How to Improve Your Memory

Aging process: Ability to retain a good memory

2019-12-01T17:20:00.004-08:00

Memory refers to the mental process of encoding, retaining, and retrieving environmental information. How the human cognitive system deals with the memorization process remains the centre of research among cognitive psychologists.

The association between sleep and memory has been studied for the last few decades, but it is now well established that sleep plays an important role in the memory consolidation process, which is a part of retention or the encoding process. There is electrophysiological and behavioral evidence to prove that sleep helps memory consolidation and brain plasticity.

Myths about aging can contribute to a failing memory. Middle-aged and older learners do worse on memory tasks when they're exposed to negative stereotypes about aging and memory, and better when the messages are positive about memory preservation into old age.

People who believe that they are not in control of their memory function are less likely to work at maintaining or improving their memory skills and therefore are more likely to experience cognitive decline. If the person is motivated to develop a better memory and believe he can, the person is much more likely to do what it takes to have a better memory.

The effects of nutrition and exercise on verbal memory were studied for type 2 diabetic old age participants, and positive results were reported. This study showed that exercise and nutrition may help memory for old adults at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The reason for this finding may be that diet and exercise affect neurotropic elements and synaptic plasticity in the brain’s regions, which are directly related to memory.

Aging process: Ability to retain a good memory

Tips how not to forget

2019-11-19T23:41:00.002-08:00

*Be Intentional. Study in a place away from distractions. Try to study in a place free of distractions such as television, music, and other diversions.

*Pay attention, concentrate and focus to learn new information

*Get Interested. In order to remember something thoroughly, the student must have a reason to remember it. In other words, the student must cultivate an interest in what he trying to learn and making it meaningful.

*Pay extra attention to difficult information

*Connect new information to what already know

*Take a 10 minute break when studying for two or more hours at a time

*Rehearse over and over. Over learn material so that it becomes part of the knowledge foundation.

*Research published in 2017 suggests that reading materials out loud significantly improvesmemory of the material.

*Studying materials over a number of sessions gives the time needed to adequately process information. Research has continuously shown that students who study regularly remember the material far better than those who do all of their studying in one marathon session

*Ask questions, create a study group or do additional own research.

*Researchers have found that information is organized in memory in related clusters. Try grouping similar concepts and terms together, or make an outline of the notes and textbook readings to help group related concepts.

* Visualize. Making a mental picture of what you need to remember triggers an entirely different part of the brain than listening or reading

*Keep to a routine for studying. Consider it like a paying job.

*Get 7 –9 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. The evidence now seems reasonably convincing that sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation - at least for procedural/skill memory

*Get regular exercise

*Eat healthy. The best diet for the brain is, basically, the kind that's also healthy for the rest of the body -- a well-balanced diet, filled with whole grains, a wide variety of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables, and moderate amounts of protein that supplies just enough calories to fuel the daily activities.
Tips how not to forget

Exceptional Memory

2019-11-04T01:00:00.001-08:00

Exceptional Memory currently exists within the following modalities: autobiographical, visual images and numbers or music. The ability to remember large capacities of information in these modalities is identified as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, Eidetic Memory and Savant Syndrome, respectively.

MRI studies of demonstrate that multiple areas in the temporal and the parietal lobes tied to autobiographical memory are significantly larger than the same regions of normal person. At the same time, another area, the lentiform nucleus, linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder, is also bigger. Researchers observed that superior memorizers used a spatial learning strategy and engaged brain regions such as the hippocampus that are critical for memory and for spatial memory in particular.

In general, increasing overall health with better sleep, regular exercise, and better nutrition will improve human brain health–including memory–as well as the physical health. Having an exceptional memory allows a character to make observations and recall facts better than the average person. Whether they have a photographic memory, eidetic memory or simply a strong ability to focus on and later relay what one has seen, heard and experienced, this skill can be applied to many life situations and be an asset at one’s work.

Exceptional Memory

Mild concussions can cause memory loss

2019-10-22T23:01:00.002-07:00

A concussion is a mild form of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head. Concussions can also occur from a fall or a blow to the body that causes the head to move rapidly back and forth. With concussion comes symptoms that include headaches, fatigue, depression, anxiety and irritability, as well as impaired cognitive function.

