Memory: Identification and Recognition

Have you run into someone randomly in a strange location and completely failed to recognize them? Your local grocery owner at the movie hall, perhaps?

Embarrassed, you conjure a weak explanation about being forgetful or your memory failing you?

I have good news for you.

It is not your memory that is failing you. It is the way you store memories. Essentially, the difference revolves around identification and recognition.

Whenever you meet someone, there is actually a two-part process that occurs. You identify a person and then you recognize the person.

When this happens with people you are familiar with in settings that are repeated, both happen simultaneously. Fast enough for you not to be able to tell the difference.

When you run into someone in an unfamiliar location or someone who you don’t meet often, you identify them. The person seems vaguely familiar, but your brain does not convey confidence.

You might say, I think I have seen him somewhere. The reason is also context. Recognition requires context, the grocery store in this case.

When both don’t occur together, you do not recognise, hence the apparent confusion.

Old age is not catching up and you do not need supplements to improve your memory.

Here is the strange thing.

We all want a sharp memory. Memory that does not fail us in any and every circumstance. But memory does not work like this.

Instead, it works on what could be called a preferrential basis. Storing and retrieving things that it believes to be mission critical.

There is a finite capacity.

So if you do not use a particular memory, it could be deleted or relegated.

If you want to be known as somone who instantly recognizes anyone you meet, you need to repeatedly practice. Your brain prioritizes what you tell it to priortize.

Of course, if you ran into me somewhere and started providing me with explanations about the difference between identification and recognition, I would be most annoyed.

Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain