Memory operations in psychology. What types of memory do humans have? Concept and features of visual memory

Every person throughout his life accumulates certain information, experience and knowledge that he needs in various areas of his activity. All this is possible thanks to memory. Without it, humanity would never have achieved progress and would still remain at the level of the primitive communal system. Memory is one of the most important functions of our consciousness. What does this concept mean? What are the main types of memory in psychology? What violations can a person encounter, and how to correct them?

Concept and functions of memory

Memory is the ability of a person’s consciousness to accumulate, preserve, and also reproduce previously acquired knowledge, skills, and information about our world. In various forms it is inherent in all living organisms. However, in humans, compared to other creatures, memory is at the highest level of development.

Different types of memory contribute to the fact that a person can not only master certain information, but also repeat and reproduce all kinds of actions. Memory allows us to transport our thoughts into the past, re-experience the emotions and worries that we once experienced. This function of the human psyche provides a connection between the past, present and future, making learning and personal development possible.

Memory helps coordinate the work of various subsystems of our psyche. With its help, a person is able to achieve the goal set for himself by remembering and reproducing the necessary information at the right time.

The main functions of memory include the ability to accumulate and retain acquired knowledge for a long period of time. It is also necessary to reproduce information with maximum accuracy.

Classification of types of memory in psychology

Characteristics of other organisms, in addition to humans, include genetic and mechanical memory. The first of them is stored in the genotype of a living organism and is inherited. It is impossible to have any influence on it using the methods known to us. Rote memory is a learning ability based on repetition, without thought or awareness of actions.

Depending on which of the senses is most involved in the memorization process, the following types of memory are distinguished: auditory, visual and tactile. Based on the duration of information storage, it is divided into long-term and short-term.

Also, the classification of types of memory is made according to the type of human thinking. According to it, associative, logical, and indirect memory are distinguished.

The first type is the process of assimilation of information through the construction of a certain chain of associations. So, for example, when a person studies a foreign language, this or that word may seem similar in pronunciation to Russian. This will make it much easier to remember.

Logical memory is built on the semantic relationship of various elements that need to be remembered. Having understood the cause-and-effect relationships, a person can easily assimilate the information he needs.

Indirect memory is based on the comparison of new knowledge with a person’s existing life experience. It includes both logical and associative memory.

Depending on how purposefully a person assimilates information, psychology distinguishes such types of memory as voluntary and involuntary. In the first case, knowledge is recorded accidentally, automatically. Involuntary memory involves the purposeful concentration of a person’s attention to retain the necessary information.

Qualities and individual characteristics of our memory

Each person's memory is developed in its own way. For some, it is not difficult to quickly memorize a fairly large amount of information, while for others it is difficult to learn even a short poem.

In psychology, the following qualities of memory are distinguished: volume, accuracy, duration, speed of memorization and readiness for reproduction. All of them are developed in a particular person to varying degrees.

Memory capacity is the ability of an individual to simultaneously store and retain a significant amount of information in his head. According to scientific data, people do not use 100% of their brain, and our memory is also not used to its full potential. Our consciousness can accommodate much more information than the most modern computer, but few people realize their potential capabilities in practice.

Memory accuracy allows a person to reproduce learned information as reliably as possible. Very often, over time, part of the data can be erased from our consciousness or distorted. The accuracy of reproduction ensures their reliable preservation in an unchanged form.

The duration of memory allows you to retain the necessary information in your head for a certain time. So, for example, it is important for a student who has memorized all the tickets before the session not to forget them until he passes the exams. After this, it makes no sense for him to retain information in memory.

Speed of memorization is also one of the most important characteristics of memory. It is determined by the amount of time required to assimilate this or that information. Some students, for example, need to study for the entire semester in order to pass the session. For others, it is enough to read the material one time before the exam.

Readiness to reproduce is characterized by a person’s ability to quickly recall the necessary information. For some this is not at all difficult, but for others it takes time to gradually find in the depths of their memory what they need.