Acute post-concussive symptoms fit into primary categories, including physical (e.g., loss of consciousness, posttraumatic amnesia), attention and processing speed, somatic (e.g., headaches, dizziness), affective (e.g., personality changes, depression), and cognitive (e.g., attention deficits, memory problems).

Evidence indicates that a single concussion can disrupt the neurological mechanisms underlying cognition.

One of the symptoms is difficulties in thinking and remembering recent events (even those information and a fulllist of concussion immediately before and/or after the signs and symptoms concussion), or feeling mentally “foggy”.

The person may be able to remember his wedding day, but not where he put his shoes. This can be because he has having problems concentrating and also because minor head injury disrupts the memory system for a while.

Most people with a concussion recover quickly and fully. But for some people, symptoms can last for days, weeks, or longer.

Mild concussions can cause memory loss

Types of memory

2019-10-12T01:20:00.000-07:00

How Many Types of Memory Do We Have?

Immediate memory: That memory which helps to recall something in a fraction of a second after perceiving the object or receiving the impulse from a stimulus. The time of retention is very short by a fraction to a few seconds. Old sense impressions disappear in a few seconds. Past impressions are erased and replaced by new ones. Such type of memory is needed very often. A good example is the remembering of the ticket number and a casual phone number.

Short term memory: This is also temporary but a little more than the immediate memory in time factor. The time for such type of memory is up to 30 seconds. By rehearsal and regular practice, the time of memory can be extended to a few more seconds.

Long term memory: A special capacity is required to store the experiences. No rehearsal is needed and there is no decay of memory. Coding arrangement is done in mind by the brain for permanent memory. Bringing back for use is at ease.

Rote memory: The case of memorizing a matter without understanding is called rote memory. Memorizing a rhyme or some slogans without understanding is an example for rote memory.

Types of memory

Regular exercise can boost your memory

2019-09-30T07:53:00.002-07:00

Physical activity is widely believed to improve overall health, physical appearance, and internal workings of our body. The brain is a key organ that physical activity can affect. It can enhance cognitive functions and in response to physical activity, can maintain and even improve those functions.

Long-term benefits of regular exercise include improvements in scores on neuropsychological test batteries, as well as increased attention and perceptual abilities.

Regular exercise improves circulation and efficiency throughout the body, including in the brain. The brain needs oxygen and other nutrients in order to function well. When the oxygen is low, it affects human ability to concentrate, which in turn makes it more difficult to learn new information or recall information that was studied in the past.

Exercise helps supply oxygen to the brain, so even walking 15 minutes a day will help to focus better. Exercise also makes the body more alert and relaxed, and can thereby improve the memory uptake, allowing human brain to take better mental “pictures."
Regular exercise can boost your memory

Eidetic memory

2019-06-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

The brain is more powerful than any computer, far better than anything money can buy.

Some people display eidetic imagery, commonly called photographic memory. It is not actually photographic, but it does create automatic detailed and vivo images of vitally everything they have ever seen.

Eidetic memory is an interesting concept within memory research. It is based on the assumption that it's possible to store vast amounts of information by briefly 'scanning' the material.

Eidetic imagery occurs when a person has visual clear enough to be “scanned” or retained for at least 30 seconds. Internal memory images can be “viewed” mentally with the eyes close. In contrast, eidetic images are “projected” out in front of a person.

About 5 percent of school age children have eidetic imagery, but it is extremely rare in adults.
Eidetic memory

What is mnemonic device?

2018-10-23T23:02:00.001-07:00

Internal memory aids refer to a specific type of mnemonic device that requires the use of internal memory strategies to implement. For example, aids to memory such as acronyms, rhymes, linking information by creating visual images or making up a story,

A general rule for any type of mnemonic device is that it must be simple, clear and vivid. One of the commonest of mnemonic devices is to throw anything that we have to remember into the form of verse, whether rhymed or unrhymed.

Mnemonics are undoubtedly effective for rote memorization, but they do require a lot of work to master. Mnemonics can also help the person learn basic facts and new vocabulary, which he needs to acquire when learning a new subject.
What is mnemonic device?

Rote memory

2018-09-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

Rote learning is defined as repeated rehearsal of verbal material. This, results in small amounts of information to be transferred from short-term to long-term. Memorizing a rhyme or some slogans without understanding is an example for rote memory.

