information can be encoded (changed):

1. Visual (picture) 2. Acoustic (sound) 3. Semantic (meaning)

For example, how do you remember a telephone number you have looked up in the phone book?  If you can see it, then you are using visual coding, but if you are repeating it to yourself, you are using acoustic coding (by sound).

Evidence suggests that this is the principle coding system in short-term memory (STM) is acoustic coding.  When a person is presented with a list of numbers and letters, they will try to hold them in STM by rehearsing them (verbally).

Rehearsal is a verbal process regardless of whether the list of items is presented acoustically (someone reads them out), or visually (on a sheet of paper).

The principle encoding system in long-term memory (LTM) appears to be semantic coding (by meaning).  However, information in LTM can also be coded both visually and acoustically.

Memory Storage

This concerns the nature of memory stores, i.e., where the information is stored, how long the memory lasts (duration), how much can be stored at any time (capacity) and what kind of information is held.

The way we store information affects the way we retrieve it.  There has been a significant amount of research regarding the differences between Short Term Memory (STM ) and Long Term Memory (LTM).

Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory.  Miller (1956) put this idea forward, and he called it the magic number 7.  He thought that short-term memory capacity was 7 (plus or minus 2) items because it only had a certain number of “slots” in which items could be stored.

However, Miller didn’t specify the amount of information that can be held in each slot.  Indeed, if we can “chunk” information together, we can store a lot more information in our short-term memory.  In contrast, the capacity of LTM is thought to be unlimited.

Information can only be stored for a brief duration in STM (0-30 seconds), but LTM can last a lifetime.

Memory Retrieval

This refers to getting information out of storage.  If we can’t remember something, it may be because we are unable to retrieve it.  When we are asked to retrieve something from memory, the differences between STM and LTM become very clear.

STM is stored and retrieved sequentially.  For example, if a group of participants is given a list of words to remember and then asked to recall the fourth word on the list, participants go through the list in the order they heard it in order to retrieve the information.

LTM is stored and retrieved by association.  This is why you can remember what you went upstairs for if you go back to the room where you first thought about it.

Organizing information can help aid retrieval.  You can organize information in sequences (such as alphabetically, by size, or by time).  Imagine a patient being discharged from a hospital whose treatment involved taking various pills at various times, changing their dressing, and doing exercises.

If the doctor gives these instructions in the order that they must be carried out throughout the day (i.e., in the sequence of time), this will help the patient remember them.

Criticisms of Memory Experiments

A large part of the research on memory is based on experiments conducted in laboratories.  Those who take part in the experiments – the participants – are asked to perform tasks such as recalling lists of words and numbers.

Both the setting – the laboratory – and the tasks are a long way from everyday life.  In many cases, the setting is artificial, and the tasks are fairly meaningless.  Does this matter?

Psychologists use the term ecological validity to refer to the extent to which the findings of research studies can be generalized to other settings.  An experiment has high ecological validity if its findings can be generalized, that is, applied or extended to settings outside the laboratory.

It is often assumed that if an experiment is realistic or true-to-life, then there is a greater likelihood that its findings can be generalized.  If it is not realistic (if the laboratory setting and the tasks are artificial) then there is less likelihood that the findings can be generalized.  In this case, the experiment will have low ecological validity.

Many experiments designed to investigate memory have been criticized for having low ecological validity.  First, the laboratory is an artificial situation.  People are removed from their normal social settings and asked to take part in a psychological experiment.

They are directed by an “experimenter” and may be placed in the company of complete strangers.  For many people, this is a brand new experience, far removed from their everyday lives.  Will this setting affect their actions? Will they behave normally?

He was especially interested in the characteristics of people whom he considered to have achieved their potential as individuals.

Often, the tasks participants are asked to perform can appear artificial and meaningless.  Few, if any, people would attempt to memorize and recall a list of unconnected words in their daily lives.  And it is not clear how tasks such as this relate to the use of memory in everyday life.

The artificiality of many experiments has led some researchers to question whether their findings can be generalized to real life.  As a result, many memory experiments have been criticized for having low ecological validity.

Matlin, M. W. (2005). Cognition . Crawfordsville: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review , 63 (2): 81–97.

Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Cognitive psychology (2 nd ed.) . Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.

What Is Memory?

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

Memory is the faculty by which the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information. It is a record of experience that guides future action.

Memory encompasses the facts and experiential details that people consciously call to mind as well as ingrained knowledge that surface without effort or even awareness. It is both a short-term cache of information and the more permanent record of what one has learned. The types of memory described by scientists include episodic memory, semantic memory , procedural memory , working memory , sensory memory , and prospective memory .

Each kind of memory has distinct uses—from the vivid recollections of episodic memory to the functional know-how of procedural memory. Yet there are commonalities in how memory works overall, and key brain structures, such as the hippocampus, that are integral to different kinds of memory.

In addition to memory’s role in allowing people to understand, navigate, and make predictions about the world, personal memories provide the foundation for a rich sense of one’s self and one’s life—and give rise to experiences such as nostalgia .

To learn more, see Types of Memory , How Memory Works , and Personal Memories and Nostalgia .

Memory loss is the unavoidable flipside of the human capacity to remember. Forgetting, of course, is normal and happens every day: The brain simply cannot retain a permanent record of everything a person experiences and learns. And with advancing age, some decline in memory ability is typical. There are strategies for coping with such loss—adopting memory aids such as calendars and reminder notes, for example, or routinizing the placement of objects at risk of getting lost.

In more severe cases, however, memory can be permanently damaged by dementia and other disorders of memory . Dementia is a loss of cognitive function that can have various underlying causes, the most prominent being Alzheimer’s disease. People with dementia experience a progressive loss of function, such that memory loss may begin with minor forgetfulness (about having recently shared a story, for example) and gradually progress to difficulty with retaining new information, recognizing familiar individuals, and other important memory functions. Professional assessment can help determine whether an individual’s mild memory loss is a function of normal aging or a sign of a serious condition.

Memory disorders also include multiple types of amnesia that result not from diseases such as Alzheimer’s, but from brain injury or other causes. People with amnesia lose the ability to recall past information, to retain new information, or both. In some cases the memory loss is permanent, but there are also temporary forms of amnesia that resolve on their own.

To learn more, see Memory Loss and Disorders of Memory .

Though memory naturally declines with age, many people are able to stay mentally sharp. How do they do it? Genes play a role, but preventative measures including regular exercise, eating a healthy diet , and getting plenty of sleep—as well as keeping the brain active and challenged—can help stave off memory loss.

The science of memory also highlights ways anyone can improve their memory , whether the goal is sharpening memory ability for the long term or just passing exams this semester. Short-term memory tricks include mnemonic devices (such as acronyms and categorization), spacing apart study time, and self-testing for the sake of recalling information. Sleep and exercise are other memory boosters .

Through committed practice with memory-enhancing techniques, some people train themselves to remember amazing quantities of information, such as lengthy sequences of words or digits. For a small number of people, however, extraordinary memory abilities come naturally. These gifted rememberers include savants, for whom powerful memory coincides with some cognitive disability or neurodevelopmental difference, as well as people with typical intellects who remember exceptional quantities of details about their lives.

To learn more, see How to Improve Memory and Extraordinary Memory Abilities .

Memory is a key element in certain mental health conditions : Abnormal memory function can contribute to distress, or it can coincide with an underlying disorder. Forgetfulness is associated with depression ; connections in memory, such as those involving feared situations or drug-related cues, are an integral part of anxiety and substance use disorders; and post- traumatic symptoms are entwined with the memory of traumatic experiences.

In fact, experiences such as distressing memories and flashbacks are among the core symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. For someone with PTSD , a range of cues—including situations, people, or other stimuli related to a traumatic experience in some way—can trigger highly distressing memories, and the person may seek to avoid such reminders.

As a feature of various mental disorders, aberrant or biased memory function can also be a target for treatment. Treatments that involve exposure therapy , for example, are used to help patients reduce the power of trauma-related memories through safe and guided encounters with those memories and stimuli associated with the trauma.

To learn more, see Memory and Mental Health .

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Whether or not you remember, you dream several times a night. Your dreams are crucial in enhancing memory, integrating new skills, regulating emotions and healing trauma.

We encounter failure in our daily lives. How we interpret the meaning of failure and, in turn, how we remember and react to failure, can be influenced by our cultural upbringing.

Are the dreams we have of lost loved ones meaningful?

Could a blue dye help with depression?

Being persuasive relies on critical thinking, but critical thinking itself relies on the ability to remember information.

Early detection of cognitive decline is vital to optimizing treatment, quality of life, and hope. Neuropsychological assessment is a top diagnostic tool for evaluating cognition.

They're neither uninformed nor always cranky.

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Due to the downward trend in respiratory viruses in Maryland, masking is no longer required but remains strongly recommended in Johns Hopkins Medicine clinical locations in Maryland. Read more .

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Inside the Science of Memory

When  Rick Huganir, Ph.D. , was a teenager, he set out to better understand the physical and emotional changes of adolescence. “I was wondering what was happening to me, and I realized it was my brain changing,” says Huganir, director of the Johns Hopkins Department of Neuroscience.

That led to a senior project on protein synthesis and memory in goldfish, as well as a lifelong fascination in how we learn and remember things.

“Memories are who we are,” says Huganir. “But making memories is also a biological process.” This process raises many questions. How does the process affect our brain? How do experiences and learning change the connections in our brains and create memories?

Those are just some of the issues Huganir and his colleagues are studying. Their work may lead to new treatments for post-traumatic stress syndrome, as well as ways to improve memory in people with dementia and other cognitive problems.

Memory: It’s All About Connections

When we learn something—even as simple as someone’s name—we form connections between neurons in the brain. These  synapses  create new circuits between nerve cells, essentially remapping the brain. The sheer number of possible connections gives the brain unfathomable flexibility—each of the brain’s 100 billion nerve cells can have 10,000 connections to other nerve cells.

Those synapses get stronger or weaker depending on how often we’re exposed to an event. The more we’re exposed to an activity (like a golfer practicing a swing thousands of times) the stronger the connections. The less exposure, however, the weaker the connection, which is why it’s so hard to remember things like people’s names after the first introduction.

“What we’ve been trying to figure out is how does this occur, and how do you strengthen synapses at a molecular level?” Huganir says.

New Discoveries in Memory

Many of the research questions surrounding memory may have answers in complex interactions between certain brain chemicals—particularly glutamate—and neuronal receptors, which play a crucial role in the signaling between brain cells. Huganir and his team discovered that when mice are exposed to traumatic events, the level of neuronal receptors for glutamate increases at synapses in the amygdala, the fear center of the brain, and encodes the fear associated with the memory. Removing those receptors, however, reduces the strength of these connections, essentially erasing the fear component of the trauma but leaving the memory.

Now Huganir and his lab are developing drugs that target those receptors. The hope is that inactivating the receptors could help people with post-traumatic stress syndrome by reducing the fear associated with a traumatic memory, while strengthening them could improve learning, particularly in people with cognitive dysfunction or  Alzheimer’s disease .

#TomorrowsDiscoveries: Using Data to Diagnose Brain Diseases | Michael I. Miller, Ph.D.

Johns Hopkins researcher Michael Miller explains how we can use data to create better diagnostic tools for neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease.

Definitions

Dementia (di-men-sha) : A loss of brain function that can be caused by a variety of disorders affecting the brain. Symptoms include forgetfulness, impaired thinking and judgment, personality changes, agitation and loss of emotional control. Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease and inadequate blood flow to the brain can all cause dementia. Most types of dementia are irreversible.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) : A disorder in which your “fight or flight,” or stress, response stays switched on, even when you have nothing to flee or battle. The disorder usually develops after an emotional or physical trauma, such as a mugging, physical abuse or a natural disaster. Symptoms include nightmares, insomnia, angry outbursts, emotional numbness, and physical and emotional tension.

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What Is Memory?

How memories help us—and why they sometimes fail

Fabio / Getty Images

• Organization

Why We Forget Some Memories

What you can do to improve memory.

• How to Protect Memory

Our memory helps make us who we are. It allows us to function in our daily lives, forge relationships that are vital for our well-being, and remember important events from our past. But memory isn't perfect. Understanding what it is and how it works can offer insights into what you might be able to do to make yours stronger.

How Psychologists Define Memory

Memory refers to the psychological processes of acquiring, storing, retaining, and later retrieving information. Memory involves three major processes: 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.

This article discusses how memories are formed and why they are sometimes forgotten. It also covers the different types of memory and steps you can take to both improve and protect your memory.

How Memories Are Formed

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 Do Memories Last?

Unfortunately, memories don't always last, so we tend to forget a great deal of the things we learn. Some memories are very brief, just seconds long. Such memories 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.

Some memories are capable of enduring much longer—lasting days, weeks, months, or even decades. Most of these long-term memories lie outside of immediate awareness but can be drawn into consciousness when needed.

Why Do We Remember Painful Memories?

Have you ever noticed that many times, painful memories tend to hang on for long periods of time? Research suggests that this is because of increased biological arousal during the negative experience, which increases the longevity of that memory.

Using Memory

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.

Organizing Memory

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.

3 Main Types of Memory

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.

Sensory Memory

Sensory memory is the earliest stage of memory. During this stage, sensory information from the environment is stored for a very brief period of time, generally for no longer than a half-second for visual information and three or four seconds for auditory information.

People only pay attention to certain aspects of this sensory memory. Attending to sensory memory allows some of this information to pass into the next stage: short-term memory.

Short-Term Memory

Short-term memory , also known as active memory, is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about. In Freudian psychology, this memory would be referred to as the conscious mind . Paying attention to sensory memories generates information in short-term memory.

While many of our short-term memories are quickly forgotten, attending to this information allows it to continue to the next stage: long-term memory. Most information stored in active memory will be kept for approximately 20 to 30 seconds.

This capacity can be stretched somewhat by using memory strategies such as chunking , which involves grouping related information into smaller chunks.

The term "short-term memory" is often used interchangeably with "working memory," which refers to the processes that are used to temporarily store, organize, and manipulate information.

In a famous paper published in 1956, psychologist George Miller suggested that the capacity of short-term memory for storing a list of items was somewhere between five and nine. Some memory researchers now believe that the true capacity of short-term memory is probably closer to four.

