How memory works

Here is a sequence of numbers — nineteen, one, twenty, seventeen, eighty-eight, four, six. And here’s a newspaper headline — ’Dog on a scooter steals sausages while being chased by vicious pigeons.’ Try to remember these two pieces of information. Now you’re trying to actively memorise some information, maybe you are repeating it to yourself or trying to picture it in front of you. But you actually remember things all the time, without trying. This ability to take in information, store it and then recall it, is memory.

But how does memory work? As you’re paying attention to this video, your senses detect information from the outside — you see images, hear a voice, maybe even notice how the room smells. This activates some nerve cells in your brain that start sending signals to each other. Every image, sound, smell or other piece of information is turned into signals that are processed by your brain. This is called encoding.

After information is encoded, it is stored, and there are two main types of storage. One is short-term memory, also known as working memory. Short-term memory only holds on average seven items, or pieces of information. That’s why if you’re meeting a group of unknown people, you might only remember the names of a few of them. Short-term memory stores information that is relevant for the moment.

Information usually only stays in short-term memory for about twenty seconds. You have probably forgotten most of the information from the beginning of this video already. So if you want to remember new information for longer, you need to rehearse it or repeat it - for example, you could watch this video more than once. When you rehearse information, it can move to the other type of storage — long-term memory. Long-term memory can hold an unlimited amount of information.

Some memories last a lifetime from when they are created! We access stored information by ‘calling’ it back through a process called retrieval. Retrieval is an important part of creating a memory. Retrieval can happen without you wanting it — unconsciously — for example if you suddenly remember a very embarrassing moment. Or it might happen when you do it knowingly — consciously.

Let’s try and remember what you had for breakfast. But it’s not always possible to encode, store or retrieve information. This can happen because we’re distracted, or haven’t rehearsed enough, or because of a medical condition. Now, try to remember the number sequence and the newspaper headline from the beginning of this video. Can you recall either of them?

Which one was easier for you to remember? Chances are it was the strange newspaper headline because it was a little unusual, unexpected and if you tried to imagine it, quite a funny picture. It’s usually much easier to remember information that you find funny, impressive or interesting. This is because your brain will recognise that information as important to you and consider it necessary to store. That’s why it’s sometimes easier to remember weird, fun stories than something you actually need to know for school.

So if you need to remember certain things, one memory trick you could use is to create a funny story featuring exactly those items.