Short-term memory in psychology briefly. Qualities and individual characteristics of our memory

1. The concept of memory.

2. Types of memory.

3. Memory processes.

4. Development and improvement of memory.

1. Memory- This is one of the most popular human mental processes.

Such popularity dates back to the ancient Greeks, who revered the goddess of memory Mnemosyne as the mother of the nine muses, patroness of the arts and sciences known at that time.

Modern scientific expressions related to memory also come from the name of the goddess: “mnemonic task”, “mnemonic processes”, “mnemonic orientation”, etc.

It is difficult to imagine a world without memory.

The importance of memory is very great, but all successes or, conversely, failures should not be attributed to this cognitive process.

It is difficult for a person to say: “I don’t know how to reason,” or even more so, “I’m stupid,” but he easily says: “This sclerosis again,” etc.

Memory is a complex cognitive process through which a person can remember, preserve and reproduce his past experiences.

Thanks to memory, we can preserve and reproduce not only individual objects or situations, but also entire chains of events.

The connections that exist between events, objects or phenomena, preserved in our memory, are called associations.

Researchers identify different types of associations, but classically these are:

1) associations by similarity;

2) associations by contrast;

3) associations by contiguity.

Many poetic comparisons are based on associations of similarity (“the river flowed like rain,” “the blizzard cried like a gypsy violin”). On a hot summer day, we remember how good it was to ski in winter, and how much fun we had on the beach in winter.

Associations of this kind are associations by contrast.

During the exam, a student presents a notebook with notes and the page where the ticket material is located, sees a table or diagram, etc.

If objects are connected in time and space, then these are associations by contiguity (floor - rag, pen - notebook).

Most associations are related to the experience of a particular person, but there are some that are the same for many people.

For example, when most people hear the word “fruit,” they say “apple,” and when asked to name a part of the face, they say “nose.”

The importance of associations for a person is that they allow you to automatically and quickly perceive the information necessary at the moment.

So, memory is a complex cognitive process that ensures the continuity of a person’s mental life.

2. Human memory can be classified on several grounds.

1. Material storage time:

1) instant (iconic)– thanks to this memory, a complete and accurate picture of what the senses just perceived is retained for 0.1–0.5 s, without any processing of the received information;

2) short-term(KP) – capable of storing information for a short period of time and in a limited volume.

As a rule, for most people the volume of the CP is 7 ± 2 units.

The CP records only the most significant information, a generalized image;

3) operational(OP) – operates for a predetermined time (from several seconds to several days) depending on the task that needs to be solved, after which the information can be erased;

4) long-term(DP) – information is stored for an indefinite period.

the DP contains the material that a practically healthy person should remember at any time: his first name, patronymic, last name, place of birth, capital of the Motherland, etc.

In humans, DP and CP are inextricably linked.

Before the material enters storage in the DP, it must be processed in the CP, which helps protect the brain from overload and preserve vital information for a long time;

5) genetic memory began to be highlighted by researchers relatively recently.

This is information that is preserved in the genotype and transmitted by inheritance, not subject to the influence of training and upbringing.

2. The leading role of a particular analyzer:

1) motor – motor reactions are remembered and reproduced, therefore, on its basis, basic motor skills are formed (walking, writing, sports, dancing, work).

This is one of the ontogenetically earliest types of memory;

2) emotional– remembering a certain emotional state and reproducing it when repeating the situation when it arose for the first time.

This type of memory also appears in a child very early; according to modern research, already in the first year of life, it is well developed in preschool children.

Characterized by the following features:

a) special strength;

b) rapid formation;

c) involuntary reproduction;

3) visual– preservation and reproduction of visual images predominates.

For many people, this type of memory is the leading one. Sometimes visual images are reproduced so accurately that they resemble a photograph.

Such people are said to have eidetic memory (eidos - image), that is, memory with photographic accuracy.

For many people, eidetic memory is well developed in preschool age, but for some individuals (usually people of art) it persists throughout their lives.

For example, V. A. Mozart, S. V. Rachmaninov, M. A. Balakirev could remember and reproduce a complex piece of music on an instrument after just one perception;

4) auditory– promotes good memorization and reproduction of a wide variety of sounds.

It is especially well developed among musicians, acousticians, etc.

As a special variety of this type, verbal-logical memory is distinguished - this is a purely human type of memory, thanks to which we can quickly and accurately remember the logic of reasoning, the sequence of events, etc.;

5) olfactory– smells are well remembered and reproduced;

6) gustatory– predominance of the taste analyzer in memory processes;

7) tactile– what a person was able to feel, what he touched with his hands, etc. is well remembered and reproduced.

