How memory works

How memory works, one mechanism at a time

What each term means, how it was found, what’s still argued about, and something to try where a demo helps. Each page lists its sources and says how much of each we read.

No one has been shown, in a test that held up when others tried it, to read back a page from memory like a photograph. What eidetic imagery in children really is, the one person who seemed to pass in 1970, how memory athletes do it, and a version of the fusion method to try on yourself.

What is déjà vu?

Déjà vu is the feeling that something new is familiar, while you know it can't be. What it means, what researchers think causes it, what's still unknown, and a demo of its opposite, jamais vu.

What are false memories?

A false memory is remembering something that didn't happen, or remembering it differently. How they form, the word-list, car-crash and lost-in-the-mall studies, how sure researchers are of each, and a word-list demo that checks itself.

What is echoic memory?

Echoic memory is the brief raw copy of a sound your brain keeps after it stops. How it was found, how long it lasts, how it differs from iconic and working memory, and a listening demo.

What is working memory?

Working memory holds what you're using right now. The Baddeley and Hitch model and its 1974 data, whether the limit is seven or four, how it differs from short-term memory, and demos to try.

Episodic and semantic memory, explained

Episodic memory is what happened to you; semantic memory is what you know. What Tulving actually said in 1972, how they work together, what people get wrong, and a remember-or-know demo.

Short-term and long-term memory: what’s the difference?

Short-term memory holds a few things for seconds; long-term memory keeps what lasts. How the two were told apart, why “18 seconds” isn't a measurement, whether they're really separate, and two demos to try.

What is iconic memory?

Iconic memory is the brief store of what you've just seen, which holds more than you can report. Sperling's 1960 numbers from the paper itself, a partial-report demo that times itself, and what's still disputed.

The hippocampus and the amygdala: what each does for memory

Where the hippocampus and the amygdala are, what each does for memory, and how they work together, with labelled diagrams, the history of H.M., and what's still disputed.

Procedural memory and muscle memory

Procedural memory is your memory for how to do things, shown by doing them. How it was found, where it lives, what muscle memory means in the brain and in the muscle, and a mirror-drawing demo where you can feel a skill improve.

In the Field Guide

The Memory Field Guide takes eleven mechanisms from how the brain does it to what AI systems did with it.