SELECTIVE MEMORY: What It Is and How It Works With Examples

Memory is considered by psychology as the most important function of the nervous system, because without it learning and the possibility of behavior modification would be impossible. Without proper memory function, we may not be able to integrate new information and learn things new, we would not be able to remember what has already been learned or we may not be able to forget anything learned. All of this would have a great negative impact on our daily life.

However, there is a type of memory that allows us to do a great screening of all the information that we receive from our environment and that helps us to memorize only what is going to be useful in the posteriority. This is selective memory.

In Psychology-Online, we want to explain a little more what is selective memory and how it works.

Index

1. The types of memory
2. Meaning of selective memory and selective attention
3. What is selective memory: definition
4. How selective memory works

Broadly speaking, we can make a distinction between three memory types different, these being:

1. Sensory memory

It does not intervene in attention. It is a necessary component so that the rest of the memories can work, it lasts a few alone milliseconds. It is responsible for transferring the data collected by the senses to short-term memory. Within it, we find two subtypes:

• Iconic: memory that reflects the information of the visual system.
• Ecoica: stores the information that comes from the ears.

2. Short term memory

The stored information disappears as it is integrated again. It has a capacity of about seven items (concepts), so it is considered to be a limited store.

3. Long term memory

The information is integrated and is available so that we can make use of it in the future. Its capacity is unlimited, almost the same as its duration, which can be for a lifetime. Inside of long term memory we find two large groups:

• Declarative- Responsible for the conscious and intentional retrieval or retention of (explicit) information.
• Non-declarative: responsible for the skills, habits, responses, which are neither intentional, nor conscious (implicit).

Selective memory is not considered by science as a type of memory as such, but rather as that process that allows us to differentiate between that information that we find important and want to remember and that that we decide avoid. That is why it is often said that selective memory allows us remember only what we want to remember.

Since the concept of memory has already been explained previously, I also want to introduce the definition of the term attention. This is a cognitive mechanism through which the relevant information for the individual is selected, at the same time that irrelevant information is discarded.

The selective attention, for its part, refers to directing and focusing the attention resources of an individual towards the perceptual information that surrounds him. This focus of attention is very necessary for the individual, since we cannot manage all the perceptual information that exists at any given moment at the same time. Therefore, it facilitates the processing of a certain stimulation while inhibiting the processing of another.

To carry out this selection of information, use is made of the open orientation (where we move our eyes to focus that stimulus that interests us) and the covert one (there is no need to move the eyes, so the processing is faster).

The fact that this term is not scientifically recognized makes it considerably difficult to provide an exact definition of selective memory. However, an easy way to understand and explain it is by emphasizing the importance of emotional events in memory.

Memory is a complex function, which is closely linked to everything emotional that surrounds us, so, unconsciously, labyrinths and barriers are created in it that allow us to adapt reality to our whim. This type of memory is also known as pragmatics by the fact that it aims to seek efficiency and utility over quantity. This means that selective memory prefers store less useful information, compared to the possibility of storing a lot of information that later will not be of any use to us.

Due to the great storage capacity of the information that the memory possesses, it is an indispensable requirement that there be a level of selection in the integration processes. According to Dr. Petrucci, a renowned psychiatrist, the selective characteristic of memory comes as a consequence of a link between what we have previously described as declarative or explicit memory and non-declarative or implicit.

This is because, despite unconsciously remembering and memorizing information, we tend to consciously associate it with a series of emotions, so that later, when we remember these emotions, it is much easier for us to be able to evoke the information to which they are associated.

A very clear example of selective memory activation It is when we have a partner and at that moment we try to store all the good memories with her. Unconsciously, when we evoke the name of that person we love, the most pleasant memories will come to our mind. However, if the relationship is truncated and ends badly, from that moment on, selective memory will cause each time you think about that person, you remember the bad times, in order to distort reality making us see that leaving was the right decision, because they were all bad moments.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Selective memory: what it is and how it works with examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Neuropsychology.

• Julio González. (2016). Memory and Language. Jaume I. University
• Dolores Girbau. (2015). Learning. Jaume I. University
• Roser Poy. (2015). Perception and Attention. Jaume I. University