The last three types of memory are not as significant for a person as those previously listed, but their importance increases sharply if the functioning of any of the main analyzers is disrupted, for example, when a person loses sight or hearing (there are many cases where blind people became excellent musicians ).

There are a number of professions where these types of memory are in demand.

For example, tasters must have a good taste memory, perfumers must have an olfactory memory.

It very rarely happens when a person has a predominance of one type of memory.

Much more often, the leading memory is visual-auditory, visual-motor, and motor-auditory.

In addition to the above classifications, memory can vary in parameters such as speed, duration, strength, accuracy and memory volume.

The variety of types of memory allows you to achieve success in various activities.

3. The memory contains the following processes:

1) memorization;

2) reproduction;

3) preservation;

4) forgetting.

Memorization- This is a memory process, the result of which is the consolidation of previously perceived information.

Memorization is divided into:

1) voluntary (the task is set to remember, and certain efforts are made) – involuntary (a special task is not set to remember, the material is memorized without any effort);

2) mechanical (information is memorized as a result of simple repetition) - logical (connections are established between individual elements of information, which allows the forgotten to be deduced anew through logical reasoning).

In order for memorization to be successful, the following provisions should be adhered to:

1) make a memorization setting;

2) show more activity and independence in the process of memorization (a person will remember the path better if he moves independently than when he is accompanied);

3) group the material according to meaning (drawing up a plan, table, diagram, graph, etc.);

4) the process of repetition when memorizing should be distributed over a certain time (a day, several hours), and not in a row.

5) new repetition improves memorization of previously learned;

6) arouse interest in what is being remembered;

7) the unusual nature of the material improves memorization.

Reproduction (recovery) is a memory process through which previously fixed past experiences are retrieved.

The following forms of reproduction are distinguished:

1) recognition– the appearance of a feeling of familiarity during perception;

2) memory– restoration of material in the absence of perception of an object; remembering is always more difficult than recognizing (for example, it is easier to remember a person’s last name if you find it in a list);

3) reminiscence– reproduction delayed in time (for example, one remembers a poem that a person told in distant childhood);

4) recollection– an active form of reproduction, requiring the use of certain techniques (association, reliance on recognition) and volitional efforts.

Preservation– retention of previously learned material in memory. Information is retained in memory through repetition, as well as the application of acquired knowledge in practice.

Memory researchers have found that the material that begins and ends the general series of information is best retained; the middle elements are stored less well.

This phenomenon in psychology is called the edge effect.

An interesting fact was discovered by B.V. Zeigarnik. in her experiments, subjects had to complete about 20 different tasks as quickly and accurately as possible (riddles, small mathematical problems, sculpting figures, etc.).

It turned out that the subjects recalled those actions that remained unfinished almost twice as often as those that they managed to complete.

This phenomenon is called the Zeigarnik effect.

Forgetting– loss of memory, disappearance of previously memorized material.

As psychological studies have shown, material is forgotten faster in the first time after memorization than in the future; meaningless material is also forgotten faster than if it is connected by a logical chain.

Most often, forgetting is considered a negative phenomenon, but it should be remembered that this is a very expedient, necessary and natural process of memory, otherwise our brain would be overloaded with a mass of unnecessary or unimportant information.

Sometimes forgetting becomes painful, even to the point of complete memory loss.

This phenomenon is called amnesia.

S. Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis) paid much attention to the analysis of the mechanisms of forgetting.

He believed that the process of forgetting is largely explained by a person’s reluctance to remember unpleasant situations in his biography.

He forgets about those things that may remind him of psychologically unpleasant circumstances.

So, memory includes a number of components that determine the success of its development.

4. The process of memory development is carried out in the following directions:

1) ontogenetically earlier mechanical memory is gradually replaced by logical memory;

2) with age, memorization becomes more conscious, the active use of mnemonic techniques and means begins;

3) involuntary memorization, which predominates in childhood, becomes voluntary.

Based on the listed areas, we can determine the following ways and means of improving memory.

1. Use the repetition process correctly.

The most appropriate is repetition that is as close as possible to the perception of the material.

It has been experimentally proven that forgetting is prevented by repetition 15–20 minutes after memorization.

It is advisable to do the next repetition after 8–9 hours, and then after 24 hours.

It is also advisable to repeat in the morning with a fresh head and before bed.

2. Remember about the “edge effect”, that is, spend more time repeating the material that is located in the middle of the information series.

