How does the brain recall obscure information?
For a couple of hours tonight I was at a loss for a name of someone form my past. I let it go and went about surfing the internet for giggles, and his name suddenly popped into my mind.
How does memory recall and information processing work in the subconscious brain?
Can one make requests to the brain that processes in the background?
I thank my brain for helping.
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I don’t understand HOW it works…I’m just glad that it DOES work!!! I’m going to assume that when we think of something that we just can’t remember that sends a signal to the brain that we NEED that info & it automatically starts the sorting process to provide us with that info. I see our brain as much like a computer…the info is there but we have to search to find it. When we think of something that we just can’t remember, the brain pushes out a search & we eventually get our answer!!! For me, that answer usually seems to surface at 3:00am & I have forgotten it again by the time I wake up!!! ¯\(ツ)/¯
@RedDeerGuy1 I do not know HOW it does but I do know THAT it does. Your experience
is one I have had many times regarding names, words or phrases. The mind is a beautiful
and wondrous thing!
The conscious mind sets the process in motion. Then the subconscious dredges up the information and sends it to the threshold of the two minds where it crosses over with logic.
That happens to me. I can struggle for hours trying to remember someone’s name, give up, then later in the day it just pops up like toast from a toaster.
I have had that experience as well. What it shows is that there is a part of our brains that we have no conscious control of.
Some of us are better at recalling information than others. Information we use a lot, or that is not connected to a lot of emotion, is usually easier to retrieve. The interconnections in help us access the memory. That’s why when someone is upset or angry, similar circumstances that caused that same feeling come flooding in.
The classic example is a woman who brings up the past when her husband does something AGAIN that makes her feel a certain way.
Why you suddenly remembered the name, I don’t know. I guess your brain kept searching in the background. Sometimes thinking of the circumstance you knew then in can help. Like picturing them with you in school or work, whatever the circumstance. Back to a time when you knew their name.
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