Researchers have shown interest in students’ learning approaches, how they learn and why they chose a particular approach for learning. According to a study of Marton and Saljo (1976), there are generally two strategies of learning: surface learning approach and deep learning approach (British Journal of Educational Psychology 46(1):4-11 • February 1976).

The process of rote learning fixes the information in the memory through sheer repetition. It is generally, not considered to be a favored learning strategy. The students with such learning styles are considered to be surface learners.

Surface approach is memorizing information without understanding the deeper knowledge, also known as rote learning; whereas in deep approach, the students involve themselves in the study process to grasp the deeper understanding of the content. Rote memorization is not only inefficient, but it encourages learners not to think-just memorize.

Other disadvantages of rote memory include:
*Easy to lose focus
*Doesn’t allow for a deeper understanding of a subject
*Doesn’t encourage the use of social skills
*No connection between new and previous knowledge
*May result in wrong impression or understanding a concept
Rote memory

Flashbulb memories

2018-08-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

Flashbulb memories are vivid and long-lasting memories for the reception context of an important public event.

They are assumed to be triggered by emotional factors (i.e., intensity of emotional feeling, appraisal of the original event) and by social factors (i.e., social sharing of the news, following media debate about the event).

Flashbulb memories are detailed memories of the reception context. In some circumstances people may well remember the context in which they first saw or heard the news, such as the exact time it happened, their detailed location, or what activities they were engaged in at the time.

Flashbulb memories were originally identified as a distinct subset of autobiographical memory because of their extraordinary accuracy and longevity. It has been postulated that a special mechanism is required to account for these properties.

Like the Pearl Harbor bombing and the Kennedy assassination, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, seem unforgettable to most Americans who lived through them. Many people feel that they clearly remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news; they often describe these memories as particularly vivid and emotional.

There are four major models which explain the formation of flashbulb memories and they take into consideration the cognitive, emotional, and social factors of flashbulb memories.
Flashbulb memories

Treatment for Alzheimer’s disease

2018-07-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

Alzheimer’s (AHLZ-high-merz) is a disease of the brain that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. It is not a normal part of aging. It is the most common of the dementing disorders, affects an estimated 4 million people in the United States.

The disease may cause a person to become confused, get lost in familiar places, misplace things or have trouble with language. Patients and caregivers often mistake early symptoms for normal aging changes, and physicians may fail to recognize the initial signs of dementia or misdiagnose them, perpetuating myths and fallacies about the disease--in particular, that the early signs of dementia are "just old age" or "just senility."

Three types of drugs are currently approved by the FDA to treat cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The first, cholinesterase inhibitors, prevents the breakdown of acetylcholine (a-SEA-til-KOH-lean), a chemical messenger important for memory and learning: donepezil, galantamine and rivastigmine. These drugs prevent the breakdown of a chemical messenger in the brain that isimportant for learning and memory.

The second type of drug works by regulating the activity of glutamate, a different messenger chemical involved in information processing: Memantine regulates the activity of a different chemical messenger in the brain that is also important for learning and memory.

The third type is a combination of cholinesterase inhibitor and a glutamate regulator.
Treatment for Alzheimer’s disease

Drink lots of water may boost your memory

2018-05-18T20:38:00.002-07:00

As part of its body functions, water contributes to the maintenance of normal brain functions. Cognition is involved in everything we do, including perceiving, thinking, remembering, as well as feeling emotions and exerting control over the environment. Drink lots of water or non-caffeinated drinks. Even a small degree of dehydration can reduce alertness.

There is considerable evidence that dehydration has a direct link to reduction in cognitive abilities. In the context of water, sanitation and hygiene in schools, improved access to drinking water may improve children’s ability to learn by improving attention, concentration, and short-term memory.

There has been extensive research on the effect of hydration on cognitive performance in adults. This has been studied by examining dehydration induced by physical activity, heat exposure or fluid restriction, or a combination of these factors. If the person doesn’t consume enough water he will become dehydrated. The first thing he will notice is increased thirst and a dry sticky mouth. Other effects include tiredness, poor concentration, headache and dizziness or light headedness.

