Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience. It is also the process of bringing into the conscious mind things that has been learned and retained. Experiment show that the higher intellectual processes such as reasoning and memory are based in the cerebral cortex, if certain parts of the cerebral cortex are stimulated electrically, there will be recall of experiences. If large areas of the cortex are destroyed, memory is impaired.

Important things to know about Memory:

• Emotional effect is stored in the memory. Example is child frightened by dog may retain fear for many years. It was once thought that skills (like driving and biking) and emotional memories were retained longer than verbal memories (dates and names).
• A person's ability to retain or remember increases until a person is about 20 years old after this age the person ability to remember things tend to decline.
• Illness, shock, or lack of sleep may weaken or damage the person memory.

• Learning and memory are connected. Unless something is learned, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it cannot be retained.
• Studies have shown that the better the learning process, the longer and more completely the material is retained in the memory.
• A person learns more quickly and therefore retains better if the material appeals to his interests and when the material can be related to what he already knows.
• Practice can help in the learning process, especially if it is broken up with rest periods.
• Memory can be improved by the use of rhyme and visual images.

Theories on how memory is formed:

• Memory is localized or restricted in specific regions in the brain. Particular memory is retrieved by a complex series of steps that activate a unique pattern of electrical activity in the brain. Example here is when a person got himself into accident that causes him to have brain injuries, this brain injury will have an effect on the person's speech and memory.
• Memory is spread widely, meaning it is a collective action of countless cells. When a memory is retrieved, electrical activity spreads across the brain. The memory processes overlap and destruction of one area does not always erase the entire memory.