The Five Types of Memory

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The human body is a complex structure. The brain being the most complex organ has the most work to do. The human memory consists of a process in which memories are stored and remembered. According to Intelegen Inc., there is this unique process of Memory in which the process only involves three stages. In the stages of this process, the memory is formed, retained, and retrieved. There are three stages of the five different types of Memory; the three stages are encoding, storage and retrieval.

The five types are Memory is classified by a few different characteristics. Declarative Memory is the memory of dates, historical facts, and telephone numbers (Silvia Cardoso). It is easier to build up Declarative Memory but can be easily forgotten as well. Procedural Memory is the memory/ability to drive a car, to play sports and tie shoes. This type of memory involves repetitive practices. The other of types of memory is Elaboration, Self Referent and Visual Imagery. Elaboration is known as memory associating with other information. Self Referent Memory is how it is made personally relevant. Then, there is Visual Imagery, which can be used in a few ways, one of which can be used to add richness to the material to be remembered.

The first stage is known as Encoding, which is how the memories are formed. Encoding requires selective attention to the material to be encoded (Intelegen Inc.). All the messages are registered but only the meaningful ones are put into memory. There are different types of encoding. Structural Encoding is the first; it keeps emphasis on the physical structural characteristics, also known as the shallow level. Phonemic Encoding is the second; it keeps the emphasis on the sounds of words, the intermediate level. ...

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...By this it is meant that some see the glass half empty or half full, then it is stored into their memory and then relate everything else to that. When thoughts and ideas grow off one another once the first part is lost it becomes hard to bring any of the memory back. This happens often, anyone can have a retrieval flaw and thus it messes up the whole system.

The three stages are encoding, storage and retrieval and there are five types of memory. Memory may seem to come and go but yet it will always be there. When starting to age the thing is that losing memory is always the problem. The problem is trying to find where in the mind it was stored. This complex process will be one of the only things that will not change over the years seeing as of now there is no way to input the human brain with fake memories but that does not mean in the future that will not happen.

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