Long-Term Memory

Long-term memory refers to the continuing storage of information. In Freudian psychology , long-term memory would be called the preconscious and unconscious .

This information is largely outside our awareness but can be called into working memory for use when needed. Some memories are fairly easy to recall, while others are much more difficult to access.

One model suggests that there are three main types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Sensory memory is very brief, short-term memory is slightly longer, and long-term memory can last a lifetime.

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

Research has shown that one of the critical factors that influence memory failure is time. Information is often quickly forgotten, particularly if people do not actively review and rehearse the information.

Sometimes information is simply lost from memory and, in other cases, it was never stored correctly in the first place. Some memories compete with one another, making it difficult to remember certain information. In other instances, people actively try to forget things that they simply don’t want to remember.

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 : 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 .
• Take a mental picture : Systematically trying to make a mental note of things you often forget (such as where you left your car keys) can help you remember things better.
• Get enough rest : Research has also found that sleep plays a critical role in learning and forming new memories.
• Use memorization techniques : Rehearsing information, employing mnemonics , and other memorization strategies can help combat minor memory problems.

Using strategies to boost memory can be helpful for recall and retention. By learning how to use these strategies effectively, you can sidestep the faulty areas of your memory and train your brain to function in new ways.

How to Protect Your Memory

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.
• Stimulate your brain : When it comes to memory, there is a lot of truth to the old adage of "use it or lose it." Researchers have found that people who have more mentally stimulating jobs are less likely to develop dementia.
• Maintain a sense of self-efficacy : Having a strong sense of self-efficacy has been associated with maintaining good memory abilities during old age. Self-efficacy refers to the sense of control that people have over their own lives and destiny. A strong sense of self-efficacy has also been linked to lowered stress levels.

While there is no quick fix for ensuring that your memory stays intact as you age, researchers believe that avoiding stress, leading an active lifestyle, and remaining mentally engaged are important ways to decrease your risk of memory loss.

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.

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Zemla JC, Austerweil JL. Estimating semantic networks of groups and individuals from fluency data .  Comput Brain Behav . 2018;1(1):36-58. doi:10.1007/s42113-018-0003-7

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Glachet O, El Haj M. Emotional and phenomenological properties of odor-evoked autobiographical memories in Alzheimer's disease .  Brain Sci . 2019;9(6):135. doi:10.3390/brainsci9060135

Camina E, Güell F. The neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and psychological basis of memory: Current models and their origins .  Front Pharmacol . 2017;8:438. doi:10.3389/fphar.2017.00438

Norris D. Short-term memory and long-term memory are still different . Psychol Bull . 2017;143(9):992-1009. doi:10.1037/bul0000108

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Darby K, Sloutsky V. The cost of learning: Interference effects in memory development .  J Exp Psychol Gen . 2015;144(2):410-431. doi:10.1037/xge0000051

Mueller PA, Oppenheimer DM. The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking . Psychol Sci . 2014;25(6):1159-68. doi:10.1177/0956797614524581

McEwen BS, Nasca C, Gray JD. Stress effects on neuronal structure: Hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex .  Neuropsychopharmacology . 2016;41(1):3-23. doi:10.1038/npp.2015.171

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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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• Introduction

The significance of forgetting

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• LiveScience - Memory Definition and Types of Memory
• Healthline - 14 Natural Ways to Improve Your Memory
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Memory
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• National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Memory: An Extended Definition
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• Table Of Contents

memory , the encoding, storage, and retrieval in the human mind of past experiences.

That experiences influence subsequent behavior is evidence of an obvious but nevertheless remarkable activity called remembering. Memory is both a result of and an influence on perception , attention , and learning . The basic pattern of remembering consists of attention to an event followed by the representation of that event in the brain . Repeated attention, or practice , results in a cumulative effect on memory and enables activities such as a skillful performance on a musical instrument , the recitation of a poem, and reading and understanding words on a page.

Learning could not occur without the function of memory. So-called intelligent behavior demands memory, remembering being prerequisite to reasoning . The ability to solve any problem or even to recognize that a problem exists depends on memory. Routine action, such as the decision to cross a street, is based on remembering numerous earlier experiences. The act of remembering an experience and bringing it to consciousness at a later time requires an association, which is formed from the experience, and a “retrieval cue,” which elicits the memory of the experience.

Practice (or review) tends to build and maintain memory for a task or for any learned material. During a period without practice, what has been learned tends to be forgotten . Although the adaptive value of forgetting may not be obvious, dramatic instances of sudden forgetting (as in amnesia ) can be seen to be adaptive. In this sense, the ability to forget can be interpreted as having been naturally selected in animals . Indeed, when one’s memory of an emotionally painful experience leads to severe anxiety , forgetting may produce relief. Nevertheless, an evolutionary interpretation might make it difficult to understand how the commonly gradual process of forgetting was selected for.

In speculating about the evolution of memory, it is helpful to consider what would happen if memories failed to fade. Forgetting clearly aids orientation in time; since old memories weaken and new ones tend to be vivid, clues are provided for inferring duration. Without forgetting, adaptive ability would suffer; for example, learned behavior that might have been correct a decade ago may no longer be appropriate or safe. Indeed, cases are recorded of people who (by ordinary standards) forget so little that their everyday activities are full of confusion. Thus, forgetting seems to serve the survival not only of the individual but of the entire human species.

Additional speculation posits a memory-storage system of limited capacity that provides adaptive flexibility specifically through forgetting. According to this view, continual adjustments are made between learning or memory storage (input) and forgetting (output). There is evidence in fact that the rate at which individuals forget is directly related to how much they have learned. Such data offer gross support for models of memory that assume an input-output balance.

Whatever its origins, forgetting has attracted considerable investigative attention. Much of this research has been aimed at discovering those factors that change the rate of forgetting. Efforts are made to study how information may be stored, or encoded in the human brain. Remembered experiences may be said to consist of encoded collections of interacting information, and interaction seems to be a prime factor in forgetting.

Memory researchers have generally supposed that anything that influences the behavior of an organism endowed with a central nervous system leaves—somewhere in that system—a “trace” or group of traces. So long as these traces endure, they can, in theory, be restimulated, causing the event or experience that established them to be remembered.

Time-dependent aspects of memory

Research by the American psychologist and philosopher William James (1842–1910) led him to distinguish two types of memory: primary, for handling immediate concerns, and secondary, for managing a storehouse of information accumulated over time. Memory researchers have since used the term short-term memory to refer to the primary or short-lived memory functions identified by James. Long-term memory refers to the relatively permanent information that is stored in and retrieved from the brain.

Learning and memory

Learning and memory are closely related concepts. Learning is the acquisition of skill or knowledge, while memory is the expression of what you’ve acquired.

Another difference is the speed with which the two things happen. If you acquire the new skill or knowledge slowly and laboriously, that’s learning. If acquisition occurs instantly, that’s making a memory.

Adapted from the Encyclopedia of Psychology

Resources from APA

How noise pollution harms our health

Arline Bronzaft, PhD, talks about how noisy environments can harm kids’ learning and take a real toll on people’s mental and physical health

What déjà vu can teach us about memory

Chris Moulin, PhD, talks about why both déjà vu and its lesser-known opposite, jamais vu, may be signs of a healthy memory at work

You can learn new things at any age

Rachel Wu, PhD, talks about why lifelong learning matters, how adults can learn more like kids, and why feedback and failure are important

How music, memory, and emotion are connected

Elizabeth Margulis, PhD, talks about how music can pull us out of a bad mood or take us back to the first time we heard it

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Bilingualism Across the Lifespan

APA Handbook of Comparative Psychology

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Essentials of Conditioning and Learning 5th

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Memory: An Extended Definition

Gregorio zlotnik.

1 Clinique de la Migraine de Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada

Aaron Vansintjan

2 Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom

Recent developments in science and technology point to the need to unify, and extend, the definition of memory. On the one hand, molecular neurobiology has shown that memory is largely a neuro-chemical process, which includes conditioning and any form of stored experience. On the other hand, information technology has led many to claim that cognition is also extended, that is, memory may be stored outside of the brain. In this paper, we review these advances and describe an extended definition of memory. This definition is largely accepted in neuroscience but not explicitly stated. In the extended definition, memory is the capacity to store and retrieve information. Does this new definition of memory mean that everything is now a form of memory? We stress that memory still requires incorporation, that is, in corpore . It is a relationship – where one biological or chemical process is incorporated into another, and changes both in a permanent way. Looking at natural and biological processes of incorporation can help us think of how incorporation of internal and external memory occurs in cognition. We further argue that, if we accept that there is such a thing as the storage of information outside the brain – and that this organic, dynamic process can also be called “memory” – then we open the door to a very different world. The mind is not static. The brain, and the memory it uses, is a work in progress; we are not now who we were then.

Introduction

In the short story “Funes, the memorious,” Jorge Luis Borges invites us to imagine a man, Funes, who cannot forget anything. The narrator is ashamed in the inexactness of his retelling: his own memory is “remote and weak,” in comparison to that of his subject, which resembles “a stammering greatness.” Unlike Funes, he says, “we all live by leaving behind” – life is impossible without forgetting. He goes on to note that, even though Funes could remember every split second, he couldn’t classify or abstract from his memories. “To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to abstract.” The reader may be led to wonder how Funes’ brain has the capacity to store all of that memory. doesn’t it reach its limits at some point? Borges leaves that question to our imagination.

In popular culture, memory is often thought of as some kind of physical thing that is stored in the brain; a subjective, personal experience that we can recall at will. This way of thinking about memory has led many to wonder if there is a maximum amount of memories we can have. But, this idea of memory is at odds with advances in the science of memory over the last century: memory isn’t really a fixed thing stored in the brain, but is more of a chemical process between neurons, which is not static. What’s more, advances in information technology are pushing our understanding of memory into new directions. We now talk about memory on a hard drive, or as a chemical change between neurons. Yet, these different definitions of memory continue to co-exist. A more narrow definition of memory, as the storage of experiences in the brain, is increasingly at odds with an extended definition, which acknowledges these advances. However, while this expanded definition is often implicitly used, it is rarely explicitly acknowledged or stated. Today, the question is no longer, how many memories can we possibly have, but, how is the vast amount of memory we process on a daily basis integrated into cognition?

In this paper, we outline these advances and the currently accepted definitions of memory, arguing that these necessarily imply that we should today adopt an extended definition. In the following, we first describe some key advances in the science of memory, cognitive theory, and information technology. These suggest to us that we are already using a unified, and extended, definition of memory, but rarely made explicit. Does this new definition of memory mean that everything is now a form of memory? We argue that looking at natural and biological processes of incorporation can help us think of how incorporation of internal and external memory occurs in cognition. Finally, we note some of the implications of this extended definition of memory.

Background: Advances in the Science of Memory

Already in the 19th century, the recognition that the number of neurons in the brain doesn’t increase significantly after reaching adulthood suggested to early neuroanatomists that memories aren’t primarily stored through the creation of neurons, but rather through the strengthening of connections between neurons ( Ramón y Cajal, 1894 ). In 1966, the breakthrough discovery of long-term potentiation (LTP) suggested that memories may be encoded in the strength of synaptic signals between neurons ( Bliss and Lømo, 1973 ). And so we started understanding memory as a neuro-chemical process. The studies by Eric Kandel of the Aplysia californica , for which he won the Nobel prize, for example, show that classical conditioning is a basic form of memory storage and is observable on a molecular level within simple organisms ( Kandel et al., 2012 ). This in effect expanded the definition of memory to include storage of information in the neural networks of simple lifeforms. Increasingly, researchers are exploring the chemistry behind memory development and recall, suggesting these molecular processes can lead to psychological adaptations (e.g., Coderre et al., 2003 ; Laferrière et al., 2011 ).

Memory is today defined in psychology as the faculty of encoding, storing, and retrieving information ( Squire, 2009 ). Psychologists have found that memory includes three important categories: sensory, short-term, and long-term. Each of these kinds of memory have different attributes, for example, sensory memory is not consciously controlled, short-term memory can only hold limited information, and long-term memory can store an indefinite amount of information.

Key to the emerging science of memory is the question of how memory is consolidated and processed. Long-term storage of memories happens on a synaptic level in most organisms ( Bramham and Messaoudi, 2005 ), but, in complex organisms like ourselves, there is also a second form of memory consolidation: systems consolidation moves, processes, and more permanently stores memories ( Frankland and Bontempi, 2005 ). Today, there are many models of how memory is consolidated in cognition. Single-system models posit that the hippocampus supports the neocortex in encoding and storing long-term memories through strengthening connections, finally leading the memory to become independent from the hippocampus (Ibid.). Multiple-trace theory instead proposes that each memory has a unique code or memory trace, which continues to involve the hippocampus to an extent ( Hintzman and Block, 1971 ; Hintzman, 1986 , 1990 ; Whittlesea, 1987 ; Versace et al., 2014 ; Briglia et al., 2018 ). In another theory, memory is understood as a form of negative entropy or rich energy ( Wiener, 1961 , 1988 ), which is then processed in a way that minimizes the expenditure of energy by the brain ( Friston, 2010 ; Van der Helm, 2016 ). Our heightened capacity to store information may be due to our ability to reduce disorder and process large amounts of information rapidly, a necessarily non-linear process ( Wiener, 1961 , 1988 ). The forgetting and fading of memories is also understood as being an important aspect of the functioning and utility of these memories ( Staniloiu and Markowitsch, 2012 ). As with a computer hard drive, memories can also be “corrupted” – false memories are commonly studied within forensic psychology ( Loftus, 2005 ). Together, these advances highlight how different kinds of memory storage are non-linear – that is, subject to complex systems interactions – contextual, and plastic. They also shed light on why, and how, we are able to live with such large quantities of information. It may not be that Funes has the special ability to remember everything, but that he lacks our ability to incorporate, and sort through, a potentially infinite amount of information.

The advance of the fields of genetics and epigenetics has also given us new metaphors to describe memory. We understand DNA as a structure that carries information that we call “genetic code” – kind of like a computer chip for biological processes. Today, the metaphor has come full circle and we can now use DNA to store and extract digital data ( Church et al., 2012 ). The study of epigenetics suggests that simple lifeforms pass on memories across generations through genetic code ( Klosin et al., 2017 ; Posner et al., 2019 ), suggesting a need to study whether humans and other complex life forms may do so as well. With these advances, our understanding of how memory is stored has expanded once again.