Concept and features of visual memory

Visual memory is characterized by the fact that a person is able to remember faces, text, and various objects he has seen. When it is necessary to remember something, certain images appear in front of him, which are formed by our consciousness. People who have more developed this type of memory find it easier to assimilate information through visual contact with the subject of knowledge.

The peculiarities of this type of memory are that in the process of memorization our brain transforms and transforms the original data. At the same time, small, unimportant details may be completely omitted, while something larger and attracting attention, on the contrary, will stand out and be exaggerated. Our consciousness is able to represent the information we see in the form of diagrams and drawings, which are easier to retain in memory.

Visual memory is not developed equally in all people. Someone can easily describe an object that he saw for a couple of seconds, while another person, even carefully examining this or that thing, will later miss important points when talking about it.

Features of auditory memory

Many people find it much easier to remember information by hearing than by making eye contact. So, when learning a poem, some children need their parents to first read it to them several times. Auditory memory is a person’s ability to remember and assimilate, store and subsequently reproduce sound information.

Every person has auditory memory to one degree or another. Someone can easily reproduce verbatim the information they have heard briefly. For some people this is more difficult. But even if, after carefully listening to the lecture, you did not remember anything from it, you should not think that this type of memory is completely unusual for you. Perhaps your brain simply does not want to perceive information that is not interesting to you, because in a conversation with a friend, almost everyone will remember what exactly he told you about.

Short-term memory

When highlighting types of memory in psychology, long-term and short-term memory are most often mentioned first. The latter is a method of storing information for a short period of time, usually from 20 to 30 seconds. Very often the physical memory of a computer is compared with it.

Short-term memory retains a generalized image of an object that a person has perceived. It focuses on the most basic and prominent features, the most memorable elements. Short-term memory functions without a preliminary setting for memorization. However, it is aimed at reproducing the information just received.

The main indicator characterizing short-term memory is its volume. It is determined by the number of units of information that a person will be able to reproduce with absolute accuracy 20-30 seconds after some data has been presented to him once. Most often, people's short-term memory capacity varies between 5 and 9 units.

Information is retained in short-term memory through repetition. Data is scanned by our brain using vision and then spoken through inner speech. After this, short-term auditory memory begins to work. In the absence of repetition, stored elements are forgotten over time or replaced by newly arrived data.

Long-term memory

A person’s ability to store information for a very long period of time, sometimes limited only by the duration of our life, is called long-term memory. It assumes that people have the ability, at any necessary moment, to remember and reproduce what was once firmly settled in their consciousness.

A person is able to tell an unlimited number of times without losing the meaning and all the smallest details of information stored in long-term memory storage. Systematic repetition allows you to retain data in your head longer and longer.

The functioning of long-term memory is associated with processes such as thinking and willpower. They are necessary in order to find once stored information in the depths of consciousness. In order for data to move into long-term memory, a clear commitment to memorization is needed, as well as systematic repetition.

All people have this type of memory developed to varying degrees. The better the long-term memory, the more units of information a person can remember with fewer repetitions.

The ability to forget as a function of memory

Many people consider the ability to forget as a disadvantage, and even a memory disorder that they would like to get rid of. Indeed, few people would like to be unable to remember important information at the right time. However, in fact, the ability to forget is extremely necessary for us.

If we imagine for a second that a person would store absolutely everything in his head, and not even the smallest detail would escape our consciousness, how overloaded would our memory end up? In addition, there are many unpleasant and terrible events that you want to quickly forget. Our consciousness is designed in such a way that it tries to erase all negativity from memory. People try to remember only the good and think less about the bad.

The ability to forget allows a person to concentrate on the most important things and retain only truly necessary information in his mind. Thanks to this function, our physical memory is protected from overload. However, not in all cases, people’s ideas about the necessary information coincide with the choice of such by our brain. Such situations create problems and inconveniences for us, and the person complains that he has a bad memory.

It must be remembered that even people with phenomenal memory have the ability to forget unnecessary, superfluous information. Without this ability, the brain would work very slowly, like an overloaded computer. In this case, a person would often experience nervous disorders and all kinds of memory problems.