Also, when repeating, material in the middle can be placed at the beginning or end.

3. To quickly and reliably remember a sequence of events or objects, you can perform the following series of actions:

1) mentally connect what is being memorized with some easily imaginable or well-known object, and then connect this object with the one that is at hand at the right moment;

2) connect both objects in the imagination with each other in the most bizarre way possible into a single fantastic image;

3) mentally recreate this image.

4. To remember the sequence of events or actions, you can imagine words as characters in a story.

5. The material will be remembered more easily if you use the association technique. To do this, you should ask yourself questions like: “What does this remind me of?”, “What does this look like?” as often as possible. “What other word reminds me of this word?”, “What episode in life does this episode remind me of?” and so on.

When implementing this rule, the following pattern applies: the more diverse associations that arise when memorizing the source material, the more firmly this material is remembered.

6. A sequential chain of events or objects can be remembered if these objects are mentally placed along the daily route to work or school.

Walking along this path, we remember these objects.

Any techniques are good only if they are adapted by a specific person to his own life experience and characteristics of the psyche and behavior.

Therefore, what suits one person may not be suitable for another.

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The classification of types of memory in psychology allows us to isolate significant details from one rather voluminous concept. After all, human memory is a complex function that has many nuances. To understand the characteristic features of a person, it is simply necessary to understand what forms of memory there are in psychology.

Types of memory in psychology

Depending on individual characteristics, each person has a stronger development of one of several basic types of memory: visual, auditory, motor or mixed. Knowing which type of memory is more developed in you, you will learn arts and sciences faster, using the fastest and most convenient channel of perception for this.

Let's look at these memory types in more detail:

Visual type. In this case, in order to remember, a person needs to see clearly. All of him consists of visual images, and to memorize it is never enough for him to just hear information.
Motor type of memory. People with this type of memory rely specifically on motor sensations in their memories. For example, knowing exactly how to touch-type text on the keyboard, they will not be able to write down the order in which the letters are written on it (or it will take quite a lot of time).
Auditory type of memory. In this case, a person only needs to hear it once, and they can easily reproduce the essence of the information. In order to remember visual information or text, they should speak it out loud.
Mixed memory type. In this case, a person’s abilities are distributed either evenly, or, which is more common, a person has two types of memory at once - for example, motor and visual.

Classes in schools and universities are structured in such a way as to use all types of memory at once: a person perceives information by ear, writes it down, turning to motor memory, and looks at visual materials, connecting visual memory as well.

Types of memory in psychology

There are many different classifications of memory. We will look at how types of memory are divided based on the characteristic features of information.

Visual-figurative memory. This type of memory represents events that are recorded immediately after a signal from receptors or sensory organs. This type of memory is incredibly important in creative fields. For example, beginning dancers use this type of memory to record the necessary movements and tricks shown by the teacher. If the explanation were only in words, learning would be much more difficult.
Verbal-logical (semantic) memory. In this case, it is not images of objects and actions that are recorded in memory, but the words with which the material was explained. That is why the second name of this type is semantic memory. Having read something, a person does not remember everything word for word, but he can easily retell the meaning of what he read - this is the essence of such memory.
Motor memory. Motor memory allows you to remember muscle combinations that allow you to accurately repeat learned movements. This is how the fingers remember the strumming and chords of the guitar, and the whole body remembers the sequence of dances.
Emotional memory. This type of memory allows a person to plunge again and again into experiences once experienced in the past and. When you remember the past, you can capture feelings of success or uncertainty, fear or delight. The brighter the emotion, the better and more clearly it is remembered later.

These types of memory are simply necessary for the learning and development of a person, without which life would be boring and aimless.

It is known that each of our experiences, impressions or movements constitutes a certain trace that can persist for quite a long time and, under appropriate conditions, appear again and become an object of consciousness. Therefore, under memory we understand the imprinting (recording), preservation and subsequent recognition and reproduction of traces of past experience, which allows us to accumulate information without losing previous knowledge, information, and skills.

Thus, memory is a complex mental process consisting of several private processes associated with each other. All consolidation of knowledge and skills relates to the work of memory. Accordingly, psychological science faces a number of difficult problems. She sets herself the task of studying how traces are imprinted, what are the physiological mechanisms of this process, and what techniques can expand the volume of imprinted material.