Further, we can now store memory in places that we haven’t been able to before. Smartphones, mind-controlled prosthetic limbs, and Google Glasses all offer new ways to store information and thereby interact with our surroundings. Our ability to produce information alters how we perceive the world, with far-reaching implications. As Stephen Hawking, the Nobel prize-winning physicist explained in his 1996 lecture, “Life in the universe,”

What distinguishes us from [our ancestors], is the knowledge that we have accumulated over the last 10000 years, and particularly, over the last three hundred. I think it is legitimate to take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race ( Hawking, 1996 ).

The sheer quantity of available information today, as well as developments in an understanding of memory – from fixed and physical to dynamic, chemical, and a process of rich energy transfer – lead to a very different picture of memory than the one we had 100 years ago. Memory seems to exist everywhere, from an Aplysia ’s ganglion to DNA to a hard drive.

To account for these developments, cognitive scientists now propose that human cognition is actually extended beyond the brain in ways that theories of the mind did not previously recognize ( Clark and Chalmers, 1998 ; Clark, 2008 ). This approach is being called 4E cognition (Embodied, Embedded, Extended, and Enactive). For example, enactivism posits that cognition is a dynamic interaction between an organism and its environment ( Varela et al., 1991 ; Chemero, 2009 ; Menary, 2010 ; Rowlands, 2010 ; Favela and Chemero, 2016 ; Briglia et al., 2018 ). According to this framework, cognition is a process of incorporation between the environment and the body/brain/mind. To be clear, cognition is not incorporated in the surroundings, only the corpus can incorporate, and thus cognition (or what we call “mind”) is a product of the interaction between the brain, the body, and the environment.

Extending Memory

These developments indicate that we need to reconceptualize our definition of memory. What is the difference between trying to recall a childhood experience, and searching for an important email archived years ago? This distinction is best represented through the difference in how we use the words “memory” and “memories.” Usually, “memories” tends to refer to events recalled from the past, which are seen as more representational and subjective. In contrast, “memory” now is used to refer to storage of information in general , including in DNA, digital information storage, and neuro-chemical processes. Today, science has moved far beyond a popular understanding of memory as fixed, subjective, and personal. In the extended definition, it is simply the capacity to store and retrieve information . To illustrate why memory has extended beyond this original use, we want to ask the reader: what do a stressed-out driver and a snail have in common?

(1). A homeowner has been trying to sell her house for a year, and worrying about it. One day, she’s driving to work and becomes extremely anxious, for no apparent reason. She wasn’t thinking of anything in particular at the time. Confused, she looks around, and notices a billboard advertising a real estate agency. She realizes that she had seen it out of the corner of her eye, and her brain had then processed the information while she was thinking of something else, which then triggered the anxiety attack.

(2). Consider a nerve cell of an A. californica , a kind of sea snail, which is prodded vigorously for a short time period, provoking an immediate withdrawal response. Shortly afterward, it is prodded less intensely, but, it elicits the same withdrawal response. It is found that the slugs’ nerve cell is sensitive for up to 24 h – the nerve cells “remember” past pain.

Each example illustrates a different kind of chemical, biological process. In the first example, an outside stimulus triggers a stress response for the homeowner. We can surmise that though she didn’t “remember” anything, non-consciously, she did. In the second example, the snail certainly “remembers” the provocation, even though this memory is only stored in a few cells. But can we really call this memory?

However, on closer examination, we are forced to concede that each of them should be called a form of memory. First, consider the homeowner: her brain “remembers” something that does not occur to her as a conscious thought. It is clearly a chemical process occurring in the background. Most would grant that this would nevertheless be a form of memory, as it involves recalling information stored in her brain. Already, a broader definition of memory is used that does not imply conscious attention. Now, consider the snail: it is also storing information chemically. Once again, this does not involve a conscious, subjective process of storing and remembering – it is purely reactive, but information is being stored and recalled nonetheless. We would need to concede that if the homeowner’s experience counts as memory, then the slug’s automatic response does as well. There is in fact little difference between the first two examples: there is a transfer of information that causes a reaction. Both should be considered forms of memory.

A Slippery Slope?

If we agree with this expanded definition of memory, then it follows that experience is also a form of stored information, kinds of memory . We are not saying that a particular experience, as an event , is a memory. Rather, we here use the word “experience” as connoted by the phrase “an experienced driver,” an “experienced writer.” They have a set of experiences, remembered through practice, and retrieved when they drive, or write. When we accumulate knowledge, information, and techniques, then the accumulation of those separate processes constitute experience . This experience involves retrieval of information, conversely, being experienced is the process of retrieving memory.

Under this definition, even immunological and allergy processes may be considered memory. There is a storage of information of the allergen or the viral/bacterial aggressor and when the aggressor or allergen re-appears there is a cascade of inflammatory processes. This can be considered the storage and retrieval of information, and thus a form of memory. This does not contradict the accepted definition of memory within psychology, as it is still seen as the ability to encode, store, and recall information. Rather, it extends it to processes not just bound by the brain.

If memory is indeed defined as “the capacity to store and/or retrieve information,” then this may lead anyone to ask – what isn’t memory? Wouldn’t this definition of memory be far too broad, and include a vast range of phenomena? Is the extended definition of memory, as is being proposed by neurobiologists and cognitive theorists, a slippery slope?

As we suggested above, however, memory still involves a process of incorporation, that is, requiring a corpus . While memory may be stored on the cloud, it requires a system of incorporation with the body and therefore the mind. In other words, the “cloud” by itself is not memory, but operates through an infrastructure (laptops, smart phones, Google Glasses) that are integrated with the brain-mind through learned processes of storage and recall. The conditioning of an Aplysia ’s ganglion is incorporated into an organism. Memory, it seems, is not just mechanistic, but a dynamic process. It is a relationship – where one biological or chemical process is incorporated into another, and changes both in a permanent way. A broadened definition must account for this dynamic relationship between organisms and their environment.

How can we understand this process of incorporation? It appears that symbiotic incorporation of biological processes is quite common in nature. Recent studies offer more evidence that early cells acquired mitochondria by, at some point, incorporating external organisms into their own cell structure ( Thrash et al., 2011 ; Ferla et al., 2013 ). Mitochondria have their own genome, which is similar to that of bacteria. What was once a competitor and possibly a parasite became absorbed into the organism – and yet, the mitochondrion was not fully incorporated and retains many of its own processes of self-organization and memory storage, separate from the cell it resides in. This evolutionary process highlights the way by which external properties may become incorporated into the internal, changing both. Looking at natural and biological processes of incorporation can help us think of how incorporation of internal and external memory occurs in cognition.

Implications

This extended definition of memory may seem ludicrous and hard to accept. You may be tempted to throw up your hands and go back to the old, restricted, definition of memory – one that requires the transmission of subjective memories.

We beg you not to. There are several benefits of this approach to memory. First, in biology, expanding the definition of memory helps us shift from a focus on “experience” (which suggests an immaterial event) to a more material phenomenon: a deposit of events that may be stored and used afterward. By expanding the concept of memory, the study of memory within molecular neurobiology becomes more relevant and important. This expanded definition is in large part already widely accepted, for example, in Kandel’s Aplysia , conditioning is acknowledged to be a part of memory, and memory is not a part of conditioning. Memory would become the umbrella for learning, conditioning, and other processes of the mind/brain. Doing so changes the frame of observation from one which understands memory as a narrow, particular process, to one which understands it as a dynamic, fluid, and interactive phenomenon, neither just chemical or digital but integrated into our experience through multiple media. Second, it helps to conceptualize the relationship between biology, psychology, cognitive science, and computer science – as all three involve studying the transfer of information.

Third, it opens up an interesting way to imagine our own future. If we accept that there is such a thing as the storage of information outside the brain – and that this organic, dynamic process can also be called “memory” – then we open the door to a very different world. The mind is not static. Rather, like early cells acquiring mitochondria, it incorporates information from its surroundings, which in turn changes it. The brain, and the memory it uses, is a work in progress; we are not now who we were then. Many have already noted the extent to which we are cyborgs ( Harraway, 1991 ; Clark, 2003 , 2005 ); this neat line between human and technology may become more and more blurred as we develop specialized tools to store all kinds of information in our built environment. In what ways will the mind-brain function differently as it becomes increasingly more incorporated in its milieu, relying on it for information storage and processing?

Now let’s talk about Funes. His inability to forget his memories may seem familiar to some, a metaphor for our current condition. We may now recognize a bit of ourselves in him: we don’t see limits in our capacity to store new information, and the sheer availability of it is sometimes overwhelming. Even without the arrival of the Information Age, we carry with us through life a heavy load of disappointments, broken dreams, little tragedies and many memories. We know that forgetting is a must and a challenge. Yet, we are learning rapidly how to incorporate and use the massive amounts of data now available to us. The main challenge for each of us is to harness and control the unleashed powers given to us by technology. The future is uncertain, but some things remain the same. As Kandel (2007 , p. 10) wrote, “We are who we are in great measure because of what we learn, and what we remember.”

Author Contributions

GZ and AV drafted and edited the manuscript. Both authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Michael Lifshitz, Ph.D. for reading an early copy of this article and providing feedback. The authors also wish to thank Steven J. Lynn, Alan M. Rapoport, and Morgan Craig for the feedback and encouragement.

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Chapter 7. Memory

Memory Introduction

Amelia Liangzi Shi

Approximate reading time: 4 minutes

This chapter focuses on memory, defined as the ability to store and retrieve information over time. Our memories allow us to do relatively simple things, such as remembering where we parked our car or the name of the current Prime Minister of Canada. We also form complex memories, such as how to ride a bicycle or write a computer program. Our memories function to allow us to make good decisions. Our memories define us as individuals — they are our experiences, our relationships, our successes, and our failures. Without our memories, we would not have a life.

For some people, memory is truly amazing. For example, Kim Peek was the inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film Rain Man (1988). Peek’s IQ was only 87, significantly below the average of about 100. It is estimated that he memorised more than 10,000 books in his lifetime (Wisconsin Medical Society, n.d.; Kim Peek, 2004). Highly superior autobiographic memory (HSAM) is the clinical term for a relatively newly-recognised condition. HSAM is characterised by accurate autobiographical memory for every day of one’s life. You can read more in the Scientific Reports on Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory . Memory for public events has typically been used as a screening criterion for HSAM. However, these tests rely heavily on participants’ culturally specific knowledge and expertise correlated with their age.

Although we have very good memories for some things, our memories are far from perfect (Schacter, 1996). The errors that we make are due to the fact that our memories are not simply recording devices that input, store, and retrieve the world around us. Rather, we actively process and interpret information as we remember and recollect it. These cognitive processes influence what we remember and how we remember it. Because memories are constructed, not recorded, when we remember events, we do not reproduce exact replicas of those events (Bartlett, 1932). For example, people read the words “bed, rest, tired, dream, snooze, and yawn.” Then they are asked to recall the words. Many think that they saw the word “sleep” even though that word was not in the list (Roediger & McDermott, 1995).

In the real world, wrongful convictions may be caused by misled eyewitness identification. In 1995, police received a tip about a series of robberies implicating Jason Hill, an Indigenous man with a past arrest record. Detective Matthews, who recognised Hill from a surveillance photo of the suspect, despite discrepancies in physical descriptions, made him the prime focus of the investigation. Detective Loft’s team, including Officer McLaughlin, released Hill’s photo to the media, labeling him as a suspect. In a photo line-up, Hill was the only Indigenous person among 11 Caucasian foils, leading some witnesses to identify him as the culprit (see Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions: Jason Hill ).

What is clear in the study of memory is that memory can be both accurate and fallible. Psychologists have been working to identify not only how and why memories are made and kept, but also how and when they fail to be stored, are remembered wrongly, or are recreated. This chapter will challenge your understanding of autobiographical memory but will also give you some insight into how to make your memory better.

Image Attributions

Figure ME.1. Kim Peek by Dmadeo is under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported .

To calculate this time, we used a reading speed of 150 words per minute and then added extra time to account for images and videos. This is just to give you a rough idea of the length of the chapter section. How long it will take you to engage with this chapter will vary greatly depending on all sorts of things (the complexity of the content, your ability to focus, etc).

Memory Introduction Copyright © 2024 by Amelia Liangzi Shi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Reid on Memory and Personal Identity

Thomas Reid held a direct realist theory of memory. Like his direct realism about perception, Reid developed his account as an alternative to the model of the mind that he called ‘the theory of ideas.’ On such a theory, mental operations such as perception and memory have mental states—ideas or impressions—as their direct objects. These mental states are understood as representations that encode information about their causes. The mind is directed towards and reads off from these representations, information about extra-mental items. By contrast, Reid holds that the direct objects of memory and perception are extra-mental. In the case of perception, the mind is directed to present material objects and properties; in the case of memory, the mind is directed towards past events to which the person was agent or witness. In other words, according to Reid, when we remember, we do not recall previous experiences. In memory, the mind is directed neither towards an idea experienced previously nor towards an idea of a previous experience. Rather, we recall events , experienced previously.

Reid is interested in the notion of memory not only for its own sake but also because of its conceptual connection to the notion of personal identity. Reid criticizes Locke’s theory of personal identity for inferring a metaphysical hypothesis now called the Memory Theory from the conceptual connection between memory and personal identity. On this theory, personal identity consists in memory; sameness of memory is metaphysically necessary and sufficient for sameness of persons. According to Reid, memory is neither necessary nor sufficient for personal identity, metaphysically speaking. Indeed, Reid holds that it is impossible to account for personal identity in any terms other than itself. Personal identity is simple and unanalyzable. Though memory is not the metaphysical ground of personal identity, according to Reid, it provides first-personal evidence of personal identity. I know that I was present at my graduation because I remember being there. Memories do not make one the same person over time. Rather, memories allow one to know one’s own past, immediately and directly.

1. Criticizing the Storehouse Model of Memory

2. a direct realist theory of memory, 3. objecting to locke on personal identity, 4. personal identity as simple and unanalyzable, primary works, secondary works, other internet resources, related entries.

