4. Human brain memory

The memory manager, intelligence, uses a lot of methods and processes to classify, organize, and rationalize the information contained in the brain memory. Below we are going to state the most important ones among the many that should exist:

4.a) Automatic memory and directed memory

Up until now we have talked about the memory's automatic operation mechanisms; indubitably, you can influence which information is saved and which is not.

The fact that the more someone studies a subject the more he/she retains is nothing new. However the operation of the transfer from short-term to medium-term memory is unconscious, the brain detects interest according to the number of times it has dealt with a subject.

An important leap occurs when a subject has been dealt with on different days in order to memorize certain information. The memory manager will then find references to the subject in the most superficial layers of medium-term memory, and there will automatically exist a tendency to save more securely, or, in other words, in the next layers of medium-term memory.

Another important leap will be made when the memory manager requires the saved information and the brain realises the limitations of the information, understanding that better availability of the information would be convenient, therefore tending to improve the availability in the medium-term memory. It will also start to establish the information in the multidimensional system, creating the needed references.

When trying to pass an exam, the provision of some artificial references for better information retention could significantly help medium-term memory. Specifically, we are referring to certain mnemonic devices.

Useful examples are marking dates, figures, percentages, and similar information that are very mathematical with a special colour, authors with another colour, definitions with another, etc., but without using too many colours or other mnemonic devices! Maximum four or five.

However, sometimes, in spite of our effort and the knowledge that we are capable of doing so, it seems that human memory does not respond - that it refuses to work. The most common reasons could be:

• Not sleeping enough.
• Excessive consumption of alcohol, and to a lesser extent, tobacco.
• A true lack of interest.
• Being very tense when studying, which notably limits the capacity used by the memory manager either when awake or when sleeping.
• The information will not be used in the future or at least not in the way it is being memorized. A typical example is the learning of languages that are not going to be used or attempt to learn them in math memory because languages are normally developed in linguistic memory.

The tensions mentioned in the previous paragraphs should not be confused with the situation of a student who has various exams very close together or an exam of a very lengthy subject.

Before the exam students are very nervous, excessively nervous, and they also feel like they do not know anything. These nerves are caused when short-term memory is overloaded for its normal state -a lot of effort is demanded, and nervous tension is probably the only way to allow this overload in these circumstances. Along with the mentioned feeling of not knowing anything, people also become more nervous when they cannot stop thinking about the exam's subject.

However, once the questions are known, nervousness disappears -a multitude of concepts vanish from the mind and it begins to fill with information related to the questions. The more some of the questions are thought about, the more information continues to appear, always if and when a person is really familiar with the subject, otherwise…

It is worth pointing out the existing connection between the previously cited reasons behind a possible malfunctioning of the human brain memory with the reasons that could provoke dysfunctions in the decision-making system, which we comment on in another section independent from this book.

4.b) Pre-established logic blocks or structures  

In the study of rapid response development of intelligence, we stated that brain power notably increments with its automation. One of its causes was that entry information is placed directly in the prepared fields of the subprograms or functions, and once all the information has been received the specific operation was automatically launched.

In short, this development implies the development of structures or fields pre-established for information treatment. In the system of global information, these same structures would be used, if needed, for the storage or saving of information.

The development and improvement of these brain information structures can also be directed at actively involving the individual in the system's efficiency process.

4.c) Memorise only what it is not logic  

One of the memory manager's most efficient methods is a consequence of the rule of not memorizing that which can easily be deduced using logic. But in this case, logic has to be understood as a specific personal logic associated with the event or information which you make yourself think that you know.

Actually, the trick is not to know, but rather to know what you know; which is not the same.

I hope to explain myself better with a simple example in which I can answer one question without having any specific related information in my memory. The one exception is that I have to know what I know and what I do not know. (Always the same simple reference in long-term memory. And a very simple reference.)

• Question: Who has longer hair, Susana or Julio?

  • Supposition 1: I have no link, no reference to this in my memory.

    •  - Answer: I don't know, I could imagine that…but I don't know.

  • Supposition 2: I know that I know because, in some way, this question (not the answer) has an associated reference in my medium-term memory.

    •  -Answer: Susana. (It is assumed to be correct).

I went through the following process: as I know that I know because my memory has told me so, I look for the specific logic that I would have applied to save this information.

In this case it would be "normally women have longer hair than men." Therefore, the answer is Susana.

The advantages of this method are, on one hand that the reference is very simple and already exists in medium-term memory; the only thing that needs to be done is to activate it for a specific case. And, on the other hand, in the majority of cases, by applying logic for the most common cases, there is no need to change the point of reference, which is what we would have done if Julio had longer hair.

Here is one more implication of this method: if we know what we know and do not remember the reference's sign, by default we will assume that this is the normal sign of specific logic. (It is not necessary to remember the normal one.)