How do we form memories?

Week 85: How do we form memories?

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Memory is the cornerstone of our cognitive existence, playing a crucial role in how we learn, navigate our environment, and form our identity. Memories shape our understanding of the world, influence our decisions, and connect us to our past experiences. This cognitive process involves the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information, which is facilitated by various mechanisms in the brain. To truly appreciate how memories are formed and retained, it’s essential to understand the factors, as explained by famous memory expert and scientist Dr Wendy Suzuki, that significantly influence these processes: novelty, repetition, association, and emotional resonance. Each of these elements plays a pivotal role in making our lives more wholesome and enriched.

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Novelty: The Magnet of Memory

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Novelty refers to the quality of being new or unusual, and it has a profound impact on memory formation. When we encounter something novel, our brain's reward system is activated, releasing dopamine. This neurotransmitter not only makes the experience enjoyable but also enhances our ability to remember it. The hippocampus, a key region for memory formation, becomes more engaged when processing novel stimuli, ensuring that these experiences are encoded more robustly.

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Consider your first day at a new job. The unfamiliar environment, new faces, and different routines make the day stand out vividly in your memory. This is because the novelty of the experience activates the brain's attention and reward systems, marking it as significant. In educational settings, introducing novel concepts in engaging ways can capture students' attention and improve retention. Teachers who incorporate unexpected elements or unique methods into their lessons make the material more memorable, breaking the monotony and sparking curiosity.

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Repetition: The Reinforcer of Recall

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Repetition is a fundamental mechanism for strengthening memory. Through repeated exposure to information or activities, we reinforce the neural pathways associated with those memories. This process, known as long-term potentiation, enhances the synaptic connections, making it easier for the brain to recall the information later.

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For example, think about learning to play a musical instrument. Initially, the notes and finger placements may seem challenging, but with consistent practice, these actions become more natural and automatic. This improvement is due to the repeated activation of specific neural circuits, which strengthens the memory of those actions. Educational techniques such as spaced repetition and regular review leverage this principle, ensuring that information moves from short-term to long-term memory. By revisiting material at intervals, learners can solidify their knowledge and improve recall.

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Association: The Network Builder

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Association involves linking new information with existing knowledge, creating a web of interconnected memories that are easier to retrieve. This cognitive process takes advantage of the brain's natural tendency to organise information into meaningful patterns.

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Consider the use of mnemonic devices in learning. For instance, to remember the order of colours in the rainbow we use the short-form VIBGYOR. This mnemonic links information with a familiar structure, facilitating recall. Association is also crucial in problem-solving and creativity, where connecting disparate pieces of information can lead to innovative solutions. By building a rich network of associations, we create multiple pathways for accessing and integrating knowledge.

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Emotional Resonance: The Emotional Amplifier

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Emotional resonance refers to the intensity of the emotional response elicited by an experience. Memories with strong emotional content tend to be more vivid and enduring. The amygdala, the brain region responsible for processing emotions, interacts with the hippocampus to enhance the encoding of emotionally charged memories.

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Think about significant life events such as a wedding or a traumatic incident. These experiences evoke strong emotions that make them unforgettable. Emotional resonance is also a powerful tool in storytelling and marketing, where narratives that elicit emotional responses are more likely to be remembered and shared. In educational contexts, connecting lessons to students' emotions—through personal stories, real-life examples, or passionate delivery—can enhance memory retention. When learners are emotionally engaged, the material becomes more impactful and memorable.

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Integrating the Elements for Holistic Memory Formation

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To maximise memory formation, it’s beneficial to integrate the elements of novelty, repetition, association, and emotional resonance. Here’s how this can be practically applied to workplace training and people development. Trainers can make sessions engaging with new techniques (novelty), provide continuous training and role play opportunities (repetition), relate new skills to existing knowledge (association), and create emotionally engaging, relevant scenarios (emotional resonance). This ensures that employees retain critical information and skills.

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In conclusion, understanding how memories are formed through novelty, repetition, association, and emotional resonance offers valuable insights into improving our learning and recall processes. These elements work synergistically to create robust and lasting memories, enriching our cognitive lives and making our experiences more meaningful. By leveraging these factors, we can enhance our ability to retain and recall information, ultimately leading to a more wholesome and enriched life.