Memory States
Remembering is not just searching a database for appropriate memories, it is an active process in which we reconstruct memories according to our beliefs, wishes, needs, and information received from outside sources. Preconceptions, called schemas, determine in most situations how our memories are organized and allow to process large amounts of information because of summarizing regularities in daily life. Information coming in from the environment is held in transient sensory stores of iconic and auditory memories from which it is lost unless attended. Attended information goes into an intermediate short-term memory where it has to be rehearsed before it can go into a relatively permanent long-term memory. However, if the item left short-term memory before a permanent long-term memory representation was developed, it would be lost forever. Two general types of long term memory have been identified. Episodic memory represents our memory of events and experiences in a serial form and reconstructs actual events that took place; semantic memory is a structured record of facts, concepts and acquired skills. The information in semantic memory is derived from episodic memory to learn new facts or concepts from experience. Memory for detail is available initially but is forgotten rapidly while memory for meaning is retained. Subjects initially encode many of the perceptual details but forget most of this information quickly. Once the perceptual information is forgotten, subjects retain information only about the meaning or interpretation. People tend to have relatively good memory for meaningful interpretations of information. This implies that when people are confronted with some material to remember it will facilitate their memory if they can place some meaningful interpretation on it. Mnemonic memory enhancement is using imagery keyword methods use of mental imagery, method of loci by associating items to be learned with a series of locations, and other strategies of organizing memory in chunks of narrative visualization.
The concept of State Dependant Memory is quite simply that if something happens while in an altered state, it will be remembered better if the subject is returned to that state.
The recall when in a particular mood depends partly on the mood when originally learning the material; this is referred to as Mood Dependent Memory. Being in a mood - such as sad, anxious or happy - triggers other memories of the same mood. Feeling good is more likely to make one remember good times, feeling "bad" it is often hard to remember that things had ever been good. Another phenomenon is Context Dependant Memory where we will remember things better if we go back to the context or setting in which they occurred. It's astonishing what can be remembered just by going back to the original context, like an old neighborhood.