Retrieving information is essentialy "re-igniting the neural pathways that were active at the moment of the original experience." Because of that, memories aren't 100% accurate. Retrieving something is an attempt to reconstruct the original experience or information.
Long-term memory works on the basis of neural networks. And when we encode something in our long-term memory, it's encoded with other stuff that was there at the time – i.e. the environment, the context. We're then better able to retrieve things when other elements from the original experience are present – e.g. we're in the same environment.
This means that it's most effective to learn things in the context where we want to use it (retrieve it) later. Think scuba divers learning underwater vs. on dry land.
This helps explain the concept of Recognition over recall – it's easier to re-activate the pathways if something from the original experience (or the information itself) is directly in front of us vs. having to recall it.
It might also be why Actively working with information enables learning – actively working with something creates more connections ("retrieval elements") that can be used to recall it later. Learning in this sense is the ability to recall information.
Recent research has also shown that people spend less energy on encoding new information when they believe they can use a search engine to find it later ("Google effect").
However, it's likely that the ability to remember thigns well instead of relying on looking them up is going to be appreciated as a sign of personal intelligence.
Tags: design psychology
ID: 2021-1201-0932
References:
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