The study of memory was one of the first branches of psychological science to apply experimental method: Attempts have been made to measure the processes being studied and to describe the laws that govern them. Back in the 80s of the last century, the German psychologist G. Ebbinghaus proposed a technique with the help of which, as he believed, it was possible to study the laws of pure memory, independent of the activity of thinking - this is the memorization of meaningless syllables, as a result, he derived the main curves of memorization (memorization ) material. The classical studies of G. Ebbinghaus were accompanied by the works of the German psychiatrist E. Kraepelin, who applied these techniques to the analysis of how memorization proceeds in patients with mental changes, and the German psychologist G. E. Müller, whose fundamental research is devoted to the basic laws of consolidation and reproduction of memory traces in person.

With the development of objective research into animal behavior, the field of memory research has been significantly expanded. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Research by the famous American psychologist Thorndike appeared, who for the first time made the formation of skills in an animal the subject of study, using for this purpose an analysis of how the animal learned to find its way in a maze and how it gradually consolidated the acquired skills. In the first decade of the 20th century. Research into these processes has acquired a new scientific form. I. P. Pavlov was offered method of studying conditioned reflexes. The conditions under which new conditioned connections arise and are retained and which influence this retention have been described. The study of higher nervous activity and its basic laws later became the main source of our knowledge about the physiological mechanisms of memory, and the development and preservation of skills and the process of “learning” in animals formed the main content of American behavioral science. All these studies were limited to the study of the most elementary memory processes.

The merit of the first systematic study of higher forms of memory in children belongs to the outstanding Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky, who in the late 20s. for the first time began to study the question of the development of higher forms of memory and, together with his students, showed that higher forms of memory are a complex form of mental activity, social in origin, by tracing the main stages of the development of the most complex mediated memorization. Research by A. A. Smirnov and P. I. Zinchenko, who revealed new and significant laws of memory as a meaningful human activity, established the dependence of memorization on the task at hand and identified the main methods of memorizing complex material.

And only over the past 40 years the situation has changed significantly. Studies have emerged that show that the imprinting, storage and reproduction of traces are associated with profound biochemical changes, in particular with the modification of RNA, and that memory traces can be transferred humorally, biochemically.

Finally, research has emerged that has attempted to isolate the areas of the brain required for memory retention and the neurological mechanisms underlying remembering and forgetting. All this made the section on the psychology and psychophysiology of memory one of the richest in psychological science. Many of the listed theories still exist at the level of hypotheses, but one thing is clear: memory is a complex mental process, consisting of different levels, different systems and including the work of many mechanisms.

The most general basis for distinguishing different types of memory is the dependence of its characteristics on the characteristics of the activity of memorization and reproduction.

In this case, individual types of memory are distinguished in accordance with three main criteria:

by the nature of mental activity, predominant in activity, memory is divided into motor, emotional, figurative and verbal-logical;
by the nature of the goals of the activity- into involuntary and voluntary;
by duration of fixation and retention materials (in connection with its role and place in the activity) - for short-term, long-term and operational.

Direct imprint of sensory information. This system maintains a fairly accurate and complete picture of the world, perceived by the senses. The duration of saving the picture is very short - 0.1-0.5 s.

Tap your hand with 4 fingers. Watch the immediate sensations, how they fade, so that at first you still have the real sensation of the tap, and then only the memory of what it was.
Move a pencil or just a finger back and forth in front of your eyes, looking straight ahead. Notice the blurry image following the moving object.
Close your eyes, then open them for a moment and close them again. Watch how the clear, clear picture you see persists for a while and then slowly disappears.

Short-term memory

Short-term memory retains a different type of material than the immediate imprint of sensory information. In this case, the retained information is not a complete representation of events that occurred at the sensory level, but a direct interpretation of these events. For example, if a phrase is said in front of you, you will remember not so much its constituent sounds as the words. Usually the last 5-6 units from the presented material are remembered. By making a conscious effort to repeat the material over and over again, you can retain it in your short-term memory for an indefinite period of time.

Long-term memory.

There is a clear and compelling difference between the memory of an event that just happened and events of the distant past. Long-term memory is the most important and most complex of memory systems. The capacity of the first named memory systems is very limited: the first consists of several tenths of seconds, the second - several storage units. However, some limits to the volume of long-term memory still exist, since the brain is a finite device. It consists of 10 billion neurons and each is capable of holding a significant amount of information. Moreover, it is so large that one can practically assume that the memory capacity of the human brain is unlimited. Anything held for more than a few minutes must be in the long-term memory system.

The main source of difficulties associated with long-term memory is the problem of retrieval of information. The amount of information contained in memory is very large and therefore presents serious difficulties. However, you can quickly find what you need.

