How is knowledge being represented in our brains?
Every verbal or visual information receive is stored through its meaning. Perceptual details get lost after 10 minutes.
The meaning is organized in a network. We decompose a sentence/picture we perceive in smaller parts – in elements- and store them in our long-term memory, by putting them into a relationship.
So our long-term memory is likely to contain cognitive maps, similar to a city map.
Things we relate to ourselves, are stored in the autobiographical memory. There we have events we went through like targets, plans, emotions, movies. The memory represents a personal interpretation of events and is much more detailed compared to other memories.
Examples are our school period, our working period, relationships, general events like holidays, or specific events that we felt were important to us. Together with these events, we store also the emotions we have felt during those periods.
Interestingly, we cannot remember clearly what has happened before we reached the age of three years, because some brain structures were not developed at those ages and the narrative structure was missing. On the other hand, the elderly can remember best what has happened between the age of 15 and 25, because it is the time in which we take important life decisions.
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Looking forward to reading your feedback in the comment section!