Understand how our memory works and learn to use it once and for all

The student’s greatest challenge is to store new information in the brain. Understand here how we decorate things, in this handy little guide for your memory

You’re sure you know the answer, remember you’ve stumbled upon it at some point, make an effort, pull to the back of your mind, it’s almost there, it’s on the “tip of your tongue”, so close you feel it… and then you forget about her. That word that was almost out of mouth now seems lost forever. If that’s ever happened to you, welcome to the club — you officially have a brain. Human memory is a complex machine, rich in its own peculiarities and functions.

If you’ve ever wondered how memories are formed and, more importantly, why we forget them, the LEARNER’S GUIDE has followed those answers. Whether you’re a student, a college student, or a college student, being aware of how this particular contraption we carry inside our heads works can shed some light on why we forget things and remember others so much.

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How is a memory formed?

Memories are all the information we store in our brain. To understand as easily as possible, we resort to a very didactic simplification – and neuroscientists will forgive us. Think of the brain as a large, complex structure that connects through networks. Information, to be stored, must be converted into electrical circuits, which are transmitted by these networks.

Who manages all this tangle is a small part of the brain called the hippocampus. It is he who “determines” what should be kept or discarded, and also who “sends” the memory when it is evoked. The neuroscientist and professor at UFPE (Federal University of Pernambuco), Viviane Lourohe compared the brain to a university: “the hippocampus would be the rectory, which is in charge of managing things,” he explained to UOL.

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Memories, we could complete, are like students. And in the same way that memories aren’t stored in the hippocampus but scattered across the college campus, they’re scattered throughout different parts of the brain, such as the cortex and subcortex. So, a memory pathway in the human brain would look like this:

1. the information is perceived by an individual;
2. this information is converted into a pulse of electrical energy;
3. the impulse is transmitted through a network of neurons to short-term memories;
4. there it can stay from a few seconds to a few hours;
5. then (if applicable) is transferred via the hippocampus to long-term memories;
6. and finally, it is sent to a storage point in the brain.

Discover in the video below the story of HM, an American patient who has the most studied brain in history. In an effort to contain the seizures and momentary loss of body movement, the young man had his hippocampus removed during surgery in 1953. The result of the removal surprised doctors and changed the way science understood memory storage in the brain. Turn on Portuguese subtitles in the video.

The types of memory

As we have seen, memories are experiences and information that are stored by the brain. There is no practical classification used to determine which memory is which type. However, to better understand how this memorization works, neuroscientists have concluded over the years that there are perhaps five main types of memories, which can be divided into two groups, based on their duration: short-term and long-term.

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💨 Short term memories

Initially, all memory is short-term, only some become long-term. It is the type of information that has limited temporal relevance; like the activities you have planned for the day or what you had for lunch. In general, this is information that is stored for up to six hours. There are two types:

• Immediate: it’s the type of information that is stored for a very short time, like the name of someone you just met or the order you’re going to place with the waiter in a restaurant. If you don’t have continuity, you will hardly remember it the following week.
• From work: they are work memories. It is she who ensures that you remember the content of a sentence just read before moving on to the next and thus build your reasoning. Or even the internal operations you do in your head to arrive at the final result of a calculation like 25×13. They last seconds or a very few minutes, and usually leave no trace.

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🕰 Long term memories

Long-term memories are those that have a significant permanence in our head. They are those that have moved from short-term memory and been stored permanently, in a process known as consolidation. The “storage” capacity for this type of memory is infinite, they can last from years to a lifetime. There are three main types:

• Semantics: when you read the word “bus”, you are most likely imagining a bus. Not because you have one in front of you right now, but because you have in mind the term associated with the real-life object. These are semantic memories. They are responsible for storing data that you learn throughout your life, such as a foreign language, a physical formula, or a country’s capital (even without having been there). It reaches its peak in childhood, when everything is new and we are learning new things all the time. But that doesn’t mean you will never forget this information. In adult life, they usually level off and become increasingly scarce as we get older.
• episodic: if semantic memory refers to the act of “knowing”, episodic memory refers to the act of “remembering”. It is our autobiographical memory, the one that stores the events of our own life. Do you remember your first pet? Or your fifteenth birthday? Or even the day you were asked out? Well, these are the episodic memories. We preserve events, emotions, people and places that relate to our significant personal experiences.
• Non-declarative: the two types described above are considered declarative memories; there is also a non-declarative type. They are inexplicit memories. For example: Do you have to keep reminding yourself to breathe? How do you hold a cell phone? Or how to walk? Nondeclarative memories are extremely durable and usually persist for the rest of one’s life. It is the rationale behind the famous popular saying “it’s like riding a bicycle, you never forget”. But will we ever really forget? Well, in some cases yes. Implicit memories, like nondeclarative ones, are usually those affected by diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Therefore, it is common for people suffering from it to forget how to chew food or walk.

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Why do we forget?

Just as memories are formed by the brain, they can be overridden. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. While the brain is basically a HD capable of storing all data indefinitely, that doesn’t mean it is duty store all data indefinitely. Imagine remembering all the information of every moment of every situation you have ever experienced? If you’ve ever seen the movie “Everything and everywhere at once” you know it wasn’t going to end well…

The color of the pen used in the dentist’s office, the phone number of the pizza place that closed years ago, the random person you saw on the bus last week, or even the moment you came out of your mother’s womb. .. Imagine remembering all this ?!

The truth is that the human brain knows very well how to filter the information that needs to be remembered – out of pure survival instinct. Can distinguish essential information from all the unnecessary noise that may accompany it. Therefore, forgetting is as important as remembering.

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The problem comes when we forget things we don’t want to forget, like that word on the “tip of the tongue.” There is no definite consensus in the scientific community as to why the brain forgets things. The decay theory, for example, states that we forget memories because we don’t think about them as often. Another says forgetfulness is a natural consequence of aging, added to factors such as stress, diet and sleep quality. Yet another claims that forgetting is nothing more than “bugs” in the brain.

More recent studies have shown that another possibility, however, is that the brain forgets some memories “on purpose”, to make room for new, more relevant ones. In a test with mice, neuroscientists observed that mice that associated new maze paths faster were also more likely to forget previously learned ones.

According to this theory, we humans function in a similar way. Think: During the first few years of life, we learn a lot of new information every day, yet there are few clear memories we have from this period. Do you remember your one year birthday? Most likely not.

How to improve memorization in studies

If forgetting is a natural and welcome phenomenon, we must learn to live with it. And when it comes to studies, find strategies to get around it. There are several techniques that can help memorize the contents we study more easily. In addition, of course, to having a good diet, practicing physical exercises and sleeping well hours, which directly influence memorization.

One technique is to always try to create associations. Translate a chemistry concept from names and references that make sense to you. Do you remember “Today Li Na Kama Robinson Crusoe in French” to decorate the alkali metals of the periodic table? Well, it’s right there. But before you start just memorizing everything, try to understand the content. True understanding also facilitates memorization, much more than memorizing as a play.

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Other techniques involve more diverse activities. One of them is to re-read the content before going to sleep, since it is during sleep that the brain reviews and processes the information learned during the day. Another is to explain the content aloud as if you were teaching it to someone else. And for you, what works when it comes to not forgetting?

Source: Terra

Rose

Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.