1988 research found that dehydration induced by heat exposure and fluid restriction resulted in impaired performance on short term memory tasks, visuomotor tracking tasks and arithmetic efficiency. They reported a dose–response effect, with cognitive performance related to the degree of dehydration (Gopinathan, P., Pichan, G., & Sharma, V. (1988). Role of dehydration in heat stress-induced variations in mental performance. Archives of Environmental Health, 43(1),15–17).
Drink lots of water may boost your memory

Transient global amnesia

2018-04-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

Transient global amnesia is a sudden and temporary impairment of memory that lasts up to 24 hours. During transient global amnesia a person is not able to recall new information (anterograde amnesia), and may also have difficulty recalling old memories (retrograde amnesia).

The main symptom of transient global amnesia is repetitive questioning and disorientation. During the attack the person is alert and able to communicate and remains aware of their personal identity. The patient maintains personal knowledge, usually knowledge of family members, preserved remote memories and intellect.

Transient global amnesia typically occurs in an elderly or middle-aged patient, lasts from 1 to 24 h, and then resolves spontaneously and completely. It has an incidence of five per 100,000 populations per year. There has been no racial or sexual predilection reported. Precipitating events such as cold temperature, sexual intercourse, and compromising situations (e.g., an elderly man in the midst of an extramarital affair, or bathing in the cold waters of the North Atlantic) have been reported in some cases.

Patients are often noted to have a high level of agitation and anxiety. This can lead to repetition and perseveration with those affected typically asking the same questions again and again in a very methodical manner, and often with similar gestures and vocal intonation.

The most widely accepted view was that transient global amnesia is due to thromboembolic cerebrovascular disease; some authors have advocated an epileptic cause and aetiological claims have also been made for migraine.

In addition, single cases have been reported in association with a wide range of conditions including brain tumors, drug over-dosage, polycythemia and intra-cerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Transient global amnesia

How exercise can improve your memory?

2018-03-19T00:25:00.002-07:00

There are two ways to improve memory: through nutrition and exercise. Physical fitness and mental fitness go together. People who engage in regular vigorous exercise also tend to stay mentally sharp into their 70s and 80s.

Exercise can help your whole body work more efficiently. A short exercise break every 30 to 50 minutes can help push oxygen around your body and to your brain.

The people in the landmark MacArthur Foundation Study on Successful Aging whose mental functions remained strong were active almost daily.

Acute aerobic exercise can be beneficial to episodic memory. This benefit may occur because exercise produces a similar physiological response as physical stressors. When administered during consolidation, acute stress, both physical and psychological, consistently enhances episodic memory, particularly memory for emotional materials (Acta Psychol (Amst). 2014 Nov; 153: 13–19. Published online 2014 Sep 28).

In another study, exercise has been shown to reduce age-related losses in cognitive function including learning and memory (Front Aging Neurosci. 2014; 6: 3. Published online 2014 Feb 3).
How exercise can improve your memory?

Anterograde amnesia

2018-02-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

Anterograde amnesia refers to difficulty in remembering events that occur after the onset of amnesia. It appears to reflect a disruption in the transfer of events to long-term memory during learning.

It is proposed that a common feature of anterograde amnesia is damage to part of an “extended hippocampal system” comprising the hippocampus, the fornix, the mammillary bodies and the anterior thalamic nuclei.

Damage to this system results in deficits in the recall of episodic information, the core symptom of anterograde amnesia.

Patients with anterograde amnesia are, for most practical purposes, unable to learn and have defective recent memory, the kind and severity of memory defect varying somewhat with the nature of the disorder.
Anterograde amnesia

What food improves memory and concentration?

2018-01-03T07:22:00.000-08:00

Just like sleep an exercise, diet is a cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle and therefore of full control of human cerebral capacities.

Thus, the malnourishment of a child during pregnancy can lead to severe cerebral problems that limit their faculties of attention and concentration. A healthy and varied diet allows the brain to develop perfectly during childhood.

Certain foods are thought to improve memory performance. They include fish such as salmon and tuna, eggs, beef, chicken and bananas.

Vitamin B12 can help in improving concentration and memory. The good sources of this vitamin are milk and milk product, meat, eggs, fish and most non-vegetarian foods.

Vitamin B6 that found in banana, wheat germ, pulses, brown rise and brewer’s yeasts can promotes clear thinking.

Coffee can improves short-term memory and speeds up reaction times by acting on the brain prefrontal cortex, according to study by Koppelstaetter in 2008, in which functional magnetic resonance imaging was use to determine what areas of the brain were activated by coffee.
What food improves memory and concentration?

What is the meaning of memory?