Reid traces the target of his criticisms back to the Ancients, whom he depicts as holding that the mind is a sensorium—a repository of past ideas and impressions ( Essays , 280). [ 1 ] On this theory, perception, memory and imagination are causal processes beginning with purely physiological events: impressions on the brain. These physiological states are taken to have mental correlates—sensations or ideas of sense or sense impressions—which are the objects of perception, memory and imagination. These ideas or impressions are representations in the sense that they preserve, or re-present information from their physiological correlates. According to Reid, this view recognizes no distinction between imagination and memory. Each consists in having a picture-like impression that remains after the object that impressed upon the senses is gone. The only difference between the two is in the fidelity of the imagistic impression to its cause. Memory consists in the preservation of images imprinted in the mind from previous experiences, while imagination consists in constructing images that lack a duplicate in experience.

Reid offers two criticisms of the ancient theory, as he understands it. First, the theory falls afoul of one of Reid’s own methodological strictures, namely, that a theory must adhere to Newton’s regulae philosophandi , or rules of philosophizing ( Inquiry , 12). The first rule is to posit no merely theoretical causes and in Reid’s view the second rule forbids positing causes insufficient to explain the phenomenon in question. According to Reid, there is no observational evidence of the existence of impressions on the brain—they are merely theoretical entities ( Essays , 281). Furthermore, even if we granted the otherwise theoretical existence of impressions, such entities would not be sufficient to explain memory. We might establish a correlation between impressions and memories, but it would remain at best just that: a correlation, not a causal explanation. Having learned Hume’s lessons about causation, Reid denies any necessary connections between impressions and memories sufficient to regard the former as a cause of the latter. Reid also considers whether resemblance could ground such a causal explanation, but, having learned Berkeley’s lessons about resemblance, he denies that any mental states can resemble material states such as impressions on the brain. Reid’s second criticism is that even if we were to grant that impressions remain after the objects that impressed upon the senses are gone, this would entail that we should continue to perceive objects rather than remember them, since on the ancient theory, impressions are the immediate causes and objects of perception ( Essays , 282).

Though Reid identifies his target as having ancient origins, his primary concern is with what he regards as its modern equivalent. This modern theory was introduced by Locke and, according to Reid, extended to its inevitable idealist and skeptical conclusions by Berkeley and Hume. Reid excerpts passages from Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding to illustrate the misleading metaphors Locke inherits from the ancient theory—metaphors of the mind as a storehouse and of ideas and impressions as pictures.

The other way of Retention is the Power to revive again in our Minds those Ideas , which after imprinting have disappeared, or have been as it were laid aside out of sight…This is Memory , which is as it were the Store-house of our Ideas …But our Ideas being nothing but actual Perceptions in the Mind, which cease to be any thing, when there is no perception of them, this laying up of our Ideas in the Repository of the Memory, signifies no more but this, that the Mind has a Power, in many cases, to revive Perceptions, which it once had, with this additional Perception annexed to them, that it has had them before. And in this Sense it is, that our Ideas are said to be in our Memories, when indeed, they are actually no where, but only there is an ability in the Mind, when it will, to revive them again; and as it were paint them anew on it self, though some with more, some with less difficulty; some more lively, and others more obscurely (Locke, Essay , Book II.x.1–2).

As this passage illustrates, Locke himself acknowledges that the notion that the mind is a kind of repository or storehouse is metaphorical. According to Locke’s own theory, ideas and impressions cannot be stored. Locke is committed to the thesis that ideas are momentary and non-continuous and to the thesis that identity over time requires continuous existence. These two theses jointly entail that numerically identical ideas cannot be stored over time. Nevertheless, Reid criticizes Locke for being unable to extricate himself from metaphor when Locke claims that in memory, “the mind, as it were, paints ideas anew on it self.” On what model does the mind paint the idea anew? In order to use a previous idea as its model, the mind must remember it. But then the ability to paint ideas anew upon itself presupposes rather than explains memory.

Locke offers a non-metaphorical account of memory when he claims that memory consists of two perceptions: a present perception and a belief about that present perception, namely that one has enjoyed the perception before. Because Locke is committed to the thesis that numerically identical ideas cannot be stored over time, the belief must be the belief that one has previously enjoyed a perception qualitatively similar to the present perception, rather than numerically identical with it. Reid criticizes this account as circular, once more. A first-personal belief that one’s present perception is qualitatively similar to a perception one had in the past requires remembering having had that previous perception and recalling its quality and character. As before, Locke’s account presupposes rather than explains the phenomenon of memory ( Essays , 285).

Reid criticizes Hume’s account of memory for duplicating Locke’s mistakes. He quotes from Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature :

We find by experience, that when any impression has been present with the mind, it again makes its appearance there as an idea; and this it may do after two different ways: Either when in its new appearance it retains a considerable degree of its first vivacity, and is somewhat intermediate betwixt an impression and an idea; or when it entirely loses that vivacity, and is a perfect idea. The faculty by which we repeat our impressions in the first manner, is call’d the MEMORY, and the other the IMAGINATION (Hume, Treatise , 1.1.3.1).

Like Locke, Hume holds that ideas have no continued existence. And so, Reid argues, Hume cannot claim that a numerically identical idea can reappear. In addition, Hume’s account faces the same circularity objection as Locke’s. Hume accounts for memory by appealing to an idea that is qualitatively similar to, but less forceful and vivacious than a previous idea. But the ability to judge qualitative similarity and degrees of force and vivacity between present ideas and past impressions presupposes memory.

Reid provides additional criticisms of Hume’s account of memory. First, Reid interprets Hume’s account of memory as committing him to the position that we have the power to repeat ideas (though notice that Hume does not commit to this in the quoted passage). Reid argues that this position is inconsistent with Hume’s claim that impressions are the efficient causes of ideas. Reid’s second criticism is more insightful; he argues that differences in degrees of force and vivacity are insufficient to sustain the distinctions between perception, memory and imagination. Reid interprets Hume as holding that these three faculties do not differ in kind, but rather in the degree of force and vivacity of the ideas that are their objects. Ideas with the greatest degree of force and vivacity are perceptions, those with a lesser degree are memories, and those with the least degree of force and vivacity are imaginings. Reid criticizes this taxonomy on phenomenological grounds. Some perceptions are less forceful and lively than some memories, as when lost in reminiscence, and some memories are less forceful and lively than imaginings, as when lost in reverie. Furthermore, increasing the degree of force and vivacity does not transform a memory or an imagining into a perception. Reid compares striking one’s head against the wall to lightly touching it to the wall. The latter has much less force and vivacity than the former, yet lightly touching one’s head to the wall is neither a memory nor an imagining ( Essays , 289).

Reid grants that perceptions, memories and imaginings often differ in degree of force and vivacity, but, he argues, this difference is insufficient to account for the special quality of presentness represented in perceptions, the special quality of pastness represented in memories, and the special quality of atemporality represented in imaginings ( Inquiry , 197). While memories may be faint, or weak, these features are not necessary to these states being memories, and so cannot be used to individuate them. In addition, a present idea—whatever its degree of force and vivacity—cannot ground judgments about events in the past because present ideas represent events as present.

For according to that theory, the immediate object of memory, as well as every other operation of the understanding, is an idea present to the mind. And, from the present existence of this idea of memory I am led to infer, by reasoning, that six months ago or six years ago, there did exist an object similar to this one…But what is there in the idea that can lead me to this conclusion? What mark does it bear of the date of its archetype? ( Essays , 476)

Present ideas contain no information, qualitatively or representationally, that could serve as the basis of judgments about past events. As a result, no reflection on present ideas and their quality or character is sufficient for a representation of events in the past, as past.

Contemporary philosophers and cognitive scientists recognize that memory is a diverse phenomenon and they draw some useful distinctions among varieties of memory. [ 2 ] For example, Endel Tulving distinguishes between episodic memory, semantic memory and procedural memory. Remembering how to ride a bike is an example of procedural memory. Remembering that Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo is an example of a semantic memory. Remembering one’s tenth birthday party is an example of an episodic memory.

The distinction most relevant to the issues Reid, Locke and Hume raise for memory and personal identity is between semantic and episodic memory. Henri Bergson and Bertrand Russell developed a similar distinction, and Russell’s distinction between factual and personal memory accords with that between semantic and episodic memory. Semantic memories are properly reported using a factive complement—a that-clause—after the verbs ‘remember’ or ‘recall’, as in ‘Jane remembers that Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo’. In particular, a semantic memory cannot be reported using the form ‘ S remembers/recalls [ x ] f -ing’, as in ‘Jane recalls her tenth birthday party,’ or ‘John remembers falling off his bike.’ Only episodic memories may be properly reported using this form. No one today can properly report ‘I remember Napoleon being defeated at Waterloo,’ though many may properly report ‘I remember that Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo.’ On the other hand, an episodic memory can be reported using the same form by which semantic memories are reported because episodic memories may ground semantic memories under certain circumstances. It is legitimate to state both ‘I recall my tenth birthday party,’ in reporting an episodic memory of that event and to state ‘I remember that I had a tenth birthday party’, in reporting a semantic memory, whose justification would appeal to the previous episodic memory.

Episodic memories are further distinguished from semantic memories by the Previous Awareness Condition on episodic memory. The Previous Awareness Condition has been developed and examined by Sydney Shoemaker (1970), among others. Put simply, one has an episodic memory of an event only if one was agent or witness to the event remembered. The Previous Awareness Condition is a necessary but insufficient condition on episodic memory. If one has an experience as of being lost in a store as a child, but one was not in fact lost in a store as a child, such an experience is not an episodic memory. On the other hand, each of us has been agent or witness to many events of which we have no episodic memory. For example, one may not remember one’s third birthday party and so lack an episodic memory of an event to which one was surely witness.

Reid is most interested in episodic memory. Though Reid does not use the contemporary terminology, his theory draws upon both the distinction between episodic and semantic memory and the Previous Awareness Condition on episodic memory. As he puts the matter:

Things remembered must be things formerly perceived or known. I remember the transit of Venus over the sun in the year 1769. I must therefore have perceived it at the time it happened, otherwise I could not now remember it. Our first acquaintance with any object of thought cannot be by remembrance. Memory can only produce a continuance or renewal of a former acquaintance with the things remembered ( Essays , 255).

Though Reid uses the term ‘acquaintance,’ the things retained through memory are things previously perceived or experienced. The term ‘acquaintance’ has acquired a technical sense that it did not have in Reid’s day, so it is better to see Reid as holding that memory preserves contact with events previously apprehended through perception and thereby known by acquaintance. Acquaintance presupposes apprehension, and prior episodes of apprehension are necessary for retained acquaintance.

According to Reid, episodic memory is not a current apprehension of a past event, nor is it a current apprehension of a past experience. These theoretical options were ruled out by Reid’s criticism of Locke and Hume. Rather, according to Reid, memory is an act that preserves a past apprehension. Reid characterizes memory as exhibiting what we now call the Previous Awareness Condition. He holds that reports of episodic memory are true only if the person reporting satisfies the condition, and that experiences that otherwise appear to be episodic memories, but which fail the condition, are not episodic memories ( Essays , 264).

Reid does not count what we term ‘semantic memories’ as memories in the proper sense. He discounts them not because they fail to meet the Previous Awareness Condition, but because he holds that semantic memories are better classified as beliefs or knowledge rather than memories. For example, he would hold that a person today who reports remembering that Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo expresses a belief or knowledge rather than a memory. He holds this because he requires a distinction between two sorts of beliefs that would otherwise be obscured by the fact that each sort can be expressed in the form of a semantic memory report. The distinction is between beliefs that play a role in preserving past apprehension (and which are constituents of episodic memory), and those that do not play a role in preserving past apprehension (and which are not, strictly speaking, memories). For example, Jane believes that she dined with a friend last night. Jane has an episodic memory of this event, and according to Reid, her belief ‘that I dined with a friend last night,’ plays a role in preserving Jane’s past apprehension of dining with her friend. On the other hand, Jane’s belief that she had a third birthday party does not play a role in preserving her past apprehension of her third birthday party; she has no episodic memory of her third birthday party. The difference between these two sorts of belief is obscured by the fact that each may be expressed by using the factive compliment: ‘Jane remembers that she dined with a friend last night,’ and ‘Jane remembers that she had a third birthday party.’

According to Reid, a memory consists in a conception of a past event and a belief about that past event, that it happened to the person who is represented in that memory as agent or witness ( Essays , 228, 232, 254, 257). This conception-belief structure mirrors Reid’s accounts of perception and consciousness, each of which also consist in a conception and belief. Folescu (2018a) examines whether memorial conception differs from or is the same as the kind of conception ingredient in perception, consciousness, and other intentional mental states. The belief that is a constituent of memory, on Reid’s view, is a belief of some past event, that it happened. In particular, it is a belief that it happened to me, where the pronoun is indexed to the person who is represented in the memory as agent or witness to the event ( Essays , 255, 262). The belief is about or of the event because the other constituent of memory—the conception—supplies the event, which is the object of the belief. On Reid’s view, the objects of memory are the events presented in past apprehensions. Memory preserves past apprehensions by relating us to the events originally presented in perception—memory preserves past apprehension through conception and belief. In particular, the objects of memory are not the past apprehensions themselves but that which is presented in the past apprehensions, namely, the original event ( Inquiry , 28). Folescu (2018b) examines a tension in Reid’s accounts of memory and perception. According to Reid, we remember events that were apprehended in the past by perception. But Reid insists that perception is confined to the present. Because perception is confined to the present, we cannot perceive events, which have a duration. How, then, can we remember what we cannot have perceived?

Reid holds that memory is not a current apprehension of an event already presented in a past apprehension. In other words, we do not remember events by re-apprehending them. Rather, the past apprehension is itself preserved by the act of remembering the event apprehended. Memory is an act of preservation through conception and belief. Such preservation does not itself constitute an additional apprehension over and above the apprehension preserved. Indeed, according to Reid, it is impossible to currently apprehend any events in the past; apprehension is confined to perceiving present objects or being conscious of present mental operations ( Essays , 23, 253). Reid does not deny that memory is itself a current mental state, nor does he deny that memory presupposes a past apprehension. He denies only that memory is a current apprehension, and that the object of a memory is a past apprehension ( Essays , 253). Memory preserves past apprehension by conceiving of an event previously apprehended and believing, of this event, that it happened to me.

