“The State Of Our Memory”

I recall reading somewhere a long time ago that memory was a three-fold process:

1) You remember something.

2) You remember the source of the information.

3) You remember how you did it.

Now, it seems to me that we are doing more of the first than we are the other two. In fact, we have practically forgotten that there are references that enable us to find out more than we can ever know.

So why is it that we spend so much time on the first and less time on the others? Could it be that it is easier to teach that way and easier to determine if we are doing a “good” job?