2017-12-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

What is Memory?
Memory is many things, but to scientist, memory is all that you remember as wells as your capacity for remembering. Not all memories are created equal. Some memories are meant to be remembered for a short periods and then discarded.

But memories that are more important are stored in the brain and can be retrieved at will: the names of close friends and relatives, the multiplication tables, phone number, and any other information use regularly.

Certain kind of information can be memorized only if concentrated, whereas other kinds of memories, such as the faces of people seeing regularly and the steps of simple everyday routines like brushing teeth, are absorbed without conscious effort. The process of learning new information, storing it, and recalling it involves a complex interplay of brain functions.

Researchers and neuroscientists have devised several classification systems to capture the various forms of memory. One major system relies in time, making distinction between short-term memories, which are fleeting and long term memories, which persists for most of our life.

Another scheme breaks memories down according to the type of information they contain, such as whether they are straight facts or the procedures for doing something.
What is the meaning of memory?

Get enough sleep to improve memory

2017-11-10T18:26:00.004-08:00

It is very important to get enough sleep and mange stress. When the person tired, stressed and anxious he tend to reduce the ability to remember even the simplest and obvious things.

Sleeping may have benefits to developing a good memory for facts, such as increasing the ability to concentrate during the day.

If the person doesn’t get enough sleep, he won’t be able to maintain enough attention to code information into memory.

Attention is the gateway to memory. If his ability to pay attention is compromised, the gate can’t fully open. So, keep the gate open by get enough sleep.

Have at least 6 to 8 hours of sleep in a day and have time to rest in between activities. Although it can vary from person to person and there has even been some research showing that women may on average need an hour’s more sleep than men.

The key thing is to stick a regular sleeping pattern so that the body can maintain a regular rhythm. It is good try to get up at the same time every day, even on weekends.
Get enough sleep to improve memory

Neurons in nervous system

2017-10-11T10:06:00.002-07:00

Neurons, the basic blocks of the brain and nervous system. They are excitable cells: that is, they transmit electric impulses along the fibers that connect them.

It is possible that the time at which a neuron transmit also carries information.

These impulses are every fast, reaching over 500 kilometers per hour. This means that, over the very short distances between cells, such impulses take only milliseconds. A neuron also is an element that can distinguished the inputs it receives into two cases, those leading to transmit and those that do not.

The details of connections among of neurons are guided by experience and learning. Experience fine tunes the organization of connections among neurons in the brain. This termed as synapse.

Researchers observed that memories aren’t stored in a single location, memory bank, but rather are widely distributed in different networks of neurons throughout the brain.

Most of these networks reside in the cerebral cortex, which is the outer layer of the brains two hemisphere and the most highly developed part of the human nervous system.

Researchers found that the brain remembers by ‘walking through’ massively interconnected groups of concepts that are stored throughout the brain.

Synapses are constantly strengthened or weakened and new dendrites are growing to link neurons together in new patterns. This continuous process of brain reorganization underlies all long term memory and learning.

Every times the person store something in long term memory, the connection strength of existing synapses is changed or new synapses are grown.

The connection between the neurons are much stronger than the fluctuations in the brain.
Neurons in nervous system

What is meaning of metacognition?

2017-09-17T20:24:00.001-07:00

Metacognition is used as a collective term describing a number of phenomena, activities and experiences related to the knowledge and control of one’s own cognitive functions (e.g. perception, learning, memory, understanding and thinking).

The definition includes knowledge of general cognitive strategies, along with monitoring, evaluating and regulating them, and beliefs about factors that affect cognitive strategies. Metacognition allows individuals to recognize information to know when, what, and how to remember.

Metacognition further involves the act of “thinking about how one thinks” or knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomenon.

Recalling that effective leaders form a vision, achieving the vision requires a problem solving approach i.e. leaders must select an appropriate strategy based on their repertoire of knowledge and skills and they must subsequently plan, monitor, and evaluate continuously, Metacognition relates positively to both decision making and the ability to solve complex problems.
What is meaning of metacognition?

Traumatic involuntary memories

2017-08-10T21:14:00.002-07:00

DSM-IV describes PTSD as characterized by high frequency, distressing, involuntary memories that individuals are unable to forget and same great efforts to prevent coming to mind. Among these is the traumatic ‘flashback’.