Memory impairment: types and causes

The causes of memory impairment are quite varied. First of all, these include injuries and lesions of the brain, as well as diseases of other organs that affect the general condition of a person. Frequent abuse of alcohol, nicotine, drugs, and systematic use of strong medications can lead to memory impairment. The cause of this problem is also a person’s poor lifestyle, constant stress, chronic lack of sleep and overwork. Many people begin to notice as they age that they have poor memory. If memory problems caused by unfavorable life factors are quite easy to eliminate, then disorders caused by serious injuries are very difficult to treat.

Like the types of memory in psychology, its disorders are also diverse. They are divided into several groups. The first includes amnesia. This disease is characterized by a violation of the individual's ability to store, remember and reproduce information. Sometimes a person cannot remember events that happened before the injury occurred. In some cases, on the contrary, he perfectly remembers the distant past, but is not able to reproduce what happened to him a couple of minutes ago.

The second group includes partial memory impairment. They are divided into hypomnesia, that is, a decrease in memory, and hypermnesia, a disease characterized by an excessive increase in the ability to retain information.

The third group includes disorders associated with distortion of information or false memories. Diseases of this kind are called paramnesia. People can appropriate other people's thoughts and actions, mix the past and present in their minds, and consider fictitious events to be reality.

When faced with any of the listed memory disorders, a person should immediately seek help from specialists. Timely treatment in many cases makes the changes reversible.

How to develop memory?

Each of us has our own memory characteristics. Some people find it easier to assimilate information by ear, while others must see the object of memorization before their eyes. For some people, learning long poems is not difficult; for others, it requires considerable effort. The different characteristics of people are not disorders, and everyone, if desired, can improve their ability to store and reproduce information.

There are several tips that will help develop memory more accessible to everyone. First of all, you need to know that the brain remembers faster the information that is interesting to us. Also an important factor is full concentration of attention on the object being studied. To remember something faster, you need to create an environment around yourself that would promote maximum concentration. For example, when preparing for an exam, you can turn off your computer and phone, ask your relatives not to make noise and not distract you.

Associations help you remember faster. By learning to build them, to compare what needs to be learned with already familiar concepts, you will significantly facilitate the memorization process.

A person’s ability to systematize received information is considered important. Consciousness transforms initial data into diagrams and graphs that are easier and faster to remember.

The development of human memory is impossible without repetition. To ensure that information is not forgotten over time, it must be repeated periodically and returned to again and again.

Exercises to improve memory

There are many exercises to develop and train our memory. Many of them can be used in everyday life; they do not require special training or the availability of certain books and manuals.

Visual memory training deserves a lot of attention. Here are some examples of exercises to develop it. You can open any picture, look at it for a few seconds, then close your eyes and mentally try to remember everything you can. Then open your eyes and check yourself.

Another option for visual memory development exercises is playing with pencils. You can take a few pencils, throw them on the table in a random order, look at them for a couple of seconds, and then, without peeking, reproduce what you saw at the other end of the table. If you find things too easy, you can increase the number of pencils.

To develop auditory memory, it will be very useful to read books aloud. However, this must be done with expression, avoiding monotonous reading. Learning poems will also help improve auditory memory. Even a couple of memorized quatrains a day will significantly increase your memory capabilities. You can try to remember and after a while reproduce to yourself a conversation between strangers or a song you heard on a minibus that was new to you.

To develop your memory, try every evening to remember the events of your day in the smallest detail. Moreover, this must be done in the reverse order, that is, starting in the evening and ending with awakening.

In order for your memory not to let you down for as long as possible, you need to eat well, rest, and avoid stress and negative emotions. It is impossible to remember everything, so even if you forgot something, try to treat it with humor and not focus on problems.

TYPES OF MEMORY(English) kinds of thingsofmemory) - various forms of manifestation mnemonic activity. They are differentiated according to 3 main criteria.

