The human brain is a very complex organ.
In spite of all the studies and research done on it, it is estimated that only know about 10% of all there is to know.
The brain is responsible for so much that we do.
It controls things like how tall we grow, how we see colors and smell foods and how we interpret our surroundings.
The ability of the brain to retain information is known as memory.
Memory varies from person to person.
Not only the ability of the person but also the type of memory.
Some people are gifted with Eidetic memory.
Eidetic memory is more commonly known as photographic memory.
Some people have good memories when it comes to numbers or facts.
Memory power plays an important role in our daily lives.
In fact, the success of a person can be directly tied to their ability to retain information.
I say this because we all need our memories when it comes to school and college.
And we all know that those that excel in school and college are the ones that go on to get the high paying jobs in big companies.
But memory helps in other areas as well.
For example, a good memory can be handy when it comes to remembering directions.
The great thing about the human brain is its capacity.
The amount of information that the human brain can store is infinite.
But how do we fill the brain with impossible amounts of information when you cannot remember where you put your keys! Luckily, the brain can be trained so that you can start using all that brain power.
First you need to understand that there are two kinds of memories - short term and long term.
Short term memory lasts for a couple of seconds or minutes.
The data stored in the short term memory is lost once it is not required anymore.
A good example of this is dialing a phone number from a card.
You forget the number once you have dialed the number.
Research has shown that the maximum number of items that can be stored in the short term memory is 7 items.
The long term memory stores information so that it can be recalled later.
It order to memorize something so that it lasts longer you need to work harder.
Some things get stored in the brain because there is some emotion attached to it or some special effort is made to remember like information required for an exam.
The brain stores information in three stages.
In the first stage the brain encodes the information.
If you concentrate hard enough then the brain starts storing the information in the long term memory section.
When you need the information the brain retrieves it along the same path that it used to store it.
The more the information is used the stronger the path becomes and the easier it is to remember the information.