I'm not sure I'm following you. Can you rephrase?
"Memorizing" is intentionally encoding information for ease of later recall.
"Recalling" is becoming aware, consciously, of encoded information, whether it was intentionally memorized or not, in response to a question, to a similar circumstance, or most generally a domain in which that information is relevant. It is primarily, having the "right" encoded information be jogged in a particular instance (that you are reminded of relevant cashed thoughts) and secondarily, the ease and completeness with which that information is brought to conscious awareness.
Not forgetting is safeguarding specifically and intentionally memorized encoded information from decay.
There is a difference between forgetting apiece of information (so it is no longer encoded) and not being able to access it at the appropriate time. It is of course true that if you have forgotten information you will not be able to access it, so you need to "not forget" in order to recall" but in practice we can't make sure to not forget everything, on the off chance that it might be useful one day. So, it is useful to be able to accurately recall relevant information that has begun to be forgotten. If someone with good "recall" and someone with poor "recall" each have a memory that is close to being forgotten, the one with good recall will be able to access it better.
As an analogy: memory is a conveyer belt, with bits of information that are riding on it. If a given piece of information gets to the end, it falls off (is forgotten). Everything you recall a bit on information, you pick it up and put it at the beginning of the conveyer belt. You can make a habit of continually putting important information back at the beginning of the belt when a signal light that is about the fall off turns on (spaced repetition), which is "not forgetting", but you can also increase your reach, so that you can easily get at things that are getting close to then end. Since there are to many pieces of information on your conveyer belt to put every piece back at the beginning when it reaches the end, it's helpful to extend your reach, to be able to get at more of the information on the belt more easily.
I'm no expert. Those who know how memory works, does this analogy make sense?
I often find that If I have a conversion with someone, months latter, I am better able to recall specific details (both key and trivial) than they are. I assume that this is because I am better at the skill of recall, since in theory, our memories of the event should be in a similar state of decay, but now that I think about it, it is possible that 1) I encoded the conversation better in the moment (perhaps by paying closer attention?) or 2) I recall it more frequently and so have it closer to the beginning of my convey belt.
Maybe "recall" is a constant, not a skill that can be improved? Memory experts, what do you have to say?
I know that if you ask me, I can give you a summery of the plot of almost any book I've read in the past 4 years (though now I think I have to go over my book lists and test this rigorously). I know that I can tell you actually where we were and what we were doing, as well as give you a play by play of many (not all conversations). I know that if I re listen to a bit of podcast or audio book, I know the exact spot where I was walking when I last heard it. It feels like "recall" is a skill, but maybe it's only a result of the other two.
"Recalling" is becoming aware, consciously, of encoded information, whether it was intentionally memorized or not, in response to a question, to a similar circumstance, or most generally a domain in which that information is relevant.
Yeah. That is the definition that I wanted and these circumstances are the 'relevant questions' I meant. The implicit context of the facts in which you might recover the information.
Spaced repetion e.g. with an Anki deck helps memorize facts - but if you don't apply these facts and relate them to other think, appl...
I want a perfect eidetic memory.
Unfortunately, such things don't exist, but that's not stopping me from getting as close as possible. It seems as if the popular solutions are spaced repetition and memory palaces. So let's talk about those.
Memory Palaces: Do they work? If so what's the best resource (book, website etc.) for learning and mastering the technique? Is it any good for memorizing anything other than lists of things (which I find I almost never have to do)?
Spaced Repetition: What software do you use? Why that one? What sort of cards do you put in?
It seems to me that memory programs and mnemonic techniques assist one of three parts of the problem of memory: memorizing, recalling, and not forgetting.
"Not forgetting" is the long term problem of memory. Spaced repetition seems to solve the problem of "not forgetting." You feed the information you want to remember into your program, review frequently, and you won't forget that information.
Memory Palaces seem to deal with the "memorizing" part of the problem. When faced with new information that you want to be able to recall, you put it in a memory palace, vividly emphasized so as to be affective and memorable. This is good for short term encoding of information that you know you want to keep. You might put it into your spaced repetition program latter, but you just want to not forget it until then.
The last part is the problem of "recalling." Both of the previous facets of the problem of memory had a distinct advantage: you knew the information that you wanted to remember in advance. However, we frequently find ourselves in situations in which we need/want to remember something that we know (or perhaps we don't) we encountered, but didn't consider particularly important at the time. Under this heading falls the situation of making connections when learning or being reminded of old information by new information: when you learn y, you have the thought "hey, isn't that just like x?" This is the facet of the memory problem that I am most interested in, but I know of scarcely anything that can reliably improve ease of recall of information in general. Do you know of anything?
I'm looking for recommendations: books on memory, specific mnemonics, or practices that are known to improve recall, or anything else that might help with any of the three parts of the problem.