when our brain is desperately trying to remember something (especially “tip of the tongue” memories), what is it actually doing? Why can’t it just remember it?
In: Biology
We genuinely don’t know very much about exactly how working memory functions. The most prevalent theory currently is that you have three types of memory: instantaneous “sensory” memory (information you received very recently), short-term memory (information that you received in the past few days AND not very important information from longer ago), and long-term memory (important information you remember completely for a week or longer). Depending on how important the information is and how often it’s reinforced, information can slowly move from one type to the other (we call this “encoding”). Very important to remember that not all information makes it all the way to long-term memory.
For the most part, we’re pretty good at remembering things that just happened, as well as important long-term memories like a loved one’s name or your phone number. However, if we don’t use an encoded memory for a while, it takes longer for us to pull it back up. Similarly, if something never got encoded all the way to long-term memory, it’s harder to pull up quickly as well. Like I said before, we don’t really know entirely what’s going on when the “gears are turning” and you’re trying to remember something, but we do know these general rules about why some things take longer than others.
Your brain is like a messy room. You KNOW your favorite toy is in there somewhere, but you can’t find it because you didn’t organize well.
Think of your memory as a messy room. Your brain is frantically searching for that one sock under all the clutter. It knows it’s there, just can’t find it immediately.
That would just be my guess, but i think it tries to find a neural pathway to that information through association to other memories. Like when you see an actor in a movie but can’t remember their name, if instead of trying to remember their name directly you instead try to remember in which other movies you saw them, it might help you remember their name instantly this way.
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