Remember that?

We encounter millions of sensory cues every second of every day, from the itchy sweater tickling our arm to the almost inaudible hum of the refrigerator in our apartment. Most of these sensations go unnoticed, but how is it that you immediately think of high school prom when you hear the song “I Gotta Feeling”?

There’s no specific place where individual memories are stored, Ben Motz, senior lecturer in the department of psychological and brain sciences, says.

“Memories are changes in the connections between neurons distributed all around your brain,” he says. “Memories are associations between all the sensations you experience.”

So when you smell the scent of your roommate’s perfume several times, that scent becomes associated with your memories of her. Even when your roommate isn’t around, a whiff of that flowery smell will trigger you to think of her.

“The important thing is that memory isn’t disembodied or abstract,” Motz says. “It is very much tied to the direct perceptual experience that you had when you formed that memory to begin with.”

David Pisoni, distinguished professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences, says this is the best way to encode information. For this reason, where you study for an exam can affect how well you remember the information come test time.

“You will remember more when the study environment matches the class environment,” Pisoni says. “So the best place and time to study is at the same place and time as the exam. This is because of encoding specificity.”

When you’re studying for an exam, your memory takes in the class material as well as sensory cues — like the amount of florescent light or the feeling of the plush chair beneath you. If these context cues match the sensations you perceive while taking the exam, you’ll be able to better remember that terrible calculus equation or the timeline of Greek philosophy.