Reid holds that memory, like perception, is immediate. Neither the conception nor the belief that are the ingredients of memory are formed on the basis of reasoning or testimony. Memory is an original faculty of our constitution governed by what Reid calls “the first principles of contingent truths.” In the case of memory, the governing principle is that “those things did really happen which I distinctly remember” ( Essays , 474). On Reid’s view, a normally functioning human does not and need not infer to a past event in episodic memory. In order to infer to a past event, one must have some prior, non-inferential relation to the event if it is to be a memory rather than a belief or knowledge. But then this prior, non-inferential relation would be an episodic memory. In addition, if episodic memory involved an inference to the effect that the event happened to me, the inference would be otiose because, as Reid claims, such a belief is already an immediate, non-inferential component of episodic memory. In principle, one could infer from the conception and belief that are ingredients in memory to a further belief that the event happened. But if such a belief plays a role in preserving past apprehension then it is superfluous—such a belief, subject to the Previous Awareness Condition, is already embedded in episodic memory. If the belief does not play a role in preserving past apprehension then it is a semantic memory, which, according to Reid, is among the species of belief or knowledge rather memory.

The distinction between beliefs that are ingredients in episodic memories and beliefs that are based on, but not ingredients in, episodic memories allows Reid to account for cases in which a memorial experience continues to represent an event as having happened, even when the person who seems to remember the event has what she regards as an overriding reason to believe that the event did not occur. The belief that is an ingredient in the experience represents the event as having happened to the person who seems to remember it. Further, the belief will continue to represent the event as having happened to the person, even under conditions in which she forms a separate belief, not embedded in the memorial experience, to the effect that it did not happen to her.

The distinction also allows Reid to satisfy a constraint on any adequate theory of memory; namely, that it explain why memory represents events as having the special quality of being in the past. If belief were not an ingredient in episodic memory, then though we might believe that the events we remember are in the past, memory could not represent events as past. If belief were not an ingredient in memory, then memory alone would relate us to an event previously apprehended. But the apprehension preserved is an apprehension of an event that was, at that time, represented in that apprehension as present. The pastness of the event apprehended is not part of the content of the past apprehension. But because a belief that the event happened to me is embedded in the memory itself, memory represents not merely past events, but past events as having occurred. In other words, the belief that is partly constitutive of episodic memory is tensed.

One might wonder whether Reid’s account of memory is subject to the same criticisms he levels against Locke and Hume. Does Reid appeal to the storehouse metaphor when he claims that memory is preserved past apprehension? Reid criticizes Locke and Hume for begging the question. Yet by holding that memory is in part constituted by a belief, does Reid not also assume the very phenomenon to be explained? Reid can avoid the criticisms to which the theory of ideas is vulnerable by insisting that memory is not a current apprehension, but rather a preserved past apprehension. His theory of memory is a direct realist theory because, according to Reid, memory is not directed towards any present perceptions, ideas, or impressions—stored or otherwise. Neither is memory directed towards any past perceptions, ideas, or impressions—stored or otherwise. Memory is directed towards the events presented in past apprehensions. Because apprehensions, perceptions, ideas, and impressions are never the objects of memory, they do not need to be stored for use by memory. Likewise, the belief that is an ingredient in memory is not about any present or past apprehensions. If it were, Reid’s theory would be subject to the same circularity objection he presses against Locke and Hume.

On Reid’s theory of memory, an apprehension establishes a direct relation to an event, which relation is preserved in memory by the acts of conceiving the event and believing of the event conceived that it happened to the person who remembers. It is a direct realist theory of memory because it departs from the model on which memory is a current apprehension of a past event or a current apprehension of a past apprehension. On the direct realist view, memory preserves past apprehension of an event through conception and belief. Reid’s theory captures how memory, like perception, represents the world, rather than our experiences of the world.

Reid, Locke and others are interested in the notion of episodic memory not only for its own sake, but also because of its conceptual connection to the notion of personal identity. If Joe remembers, episodically, winning the World Series, then Joe must have existed at the time of his winning the World Series. This is why the Previous Awareness Condition characterizes episodic but not semantic memory. Unlike Joe’s memory that Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, his memory of winning the World Series logically entails Joe’s existence at the time of the event remembered. In other words, episodic memory is logically sufficient for personal identity: if S remembers at time t n (episodically) an event at time t 1 , then S existed at time t 1 . In addition, memory reports are often taken to be prima facie evidence for statements about the past history of the person reporting.

Reid’s main criticism of Locke’s theory of personal identity is that Locke moves from these truisms concerning the conceptual and evidential relations among the notions of memory and personal identity to a hypothesis concerning the metaphysical relations among them ( Essays , 277). In this, Reid follows Butler’s influential dissertation “Of Personal Identity,” appended to The Analogy of Religion in 1736.

Reid interprets Locke as holding what is now called the Memory Theory of personal identity ( Essays , 277). On this theory, personal identity consists in memory; sameness of episodic memory is metaphysically necessary and sufficient for sameness of persons. In other words, on the Memory Theory, what makes a person identical with herself over time is her remembering or being able to remember the events to which she was witness or agent. If she cannot episodically remember an event, then she is not identical with any of the persons who was witness or agent to the event. In such a case, she would bear the same relation to that event as any other person for whom a memory of the event could rise at best to the level of a semantic memory. If she can episodically remember an event, then her recollection or ability to recall that event makes her identical with the person represented in that memory as agent or witness to the event.

But there is a secondary, more subtle line of disagreement between Reid and Locke. Much of Locke’s chapter Identity and Diversity is dedicated to establishing that the self is not a substance, material or immaterial. By contrast, Reid holds that the self is a simple, unanalyzable immaterial substance with active powers. Reid argues that Locke cannot sustain both the thesis that the self is not a substance and the thesis that self remains identical over time. While Reid’s criticisms of the Memory Theory are more well known, his criticism of Locke’s insistence that the self is not a substance reveals two very different accounts of the metaphysics of identity. While Locke argues that the identity conditions for different kinds of things differ, so that the conditions under which a mass of matter, and an animal, and a person are not the same, Reid holds that identity is confined solely to substances that have a continued, uninterrupted existence and which do not have parts. In other words, according to Reid, strictly speaking the only real identity is personal identity ( Essays , 266–267). “The identity…we ascribe to bodies, whether natural or artificial, is not perfect identity; it is rather something which, for the conveniency of speech, we call identity” ( Essays , 266).

Reid begins his interpretation and criticism of Locke’s theory by noting that Locke defines the term ‘person’ as meaning “a thinking intelligent Being, that has reason and reflection…” (Locke Essay , Book II.xxvii.9). Reid is friendly to this characterization of the self. But, Reid notes, Locke appears to equivocate between the notion of a person as a ‘thinking Being,’ and the notion of a person as that which is preserved through consciousness and memory. Reid paraphrases a passage from Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding :

Mr LOCKE tells us however, “that personal identity, that is, the sameness of a rational being, consists in consciousness alone, as, as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of that person. So that whatever hath the consciousness of present and past actions, is the same person to whom they belong” ( Essays 275–276).

The passage in Locke differs from Reid’s paraphrase:

… personal Identity, i.e. the sameness of a rational Being: And as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past Action or Thought, so far reaches the Identity of that Person ; it is the same self now it was then; and ‘tis by the same self with this present one that now reflects on it, that that Action was done (Locke, Essay , Book II.xxvii.9).

Reid’s first criticism rests on his interpreting Locke’s definition as committing him to the position that a person is a subject of thought, which Reid regards as implying that a person is a thinking substance. At the same time, Locke appears to be committed to an analysis of personal identity in terms of memory, or, as Locke would put it, consciousness of the past. Reid notes that Locke is aware of some of the consequences of the Memory Theory: if sameness of consciousness or memory is necessary and sufficient for sameness of person, then it is possible for there to be sameness of person without sameness of thinking Being. In other words, it is logically and metaphysically possible for a person to be “transferred from one intelligent being to another,” or for “two or twenty intelligent beings to be the same person” ( Essays , 276). Locke’s response to these worries, as well as worries about periods of interrupted consciousness, as in sleep, highlights Reid’s criticism: “…[I]n all these cases…doubts are raised whether we are the same thinking thing; i.e. the same substance or no. Which however reasonable, or unreasonable, concerns not personal Identity at all. The Question being what makes the same Person , and not whether it be the same Identical Substance…” (Locke, Essay , Book II.xxvii.10). Reid’s criticism is not that cases of transfer or fission are incoherent, though he thinks they are. Rather, his criticism is that the possibility of sameness of person without sameness of thinking Being that the Memory Theory allows is inconsistent with Locke’s characterization of a person as a ‘thinking Being’. Given that Reid thinks that this initial characterization is correct, he regards this as a reductio of the Memory Theory.

Reid’s second criticism is his most famous and is often referred to as the case of the Brave Officer:

Suppose a brave officer to have been flogged when a boy at school, for robbing an orchard, to have taken a standard from the enemy in his first campaign, and to have been made a general in advanced life: Suppose also, which must be admitted to be possible, that when he took the standard, he was conscious of his having been flogged at school, and that when made a general he was conscious of his taking the standard, but had absolutely lost the consciousness of his flogging.

These things being supposed, it follows, from Mr LOCKE’s doctrine, that he who was flogged at school is the same person who took the standard, and that he who took the standard is the same person who was made a general. When it follows, if there be any truth in logic, that the general is the same person with him who was flogged at school. But the general’s consciousness does not reach so far back as his flogging, therefore, according to Mr LOCKE’s doctrine, he is not the person who was flogged. Therefore the general is, and at the same time is not the same person as him who was flogged at school ( Essays , 276).

According to the Memory Theory, personal identity consists in memory; that is, sameness of memory is metaphysically necessary and sufficient for sameness of person. On this account, given that sameness of memory is sufficient for sameness of person, if a person at time t n remembers (episodically) an event that occurred at time t 1 then the person at time t n is identical with the person who was witness or agent to the event at time t 1 . If the brave officer who has just taken the flag of the enemy remembers being beaten at school, then the brave officer is identical with the boy who was beaten. So too, if the general remembers taking the enemy’s flag, then the general is identical with the brave officer. If the general is identical with the brave officer, and the brave officer is identical with the boy, then by the transitivity of identity, the general is identical with the boy.

However, on this account, given that sameness of memory is a necessary condition for sameness of person, if a person at time t n does not remember (episodically) an event that occurred at time t 1 , then the person at time t n cannot be identical with any person who was witness or agent to the event at time t 1 . If the general cannot remember being beaten at school, he cannot be identical with the boy who was beaten. Thus, the Memory Theory is committed to mutually incompatible theses: that the General is identical with the boy and that he is not.

Reid’s third criticism is terminological: he argues that Locke confounds consciousness with memory—elsewhere Reid also argues that Locke confounds consciousness with reflection ( Essays , 58). Consciousness and memory are distinct phenomena, according to Reid. The former is directed towards present mental acts and operations, while the latter is directed towards past events to which one was agent or witness. If consciousness could extend to past events, then memory would be redundant ( Essays , 277).

According to Reid, memory is neither necessary nor sufficient for personal identity, metaphysically speaking, despite the conceptual and evidential relations memory bears to personal identity. It is not a necessary condition because each us has been agent or witness to many events that we do not now remember. “I may have other good evidence of things which befell me, and which I do not remember: I know who bare me, and suckled me, but I do not remember these events” ( Essays , 264). It is not a sufficient condition, for, as Butler showed, while having an episodic memory of an event entails that one existed at the time of the event remembered, it is not the recollection or the ability to recall that makes one identical with the person who was witness or agent to the event. “It may here be observed…that it is not my remembering any action of mine that makes be to be the person who did it. This remembrance makes me know assuredly that I did it; but I might have done it, though I did not remember it” ( Essays , 265). Reid’s fourth criticism is that while memory is tied to personal identity conceptually and evidentially, such ties do not entail a metaphysical connection that would license analyzing the latter in terms of the former ( Essays , 277).

Reid’s final criticism is that the Memory Theory is committed to the absurdity that identity consists in something that has no continued existence ( Essays , 278). Reid and Locke agree that memory, consciousness, thought, and other mental operations have no continued existence. They are fleeting and non-continuous. But they also agree that identity, and in particular personal identity, requires a continued existence over time. As Locke puts it, “one thing cannot have two beginnings of Existence, nor two things one beginning” (Locke, Essay , Book II.xxvii.1). But these commitments are jointly inconsistent with the thesis that personal identity consists in memory.

A theory of personal identity is intended to account for how a person remains identical over time. When analyzed in terms of items that are fleeting and non-continuous—ideas, memories, thoughts—identity is reduced to diversity; that is, it is eliminated. By contrast, if one locates personal identity in that which thinks and remembers, and which has a continued, uninterrupted existence, one purchases personal identity at the cost of admitting that the self is a substance. Reid captures Locke on the horns of a dilemma: either the self is a substance, in which case it remains identical over time, or the self is not a substance, in which case there is no personal identity. Reid holds that this dilemma applies with equal force against any reductionist account of personal identity that employs the theory of ideas, for example Hume’s bundle theory of the self ( Essays , 473–474).

Those familiar with the contemporary literature on personal identity, with its emphasis on the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person remains identical over time, may wonder: if Reid holds that memory is not the criterion of identity, and if Reid’s substance dualism rules out bodily identity as a criterion of personal identity, in what does personal identity consist? Reid’s answer is that identity cannot be accounted for in any terms other than itself. This is neither quietism nor epistemic humility on Reid’s part. Rather, Reid argues that the nature of personal identity—its simplicity and indivisibility—rules out any reductive account that appeals to notions other than identity in explaining how a person persists over time.

Reid holds that numerical identity is, strictly speaking, indefinable, but it can be contrasted with other relations, such as diversity, similarity and dissimilarity ( Essays , 263). It requires a continued existence over time—a duration—and requires that there be no two beginnings of existence. Because mental states are fleeting and non-continuous they cannot remain identical over time. A mental state may be indistinguishable from a previous mental state, but because mental states do not have a continued existence, no mental state at one time can be numerically identical with another at a different time. As a result, persons cannot be identified with their thoughts, actions or feelings ( Essays , 264). However, according to Reid, thoughts, actions, feelings and all other mental operations are had or performed by a subject that has a continued existence and that bears the same relation to all them. The subject is an immaterial substance that thinks, acts and feels. According to Reid, this substantial self has no parts—it is indivisible—which contributes to its resistance to reductive explanation. Reid appeals to Leibniz’s notion of a monad to describe the indivisibility of this immaterial, substantial self ( Essays , 264).

