How Long-Term Memory Retrieval Works

Key Takeaways

• Memory retrieval is when you access stored memories, like when taking a test.
• Common ways to retrieve memories include recall, recognition, and relearning.
• “Tip of the tongue” happens when you can’t fully retrieve a memory, which is common.

Memory retrieval is important in virtually every aspect of daily life, from remembering where you parked your car to learning new skills, and there are many factors that can influence how memories are retreived.

Obviously, this process is not always perfect. To fully understand it, it’s important to learn more about exactly what retrieval is, as well as the many factors that impact how memories are retrieved.

Memory Retrieval Basics

So what exactly is retrieval? Simply put, it is a process of accessing stored memories. For example, when you are taking an exam, you need to be able to retrieve learned information from your memory in order to answer the test questions.

There are four basic ways in which information can be pulled from long-term memory. The type of retrieval cues available can have an impact on how information is retrieved. A retrieval cue is a clue or prompt that is used to trigger the retrieval of long-term memory.

• Recall: This type of memory retrieval involves being able to access the information without being cued. Answering a question on a fill-in-the-blank test is a good example of recall.
• Recollection: This type of memory retrieval involves reconstructing memory, often utilizing logical structures, partial memories, narratives, or clues. For example, writing an answer on an essay exam often involves remembering bits of information and restructuring the remaining information based on these partial memories.
• Recognition: This type of memory retrieval involves identifying information after experiencing it again. For example, taking a multiple-choice quiz requires you to recognize the correct answer out of a group of available answers.
• Relearning: This type of memory retrieval involves relearning information that has previously been learned. This often makes it easier to remember and retrieve information in the future and can improve the strength of memories.

Problems With Memory Retrieval

The retrieval process doesn’t always work perfectly. Have you ever felt like you knew the answer to a question, but couldn’t quite remember the information? This phenomenon is known as a ‘tip of the tongue’ experience and is an example of a problem with memory recall. You might feel certain a piece of information is stored somewhere in your memory, but you are unable to access and retrieve it.

While a “tip of the tongue” experience may be irritating or even troubling, research has shown that these experiences are extremely common. Typically, they occur at least once each week for most younger individuals and two to four times a week for older adults.

In many cases, people can even remember details about the memory without knowing the piece of information itself, such as the first letter a word starts with.

Retrieval failure is a common explanation for why we forget things. But if the memories are there, we can’t we access them?

In many cases, we lack adequate retrieval cues to trigger the memory. In other instances, the pertinent information might never have been fully encoded into memory in the first place.

One common example: try to draw the face of a penny from memory. The task can be surprisingly difficult, even if you have a very good idea of what a penny looks like. The reality is you probably only really remember enough to distinguish pennies from other forms of currency. You can remember the size, color, and shape of the coin, but the information about what the front of the coin looks like is fuzzy at best because you never needed to encode this information into your memory.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

1. Rowland CA, Bates LE, Delosh EL. On the reliability of retrieval-induced forgetting. Front Psychol. 2014;5:1343. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01343

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the “Everything Psychology Book.”

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