Learn About Memory

Sensory memory is when you go on feeling a sensation for a moment after it stops.

Short-term memory is when the brain stores things fora few
seconds, like a phone number you remember long enough to dial.

Long-term memory is memory that can last for months or maybe even your whole life.

Your brain seems to have two ways of remembering things for the long term. Scientists call these declarative and non-declarative memories.

Non-declarative memories are skills you teach yourself by practicing, such as playing badminton or the flute. Repetition establishes nerve pathways.

Declarative memories are either episodic or semantic. Each may be sent by the hippocampus region of the brain to the correct place in the cortex, the brain's wrinkly outer layer where you do most of your thin king.

Episodic memories are memories of striking events in your life, such as breaking your leg or your first day at a new school. You not only recall facts, but sensations.

Semantic memories are facts such as dates. The brain seems to store these in the left temporal lobe, at the front left-hand side of your brain.

Most of our important memories are powered by (involve) long arrays of nerve cells.

Individual nerve cells and the connections between them form the basis for all activities, no matter how complicated.

Catching a ball, for example, requires whole sets of nerve cells for seeing, controlling our hands, moving our bodies, and coordinating out actions.

Our nerve cells learn by experience. In our brains, we have circuits that tell nerve cells what and when to learn, and whether something needs to be learned quickly.

Other circuits monitor what's important, what needs to be repeated, and what needs to be remembered. They also dictate how the more basic neural circuits are wired and rewired.

And, as you might have guessed, our brains also have circuits that monitor and control the controlling circuits. In fact, scientists are not sure how many levels of controls our brains possess.
Components of Complex Memories

What we think of as a single thought-"ball," for instance-is really composed of many fragments of thoughts. When you think about a ball, you don't normally separate its color from its roundness or bounciness. But your brain does. The ball's color, shape, and function are stored in different regions of the brain, although not every distinct element of "ball" has its own region.

Most complex thoughts are learned; they are not instinctive. For example, complex thoughts that arise from our senses-sight or smell, for example-are usually based on constant exposure to an idea or activity (like playing with balls when we were young or eating mom's best meatloaf for dinner). Over time, this constant exposure produces the entire idea inside our minds.

This process also seems to work for thoughts or concepts that appear to be completely unrelated to our senses or other connections.