Though memory is not the metaphysical ground of personal identity, it provides first-personal evidence of it. Reid notes that the evidence we use to make judgments about our own pasts is different from the evidence we use to make judgments about other people and their pasts ( Essays 266). Memory justifies first-personal reports about one’s own witnessed past, while judgments of qualitative similarity justify third-personal statements about the identities of other persons. I know that I was present at my wedding because I remember being there. I know that the man I live with was at my wedding because he looks like the man I married.

First-personal, memorial reports about one’s own past are either true or false: if the memorial experience is a genuine episodic memory, then it is impossible for it to testify falsely concerning one’s presence at the event remembered. This aspect of episodic memory reports is often expressed by saying that they are immune to error through misidentification. If the memorial experience testifies falsely concerning one’s presence at the event remembered, then it cannot be an episodic memory. For example, if I have an experience as of having been lost in a shopping mall as a child, but I was never lost, I cannot be said to remember having been lost, strictly speaking. The upshot is that first-personal memorial reports, if they are episodic memory reports, provide certainty concerning one’s presence at the event remembered. Because third-personal judgments about the pasts of other persons are based on judgments of qualitative similarity rather than episodic memory, they are never certain; they are only ever more or less well justified ( Essays 264–265).

It is important to notice that while Reid uses the term ‘evidence,’ when describing the role that memory plays in first-personal knowledge of one’s own past, memory is not used by persons to justify judgments or beliefs about their own pasts. In other words, people do not remember events and then conclude from having remembered them, that it was they who were witness to the events. Rather, memory itself represents one’s presence at the event remembered. According to Reid, a memory consists in a conception of an event and a belief, about the event conceived, that it happened to me, where the pronoun is indexed to the person who is represented in the memory as agent or witness. In other words, memory consists in part in a judgment that represents one’s presence at the event. Any further judgment, justified by memory, to the effect that I was the person who was there would be superfluous—memory already testifies to my having been there. This is why Reid calls the evidence of memory immediate : first-personal statements about one’s own past are memory statements, not statements made on the basis of memory.

Reid’s picture is one on which each of us is immediately and justifiably aware of our own past because each of us remembers having been there. This is the moral of the story concerning the logical relationship between the concept of memory and the concept of personal identity. Memories do not make me the same person as the person represented in my memories. Rather, memories allow me to know my own past, immediately and directly.

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• Works of Thomas Reid , at Early Modern Philosophy Texts
• The papers of Thomas Reid , held by Aberdeen University Library

