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Understanding Memory
Remembrance of Things Past
One way to model and understand memory is to split it into two major memory systems: long-term and working memory (also known as short-term memory). These two systems are related, as you’ll often bring something from your long-term memory into your working memory so that you can actively think about it, especially in tandem with other, perhaps newer, ideas.
Your long-term memory is akin to a vast storage warehouse distributed across the brain, with different sorts of long-term memories stored in various regions. As a result, long-term memory can store billions of items. Research shows that to increase the chance of storing and securing an item of information in your long-term memory, you need to revisit it at least a few times. Practicing and reviewing of information is critical because too many items can be stored here and can start to bury or obscure one another.
On the other hand, your working memory is akin to a blackboard, necessitating repetition of what you’re trying to work with so that it stays in place on the blackboard. You’ll perhaps recognize this feeling from the times you’ve repeated a phone number to yourself until getting the chance to write it down. We repeat information to help counteract dissipative processes that cause memories to fade or disappear. The locus of working memory is in the prefrontal cortex located at the very front of the brain, immediately behind the forehead. In addition, it has connections to other regions of the brain to access long-term memories.
We use the working memory system to hold a few distinct ideas in mind to understand a concept or solve a problem. It’s the system involved in what you are immediately and consciously processing in your mind. However, the latest research suggests that our working memory can only hold about four information items or ‘chunks.’ Our tendency to group ideas and memories into so-called chunks makes our working memory feel more expansive than it actually is.
Long-term memory stores fundamental concepts and techniques involved in whatever you are learning about, whereas working memory is deployed when…
