How are the 3 Rs important?

formation of any memory. The data is then filed in the short-term memory system, which is very limited. At this stage the sense organs have to be alert enough to be able to register the information clearly. Otherwise, the waste and negative thoughts coming from the subconscious mind might replace it soon. If the registration is good, the

memory formed will also be stronger.

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Rohit turns the key in the doorknob to open the door of his house and switches on the lights, while simultaneously talking on his mobile. He closes the door behind him, reaches the kitchen, put the keys on the kitchen shelf, takes a glass of water from the refrigerator, comes to his bedroom, loosens his tie, and

makes himself comfortable on the couch. After 2 more minutes of conversation, he ends the call and goes to the other room to unlock it. But he finds that the keys are missing. He keeps on searching for the keys in frustration for 10 minutes till he finds them in the kitchen. He is amazed how could he forget where he kept the keys just a few minutes back!

Don’t we all often find ourselves in a situation similar to Rohit? Now let’s try to comprehend what happened with him. When he entered the kitchen and kept the keys on the shelf, he was talking on the phone. That means though he was physically keeping the keys with his hand, his mind was occupied in the conversation on the phone. Due to this, he did not register the action of placing the keys on the shelf. So it’s wrong to say that Rohit has forgotten where he kept the keys 10 minutes before. How can you forget something which you have not registered in the first place?

It is just like searching the whole almirah, taking out everything from it, in an attempt to find a watch you never kept in that almirah. Can you find it? No. It’s not possible. So this cannot be called a case of forgetfulness, but a situation of

absentmindedness.

In order to have stronger memories, we need to involve all our five senses, i.e.

hearing, smell, taste, touch, and sight as any input to the brain only goes through

these five senses. Also, if at that time a strong association of the input can be made with some other information already present in our memory. We will discuss the association process in detail in the next chapter, ‘Train your memory’.

2. RETENTION: The process of storing the received information for longer duration

is called retention. Once the input is done, it should be followed by a system of proper storage so as to retrieve it as and when required. For example, if we go for shopping and buy some books, medicines, clothes, shoes, bread, vegetables etc. and keep them

haphazardly all over the house, it would be difficult to find them after a week.

Contrary to this, if these things are stored in their respective places, i.e. books on the bookshelf, medicines in the medicine box, clothes in the wardrobe, shoes in the shoe rack, bread and vegetables in the refrigerator, then each of these things would be easily accessible on time.

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Sara needs to memorize vocabulary words for her SAT exams. She has to memorize nearly 1000 words. She keeps a target of memorizing 40 words per day. She successfully achieves her target on the first day as well as on the second, but as she starts memorizing on the third day, she feels as if she is forgetting the words memorized in the first two days. As the days pass, she finds herself memorizing new words daily but the problem is that she cannot retain the words for long. The more she memorizes, the more she starts getting confused about the earlier memorized words.

Like in the case of Sara, most students find it difficult to retain memorized

information till the time of the examination. What good is spending time and effort on memorizing if one cannot retain it till the time it is required.

It’s just like a pitcher with a hole which is never going to be filled with water because of constant and continuous leakage.

To avoid this leakage and utilize the unlimited capacity of brain to store information, data needs to be processed and stored systematically.

Strong associations with prior knowledge, clear, vivid, imagery followed by a periodic revision plan are the key steps for retaining any information for longer duration.

3. RECOLLECTION: The ability to recollect and use stored information when required is called recollection. Indeed, every action or words we speak are the result of recollection or retrieval of our memories. This process will also yield better

results only if the registration and storage of data has been done in an organized and systematic manner. The state of mind at the time of recollection is also a key factor in the process of retrieval.

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Sheelu is very upset. In spite of working hard with her son, Aditya didn’t perform well in his Science exam. She had helped him revise all the question– answers, a night before, was very much sure of him doing well in the exam, but she was astonished when he told her that he had forgotten the answers while writing the exam, though after coming back home he was able to tell the right answers. She couldn’t understand why this always happened with him.

As a parent or a student, almost all of us have faced such a situation of helplessness. If we carefully analyze the situation, the problem is not of forgetting, but is of not

being able to recollect at the right time, i.e. while taking the exam. Had it been the problem of forgetfulness, how could he recall after the exam? That proves that the answer was there in his memory but he could not recall it at the time of exam when it was most required. Now why did that happen? Because his state of mind at home and the state of mind while giving the exam were not same.

So memory is not just a function of the brain, it is very well guided by the faculty of the MIND, the creator of thoughts. By conscious efforts, we can have a

better control over our state of mind, thereby resulting in better recollection.

This shows us that all the three stages of memory are equally important. Inefficiency in any of the stages may lead to poor results/memory.