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• Memory Model of Teaching and Its Effectiveness The main objective of the research study was to find out the difference in the effect of the memory model and the traditional method of teaching on students’ performance.
• Memory for Designs Test The examination of the functioning of the memory of an individual cannot be limited to only one memory test, and as a result, there are a variety of assessments that target the various features of […]
• Long and Short Term Memory The procedure of conveying information from STM to LTM entails the encoding and consolidation of information: it is not a task of time; the more the data resides in STM it increases the chances of […]
• Memory Test The two controversies determine the classification of memory depending on the form of information processing that occurs in the brain and the different types of memories in relation to the accessibility.
• Review of Wordfast: Strengths and Weaknesses of This Translation Memory Tool Recognizing the variety of benefits of using Wordfast in the translation process, it should be noted that the use of this ACT program can have a number of unintended negative implications for the quality of […]
• Computer’s Memory Management Memory management is one of the primary responsibilities of the OS, a role that is achieved by the use of the memory management unit.
• Love and Memory From a Psychological Point of View The commonly known love types include affection, passionate love, friendship, infatuation, puppy love, sexual love, platonic love, romantic love and many other terms that could be coined out to basically describe love.
• Community Gatherings and Collective Memory The objective of this paper is to examine some of the gatherings that take place in the community and how these gatherings are related to time.
• Free and Serial Memory Recalls in Experiments In the study, the experimenters changed the order in which the items were presented to the participants before each trial to test the ability of the subject to recognize these words it was observed that […]
• Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test and Cognistat Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test and the Cognistat are the assessment tools employed by the occupational therapists in order to determine the levels of impairment in their mental function that directly impact the individuals’ executive abilities […]
• The Effect of Sleep Quality and IQ on Memory Therefore, the major aim of sleep is to balance the energies in the body. However, the nature of the activity that an individual is exposed to determines the rate of memory capture.
• “The Sorrow of War” by Bao Ninh: Memory as a Central Idea The image of soldier Kien in The Sorrow of War demonstrates the difficulties of the Vietnamese people before, through and after this war.
• How Memory and Intelligence Change as We Age The central argument of the paper is that intelligence and memory change considerably across the lifespan, but these alterations are different in the two concepts. The article by Ofen and Shing is a valuable contribution […]
• Concreteness of Words and Free Recall Memory The study hypothesized that the free recall mean of concrete words is not statistically significantly higher than that of abstract words.
• False Memory Syndrome: Is It Real? Freud’s findings bring the idea that some of the memories that are categorized to be false memories that emanates from the unconscious memory.
• Improving Memory and Study Power Study power and memory are important aspects of the learning process and improving them is necessary for success. Working the brain is important in improvement of memory and study power.
• Brain and Memory Evidence suggests that the amygdala and the hippocampus regions of the brain interact during the formation of verbal and visual memory.
• Information Processing and Improving Learning and Memory Information processing theory is a method of studying cognitive development that arose from the American experimental psychology tradition.
• Memory Strategies Examples and How They Work A good strategy for memory is the one that improves information encoding, necessitates storage of data in a memorable state and enables the mind to easily retrieve information. Indeed, a malfunction in retrieval of stored […]
• Fabricating the Memory: War Museums and Memorial Sites Due to the high international criticism, a very tiny portion of the East Wing is dedicated to explain the context, yet visitors easily overlook the section after the dense display of tragedies after a-bomb in […]
• Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) The first mentioning of shape memory materials was with the discovery of martensite in 1890, which was the first step for phenomenal discovery of the shape memory effect.
• The Relationship Between Memory and Oblivion The purpose of this essay is to discuss the relationship between memory and oblivion, private and public recollection of events, and the way these concepts are reflected in the works of Walid Raad, Christo, and […]
• Chauri Chaura Incident in History and Memory The book’s first half was a reconstruction, a narrative in historical view of the burning of the chowki or station and the account of the trial that focused on the testimony of the principal prosecution […]
• Amnesia and Long-Term Memory These factors interfere with the function of hippocampus, the section of the human brain that is responsible for the development of memory, storing and organizing information.
• Sleep Improves Memory It is possible to replace a traumatic memory with a pleasant one then take a brief moment of sleep to reinforce the pleasant memory.
• Factors of Learners’ and Adults’ Working Memory An individual’s working memory refers to their ability to access and manipulate bits of data in their mind for a short period.
• Statistics: The Self-Reference Effect and Memory After the distraction part was over, the participants were asked to recall the twelve adjectives they rated from a list of 42 words. This brings the question of whether the results would be different if […]
• Memory Mechanisms: Cognitive Load Theory The teacher’s task is not only to give information but also to explain the principles of learning and to work with it.
• The Self-Reference Effect and Memory Accordingly, the analysis has the following hypotheses: the SRE should enhance recognition of words that participants can relate to themselves, and people should feel more confident about their memory under the SRE.
• Henry Molaison and Memory Lessons The case of Henry Molaison serves as a poignant reminder of the complexity of memory and the importance of understanding its various components.
• Memory and Attention as Aspects of Cognition It has specific definitions, such as “consideration with a view to action,” “a condition of readiness involving a selective narrowing or focusing of consciousness and receptivity,” and “the act or state of applying the mind […]
• Intergenerational Trauma and Traumatic Memory The exploration of interconnected issues of intergenerational trauma and traumatic memory in society with historical data of collective violence across the world sensitizes to the importance of acknowledging trauma.
• The Role of Memory Cells in Cellular Immunity Therefore, when a bacterium gets into the body for a second time, the response is swift because the body has fought it before. Thus, a healthy body can recognize and get rid of chronic microorganisms […]
• Psychological Conditions in Addition to Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory The authors, who have many papers and degrees in the field, have noted the features of the brain structure and the differences between HSAM.
• Cognitive Psychology: The Effects of Memory Conformity The experiment’s control conditions did not allow the witnesses to discuss the event seen in the videos, while in the other condition, the witnesses were encouraged to discuss the event.
• Survival and Memory in Music of the Ghosts by Ratner When it comes to individual memory of Teera’s childhood, the author explains the connection between her memories of her father and musical instruments: “Perhaps it’s because as a child she grew up listening to her […]
• Concept for Teaching Memory in Primary School Students Teaching is one of the most demanding and demanding jobs in the world because it is the job that holds the future generation together.
• ”The Mystery of Memory” Documentary by Gray & Schwarz The documentary examines the brain’s ability to form and retrieve a memory, highlights the importance of neurobiology, and focuses on the problems of PTSD treatment and neuroscience backwardness, concluding that human memory is still a […]
• Draw It or Lose It Memory and Storage Considerations Since the size of the biggest component of this data is known and the additional component can be reasonably estimated, memory for it can be assigned at load time.
• The Multi-Storage Memory Model by Atkinson and Schiffrin The function of the is to track the stimuli in the input register and to provide a place to store the information coming from the LTS.
• Emotions: The Influence on Memory At the same time, the influence of positive and negative feelings on the process of memorization and reproduction is different. In conclusion, it should be said that the process of the influence of emotions on […]
• Civility, Democracy, Memory in Sophocles’ Antigone In Sophocles’ Antigone, the narrative flow makes the audience empathize with the tragic fate of the characters, deepening the emotional involvement of the readers and viewers.
• The Psychological Nature of Memory Using the numerical representation of the participants’ results, the researchers calculated the dependence of the memory and theory of mind in the process of recalling the interlocutors.
• Functioning of Human Memory Schemas Consecutively, the study aimed to identify the relation between the facilitation of prior knowledge schemas and memories and the ability to form new schemas and inferences in older adults.
• Enhancing Individual and Collaborative Eyewitness Memory Considering the positive results of research utilizing category clustering recall and the reported benefits of group memory, a question arises whether the use of category clustering recall might diminish the negative effects of group inhibition.
• Memory: Its Functions, Types, and Stages of Storage First, information is processed in sensory memory, which perceives sensory events for a couple of seconds to determine whether the information is valuable and should be kept for a longer period. As information goes through […]
• The Relationship Between the Working Memory and Non-Conscious Experiences The structure of the proposal follows the logical layout, beginning from the background of the issue through the methodology to problem significance and research innovation.
• Consciousness: The Link Between Working Memory and Unconscious Experience The present study seeks to address the gap in the research regarding the executive function of VWM and consciousness. This study will follow a modified structure of Bergstrom and Eriksson experiment on non-conscious WM to […]
• The Role of Image Color in Association With the Memory Functions Memory is the cornerstone of human cognition that enables all of its profound mechanisms, and the instrument of knowledge acquisition and exchange.
• The Memory Formation Process: Key Issues Hippocampus plays an essential role in the memory formation process because it is the part of the brain where short-term memories become long-term memories.
• Memory Techniques in Learning English Vocabulary ‘Word’ is defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary as follows: “1a: something that is said b plural: the text of a vocal musical composition c: a brief remark or conversation 2a: a speech sound or series […]
• Covalent Modification of Deoxyribonucleic Acid Regulates Memory Formation The article by Miller and Sweatt examines the possible role of DNA methylation as an epigenetic mechanism in the regulation of memory in the adult central nervous system.
• Repressed Memory in Childhood Experiences The suffering often affects a child’s psychological coping capacity in any respect, and one of the only ways of dealing with it is to force the memory out of conscious perception.
• Adaptive Memory and Survival Subject Correlation The results of the study have revealed that the participants found it slightly easier to recall the words related to the notion of survival.
• Developmental Differences in Memory Over Lifespan While growth refers to the multiplication of the number of individual units or cells in the body, maturation on the other hand can be defined as the successive progress of the individual’s appendage land organs […]
• Memory, the Working-Memory Impairments, and Impacts on Memory The first important argument for a thorough discussion on how ADHD could affect brain functioning and working memory impairments is the existence of prominent factors that could create a link between the disorder and the […]
• Working Memory in 7 &13 Years Aged Children However, it was hypothesized that children with AgCC will show similar performance improvement in verbal working memory task performance from 7 to 13 years of age as indicated in the study with CVLT.
• Working Memory & Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum However, it was hypothesized that children with AgCC will show similar improvement in performance on verbal working memory task performance from 7 to 13 years of age as indicated in the study with CVLT.
• Lifespan Memory Decline, Memory Lapses and Forgetfulness The purpose of the research by Henson et al.was to deepen the understanding of differential aging of the brain on differential patterns of memory loss.
• Elaborative Process and Memory Performance The process is significant in the study and retention of data. In addition, the application of the concepts in the author’s learning process will be highlighted.
• The Essence of Context Dependent Memory The results ought to show that the context in which eyewitnesses observed an event is important in the recall memory of the participants.
• “Neural Processing Associated With True and False Memory Retrieval” by Yoko The researchers noted that both true and distorted memories activate activities in the left parental and left frontal areas of the brain. Parahippocampal gyrus- Is the area of the brain that is responsible for processing […]
• Dementia and Memory Retention Art therapy is an effective intervention in the management of dementia because it stimulates reminiscence and enhances memory retention among patients with dementia.
• Biological Psychology: Memory By and large, there is a general agreement that molecular events are involved in the storage of information in the nervous system. It is about to differentiate different kinds of memory, one which is short-term […]
• The Memory of Silence and Lucy: A Detailed Analysis From damaging relationships to her hope to come back to the native land, Lucy has all kinds of issues to address, but the bigger issue is that Lucy’s progress is cyclical, and she has to […]
• Two Tutorials on the Virtual Memory Subject: Studytonight and Tutorials Point The explanation of the demand paging term leads to the concept of a page fault. It is a phrase that characterizes an invalid memory reference that occurs as a result of a program addressing a […]
• Music and Memory: Discussion Future research should focus on addressing the limitations of the study and exploring the effect of other types of music. The findings of the study are consistent with the current body of knowledge about the […]
• Fuzzy-Trace Theory and False Memory The writers set out to show the common ground for all these varied scenarios and convincingly show that false memories are a result of an interaction between memory and the cognitive process of reasoning. The […]
• Individual Differences in Learning and Memory In the following paper, the variety of learning styles will be evaluated in relation to theories of human learning and memory retrieval on the basis of the findings currently made by academic researchers.
• The Difference Between Females and Males Memory The hippocampus is of importance when it comes to memory formation and preservation and is relatively larger in females than males, giving the females advantage in memory cognition.
• The Nature of False Memory Postevent information is one of the reasons that provoke the phenomenon of misinformation. The participants watched a video of a hockey collision and were asked to estimate the speed of the players.
• Organizational Memory and Intellectual Capital The main emphasis here concerns modalities of motivating the retrieval and use of information and experiences in the OM. The source of intellectual capital arises from the managers’ ability to welcome new information and experiences, […]
• Advertising and Memory: Interaction and Effect An advert sticks into one’s memory when it focuses on the characteristic of the material being advertised, other advertisements competing for the same market niche, and the kind of people it targets.
• The Internet and Autobiographical Memory Allie Young’s blog or journal is a perfect illustration of the impact that social sites and blogs have, since for her autobiographic memory; she uses a blog site to write about issues affecting her life.
• Creativity and Memory Effects in Advertising A study was conducted in China to establish the kind of effects agency creativity has on the total outcome of the advertising campaign.
• Memory, Thinking, and Human Intelligence As Kurt exposits, “The effects of both proactive and retroactive inferences while one is studying can be counteracted in order to maximize absorption of all the information into the long-term memory”.
• Psychological Issues: Self-Identity and Sexual Meaning Issues, and Memory Processing Most sex surveys are run by firms dealing in other products and the motives of the surveys are for marketing of their primary products.
• Human Memory as a Biopsychology Area This paper is going to consider the idea that electrical activity measures of the brain of a human being can be utilized as a great means for carrying out the study of the human memory.
• Biopsychology: Learning and Memory Relationship Memorization involves an integral function of the brain which is the storage of information. Memorization is directly linked to learning through the processes of encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.
• Apiculture: Memory in Honeybees They have a sharp memory to recall the previous locations of food, the scent, and the color where they can get the best nectar and pollen.
• Collective Memory as “Time Out”: Repairing the Time-Community Link The essay will first give an account of how time helps to shape a community, various events that have been formulated in order to keep the community together and the effectiveness of these events in […]
• “The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci” by Jonathan D. Spence: Concept of Memory Palaces The information concerning Matteo Ricci’s concept of memory palaces presented in the book is generalized to the extent that it is necessary to search for an explanation and some clarifications in the additional sources; “His […]
• Psychology: Memory, Thinking, and Intelligence Information which serves as the stimuli moves from the sensory memory to the short term memory and finally to the long term memory for permanent storage.
• Working With Working Memory Even if we can only make a connection of something we see with a sound, it is easier to remember something we can speak, because the auditory memory helps the visual memory.
• Operant Conditioning, Memory Cue and Perception Operant conditioning through the use of punishment can be used to prevent or decrease a certain negative behavior, for example, when a child is told that he/she will lose some privileges in case he/she misbehaves, […]
• Human Memory: Serial Learning Experiment The background of the current research was stated in Ebbinghaus’ psychological study, and reveals the fact, that if e series of accidental symbols is offered for memorizing, the human memory will be able to memorize […]
• Hot and Cold Social Cognitions and Memory What is mentioned in biology text books and journals about the human brain is so small and almost insignificant compared to the myriad functions and parts of the brain that are yet to be explored.
• Memory Consolidation and Reconsolidation After Sleep The memory consolidation of the visual skill tasks is related to the REM sleep and the short wave component of the NREM.
• Attention, Perception and Memory Disorders Analysis Teenage is the time for experimentation, with a desire to be independent and try new and forbidden things like drugs or indulge in indiscrete sexual activity.
• Autobiographical Memory and Cognitive Development During this stage important cognitive processes take place and are fundamental towards the development of autobiographical memory in the infants. This help the infants to have important memory cues that form part of the autobiographical […]
• Sensory and Motor Processes, Learning and Memory There are three processes involved in the sensory function of the eyes: the mechanical process, the chemical process, and the electrical process. The mechanical process starts as the stimuli passes through the cornea and […]
• Repressed Memory and Developing Teaching Strategies The author aims to emphasize the “importance, relevance, and potential to inform the lay public as well as our future attorneys, law enforcement officers, therapists, and current or future patients of therapists” with regards to […]
• Hippocampus: Learning and Memory The limbic cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus are considered the processing parts of the limbic system while the output part comprises the septal nuclei and the hypothalamus.
• The Implications of False Memory and Memory Distortion The former refers to the manner of impressing into our minds the memories which we have acquired while the former refers to the manner by which a person reclaims the memories which have been stored […]
• Memory Comprehension Issue Review To sum up, studying with the background of loud music is counterproductive, as it is also an information channel that interferes with the comprehension and memorization of more important information.
• The Interaction of Music and Memory Therefore, the research is of enormous significance for the understanding of individual differences in the connection between memory and music. Therefore, the research contributes to the understanding of the interaction of age with music and […]
• The Effect of Memory, Intelligence and Personality on Employee Performance and Behaviour The present paper will seek to explain the theoretical background on memory, intelligence and personality and evaluate the influence of these factors on work performance and employee behaviours.
• Elderly Dementia: Holistic Approaches to Memory Care The CMAI is a nursing-rated questionnaire that evaluates the recurrence of agitation in residents with dementia. Since the research focuses on agitation, the CMAI was utilized to evaluate the occurrence of agitation at baseline.
• The Conceptual Relationship Between Memory and Imagination In particular, the scholar draws parallels between these processes by addressing the recorded activity of specific brain structures when “remembering the past and imagining the future”.
• “How Reliable Is Your Memory?” by Elizabeth Loftus Regardless of how disturbing and sorrowful it may be, and even when pointed out that this certain memory is false, a person may be unable to let it go.
• Chocolate Consumption and Working Memory in Men and Women In this study, the independent variable was chocolate intake, while the dependent variable was the effect of chocolate on the memory of different genders.
• Memory Acquisition and Information Processing The problem of disagreeing with memories can be explained by a closer look at the process of memory acquisition. Most part of the sensory information is not encoded due to selective attention.
• Varlam Shalamov on Memory and Psychological Resilience The soldiers sent to therapists such as Rivers and Yealland in Regeneration had one problem in common they were unable to forget the traumatic and frightening experiences that had affected them in the past.
• Learning Activity and Memory Improvement The easiest way to explain the difference between implicit and explicit types of learning is to think of the latter as active learning and of the former – as passive one.
• Surrealism and Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory” Of course, The Persistence of Memory is one of the best-known works, which is often regarded as one of the most conspicuous illustrations of the movement.
• Psychology: Short-Term and Working Memory The thing is that the term short-term memory is used to describe the capacity of the mind to hold a small piece of information within a very short period, approximately 20 seconds.
• Dealing With the Limitations of Flash Memory Implanted medical chip technology can help to reduce the amount of medical misdiagnosis that occur in hospitals and can also address the issue of the amount of money that Jones Corp.pays out to its clients […]
• Collective Memory and Patriotic Myth in American History However, to think that colonists and early Americans pursued a general policy of killing or driving out the native Indians is incorrect.
• When the Desire Is Not Enough: Flash Memory As a result, a number of rather uncomfortable proposals were made to the founders of Flash, but the company’s members had to accept certain offers for the financing to continue and the firm not to […]
• Effects of Marijuana on Memory of Long-Term Users The pivotal aim of the proposed study is to evaluate the impact of marijuana use on long-term memory of respondents. The adverse impact of marijuana after the abstinent syndrome refers to significant changes in prefrontal […]
• Amphetamines and Their Effects on Memory The scope of the problem of stimulant abuse is quite important in nowadays medicine since the application of amphetamine is not explored in an in-depth manner.
• Memory Retrieval, Related Processes and Secrets The resulting impression of having experienced what is portrayed in the picture leads to the creation of false memories. The authors of the study make it clear that placing one in specific visual and spatial […]
• Mnemonics for Memory Improvement in Students The selected participants will be split into two groups that will be asked to memorize a set of words from a story with the help of the suggested technique.
• Sociocultural Memory in European and Asian Americans The Asian perspective on the use of memory, however, suggests that a much greater emphasis should be placed on using memory as a learning resource so that it can be expanded with the help of […]
• The Public Memory of the Holocaust In addition to his pain, Levi concerns the increasing temporal distance and habitual indifference of hundreds of millions of people towards the Holocaust and the survivors1 It causes the feeling of anxiety that was fuelled […]
• Memory Formation and Maintenance The first similarity between working memory and long term memory is that in both cases, tasks retrieve information from secondary memory, although sometimes working memory tasks retrieve information from the primary memory. After completion of […]
• Working Memory Training and Its Controversies As a result, a range of myths about WM has been addressed and subverted successfully, including the one stating that WM related training cannot be used to improve one’s intellectual abilities and skills.
• Music and Human Memory Connection The effects of music on people vary considerably, and this project should help to understand the peculiar features of the connection between human memory and music.
• Music Role in Memory and Learning Processes As such, the study purposed to test the differences in visuospatial abilities between men and women bearing in mind that the former is perceived to demonstrate greater memory capabilities compared to the latter As such, […]
• Working Memory Training: Benefits and Biases The research results indicate that the effects of stereotyping on the development of WM and the relevant skills are direct and rather drastic.
• Biopsychology of Learning and Memory The hippocampus is a brain region in the form of a horseshoe that plays an essential role in the transformation of information from the short-term memory to the long-term memory.
• Memory, Thoughts, and Motivation in Learning Moreover, using the knowledge acquired from various sources of information, students can interpret the contents of their various environments and apply them to their advantage.
• Working Memory Concept The central executive, as the name implies, is the primary component of the working memory system; every other component is subservient to it.
• False Memory and Emotions Experiment The hypothesis was as follows: a list of associate words creates a false memory by remembering a critical lure when the list is presented to a subject and a recall test done shortly after that.
• Building of Memory: Managing Creativity Through Action It could be important for the team to understand Kornfield’s vision of the project, the main and secondary tasks, the project timeline, and the general outline of it. The third technique is to ensure face-to-face […]
• Stroop Effect on Memory Function The aim of the study was to examine the Stroop effect on memory function of men and women. The aim of the study was to examine Stroop effect on men and women’s cognitive functions.
• Misinformation Effect and Memory Impairment It is important to determine the science behind the misinformation effect, because the implication of the study goes beyond the confines of psychology.
• Memory Distortions Develop Over Time Memory is the ability to recall what happened in the past or the process through which one’s brain stores events and reproduce them in the future. Simpson were put on a scoreboard to analyze the […]
• Working Memory Load and Problem Solving The present research focuses on the way working memory load affects problem solving ability and the impact working memory capacity has on problem solving ability of people.
• Sensory Memory Duration and Stimulus Perception Cognitive psychologists argue that perceived information takes one second in the sensory memory, one minute in the short-term memory and a life-time in the long-term memory.
• Memory Study: Mnemonics Techniques Having carried out two experiments, Oberauer comes to the conclusion that information in working memory is highly organized and has its own structure and understanding of this structure can help to improve the work of […]
• Memory Study: Different Perspectives Having carried out two experiments, Oberauer comes to the conclusion that information in working memory is highly organized and has its own structure and understanding of this structure can help to improve the work of […]
• Working Memory Concept: Psychological Views To begin with, the findings support the use of the Working-Memory Model because it offers a clear distinction between the subordinate memory systems and the “central executive” memory.
• Memory Strategies and Their Effects on the Body Memory problems are a common concern in the society due to the increased rate of memory problems among the individuals. This is a strategy that uses chemicals to suppress the adverse effects of memory problems.
• George Santayana’s Philosophy Views on Historical Memory To Plato, democracy was the worst form of governance because it was the tyranny of the multitude. Furthermore, the effects of the war were hard to take because people lost everything they had.
• Cognitive Stimulation on Patients With Impaired Memory Cognitive stimulation therapy is effective in mitigating the effects of dementia. As a result, the researchers tested cognitive stimulation therapy in clinical trials.
• Memory and Emotions in Personal Experience I tried to convince Sherry that the kind of life she led will not do good to her. I thought that Sherry is a grown-up person who would understand the mistakes she had done and […]
• Face Recognition and Memory Retention It is imperative to mention that cognitive process is very significant in face recognition especially due to its role in storage and retrieval of information from long-term memory.
• False Memory Condition: Experimental Studies It is therefore important to conduct some experiments to see the differences between the correct memory and the false memory. The distracters and words to be identified were the variables that were independent.
• Memory Capacity and Age Correlation Since young adults have high levels of positive emotions and low levels of negative emotions, the positive emotions enable them to enhance their memory capacity for positive information.
• Conflict at Walt Disney Company: A Distant Memory? The conflict between Michael Eisner and the Weinstein brothers, the two board members, and Steve Jobs was related to a dysfunctional form of conflict.
• Eye-Path and Memory-Prediction Framework Online marketing and advertising actively develop nowadays, and modern advertisers need to focus on the customers’ attitudes and behaviours in the context of the effectiveness of the advertisement’s location on the web page.
• Long Term Memory and Retrieval The mode of presenting the items in sequence in the first presentation has great impact on the results and validity of the study.
• Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory by Deborah Lipstadt The book is divided into chapters that focus on the history and methods that are used to distort the truth and the memory of the Holocaust.
• Power, Memory and Spectacle on Saddam Hussein’s Death His rational was that the only way to unite the country was to eliminate the elements of division who in his opinion were the opposition.
• Theoretical Models in Understanding Working Memory The second model for understanding the processes involved in working memory is the Baddeley and Hitch multi-component model which states that working memory operates via a system of “slave systems” and a central controller which […]
• Semantic Memory and Language Production From the foregoing discussions, it can be deduced that the nature and function of semantic memory is closely related to the process of language comprehension. Moreover, lexical retrieval of the semantic memory and phonological facilitation […]
• Basic Functions of Memory and Language The area of semantic memory involves stored information regarding the features and characteristics, which determine the processes of retrieving, using, and producing information in various cognitive processes such as thought and language comprehension/production.
• The Concept of Autobiographical Memory The research findings show that memory phenomenology determined the relationship between attachment avoidance and depression, while the negative affective content of the autobiographical memory determined the link between attachment anxiety and depression. The concept of […]
• Neuroimaging Experiments and Memory Loss Studies This is because it enables the examination of the cognitive and affective processes. This is relative to the effects of alcohol consumption.
• Semantic Memory and Language Production Relationship In the brain, information is arranged both in short-term and long-term memory and this is independent of whether the language in context is first language or a second one.
• Chinese Novellas: The Role of Memory and Perception This is one of the details that attract attention of the readers, and one can say that it is important for understanding the passage and the short story, in general.
• Memory Lane and Morality In the first experiment where participants were expected to remember their childhood experience, those memories aided the experimenter more than they let the participants take control.
• Autonoetic Consciousness in Autobiographical Memory One characteristic of AEM is the mental time travelling on the subjective time in order to connect the past with the current memory status.
• Memory by Analogy: Hiroshima Mon Amour It is quite painful to recall the events that took place in Japan during the Second World War in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
• “Memory by Analogy” Film Concepts However, upon critical analysis, the author notes that the major focus of the film is not to compare the traumatic events experienced by the two main protagonists; rather, it attempts to demonstrate the common devastating […]
• Film About Hirosima Memory by Analogy She uses her memory of the human tragedy she witnesses in Hiroshima as a means to forget the pain she has felt since the demise of her lover.
• Ecstasy and Memory Impairment Neurological Correlation The key weakness in this study is the fact that it is a correlational study in which the test subjects are subjected to a series of other confounding factors.
• Memory Theories in Developing Marketing Strategies of the iPad The apple’s communication that was used in marketing the iphone and the ipod is the one to be used in marketing the ipad.
• Definition of Storage Locations in Memory
• Establishing False Memory in Humans
• Constructive Nature of Memory
• Comparison and Contrast Assignment on “Paradoxical Effects of Presentation Modality on False Memory,” Article and “Individual Differences in Learning and Remembering Music.”
• How to Improve Your Memory
• Memory Systems of the Brain
• Strategies of the Memory
• Biology of Memory: Origins and Structures
• Cannabis and Its Effects on Long Term Memory
• Mental Chronometry: Response Time and Accuracy
• Working Memory in Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Memory Process: Visual Receptivity and Retentiveness
• How Age and Diseases Affect Memory
• Memory, Thinking, and Intelligence
• Language and Memory Paper
• Memory: Understanding Consciousness
• Language Rules for a Reliable Semantic Memory
• Social Development Essay Topics
• Alzheimer’s Disease Research Ideas
• Dementia Research Ideas
• Meditation Questions
• Epilepsy Ideas
• Hypnosis Questions
• Neuroscience Research Ideas
• Brain Titles
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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How to memorise essays and long responses

