MEMORY

Memory is the ability of the brain to retain information for some time to be recalled later to influence current and future actions.

Memory is so important for our lives to continue as humans and as animals. If we could not remember past events, we could not learn or develop language, relationships, nor personal identity.

Memory has to include these processes (sequence of events) to be effective:

1. Registering.
2. Retaining.
3. Recalling.
4. Analysing.
5. Extracting.
6. Acting.

Types of memory

Basically, re-collection of events can be divided into two categories based on the nature of information storage  :

1. Explicit(declarative): It is the conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences and concepts.
2. Implicit(non-declarative): Unconscious memories such as skills e.g. learning to ride a bicycle or learning to drive a car.

People use explicit memory throughout the day, such as remembering the time of an appointment or recollecting an event from years ago. Explicit memory involves conscious recollection, compared with implicit memory which is an unconscious, unintentional form of memory. Remembering a specific driving lesson is an example of explicit memory, while improved driving skill as a result of the lesson is an example of implicit memory.

Other types of memory:

1. Episodic memory: Is the memory of autobiographical events, such as: Times, places, associated emotions, and other contextual (who, what, when, where, and why) knowledge that can be explicitly stated or conjured. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place. For example, if one remembers the party on his or her 4th birthday, this is an episodic memory. They allow an individual to figuratively travel back in time to remember the event that took place at that particular time and place.
2. Semantic memory: Refers to general world knowledge(facts, ideas, meaning and concepts) that can be articulated and is independent of personal experience. This includes world knowledge, object knowledge, language knowledge, and conceptual priming. Other examples of semantic memory include types of food, capital cities of a geographic region, or the lexicon of a common language, such as a person’s vocabulary.  Semantic memory is distinct from episodic memory. For instance, semantic memory might contain information about what a cat is, whereas episodic memory might contain a specific memory of petting a particular cat. Semantic and episodic memory together make up the category of declarative memory.
3. Spatial memory: Is the part of memory responsible for recording information about one’s environment and its spatial orientation. For example, a person’s spatial memory is required in order to navigate around a familiar city, just as a rat’s spatial memory is needed to learn the location of food at the end of a maze. It is often argued that in both humans and animals, spatial memories are summarised as a cognitive map. Spatial memory has representations within working, short-term and long-term memory. Research indicates that there are specific areas of the brain associated with spatial memory. Many methods are used for measuring spatial memory in children, adults, and animals. 
4. Short term & long term memory: Recall is based on many well-established studies about memory, refers to the way we recall memories from adolescence and early adulthood more vividly as we grow older – compared to, say, remembering something from last week. Recall, is probably not entirely related to our mental state for the moment, but it does include as well the state of our brain when the memory was first registered. So, it is to say that, storage intensity could be related to the emotional intensity of our earlier years, the kind of “free spirited living”, or may be due to the lack of that banal of distractions in our adult lives. No one knows for sure, but either way, it seems clearly that, it’s not getting older what stops us remembering events from last year, but it’s just that events and actions were probably experienced or laid down so strongly when we were much younger(youth years !).