RAM

The concept of RAM refers to mnemonic processes that serve current actions and operations. Such memory is designed to retain information, followed by forgetting the corresponding information. The shelf life of this type of memory depends on the task and can vary from several minutes to several days. When we perform any complex operation, for example arithmetic, we carry it out in parts, pieces. At the same time, we keep some intermediate results “in mind” as long as we are dealing with them. As we move towards the final result, specific “worked out” material may be forgotten.

Motor memory

Motor memory is the memorization, storage and reproduction of various movements and their systems. There are people with a pronounced predominance of this type of memory over other types. One psychologist admitted that he was completely unable to reproduce a piece of music in his memory, and could only reproduce an opera he had recently heard as a pantomime. Other people, on the contrary, do not notice their motor memory at all. The great importance of this type of memory is that it serves as the basis for the formation of various practical and work skills, as well as the skills of walking, writing, etc. Without memory for movements, we would have to learn to carry out the appropriate actions every time. Usually a sign of good motor memory is a person’s physical dexterity, dexterity in work, “golden hands”.

Emotional memory

Emotional memory is memory for feelings. Emotions always signal how our needs are being met. Emotional memory is very important for human life. Feelings experienced and stored in memory appear as signals that either encourage action or deter action that caused a negative experience in the past. Empathy - the ability to sympathize, empathize with another person, the hero of a book, is based on emotional memory.

Figurative memory

Figurative memory - memory for ideas, pictures of nature and life, as well as sounds, smells, tastes. It can be visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory. If visual and auditory memory, as a rule, are well developed, and play a leading role in the life orientation of all normal people, then tactile, olfactory and gustatory memory, in a certain sense, can be called professional types. Like the corresponding sensations, these types of memory develop especially intensively in connection with specific conditions of activity, reaching an amazingly high level in conditions of compensation or replacement of missing types of memory, for example, in the blind, deaf, etc.

Verbal-logical memory

The content of verbal-logical memory is our thoughts. Thoughts do not exist without language, which is why memory for them is called not just logical, but verbal-logical. Since thoughts can be embodied in various linguistic forms, their reproduction can be oriented towards conveying either only the basic meaning of the material, or its literal verbal design. If in the latter case the material is not subject to semantic processing at all, then its literal memorization turns out to be no longer logical, but mechanical memorization.

Voluntary and involuntary memory

There is, however, a division of memory into types that is directly related to the characteristics of the actual activity itself. So, depending on the goals of the activity, memory is divided into involuntary and voluntary. Memorization and reproduction, in which there is no special goal to remember or remember something, is called involuntary memory; in cases where it is a purposeful process, we speak of voluntary memory. In the latter case, the processes of memorization and reproduction act as special mnemonic actions.

Involuntary and voluntary memory at the same time represent 2 successive stages of memory development. Everyone knows from experience what a huge place in our life occupies involuntary memory, on the basis of which, without special mnemonic intentions and efforts, the main part of our experience is formed, both in volume and in life significance. However, in human activity there often arises the need to manage one’s memory. Under these conditions, voluntary memory plays an important role, making it possible to deliberately learn or remember what is necessary.

The cognitive function of the psyche is to construct an image of the world, which reflects reality to varying degrees of completeness and adequacy. This function is performed with the help of cognitive activity, which can be sensory and rational.

Sensory activity is provided by sensation and perception, and rational activity is provided by thinking and imagination. The results of such knowledge of reality become human experience thanks to memory. It is difficult to overestimate its importance, because without it any activity would simply be impossible. Academician I. Sechenov said that without memory, a person’s sensations and perceptions would disappear without a trace immediately after their occurrence, forever leaving a person in the state of a newborn.

Without the memory of past experiences, a person cannot live a full life; its loss can be easily compared to the loss of freedom. A person who has information about the peculiarities of the functioning of different types of memory, about its patterns, who knows the theories of memory in psychology, has the opportunity to realize the importance of this cognitive process and take a fresh look at the capabilities of his own memory.

The definition of memory in modern psychology remains unchanged. This is the process of remembering, preserving, reproducing and forgetting a person’s own experience. Thus, human memory is a link between the past, present and future. In the process of individual development of each person, it is the basis for the formation of personality. The concept of memory in different areas of psychology is based on the principles of a specific theory that explain its essence and patterns. Take a quick look at the major theories of memory in psychology.

