WHAT IS SELECTIVE MEMORY AND HOW DOES IT WORK? - NEUROPSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The selective memory is a phenomenon popularly used to justify why a person can remember very well one thing and have forgotten all other events.

Why might someone be able to remember the scent of the perfume that their grandmother used 20 years ago but is unable to remember what they had for dinner last Sunday? The answer to this question is simple. Memory works in a selective way; that is, it does not remember all the information it captures in the same way.

Certain items can be stored very deep in people's minds and perfectly remembered. On the other hand, other aspects may not be memorized well and can be easily forgotten.

These characteristics of human memory show that selective memory is not a specific type of memory. Quite the contrary, the entire mnesic process is selective.

Why is memory selective?

The memory processes of human beings are in continuous operation. They do not rest and work throughout the day to nurture people's thinking.

In the same way, the senses permanently capture an infinity of stimuli. Whether through sight, smell, touch or hearing, the amount of information reaching the brain during a day is uncountable.

In fact, if someone tries to remember at night the information that he has captured during the day, it will be totally impossible for him to remember all the elements perceived.

This situation is explained and justified through the selectivity of memory. The human brain is unable to store and remember all the elements it captures. Likewise, much of the information that is perceived is irrelevant to people's lives.

What color was the upholstery of the taxi you took this afternoon? What were the earrings of the saleswoman at the store where you went to buy? What pen did you use this morning at the office?

All of these examples are items that are easily forgotten due to selective memory. The brain interprets this information as irrelevant, so unless an attention-grabbing stimulus appears, it is not usually remembered.

In this way, it is concluded that memory is selective because the human brain cannot remember everything. You have to sift through and filter the information to keep that which is especially important and ignore the irrelevant.

What is forgotten?

Memory is not a linear process that is executed directly with the will of people. In other words, human beings do not forget those aspects that they do not want to remember.

In fact, the more you want to forget a certain type of information, the more likely it is that it will continue to be remembered. This situation is explained by the operation of memory itself. This does not function as a computer that you can enter and delete files voluntarily.

What determines that something is forgotten?

Understanding the factors that dictate the forgetfulness of information is highly complex. There is no single process or foolproof way to predict which items will be forgotten.

However, recent research on mnestic processes has revealed certain aspects that allow us to answer this question to some extent.

Perception by the senses

In the first place, it has been shown how for information to be stored correctly and reliably remembered, it must be correctly captured through the senses.

In this first characteristic of memory, the importance of attention and perception is shown. If these two cognitive skills are not working properly and you do not pay attention to the stimulus, it will be stored weakly and easily forgotten.

Perception plays a very important role in memory, which is why selective memory is closely related to selective attention. However, it is not the only element that predicts the information that is forgotten.

Information processing

Second, the work that is done on the stored information appears. If when you remember a certain element you think about it continuously, the memory is consolidated.

For example, if a person, every day when they arrive at work, has to type the password of their user to be able to turn on the computer, this information will be easily remembered. However, if you never type it, you are more likely to forget it.

What is remembered?

The same factors that explain forgetting serve to explain memory and remembered items. To remember certain information, it is important to make repetitive efforts in its storage.

This fact explains that during the study, reading the same information several times, making diagrams and mentally repeating the keywords is essential to remember it later.

The attention and repetition of the information serves so that it is stored in memory. In the same way, once stored, it is important to continue working and memorizing those elements in order to keep them in memory.

These two main elements - attention and memorization - explain much of the things that are correctly structured in the mind and are easily remembered.

However, there are many other factors that go into choosing which items to remember. People can remember information in a more or less automatic way and outside of cognitive effort.

For example, a person may remember what he got for his birthday 15 years ago or where he went to dinner for the first time with his wife. In these cases, multiple studies have shown the importance of emotional processes in memory and recall.

Those events that are experienced in an intense way (whether it is rewarding or disturbing) are more easily stored and remembered in people's minds.

Memorizing takes place?

The fact that memory is selective, that is, that some things are remembered and others are forgotten, raises the question of whether learning takes place. That is, does the fact of memorizing one type of information motivate the forgetting of another due to the limit of storage capacity of the brain?

This question does not have a simple answer since memory selectivity is a highly complex process. Obviously, people are not able to remember all the information they capture. In some cases because they do not intend to do so and do not pay enough attention to irrelevant stimuli.

However, in other cases the person may intend to retain all the information and not be able to do so. Trying to memorize all the topics presented in class or all the information discussed in a work meeting is often difficult.

This fact is explained by the inability to make the necessary cognitive effort to store all these concepts in such a limited period of time.

During the hour that the class lasts, most people do not have time to learn all the information. But this does not mean that later, if they invest the necessary time, they will not be able to do it.

In this way, information is forgotten not because the mind is saturated or the acquisition of a new element takes its place, but because of the absence of sufficient cognitive work.

People are not usually permanently memorizing all the information they have captured. Firstly because there is no material time to do it and secondly because it is not a mentally healthy activity.

Can selective memory be trained and manipulated?

Selective memory works, on many occasions, automatically. Often the person is not aware of what he remembers, much less what he forgets.

This fact shows that selective memory cannot be manipulated directly. That is, people cannot consciously choose which elements they want to remember and which elements they want to forget.

However, there is a certain degree of voluntary action. People can choose which items they want to pay attention to and which they don't.

For example, if a student wants to learn the contents presented by the teacher, he will have to activate his attention and concentration during class. Otherwise, you will not be able to properly capture the information.

Likewise, if you want to remember the entire agenda for the day of the exam, you will have to invest long hours of effort to memorize all the information.

On the other hand, when a person wants to forget a situation or a specific aspect, he has to try to avoid thinking about it. If he does not succeed, the memory will remain, but if he is able to not think about that element, the passage of time will make him forget it.

Selective memory and beliefs

Selective memory is closely linked to people's beliefs and mental structures. That is, an individual will be able to remember much more easily that information that fits his thoughts than that that is contrary.

For example, an individual may have much easier to remember those data that agree with the hypothesis that he defends in his thesis than those that show the opposite.

In this way, selective memory is a cognitive process that plays a major role in the structural formation of thought.

People require a certain degree of organization in their beliefs. Otherwise, the thought would be diffuse, little organized and unproductive.

Selective memory contributes to these mental requirements of human beings, remembering the information that allows organizing and structuring thoughts, and forgetting the elements that play an opposite role.

Selective memory and identity

Selective memory not only intervenes in the formation of beliefs and thought structures of people, but it is the basis of their identity.

The minds of individuals are a mixture of their genetic factors and the experiences they have lived. And the latter can only leave a mark and become part of the person's way of being through memory.

In this way, memory defines the personality, as it modulates and manages the thoughts that originate within your mind.

Identity is not a compressed version of events that an individual has experienced mainly thanks to selective memory. This allows filtering which experiences become part of the individual's thinking and way of being, and which ones become part of oblivion.

This important characteristic of selective memory reveals once again its close relationship with people's feelings and motivations.

Selective memory is responsible for storing those memories that are linked to the values, needs and motivations that define people and characterize their way of perceiving things.

Selective memory and anxiety

Selective memory can play an important role in certain psychological disorders. Especially, it has been shown to be important in anxiety disorders.

For example, in social phobia, both the fear of interaction with others and the anxiety experienced before, during and after social contact, lies in the information remembered.

People with this disorder pay excessive attention to their social behavior. In this way, after interacting with others, they remember and accurately review all the behaviors performed.

The fact that selective memory focuses on these aspects motivates the person to find multiple defects or aspects to improve in their social behavior, which is why they are perceived as socially unskilled and experience anxiety.

References

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