Isn’t it kind of weird how my passion is memory? What is memory? Just a quick throwback? Maybe. But to me, it’s more than that. Memory is an interesting thing; you can remember something then the next second you forget it completely, a week later it comes back again. Isn’t kind of weird how the brain is part of us yet we can’t control most of the things the brain does? For example, the brain. The brain decides what information it wants to file and when to make you remember it. So how does the brain file these data? Well, there’s different types of memories; sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. Sensory memory is the shortest type of memory, it’s also probably the reason why you forget something right after you remember it. This memory helps prevent you from being overwhelmed by too many incoming stimuli by forgetting it within 500 milliseconds. When looking at objects, faces, words, or numbers your brain may choose to keep some information and move it to short-term memory, which is also known as the “working memory.” It’s the capacity for holding, but not manipulating, a small amount of information in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time. For example, short-term memory can be used to remember a phone number that has just been recited. While many of our short-term memories are quickly forgotten, the rest of the information moves on to the next stage—long-term memory. Long-term memory is the storage of information for a long time. it’s the final stage in the processing of memory. The Information stored in long-term memory lasts longer than short-term memory and is easier to recall. Long-term memory lasts up to months, years or maybe decades, depends on what it is and how special your brain thinks it is. Fun fact, when you recall a memory you’re actually making a copy of the original memory. So the more you think about that memory the faster you’ll forget it.