Association theory. The key concept of this theory is association as a connection between mental phenomena. In memory, such connections are established between individual parts of the material that is remembered or reproduced. Indeed, when remembering something, a person looks for connections between the available material and the one that needs to be reproduced. Such patterns of association formation were established as similarity (material is remembered and reproduced through connection with similar material), contiguity (material is remembered and reproduced by combining with previous material), contrast (memory material is what is different from the material that is stored) . This theory does not explain such an important characteristic as selectivity, because associative material is not always remembered well. Also, the dependence of memory processes on the characteristics of the organization of the material is not taken into account.
Behavioral theory. Representatives of the theory believe that special exercises to consolidate the material play a key role in the memorization process. This training is similar to the process of developing motor skills. The success of consolidating the material is influenced by the interval between exercises, the degree of its similarity and volume, age and individual differences between people.
Cognitive theory. Here memory is perceived as a combination of various blocks and processes of information processing. Some blocks provide recognition of characteristic features of information, others are responsible for constructing a cognitive map that helps to navigate the features of information, others retain information for some time, and others present information in a specific form.
Activity theory. Here memory is perceived as a link in a person’s active connection with the world. With the help of analysis, synthesis, repetition, regrouping and isolation of individual features, a person builds a mnemonic image (representation), which is an ideal form of material that includes a person’s individual attitude. The process of memorization is carried out with the help of additional external signs-stimuli, which over time become internal stimuli and the person gets the opportunity to guide his memory.

Typology of memory

Depending on the nature of the material, the time of its storage and the degree of mediation of the mechanisms, separate types of human memory are distinguished in modern psychology, which you can briefly familiarize yourself with.

By meaning: motor, emotional, figurative, verbal-logical.

Motor is the basis for developing the skills of walking, writing, dancing, and components of professional activity. It is the basis of other types of memory.
Emotional responsible for maintaining emotions and feelings. This type of memory gives the experience a deeply personal character, making individual memory a unique phenomenon.
Imagery reflects experience in the form of mnemonic images created on the basis of the work of the senses.
Verbal-logical helps to remember thoughts, statements, patterns and structural features of complex material. The success of a person’s theoretical mastery of the surrounding reality depends on this type of memory.

By storage time: sensory, short-term, long-term.

Touch is characterized by a very short storage time of the material. This is an instant display of information by analyzers, which can only be saved if you set it to appear.
Short-term helps to retain information for a short period of time, about 20 seconds. Memorization occurs after a single or short-term perception of the material.
Long-term is capable of storing information for an unlimited time. This memory begins to operate some time after the process of memorizing information.

According to the degree of indirectness: voluntary, involuntary, metamemory.

Arbitrary is a genetic memory that does not require any external effort to remember the material.
Voluntary involves the use of special mnemonic actions in the process of memorizing information. These may be different ways of organizing material for better memorization.
Metamemory is the highest level of memory development observed in people with intellectual work. This is “memory of memory,” when a person knows the peculiarities of the functioning of his memory and successfully uses this knowledge.

Physiological basis of memory processes

Physiological mechanisms of memory are studied in physiology, psychology, and biochemistry. Speaking about memory mechanisms, we are talking about certain processes necessary for memorizing information and its further reproduction. The information that a person tries to remember goes through a certain process, which includes brain mechanisms: traces remain in the cerebral cortex of our brain after the excitation process. They are the ones who make it possible for associative connections to arise, even in the absence of a stimulus.

Thus, a person is able to remember, retain and reproduce information about a missing object. Memory mechanisms can also be explained using electrophysiology. The neurons of our brain create closed circuits along which nerve impulses move. This is where information processed by the brain is stored. When the flow of impulses is repeated, the process proceeds faster and easier.

These mechanisms are the basis of the main memory processes in psychology, which include:

memorization
preservation,
playback
forgetting information.

Memorization is a memory process that ensures the consolidation of new material. It can be voluntary and involuntary, mechanical and semantic, direct and indirect.

Retention is a process that ensures retention of memorization results for a long time. It is accomplished with the help of mental operations of analysis, synthesis, classification, and generalization. The more important the memorized material is for a person, the better the process of its preservation occurs.

Playback- a process that occurs in three stages. At the first stage, object recognition occurs when past stored experience is compared with the current image. At the second stage, recollection occurs - an active search and extraction of the necessary material from long-term memory. The third stage includes a person’s reproduction of an emotionally-filled image, when a complete determination of the object’s image is carried out according to all parameters.

Forgetting is a memory process that leads to a loss of clarity and a decrease in the amount of material stored in long-term memory. However, sometimes it can no longer be reproduced. Forgetting has a positive function - it removes the burden of information, preventing memory overload.
Types of human memory:

By what laws does memory live?

