The concept of “association” comes from science - how people make connections through multiple paths to arrive at answers.

Memory works mainly by association. The process can be compared to the way web crawlers work to browse and catalogue web pages on the Internet. Web crawlers are automated programs that create copies of all visited pages. Search engines like Google then tag and index the pages.In the same way, as we're trying to remember something, our brains dredge up the memory by first recalling a piece of it, scientists say.

When trying to remember a face you saw recently, for example, you might first think broadly about faces and then narrow your search from there, enlisting new details as you go, Polyn explained. It's like adding more and more specific keywords to a Google search, until finally you find what you want.Scientists call this process "contextual reinstatement.""The memories that came up would be hits and the ones that most match your queries would be the ones that came up first," Polyn told LiveScience.