Lauren Condon

Marketing Specialist at Atomi

When it comes to memorising essays or long responses for your exams, there are three big things to consider.

• Should you even try to memorise an essay?
• Do you know how to adapt your memorised response to the exam question?
• How on earth are you meant to memorise a 1,200 word essay??

It’s a lot to weigh up but we can help you out here. If you want an answer to the first question, here’s one we prepared earlier. But wait, there’s more! If you’re super keen to read more about question #2, then go ahead and click here .

And for that third point on how to actually memorise a long essay? Well, all you have to do is keep reading...

1. Break it down

Your essay/long response/creative writing piece could be anywhere between 800 and 1,200 words long. Yeah… that’s a lot. So when it comes to memorising the whole thing, it’s a lot easier to break the answer down into logical chunks and work on memorising it bit by bit.

So if you want to memorise your Discovery Essay, you might have something like this:

• Introduction
• Theme 1 with the assigned text
• Theme 1 with the related text
• Theme 2 with the assigned text
• Theme 2 with the related text

You’re going to want to memorise the paragraphs and pay attention to the structure then you can piece it all together in the exam. Having a killer structure makes it a lot easier to remember the overall bones of this situation and if you’re finding this effective, you can even break those body paragraphs down further like topic sentence > example > explanation > connection to thesis.

2. Use memory tricks

Now, there are lots of different strategies and approaches when it comes to memorising a long piece of writing. Moving in sections, you can try reading it out loud over again (slowly looking at the paper less and less) or the classic look-cover-write-check approach. If you’re really struggling, make some of your own flashcards that have the first sentence on one side and the next sentence on the back so you can test your progress.

You could also enlist the help of some creative mnemonics (memory tricks) to remind you which sentence or section needs to come next. Pick one keyword from each sentence in the paragraph and turn them into a silly sentence to help you remember the structure of the paragraph and to make sure you don’t forget one of your awesome points.

3. Play to your strengths

Not all of us are super geniuses that can just read an essay and then memorise the entire thing but we’re all going to have our own strengths. There’s going to be something whether it’s art, music, writing, performance or sport that just ‘clicks’ in your brain and this is what you want to capitalise on. So for me, I was really into debating and public speaking (hold back the jokes please) and was used to giving speeches and remembering them. So whenever I wanted to memorise a long response, I would write out the essay onto palm cards and then practice it out loud like a speech. Did it annoy my family? Yes. Was I too embarrassed to tell people my strategy? Yes. Did it work? Absolutely. 💯

Whatever your strengths are, find a way to connect them to your essay and come up with a creative way of learning your long response that will be much easier and more effective for you!

4. Start early

So you know how there’s that whole long-term/short-term memory divide? Yeah well that’s going to be pretty relevant when it comes to memorising. You’re going to have a much better chance of remembering your long response if you start early and practice it often, instead of trying to cram it in the night before… sorry.

The good news is, you still have a couple of months before the HSC so try to get your prepared response written, get good feedback from your teachers and then make it perfect so it’s ready to go for the HSC. Then, the next step is to start memorising the essay now and test yourself on it fairly regularly all the way up to your exams. This way, you have plenty of time to really lock it deep into your memory.

5. Test yourself

The final and maybe even most important step is to test yourself. And not with flashcards or the look-cover-check-repeat anymore. Once you’ve got the essay memorised pretty well, you want to spend the weeks coming up to HSC doing past questions so you can practice

• Having the essay memorised
• Being able to recall it under pressure
• Adapting it to any question so that all your hard work will actually pay off

For this to work, you really need to commit 100% to exam conditions (no cheating!) and it’s definitely worth sending those responses to your teacher to get them marked. That way, you will actually know if you’re doing a good job of remembering the core of your argument but also tailoring it perfectly to the question.

Any subject with essays or long responses can be super daunting so if you want to have a pre-written, adaptable response ready to go then it’s worth making sure you can actually memorise it for your exam. Remember to break down the essay into sections, play to your memory strengths and make sure you consistently test yourself all the way up to HSC. That should do the trick. 👌

Published on

July 28, 2017

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A Memory that I Will Never Forget

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The setting, the journey, the encounter.

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In Memory of Dr. Nabil Elaraby

It is with great sadness and deep admiration that we mourn the passing of Dr. Nabil Elaraby, one of Egypt’s leading diplomats, legal practitioners, and a tireless global advocate for international law, human rights, and the cause of peace.

The late Nabil Elaraby at a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 24, 2015. REUTERS/Darren Ornitz

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He passed away on August 26, 2024 at the age of 89.

Dr. Nabil Elaraby leaves behind a long and accomplished legacy having served as Egypt’s foreign minister, secretary general of the League of Arab States, and as a judge at the International Court of Justice, to name only a few of his many leadership roles. His unwavering belief in the value of international law was vindicated in his role as Egypt’s top representative at the Egyptian-Israeli arbitration tribunal concerning the Taba dispute. The tribunal decided in 1988 to dismiss Israel’s claims of sovereignty over Taba and, as a result, the Red Sea border city was returned to Egypt in 1989. With the restoration of Egypt’s sovereignty over the last remaining territory occupied by Israel, Dr. Elaraby earned the popular acclaim as the man “who got Taba back”.

Born in 1935, Dr. Elaraby’s long career was characterized by a principled moral and intellectual consistency that allowed him to become a leading legal scholar as well as a high-caliber diplomat, representing Egypt at the highest fora.

Dr. Elaraby completed his undergraduate studies in law at Cairo University in 1955 and earned an LLM and J.S.D. from New York University in 1969 and 1971, respectively. He was the Adlai Stevenson Fellow in International Law at United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in 1968 and a Special Fellow in international law in 1973.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry described him as “a pillar of Egyptian diplomacy and one of its shining icons.”

Dr. Elaraby worked as the legal adviser and director of the legal and treaties department at the Egyptian foreign ministry from 1976 to 1978, including at the Camp David Accords, and from 1983 to 1987. He served as Egypt’s ambassador to India from 1981 to 1983 and as permanent representative to the UN from 1987 to 1999 in Geneva followed by New York.

Though he was deeply engaged in Egyptian diplomacy dealing with numerous sensitive issues, Dr. Elaraby never shied away from sharing his perspective. Along with several of the Egyptian delegation to the Camp David negotiations, he did not attend the signing ceremony of the Camp David accords, expressing his reservations that they fell short on two core issues: the restitution of all the territories occupied by Israel in the military conflict between Israel and the Arab states, and the realization of the right of the Palestinians to self-determination. He wrote for the Cairo Review in 2019 that “I conveyed these points of contention first to the foreign minister, who agreed with me, and then to President [Anwar] Sadat. After reflection, Sadat said, in English, ‘You are not a statesman,’ to which I replied, in English, ‘Mr. President, I am here as a technician.’”

Dr. Elaraby’s own words are a testament to his deep commitment to upholding the principle of international legitimacy, and as a defender of the Palestinian cause. In 1968, he wrote for Duke University’s journal of Law and Contemporary Problems that “the fate of the Palestinians was decided for them by the United Nations, to their detriment, without reference to the rule of law […] The law of the Charter was sacrificed for the convenience of political expediency.”

He decried the UN for having “forsook the lofty principles of the Charter and sought, instead, to foster the political objectives of Zionism,” adding that partition “was not the inevitable solution which the Assembly had no alternative but to recommend” and that “it is safe to state that the complete dereliction by the United Nations of its duty toward the legitimate interests of Palestinians is directly responsible for the bloodshed that has distressed the area for over twenty years.”

Nearly 40 years later, serving as a judge at the ICJ from 2001 to 2006, Elaraby reiterated his view regarding the UN’s approach to partition in his separate opinion on Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “The fact that occupation is met by armed resistance cannot be used as a pretext to disregard fundamental human rights in the occupied territory.” Occupation, he continued, “as an illegal and temporary situation, is at the heart of the whole problem. The only viable prescription to end the grave violations of international humanitarian law is to end occupation.”

He wrote that the UN’s special responsibility toward the Palestinian question “was discharged for five decades without proper regard for the rule of law […] no organ has ever requested the International Court of Justice to clarify the complex legal aspects of the matters under its purview. Decisions with far-reaching consequences were taken on the basis of political expediency, without due regard for the legal requirements.” Years later, Dr. Elaraby noted that “a new form of apartheid is practiced in the occupied territories.”

Dr. Elaraby’s principled stance in the political and legal realm was not restricted to pursuing justice for the Palestinians. He was not afraid to call out the regime and the state of politics in Egypt. In a 2012 interview with the Cairo Review, the diplomat, then Secretary-General of the Arab League, criticized the Supreme Council of Armed Forces’ handling of the transition process and made clear the need for a separation between the military and civilian leadership.

Before leading the Arab League, Elaraby was chosen by the Egyptian revolutionaries as part of a ‘council of the wise’ to liaise between the government and the young protestors of Tahrir Square. He insisted that President Mubarak must step down.

He was appointed as Egypt’s first foreign minister in the post-Mubarak era by caretaker prime minister Essam Sharaf. He called for “holding Israel accountable when it does not respect its obligations”. His tenure as foreign minister was short lived, spending only three months in office after which he was appointed as Secretary-General of the League of Arab States during one of the most turbulent times in the region’s volatile history.

In the same 2012 interview, Elaraby decried Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s delusions, stating that “what’s holding up the solution very frankly is that the government in Syria is in a state of denial about what’s going on and will not change their minds unless there will be pressure from the five permanent members, particularly Russia and China.” However, he spoke against military intervention. During his tenure at the Arab League, Dr. Elaraby lobbied to establish an Arab joint military force, although it has never been activated.

Those who knew him spoke to his spirit of modesty and generosity. The Egyptian law students who received the Dr. Nabil Elaraby LLM Endowed Fellowship at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in his honor recognized this first hand.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed Elbaradei, former vice-president of Egypt and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, mourned “a dear friend who believed in justice and the rule of law.” Egyptian president Abdelfattah el-Sisi also offered his condolences , commending Dr. Elaraby’s “life dedicated to the service of his country and Arab nation.”

Professor of Practice at AUC’s School of Global Affairs and Public Policy Aly Erfan, who worked closely with Dr. Elaraby for many years as one of his assistants, considered him a godfather and a mentor.

“I learned from him not only what kind of diplomat I can be, but, more importantly, what kind of a person I should be. He taught me diplomacy with a human face,” Erfan told the Cairo Review.

It is difficult to do justice in such a short obituary to Dr. Elaraby’s rich and illustrious legacy, much of which—such as his membership in the International Law Commission from 1994 to 2004—is not mentioned here. For some, it is epitomized by his role returning Taba to Egypt. For others, it might be his presence during and after the Egyptian revolution, his role as judge at the ICJ and member of the ILC, his long history representing Egypt at the UN and various commissions, or something else entirely.

For all who knew him, however, Nabil Elaraby was, throughout his life as after his death, an inspiration to those who seek to make a real impact in the international system while holding true to their principles amid the treacherous winds of political interests.

The Cairo Review extends its heartfelt condolences to Dr. Elaraby’s family and friends.

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