There are two types of distinguishable uses of memory known as recognition and recall. Recognition involves being reminded of things by cues within our environment whereas recalling information from memory simply involves extracting the information from our memories without any prompting from an external source. Recognition therefore is usually much easier than recall.

This is what makes (or at least should make) GUIs and WIMP interfaces easy to use when compared to command line operation where it is often the case that arbitrary codes and commands have to be remembered (e.g. DOS or UNIX based commands).

Donald Norman (1988) describes the two types of memory associated with recall and recognition as being "knowledge in the head" (KITH), and "knowledge in the world" (KITW) respectively. We can use knowledge in the world, or information in our environment, to remind us of certain facts or information. Knowledge in the head is information that is stored in long-term memory from which we can draw from to use when needed.

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