Dear Marianne, thank you for an interesting question, I hope I'll be able to "responge"...

To my knowledge, as much as one can have knowledge on the functioning of the brain, we have selective memory, thus the acquisition of knowledge should be selective too, and I might not compare it to a non-selective absorbing sponge...(but rather more like an electronic circuit, maybe...)

Dear Marianne, thank you for an interesting question, I hope I'll be able to "responge"...

To my knowledge, as much as one can have knowledge on the functioning of the brain, we have selective memory, thus the acquisition of knowledge should be selective too, and I might not compare it to a non-selective absorbing sponge...(but rather more like an electronic circuit, maybe...)

It can not be through aspiration. It is surely by experience. It is by referrals. It is through discussions with peers and other knowledgeable persons.

Dear Maria,

Thank you very much for your urgent response on the question and your valuable EXPERT opinion.

With very best wishes and warmest regards,

Marianne

It is imperfection - not perfection - that is the end result of the program written into that formidably complex engine that is the human brain, and of the influences exerted upon us by the environment and whoever takes care of us during the long years of our physical, psychological and intellectual development.

--- Rita Levi-Montalcini

I think, in order to answer that question, I would ask first: why we have brain?

Living beings exist in an environment where they take part in a process, where one of the main components is the interchange between the interior part of living beings with the "world" around them. They need "to know" what happen, and how is that world, in order to successfully survive in it.

In fact, the development of life in our planet can be related with the development of more and more complex forms of knowing, and the development of corresponding organs.

Then, we have brain because we need it, and we use it when we need it (consciously or unconsciously). It means, knowing is an activity, which begins as the response to a necessity; knowing is not a passive attitude, but active, where living beings transform themselves, reflecting partially, by perception, or by mean of abstract thinking, as internal activity, the external reality.

By the time you reach the age of 21, you’ve already permanently stored more than one hundred times the contents of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.

http://www.briantracy.com/blog/general/understanding-your-subconscious-mind/

My two cents. Knowledge is not only recorded and stored data. It is also a construction, a product of the activity of the individual, who apply to data her / his knowledge schemes  (logic and numerical operations, etc.) So although record and storage capabilities are limited (and selective, as dear  Maria pointed out), knowledge production is not just "aspiration" nor limited to the data registered and consciously remembered. 

Dear @Marianne, this is about sponge effect!

" I keep imaging this sponge left by the sink, getting wetter and wetter in my attempts to do some kitchen stuff. And I keep focused on that glorious picture and then (in my mind of course).. there’s always someone to pick it up, causing a major flood on the floor, as water starts flowing down. This is what I call the “Sponge Effect”.. and I imagine the same thing happening to my brain after an exam..." It is an interesting consideration!

The following article is fine. 

Mind like a sponge: Evolutionary paths to the brain

"The human brain is one of the most complex arrangements of matter of which we know. This reflects the fact that despite current advances in neuroscience we still do not have a comprehensive understanding of the structure or function of the human brain. It is perhaps understandable that there is still much about the evolution of the brain, and how it came to be so complex, that remains a mystery. This complexity did not arise all at once. The lineage of the human brain can be traced back to the origin and subsequent assemblage of the key neural properties necessary for core functions of generating, sharing and propagating electrical signals..."

https://wordchaos.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/the-sponge-effect/

Article Mind like a sponge: Evolutionary paths to the brain

Dear Ljubomir,

Thank you very much for your valuable input.

With best wishes,

Marianne

Dear Mr.Singh,

Thank you very much for your valuable input.

Best regards

Yes, I can say the same for a 2-year old grandson who absorbs and learns like a sponge. Later on he goes around and talks about plants, ants, clouds, tunnels, world flags, etc to others who think he is an alien!

"How does he know about these?" Well, he absorbed them!

If no one talked to him, well, he wouldn't know about all these.