Memory

The human memory has immense potential. Before the Vedas were scripted, the oral tradition existed which means that the immense wealth of knowledge was passed on from one generation to another by the oral tradition. This was totally dependent on our memory. Memory is crucial in our life because it helps building bridges in the flow of experiences and allows us to have a sense of continuity.

Psychologists consider memory and learning to be different processes, though both are closely related. While, learning refers to the acquisition of new behaviours through experience, memory refers to the process of storing the outcomes of learning in the form of information that can be retrieved when required.

You can very easily understand the significance of memory by visualizing a situation about a person who has lost his memory. He will lose his identity and cannot connect various experiences, events, and people. Such a person will lead a miserable life. This happens in brain damaged people or in old age when people develop some kind of memory loss, as in Alzheimer’s disease.

Memory refers to the set of processes involved in storing information. This specific process is termed as retention. Memory can be defined as a perceptually active mental system that receives, encodes, modifies, and retrieves information. We can not directly observe the process of memory. It can be studied indirectly by measuring retention.

Three basic methods of measuring retention are: Recall, Recognition, and Relearning.

Measuring Retention: Recognition, Recall and Relearning

When you are not able to remember someone’s name but you know that you have seen his or her face before, this is the process of recognition. In this process you are checking the stimulus (face) with your memory content to find a match.

In the same manner when one tries to remember a name without a face in front, it is called recall. Recall is a process of using a general stimulus and finding the information about it from memory.  When you are given a question in an exam you use the process of recall.

When you answer multiple choice items, you are asked to match the information with the provided pieces of information. You have to identify and match it with the information which is already stored in your memory. Recognition is easier than recall.

Relearning is the method of learning the material another time. It usually takes less time than original learning.