Indirect tests of memory are like fun games that help us understand how well we remember things. Imagine you have a toy that you love to play with every day, but then one day you forget where you put it! Your mom might ask you questions like "can you remember when you last played with it? Was it in your room or in the living room?" These questions are like indirect tests of memory.
Indirect tests help scientists study memory by asking questions that indirectly measure how well we remember things. For example, one indirect test might show a group of objects to someone and ask them to remember as many as they can. Later, the person may be shown the same objects along with some new ones and be asked to identify the ones they saw earlier. This indirect test measures how well the person remembers the objects.
Another fun game that measures memory is word association. Imagine seeing a word like "apple" and being asked to quickly say the first word that comes to mind. If you say "tree," that suggests you remember an important fact about apples - that they grow on trees! Scientists can use this indirect test to see how well people remember certain words and facts.
Overall, indirect tests of memory are like games that scientists use to see how well we remember things. By measuring our performance on these games, they can learn more about how our brains store and retrieve memories.