 There are three steps to human memory. Step one is encoding, which refers to putting or encoding information into a person's memory. Step two is storage. It is believed that humans have unlimited storage capacity. Step three is retrieval, which refers to getting the information back from storage. For most people, retrieval is the most difficult part of the memory process. Several memory phenomena contribute to retrieval. Let's try a memory exercise to examine that phenomena more closely. What if I were to ask you to name Santa's Nine Reindeer? What names would come to mind? Come up with nine names, even if you think they're wrong. On a scale of 1 to 10, how difficult would you rate the last task? There are several reasons this task is difficult for some people. Are any of these true for you? Was it culture-bound? You've never learned about Santa's Reindeer? Did you consider it inconsequential? You've heard the story but never focused on mastering the names. Did you have distractions that interfered with remembering? Was it difficult due to the passage of time? It's been too long since you've heard the story. Did you experience the tip-of-the-tong phenomenon? If yes, think about the following. Can you describe the word? How many syllables does it have? What is the meaning of the word? These questions can help if you can only remember parts of things. Then you can construct the parts to remember the whole. So far you've been using recall to remember the reindeer. Now look at the list below and see if there are names that you remember. I think those are the names of Santa's Reindeer. Was recognition easier than recall? Recognition is generally easier for most people. So I can see by the center column my student recall was not very good. But after looking at the list, I could name all nine reindeer. Let's test your recall. Without going back, list the reindeer again. Did you get them correct? The first time you listed the reindeer, you retrieved them from your long-term memory. The second time, you retrieved the names from your short-term memory, which is usually easier. One more question. Did you use a song to help you to remember reindeer names? If so, you just used a Pneumonic device. This concludes Exploring Memory.