There are certain laws and... Knowing the rules by which memory functions in human psychology, you can improve the process of memorizing the material you need and make it faster.

Laws of interest and comprehension. That is why it is much easier, which arouses genuine curiosity, and if you delve deeply into the essence of the information, it will be remembered even better.
Laws of installation and action. If you give yourself a mental attitude towards memorizing the material, then it will be remembered easier and faster. Information included in the process of any action (during the game) is remembered better.
Laws of context and inhibition. If you use associations to connect already learned material with new material, you will remember it much faster. If you memorize materials that are similar to each other, then the effect of “overlapping” old information with newer information works.
Laws of edge and optimal row length. Information presented at the beginning or at the end is remembered much better. For better memorization, the length of the series that needs to be remembered should not exceed the capacity of short-term memory.
Laws of rational and emotional strengthening. The vividness of the impression affects the quality of memorization. It can be strengthened by drawing or writing, or you can try to evoke emotions associated with the event.
Laws of repetition and incompleteness. Most people know about the first law, often repeating material many times to better memorize it. No matter how strange this concept may seem, it is unfinished actions and tasks, unsaid words and phrases that are remembered better.
The same can be said about rare, unusual or strange experiences, which are remembered much better than ordinary and familiar ones.

Memory is one of the most important processes of the psyche. Any form of mental activity relies on memory.

Memory is a mental process that includes the following processes: memorization, preservation, subsequent reproduction by a person of his experience, as well as forgetting.

A person is able to retain in memory not only what he felt and perceived, but also what he thought, experienced and did. Human memory is closely connected with sensations and perceptions, with attention, thinking, emotions and feelings.

Memory is selective. It stores not everything that has passed through a person’s consciousness or influenced the brain, but what is associated with his needs, interests, and activities. Memory - like other mental. processes are a subjective reflection of the objective world. This means that the characteristics and attitudes of a person’s personality and his activities influence the content, completeness and strength of his memory.

The physiological basis of memory is the formation, preservation and renewal of nerve connections in the cerebral cortex. The connections that arise in the brain reflect the objective connections that exist between objects and phenomena of reality. They can be spatial, temporal, structural, cause-and-effect. To remember means to associate something with something, for example, a person’s name with his appearance, the date of a historical event with the content of the event. These connections are called associations.

Memorization –a memory process that results in the consolidation of something new by associating it with something previously acquired. Memorization is selective: not everything that affects the senses is retained in memory. It has been proven that any memorization is a natural product of the action of a subject with an object.

The memorization process takes place in three forms:

Imprinting, - involuntary memorization, - voluntary memorization.

Imprint– durable and accurate storage of event memory in the CP and DP as a result of a single presentation of the material for a few seconds. Through imprinting, eidetic images arise. The phenomenon of eidetism is as follows: after looking at a picture, the subject can give an answer about its details; this is possible when the image of what he saw is retained in consciousness as a whole. This is common in children.

Involuntary memorization– storing events in memory as a result of their repeated repetition. Thus, from the age of one year, the child remembers the words of the language, being in a certain language environment. Involuntary memorization is facilitated by a strong feeling (joy, fear, disgust...). This method of memorization has a certain, positive meaning; memory is built on it in the initial period of knowledge acquisition. Involuntary memorization is a product and condition for the implementation of cognitive and practical actions.

Voluntary memorization– a product of special mnemonic actions, i.e. actions whose purpose is memorization itself. It arose in work activity, in the communication of people and is associated with the need to preserve knowledge and skills necessary for work activity. A characteristic feature of voluntary memorization is an act of will and the obligatory presence of a motive that solves a problem.

Preservation –more or less long-term retention in memory of information obtained in experience. Saving comes in two forms:

Actually saving and forgetting.

There are two types of storing material in memory:

1) short-term and 2) long-term.

Short-term memory – direct capture of a set of objects during a single perception of a situation, fixation of objects that fall into the field of perception. In short-term memory, information is stored from several seconds to several hours (1-2 days). Volume – 5-6 items. In CP conditions, productive tasks are those for which automated methods of action can be used.

Long-term memory – memorization and preservation of information that is of greater importance for a long period of time. The volume of DP depends on the importance of information for a person. DP is stored for many months and years. CP has a tactical meaning, and DP has a strategic meaning.

Information used in an activity either disappears from memory or moves from the CP to the DP.

As an intermediate link between CP and DP there is RAM – serving the current actions of a person. The information necessary to service the relevant activities is extracted from the DP.

