In general, this happens to me while trying to fall asleep. Very random, distinct, sharp and lucid childhood memories of certain points in time, though I do have be drifting into sleep. I've certainly never had it when trying to actively memorize new material.

Same here. Can actually consciously try to remember events 20+ years ago and often that will trigger a memory I haven’t recollected in a very long time. A person, an event, etc. Happens very well when I just wake up.

I've wondered something about dreams that if taken as explanation is very similar

Conjecture: during sleep the mind moves short term to long term memory, when formed, the memory fires adjacent nuerons and these fired nuerons form the dream

In your case, seeking an old memory may have fired other adjacent nuerons, perhaps ones that have been dormant for some time

I will do this when trying to remember something.. think around an memory and my own exposure to it contextually hoping to indirectly find the desired memory

From what I understand, your brain stores I information by association. So it's possible that your brain was activating an old neaural pathway that had a relevant connection to what you were learning.

As an example, if you have trouble remembering people's names. Picture the face of someone you remember with the same name on top of the new persons face. This will cut out a lot of work for your brain, as it will utilize an existing pathway.

This is why something random can sometimes trigger a memory we didn't expect. It's more complicated then that of course, but that's the idea.

You tried to allocate memory for the new information, and exceeded your current max heap. When you remembered that thing for long ago, it's because your GC scanned it :)

I sometimes wonder if such sudden recollections are the brain's mechanism of saying "do you want me to keep this in memory, or should I throw it away?"

Recalling a memory strengthens it, and creates new associations to call it up, so probably not.

Nah, its just performing dropout.

layman opinion: no it's not, your brain is a graph compressor.

I had episodes of minute memory losses in the last years. And everytime I gathered the answer after long time by having flashes of things similar in nature. Trying to remember a name, I went through a stream of wrong names of people of the same origin, and same prefix (bou) until the right suffix hit me.

When I think of my current partners name, I sometimes cycle chronologically through all past partners until I get to hers. Normally in my mind, but sometimes out loud.

She doesn't like that.

That should be a fairly deep rooted memory. If you're having difficulty recalling, that is concerning. I respectfully urge you to consult with a neurologist or at least your GP.

I'm still pretty young and have had a somewhat robust love life. I sometimes wonder if I am not just audiating the brains internal lookup of the information anyway. If I am focusing then name recal is normal thankfully!