21 People have to use information to make it stick

Repetition physically changes the brain.

Neurons in the brain fire every time we repeat a word, phrase, song, or phone number we are trying to memorize. Memories are stored as patterns of connections between neurons. When two neurons are activated, the connections between them are strengthened. If we repeat the info enough items, the neurons form a firing trace. Once the trace is formed, then just starting the sequence triggers the rest of e items, and allows us to retrieve the memory.

People use schemata to store iinformation in long term memory and to retrieve it.