If we are not actively interested in something, these memories still may not ever be consciously recalled for our purposes but may remain latent in the passive memory. Frequent recognition may convert other memories into the availability of conscious recall. For example, the first few times we read or hear a new vocabulary word, we are unlikely to begin using it ourselves unless we are particularly motivated to do so or consciously practice how we might use it. Recognition is based not only on similarity to a situation but also on associations with it. For instance, a flagpole may remind us of flags and our country, or our school where we used to raise a flag, or of a phallus symbol, etc.
Psychoanalysis uses word association in order to probe the mind of a patient.
In Plato's dialogs, Socrates uses this concept of recognition to explain how the soul relearns what it already knows from its divine omniscience but has forgotten in its entrance into the body. Recognition enables us to understand something we have already experienced and integrated into our minds without necessarily recalling the circumstances of the previous experiences. Thus consciousness is able to synthesize knowledge and lessons from direct experience and study without the burden of having to consciously recall all the details. Relearning is re-cognizing something similar to what has been in the mind before. Thus relearning a subject we have previously studied is easier and more rapid than learning a completely new subject.