Complex mental function having four distinct phases: (1) memorizing or learning, (2) retention, (3) recall, and (4) recognition. Clinically, it is usually subdivided into immediate, recent, and remote memory.

Every day, you have different experiences and you learn new things. Your brain cannot store all of that information, so it has to decide what is worth remembering. Memory is the process of storing and then remembering this information. There are different types of memory. Short-term memory stores information for a few seconds or minutes. Long-term memory stores it for a longer period of time. Memory doesn't always work perfectly. As you grow older, it may take longer to remember things. It's normal to forget things once in a while. We've all forgotten a name, where we put our keys, or if we locked the front door. If you are an older adult who forget things more often than others your age, you may have mild cognitive impairment. Forgetting how to use your phone or find your way home may be signs of a more serious problem, such as: Alzheimer's disease; Other types of dementia; Stroke; Depression; Head injuries; Blood clots or tumors in the brain; Kidney, liver, or thyroid problems; Reactions to certain medicines. If you're worried about your forgetfulness, see your health care provider. NIH: National Institute on Aging

Mental function underlying learning; one model specifies 4 phases: acquisition, retention, recall, and recognition.

Process whereby what is experienced or learned is established as a record in the CNS (registration), where it persists with a variable degree of permanence (retention) and can be recollected or retrieved from storage at will (recall). For types of memory, see immediate memory, long-term and short-term memory.

The activities involved in the mental information processing system that receives (registers), modifies, stores, and retrieves informational stimuli. The main stages involved in the formation and retrieval of memory are encoding (processing of received information by acquisition), storage (building a permanent record of received information as a result of consolidation) and retrieval (calling back the stored information and use it in a suitable way to execute a given task).

The power of retaining and recalling past experience, something that is remembered.

Memory, the encoding, storage, and retrieval in the human mind of past experiences. The fact that experiences influence subsequent behaviour is evidence of an obvious but nevertheless remarkable activity called remembering. Memory is both a result of and an influence on perception, attention, and...