What Affects How You Remember Things?

Very few people can explain the concept of memory and even fewer can describe what factors affect the process. Even experts will admit that memory, the group of systems responsible for creating, storing and recalling events and experiences, is much more elusive and complex than initially thought. The act of recalling even one simple memory is a process that involves multiple different regions of the brain functioning together to complete one intricate construction.

Emotion

• In the past, scientists believed that the type of emotion experienced at an event could make it more or less likely to be remembered. More recently though, investigators have found this isn't entirely true. Instead, scientists have now concluded that certain emotions do not influence an individual's ability to recall an event, but they do influence an individual's response to that event. For example, if you were elated at a dinner, and then researchers later asked for your impression of the meal, you'd be more likely to respond positively.

State

• Heavy drinkers are more likely to remember things when they are drunk.

  Physical state and environmental context can also influence memory. Research has proven that an individual in a specific state of mind at the point of encoding is more likely to remember that event when that same state of mind is reinstated. The most common example associated with this idea is linked to alcohol. People who experience an event while heavily intoxicated are more likely to remember that event when they are again in a state of heavy intoxication. The same logic applies to location. Remembering is easier if you're in the same location where you initially experienced the event.

Age

• Our ability to remember things deteriorate as we age.

  Strong links have been made between aging and memory. Scientists have found that the depletion of our brain's cells, a natural consequence to getting older, eventually leads to a drop in our brain's ability to produce acetylcholine. This vital neurotransmitter is responsible for negotiating the storage of information. As less acetylcholine becomes available, it becomes more and more difficult to retrieve stored information, or memories. Furthermore, as we age the brain becomes less efficient in general. Aging most noticeably affects how we remember recent memories, and less how we remember long-term and short-term memories.

Interference

• Interference is the idea that information, either recently acquired or stored, inhibits our ability to accurately remember. There are two types of interference, retroactive and proactive. Retroactive interference occurs when previous memories are disrupted by the process of encoding new events. For example, if we learn the first American president's name is George Washington, but then we learn that there's another American president named George Bush, we may have trouble remembering the name of the first president. Proactive interference occurs when the process happens in the opposite way; if we can't remember that another American president was named George Bush because all we can remember is the first American president's name is George Washington.