How Memory Works

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

Memory is a continually unfolding process. Initial details of an experience take

shape in memory; the brain’s representation of that information then changes
over time. With subsequent reactivations, the memory grows stronger or
fainter and takes on different characteristics. Memories reflect real-world
experience, but with varying levels of fidelity to that original experience.

The degree to which the memories we form are accurate or easily recalled
depends on a variety of factors, from the psychological conditions in which
information is first translated into memory to the manner in which we seek—or
are unwittingly prompted—to conjure details from the past.

How Memories Are Made

The creation of a memory requires a conversion of a select amount of the
information one perceives into more permanent form. A subset of that memory
will be secured in long-term storage, accessible for future use. Many factors
during and after the creation of a memory influence what (and how much) gets
preserved.

Why do we create memories?

Memory serves many purposes, from allowing us to revisit and learn from past
experiences to storing knowledge about the world and how things work. More
broadly, a major function of memory in humans and other animals is to help
ensure that our behavior fits the present situation and that we can adjust it
based on experience.
What is encoding?
Encoding is the first stage of memory. It is the process by which the details of
a person’s experience are converted into a form that can be stored in the
brain. People are more likely to encode details of what they are paying
attention to and details that are personally significant.
What is retention and consolidation?
Retention, or storage, is the stage in which information is preserved in
memory following its initial encoding. These stored memories are incomplete:
Some of the information that is encoded during an experience fades during
retention, sometimes quickly, while other details remain. A related
term, memory consolidation, refers to the neurobiological process of long-term
memory formation.
How does sleep affect your memory?
Sleep facilitates the retention of memories, though why exactly this is the case
is not fully understood. Research has found that people tend to show better
memory performance if they sleep after a phase of studying rather than
staying awake. Researchers have proposed that sleep supports memory
consolidation in the brain, though other explanations include that sleep aids
retention by eliminating interference from memories that would be formed
while awake.

How Memories Are Stored in the Brain

While memories are usually described in terms of mental concepts, such as
single packages of personal experience or specific facts, they are ultimately
reducible to the workings and characteristics of the ever-firing cells of the
brain. Scientists have narrowed down regions of the brain that are key to
memory and developed an increasingly detailed understanding of the material
form of these mental phenomena.

What parts of the brain are important for memory?

The hippocampus and other parts of the medial temporal lobe are critical for
many forms of memory, though various other parts of the brain play roles as
well. These include areas of the more recently evolved cerebral cortex, the
outermost layer of the brain, as well as deep-seated structures such as the
basal ganglia. The amygdala is important for memory as well, including the
integration of emotional responses into memory. The extent to which different
brain regions are involved in memory depends on the type of memory.
How is memory stored in the brain?
Memory involves changes to the brain’s neural networks. Neurons in the brain
are connected by synapses, which are bound together by chemical
messengers (neurotransmitters) to form larger networks. Memory storage is
thought to involve changes in the strength of these connections in the areas of
the brain that have been linked to memory.
What is an engram?
A memory engram, or memory trace, is a term for the set of changes in the
brain on which a memory is based. These are thought to include changes at
the level of the synapses that connect brain cells. Research suggests an
engram is not located in one specific location in the brain, but in multiple,
interconnected locations. Engram cells are groups of cells that support a
memory: They are activated and altered during learning and reactivated
during remembering.

How We Recall Memories

After memories are stored in the brain, they must be retrieved in order to be
useful. While we may or may not be consciously aware that information is
being summoned from storage at any given moment, this stage of memory is
constantly unfolding—and the very act of remembering changes how
memories are subsequently filed away.

What is retrieval?
Retrieval is the stage of memory in which the information saved in memory is
recalled, whether consciously or unconsciously. It follows the stages of
encoding and storage. Retrieval includes both intentional remembering, as
when one thinks back to a previous experience or tries to put a name to a
face, and more passive recall, as when the meanings of well-known words or
the notes of a song come effortlessly to mind.
What is a retrieval cue?
A retrieval cue is a stimulus that initiates remembering. Retrieval cues can be
external, such as an image, text, a scent, or some other stimulus that relates
to the memory. They can also be internal, such as a thought or sensation that
is relevant to the memory. Cues can be encountered inadvertently or
deliberately sought in the process of deliberately trying to remember
something.
Why are some things easier to remember?
Multiple factors influence why we remember what we do. Emotionally charged
memories tend to be relatively easy to recall. So is information that has been
retrieved from memory many times, through studying, carrying out a routine,
or some other form of repetition. And the “encoding specificity principle” holds
that one is more likely to recall a memory when there is greater similarity
between a retrieval cue (such as an image or sound in the present) and the
conditions in which the memory was initially formed.
What is memory reconsolidation?
After a memory is retrieved, it is thought to undergo a process called
reconsolidation, during which its representation in the brain can change based
on input at the time of remembering. This capacity for memories to be
reformed after retrieval has been explored as a potential element of
psychotherapeutic interventions (for dampening the intensity of threatening
memories, for example).
What are flashbulb memories?
“Flashbulb memories” are what psychologists have called memories of one’s
personal experience of significant and emotionally intense events, such as the
9/11 attacks and other highly distinctive occurrences. These memories may
seem especially vivid and reliable even if the accuracy of the remembered
details diminishes over time.
What is priming?
Priming is what happens when being exposed to one stimulus (such as a
word) affects how a person responds to another, related one. For example, if
someone is shown a list of words that includes nurse, he may be more likely
to subsequently fill out the word stem nu____ with that word. Measures of
priming can be used to demonstrate implicit memory, or memory that does not
involve conscious recollection.

False and Distorted Memories

Memories have to be reconstructed in order to be used, and the piecing-
together of details leaves plenty of room for inaccuracies—and even outright
falsehoods—to contaminate the record. These errors reflect a memory system
that is built to craft a useful account of past experience, not a perfect one. (For
more, see False Memories.)

How do memories become distorted?

Memories may be rendered less accurate based on conditions when they are
first formed, such as how much attention is paid during the experience.
And the malleability of memories over time means internal and external
factors can introduce errors. These may include a person’s knowledge and
expectations about the world (used to fill in the blanks of a memory) and
misleading suggestions by other people about what occurred.
How are false memories created?
False memories can be as simple as concluding that you were shown a word
that you actually weren’t, but it may also include believing you experienced a
dramatic event that you didn’t. People may produce such false recollections
by unwittingly drawing on the details of actual, related experiences, or in some
cases, as a response to another person’s detailed suggestions (perhaps
involving some true details) about an imaginary event that is purported to be
real.
How easy is it to implant a false memory?
It probably depends on the kind of memory. Minor manipulations
like convincing people they saw a word that they did not see seem to be fairly
easy to do. Getting people to conclude they had an experience (like spilling
punch at a wedding) that was in fact made up seems to require more work—
including, in one study, a couple of conversations and encouragement to think
more about the “memory”—and may fully succeed only for a minority of
people. Still, researchers who have investigated the implanting of false
memories argue that in some cases, enough outside suggestion could result
in the creation of false or distorted memories that have serious legal
consequences.
What causes déjà vu?
Déjà vu, a French phrase that translates to “already seen,” is the sense of
having seen or experienced something before, even though one is in fact
encountering it for the first time. While the cause is not fully understood, one
explanation for why déjà vu happens is that there is some resemblance
between a current experience and a previous one, but the previous
experience is not readily identified in the moment. Others have suggested
that déjà vu may result from new information somehow being passed straight
to long-term memory, or from the spontaneous activation of a part of the brain
called the rhinal cortex, involved in the sense of familiarity.