Memory refers to previously acquired information that has been stored, and the term typically includes the processes of retaining information and subsequently digging it out of storage for use. Learning and memory are different sides of the same coin.
There are two different kinds of memory:
- Dynamic memories: They exist only as long as they are actively maintained.
- Structural memories: These persist even when they aren’t being actively considered.
Example
Someone trying to remember four-sided geometric form.
- To do so, she walks along a path she creates on a lawn, she walks over and over again. While she is walking the memory is dynamic. If she stops walking memory is lost. After a while, she wears a dirt path through the lawn.
- Once this happens, it no longer matters whether she keeps walking. At this point the representation has transitioned from being dynamic to being structural.