It’s not unusual to hear someone describe trying to remember something they seem to have forgotten by retracing their steps, visualizing a scene or conjuring up a taste or smell that is associated with the memory.
These sensory “triggers” are part of the complex human memory system and play an important role in remembering past events by providing the brain with tags or cues for retrieving specific memories from the multitude filed away over a lifetime.
How Memory Encoding Contributes to Retrieval
Memory retrieval is a cognitive process that is characterized by how well an experience has either been rehearsed or connected with other data when it was originally stored in memory, a function that is called encoding. Encoding occurs when attention is paid to sensory input and the experience is integrated with something already known.
Memorizing or rehearsing information creates superficial encoding, and is less likely to be retrieved after time has passed. More durable memories are created when deep or elaborate encoding is applied to an experience by linking the new memory with an existing emotional, sensory or contextual memory.
Once encoded, the brain transfers the experience from short to long-term memory, filing it away as a multi-faceted network of associations. More information on memory encoding can be found in the Suite101 article What is Memory Encoding?: How Short-Term Memory Becomes Long-Term Memory.
Memory Stored in Four Retrieval Categories
The information stored in long-term memory generally falls into the following retrieval categories:
- Recall is a type of retrieval that does not require any clues or cues to prompt its emergence. Fill-in-the-blank responses on tests are a form of memory recall.
- Recollection is the logical reconstruction of memory through the use of partial memories, stories and clues. Essay questions make use of recollection.
- Recognition is memory retrieval through the re-experiencing of the information. Multiple-choice questions test recognition retrieval.
- Relearning is the reintroduction and rehearsing of previously known information as a way of strengthening retrieval.
Retrieval Is Achieved Two Basic Ways
There are two basic types of retrieval according to neuropsychologist Morris Moscovitch. Associative retrieval occurs when cues such as sights, sounds, smells, tastes or feelings bring up other memories, sometimes involuntarily, by matching the current sensory, contextual or emotional conditions with those previously experienced.
Memories can also be retrieved by consciously engaging in an an intentional, strategic memory review that involves a deliberate mental examination to generate hints and cues. Bits and pieces of data associated with the information one wants to remember can be used to question or “interrogate” the retrieval process.
For example someone may want to remember the last time they went to a ballgame, so they ask themselves about their favorite team, who was with them last time they went, what they ate, how they got there, what the weather was, etc. By introducing situations and asking questions, the brain will automatically match mentally-generated cues in the same way it reacts to actual cues, and logically reconstruct the memory from there.
Memory Depends on Relationship Between Encoding and Retrieval
Successful and accurate remembering depends on the interdependent relationship between encoding and retrieval processes in the human memory system. Memories are stored and retrieved by combining information available in the current environment or situation with patterns or cues that have been encoded and stored in the past, and can be initiated by the introduction of cues associated with the memory or by consciously asking questions to aid in memory retrieval.
Understanding not only how memory develops and is stored, but also how memory is retrieved can offer insight into maintaining a functioning memory system throughout life.
Sources:
- Schacter, Daniel L. Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past. NY: BasicBooks,1996.
- "Memory and Learning." The Brain from Top to Bottom. Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Institute of Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction. n.d. Web. 27 Jun. 2009.
- “Retrieving Memory.” ABC Science, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 15 Jun. 2006. Web. 29 Jun. 2009.
- “Memory Retrieval.” Out of Memory. Oracle ThinkQuest: Library. n.d. Web. 29 Jun. 2009.
- “Memory Retrieval: How Memory is Retrieved from Memory.” Psychology, About.com. n.d. Web. 29 Jun. 2009.
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