Can you recite the alphabet easily and quickly? Can you write your name easily? Can you play the scale on a musical instrument?

You would probably say that you memorized all this. But what you actually did was to learn them. And the way you learned them was by forming a habit! In other words, what was once quite difficult for you, such as reciting the alphabet or playing the scale, became easy and almost automatic when you formed a habit of doing it. So memory can be described as learning by means of forming habits.

A human being has a tremendous number of such habits that enable him to do most of the ordinary things in life, such as fastening a button or washing the hands. But suppose you read a book and someone asked you what the book was about, or to describe the plot. Surely, this cannot be called a habit.

But if you examine the situation carefully, you will see that something very much like habit does play a part. For example, in ordinary habits, you learn how to put certain elements together in the proper order. Now, when you give the plot of a book, or tell what it’s about, you are doing the same kind of thing. In fact, some psychologists say that all learning (and this also means memory) is made up of a vast combination of simple habits.

But this doesn’t mean that in learning and remembering you simply form habits by mechanically going through the motions of practice, or repeating them. There are several other things that enter into the situation and make it possible for you to learn and remember better.

One of these is the will to learn, or the motive or incentive. Another important thing is understanding what one is learning. For example, you will learn (or memorize) a poem more quickly when you understand it. And you will remember it longer, too.

Still another important help in learning and remembering is the association of new ideas with ideas you have already stored away in your memory.