Memory is our ability to encode, store, retain and subsequently recall

information and past experiences in the human brain. It can be thought of in

general terms as the use of past experience to affect or influence current
behaviour.
Encoding is a biological event beginning with perception through the senses.
The process of laying down a memory begins with attention (regulated by the
thalamus and the frontal lobe).
Emotion tends to increase attention, and the emotional element of an event is
processed on an unconscious pathway in the brain leading to the amygdala.
The hippocampus is the responsible for analyzing these inputs and ultimately
deciding if they will be committed to long-term memory.
Consolidation is the processes of stabilizing a memory trace after the initial
acquisition. It may perhaps be thought of part of the process of encoding or of
storage, or it may be considered as a memory process in its own right. It is
usually considered to consist of two specific processes, synaptic consolidation
(which occurs within the first few hours after learning or encoding) and system
consolidation (where hippocampus-dependent memories become independent
of the hippocampus over a period of weeks to years).
Storage is the more or less passive process of retaining information in the
brain, whether in the sensory memory, the short-term memory or the long-term
memory.
After consolidation, long-term memories are stored throughout the brain as
groups of neurons that are primed to fire together in the same pattern that
created the original experience, and each component of a memory is stored in
the brain area that initiated it.
The more the information is repeated or used, the more likely it is to be
retained in long-term memory.
Retrieval or recall refers to the subsequent re-accessing of events or
information from the past, which have been previously encoded and stored in
the brain.
During recall, the brain "replays" a pattern of neural activity that was originally
generated in response to a particular event, echoing the brain's perception of
the real event. In fact, there is no real solid distinction between the act of
remembering and the act of thinking.
7 ways that make you smarter
Learning ability is probably the most important skill you can have.
Retrieval: Bring it back from memory.
Elaboration: Connect new ideas to what you already know.
Interleaving: Varying your subjects.

Generation: Answer before you have an answer.

Reflection: Evaluate what happened.
Mnemonics: Use hacks to recall.
Calibration: Know what you don't know.
A major question in many peoples minds is how to improve memory. It is safe
to say that attention helps to improve memory encoding but the details of this
modulation remain unresolved.
Although it is more common to think about how attention improves memory,
there is growing appreciation for how memory optimizes attention and
perception.

needed]
cognition is
the
set
of
all mental[disambiguation
abilities
and processes related
to knowledge: attention, memory & working
memory, judgment & evaluation,
reasoning &
"computation", problem solving & decision making, comprehension & production of language.

Mental process or mental function are terms often used interchangeably for all the things
that individuals can do with their minds. These include perception, memory, thinking(such
as ideation, imagination, belief, reasoning, etc.), volition, and emotion. Sometimes the
term cognitive function is used instead.