How the Brain Produces a Strong Memory
It took thousands of years to master our hands and manipulate objects. This acquaintance has not been given, but the mere fact that we can see them made the whole process easier. Our brain does not grasp objects but knowledge. Unlike our hands, we cannot see it. So the process of mastering is inevitably slower. Fortunately, we have considerably accelerated it since the emergence of Neuroscience.
Neuroscience is a domain that deals with a lot of things. Among them, the understanding of the biological basis learning and memory. It’s the eye that looks our brain’s behavior, try to understand it, and facilitate his uses. There is so much to see, but for now, let’s lift the veil on our memory!
Memory is the brain’s faculty by which data or information is encoded, stored indefinitely, and retrieved when needed.
Of course, there isn’t a single type of memory, but one thing’s for sure, we use it every day. In this article, we will roughly understand how our retention works. In the end, I will also give cues to improve it.
Acquire information
Learning is by definition the process of acquiring new information. Whether it’s understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, or preferences.
Eric Richard Kandel is the 2000 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine. With his team, he studied in 1962 the brain connections of a sea slug. He had the will to illustrate the human elemental learning principles.
Guess what? He succeeded! Kandel discovered something that goes against what many people thought. Neurons don’t affect the learning processes much. But synapses that govern signal between them yes. They make it weaker or stronger, depending on the circumstances.
- When some connections become weaker. He concludes that we developed a form of learning habituation. We stop reacting to something.
- When connections become more active, we develop a kind of learning sensitization. It’s when we pay more attention to something. When we are more alert and have a faster response.
The constructions and destruction speed of these connections represent our learning rate. Also named neuroplasticity. When our brain changes them as a result of an event, it’s called episodic learning.
Kids (besides what they have heard) don’t know what a candle’s flame does until they get burnt. Their brain afterward, modulates their connections to warn them if their hand approaches it again.
Episodic learning is one of the most primitive ways for humans to save information. It has allowed our species to continually demonstrate its resourcefulness over time.
That meets what Jonathan Levi wrote in The Only Skill That Matters :
«We’re specially adapted to learning in ways that are vivid, visual and experimental.»
Retrieve information
There is a good analogy in this video that explains the key points in the retrieval process.
- The first time we learn something, our brain is like a forest full of trees with dense foliage. There is no clear pathway between point A and point B. Our actual and future knowledge state.
- When we start having the very first flanges of knowledge. A trail across the forest creates a link between A and B. Because this acquaintance is new, the pathway isn’t well traced.
- Then, practice strengthens the trail, which slowly becomes a road. Now you know more about the B. It remains that you’re not totally confident about it.
- More practice turns the dirt road into a highway. Data is transmitted so quickly that the subject is now second nature to you. In other words, you master B. But for how long? We’ll see about that right away.
When we try to retrieve information, we reactivate the neural pathways attached to it.
We generally faced 4 recovery situations. For instance, let’s imagine that we are talking about “multiplications” :
- If you have never seen multiplications before, there are no connections. It’s absurd to recover something in this case.
- If you have already seen someone doing multiplications on a blackboard. The pathways exist, but are just trails. The only way to enlarge it is by making multiplications by yourself (e.g. the kid and the candle).
- If your brain has already tried to make multiplications, at least once, many connections are already written down. That don’t mean they are ready to use. What’s determine that is how frequently you’ve made it before, and for how long.
- Finally, if these connections have been written, maintained, and improved by a lot of calculations. Then the pathways are well traced and ready to use at any moment. It’s easy to make multiplications.
Learning something once is not enough. To make it persistent over time, we need to retrieve it repeatedly. Behind this principle, there are the forgetting curves.
They represent our retention time. This one decline exponentially, but it’s possible to make it last longer by recalling what you’ve learned. Something like 5 reminders spaced 1 day to 3 months apart is enough to make what you have learned last longer.
Encode and repeatedly maintain and improve is the key to store data in your memory. Now that we know what we’re talking about, how can we tangibly train our retention?
How to get better
Our memory doesn’t like what it doesn’t know. In this case, “Don’t know” means: I perceive no relation with any before encoded information.
The more you know about French history, the easier it is to learn.
Emilie loves French history and knows that the last King of France Louis XVI died guillotined in 1792. When it comes to memorizing the French Revolution’s date, she just has to remember that this event put an end to the French monarchy. 1789 is not surprising for his brain that quickly links this information to the previous.
Jack knows nothing about French history. The fact that the French Revolution’s date is 1789 means nothing to him. This single event will take much more time and effort to hold.
Our brain is like our arms. But in contrary to our physical arms, our brain’s ones are difficult to control. As Emilie grasps the new information with all her might, Jack only uses his hand.
It’s easy to think that Jack can’t grasp the date of the French Revolution full hands, unless he knows French history as good as Emilie does. In fact, there is a trick.
Mnemonics is the art of forcing our brains to make connections, the art of grasping objects of knowledge. These are techniques that assist in the preservation or retrieval of information in memory.
Mnemonics is powerful. Powerful to active neuron pathways. Powerful to trigger the correct memory on demand.
Even if it sounds childish, they can be as incredibly efficient as they are misunderstood. From everyday uses such as; How to store people’s names, to specific fields such as: How to store large numbers.
I won’t elaborate on them. But if you’re curious, I’ve made an article in which I share my mnemonic for retaining large numbers.
