This last question illustrates one final but powerful point: Once we process what we have learned into a connected network of information, we call it knowledge, and it becomes a permanent part of us, contained in a category of memory researchers call long-term memory. Chances are, you learned in grade school and had it reinforced later in history classes that Columbus discovered America in an attempt to find a trade route to the West Indies. His discovery proved to the developed European countries that new worlds were out there waiting to be discovered. This ushered in an unprecedented period of discovery and settlement, and the hodge-podge of cultures that combined to make up American settlements have given this country a unique makeup.

Now none of that information could be said to be "memorized," and chances are that this same basic knowledge will be available to you thirty or forty years from now. And unlike the limited capacity of our working memory, our long-term memory appears to be limitless. People can go on adding knowledge their entire life and never fill up their brain. This is very different from the somewhat overwhelming feeling we get when we try to cram for a test and load our working memory to the point of overflowing.

The implication is clear, and it underscores what we noted earlier in this lesson: excellence in learning and performing your best in the classroom can be achieved by frequent and thorough processing of the information coming into your working memory. Brief, periodic reviews of the new information you get in your classes results in the formation of knowledge. Once you have it, successful performance in class is almost certain to follow. You will be able to review before a major exam rather than try to cram the information in or relearn it.