Traumatic involuntary memories appear to be different from everyday (or ordinary) involuntary memories in a number of important ways. For example, unlike ordinary involuntary memories, traumatic involuntary memories are quite repetitive.

Typically they involve repetitions of a memory of the same of a prior traumatic experience. When people with PTSD have flashbacks, they feel more stress and anxiety when they recall them from a field views than from an observer view.

In generally, traumatic involuntary memories are typically experience by individuals ranging from 1% to 14% in the population.
Traumatic involuntary memories

Involuntary autobiographical memories

2017-07-03T03:03:00.002-07:00

Involuntary autobiographical memories were for a long time neglected in cognitive psychology, whereas they attracted in clinical psychology in relation to specific disorders such as PTSD.

Involuntary autobiographical memories have been found to be more specific, more positive and less rehearsed compared to voluntary memories.

They are an exception to the standard and might most appropriately be viewed as a curiosity. Involuntary autobiographical memories take place in all people with intact autobiographical memory. Frequency estimates of involuntary autobiographical memories vary. Study (by Bernteen, 1996), showed most retrospectively assessed that they had about 5-6 involuntary memories per day, but also that their frequency varied greatly as a function of duties and activity level.

Involuntary autobiographical memories mostly occur when attention is diffused and not focused, for example, while carrying out automatic activity such as walking, driving or making a cup of coffee.
Involuntary autobiographical memories

Eating broccoli can enhances brain

2017-06-04T23:54:00.002-07:00

Age related mental slowness is partially caused by the destructive effects of oxidant on the brain cells over time.

There are many foods that help boost memory and brain. Eating foods like blueberries, green tea, broccoli, tomatoes, whole grains and apples, can fight this damage and help brain cells function more efficiently.

Broccoli assist in brain functioning. Broccoli contains high levels of vitamin K and choline, it will help keep memory sharp.

Vitamin K enhances brain function. Study published in the December 2013 issue of Neurobiology of Aging, vitamin K was associated with better verbal memory performance among 320 men and women who were seventy years old and older but had no cognitive impairment.

Choline is essential to memory and to moderate effects of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease. Studies showed that choline increases memory capacity and precision of the young adult and appears to prevent age-related memory and attentional decline. Choline provides neuro-protection against neural assaults, both natural and pharmacologically induced.
Eating broccoli can enhances brain

What is retrograde amnesia?

2017-05-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

Retrograde amnesia refers to loss of memory for information acquired before the onset of amnesia. Retrograde memory loss almost always occurs in association with anterograde amnesia, which is characterized by an inability to learn new information.

Retrograde amnesia can affect both the recall of autobiographical and public events (episodic memory) and the retrieval of facts and concepts (semantic memory) that were known before the onset of amnesia.

Almost all other cognitive abilities, such as attention and perception, speech, problem solving, and decision making alls remain intact, depending on the area of the brain that has been compromised.

Some patients have severe retrograde amnesia for events together with relatively preserved memory for facts and concepts, whereas others show the opposite pattern with severely impaired semantic memory but relatively preserved episodic remote memory.

Retrograde amnesia most often occurs following some types of illness (e.g. encephalitis, Alzheimer’s disease or Korsakoff syndrome) or following a traumatic injury of the brain.
What is retrograde amnesia?

Disorder of memory

2017-04-04T02:20:00.001-07:00

Memory disorders have either a neurological or a psychological basis. Moreover both types may involve either a discrete (transient) episode of memory loss or a more persisting memory disorder.

The assessment, study and treatment of memory disorder is part of neuropsychology, the subdiscipline of psychology concerned with the relationship between brain damage and psychological processes.

The first step in assessing a patient with a memory disorder is to determine whether the disorder is organic or psychogenic by studying the patient’s medical record.

Disorders caused by brain dysfunction are called organic and those with no apparent physical cause are called functional or psychogenic.

The amnesia syndrome is only one of the memory disorders that can be caused by brain damage. Lesions in different brain regions can in fact cause memory to break down in several distinct ways. The resultant memory syndrome can be dovded into the following groups:
*Disorder of immediate memory
*Disorders of previous well-established, primarily semantic memory
*Memory disorders caused by damage to the prefrontal association neocortex
*The amnesic syndrome
*Disorders of skill learning and memory
*Disorders of classical conditioning
*Disorders of non-associative kinds of memory such as habituation
Disorder of memory