Forgetting is a memory process associated with erasing from memory events that are not important for a person, are not repeated, and are not reproduced by a person in his activities. What is not included in the activity is not repeated - it is forgotten. Forgetting is useful and is associated with the formation of personal experience.

Inclusion in activity is a means of connecting material with human needs, and therefore combating forgetting. It is necessary to systematically repeat what has been stored in memory. It is necessary to repeat the material a short time after it has been perceived, for example, in the evening, read a lecture recorded in the morning. Forgetting is also selective. Significant material associated with the activity is forgotten slowly. But what was of vital importance is not forgotten at all. The preservation of material is determined by the degree of its participation in the activities of the individual.

What is stored in the DP is not erased, but becomes unconscious. Conservation is not a passive process, but a dynamic one. Previously memorized knowledge interacts with newly acquired knowledge: it is associated, clarified and differentiated. The experience stored in consciousness is constantly changing and enriching. Only that which has been memorized as an independent integral statement is preserved and reproduced unchanged.

Playback – the process of memory, recreation in activity and communication of the material stored in the DP and its translation into operational.

There are 3 play levels:

Recognition, - actual reproduction, - remembering.

Recognition– this is the reproduction of an object under conditions of repeated perception. It is of great importance in life. Without it, we would perceive things as new every time, and not as already familiar. Without recognition, meaningful perception is impossible: to know means to include what is perceived in the system of our knowledge, our experience. Recognition is accompanied by a special emotional experience - a feeling of familiarity: “already heard, seen, tried.” It is easier to find out than to reproduce in the absence of the original. Everyone has experienced a strange experience: you arrive in a city that is obviously new to you, or find yourself in a new situation, but it seems that all this has already happened. Imaginary recognition is called "deja vu"(translated from French as “already seen”). Here associations let us down - it looks like only one thing, but it seems that everything has happened again.

If recognition is complete, definite, it is carried out involuntarily(without effort) - imperceptibly for ourselves, we recognize in the process of perception things, objects that we previously perceived. But if recognition is incomplete and therefore uncertain, when, for example, having seen a person, we experience a “feeling of familiarity”, but cannot identify him with the one we knew before, or we recognize the person, but cannot remember the conditions under which we perceived the person, then in these cases recognition is arbitrary. Based on the perception of an object, we deliberately try to remember various circumstances in order to clarify its recognition. In this case, recognition turns into reproduction.

The actual playback is carried out without re-perceiving the object that is being reproduced. It is caused by the content of the activity that a person is carrying out at the moment, although this activity is not specifically aimed at reproduction. This involuntary reproduction. But it does not happen by itself, without a push. The impetus for it is the perception of objects, ideas, thoughts that are caused by external influences.

Random Play caused by the reproductive tasks that a person sets for himself. When the material is firmly attached, reproduction occurs easily. But sometimes it is not possible to remember what is needed, then you have to do an active search, overcoming difficulties. Such reproduction is called recall.

Recall – reproduction, in which at the moment it is not possible to remember what is needed, but there is confidence that it is remembered. Recall is characterized by active searches in the labyrinths of memory for the necessary information; this is a certain mental work, labor. Willpower is required. Recall, like memorization, is selective. A well-conscious and precisely formulated task directs the further course of recall, helps select the necessary material in our memory and inhibits side associations. Two methods are recommended:

association and reliance on recognition. Reliance on recognition is the name of possible variants of numbers, words, facts that can be learned and recalled.

All three levels of reproduction are intertwined with each other and interact in mnemonic activity.

Association– connections between individual links of what is perceived in life play a big role in memorization and recollection.

What is learned constantly interacts with what was previously studied.

Types of memory:

according to the nature of mental activity that predominates in the activity, memory is distinguished as motor, emotional, figurative and verbal-logical;

by the nature of the goals of the activity: voluntary and involuntary;

according to the duration of consolidation and preservation of the material: KP, DP and operational.

Motor (motor)– memorization, preservation and reproduction of various movements and their systems. It serves as the basis for the formation of writing, walking, dancing, and work skills.

Emotional memory– on feelings, consists of remembering, reproducing and recognizing emotions and feelings. Underlies the formation of habits. Feelings experienced and stored in memory can motivate or inhibit action. The ability to empathize with another person is based on emotional memory.

Figurative memory– visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory.

Verbal-logical (semantic)- consists of remembering and reproducing thoughts. Because Thoughts do not exist without language, then the memory of them is semantic.