1. Based on the type of material being remembered and the nature of mental activity that predominates in the activity, memory is distinguished between motor, emotional, figurative and verbal-logical. Motor memory associated with memorizing and reproducing movements, with the formation of motor skills in gaming, work, sports and other types of human activity. Figurative memory associated with memorizing and reproducing sensory images of objects and phenomena, their properties and visually given connections and relationships between them (see. Musical memory,Auditory memory,Tactile memory.) Memory images can be of varying degrees of complexity: images of individual objects and generalized representations, in which certain abstract content can be fixed. Verbal-logical memory- memory for thoughts, judgments, conclusions. It fixes the reflection of objects and phenomena in their general and essential properties, connections and relationships (see. Verbal-logical memory,Emotional memory).

2. According to the nature of the goals of the activity, memory is divided into involuntary and voluntary (see. Involuntary memorization,Voluntary memorization).

3. Based on the time of fixation and preservation of the material, ultra-short-term ones are distinguished (see. Sensory memory,Touch register,Iconic memory,Echoic memory),short term memory(cm. Buffer memory) And long-term memory(cm. Procedural memory). The requirements of practice and the development of memory theory led to the formulation of the problem of working memory (see. RAM memory), serving actual actions and operations directly carried out by a person. (Cm. Primary and secondary memory.)

Thus, the most general basis for distinguishing different types of memory is the dependence of its characteristics on the characteristics of the activity in which the processes of memorization and reproduction are carried out. P. v., identified in accordance with different criteria, are in organic unity. Thus, verbal-logical memory in each specific case may. either involuntary or voluntary; at the same time it is necessarily either short-term or long-term. Various P. v., identified according to the same criterion, are also interrelated. Short-term and long-term memory are essentially 2 stages of a single process that always begins with short-term memory. (T. P. Zinchenko.)

Types of memory

Depending on the activity of storing material, instantaneous, short-term, operational, long-term and genetic memory are distinguished.

Instant(iconic) memory is a direct reflection of the image of information perceived by the senses. Its duration is from 0.1 to 0.5 s.

Short-term memory retains for a short period of time (on average about 20 s.) a generalized image of the perceived information, its most essential elements. Short-term memory capacity is 5 - 9 units of information and is determined by the amount of information that a person is able to accurately reproduce after a single presentation. The most important feature of short-term memory is its selectivity. From instant memory, only that information comes into it that corresponds to the current needs and interests of a person and attracts his increased attention. “The average person’s brain,” said Edison, “does not perceive even a thousandth part of what the eye sees.”

RAM designed to store information for a certain, predetermined period of time necessary to perform some action or operation. The duration of RAM is from several seconds to several days.

Long-term memory capable of storing information for an almost unlimited period of time, while there is (but not always) the possibility of its repeated reproduction. In practice, the functioning of long-term memory is usually associated with thinking and volitional efforts.

Genetic memory is determined by the genotype and is passed on from generation to generation. It is obvious that human influence on this type of memory is very limited (if it is possible at all).

Depending on the analyzer that predominates in the process of memory functioning, motor, visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, emotional and other types of memory are distinguished.

In humans, visual perception is predominant. For example, we often know a person by sight, although we cannot remember his name. Visual memory is responsible for storing and reproducing visual images. It is directly related to a developed imagination: what a person can visually imagine, he, as a rule, more easily remembers and reproduces. The Chinese have a proverb: “It is better to see once than to hear a thousand times.” Dale Carnegie explains this phenomenon by saying that “the nerves leading from the eyes to the brain are twenty-five times thicker than those leading from the ear to the brain.”

Auditory memory- this is a good memorization and accurate reproduction of various sounds, for example, musical, speech. A special type of speech memory is verbal-logical, which is closely related to word, thought and logic.

Motor memory represents the memorization and preservation, and, if necessary, reproduction with sufficient accuracy of a variety of complex movements. She participates in the formation of motor skills. A striking example of motor memory is handwritten text reproduction, which, as a rule, involves the automatic writing of once learned characters.

Emotional memory- this is a memory of experiences. It is involved in all types of memory, but is especially evident in human relationships. The strength of memorizing material is based on emotional memory: what evokes emotions in a person is remembered without much difficulty and for a longer period.

The capabilities of tactile, olfactory, gustatory and other types of memory compared to visual, auditory, motor and emotional memory are very limited; and do not play a special role in a person’s life.

The types of memory discussed above only characterize the sources of initial information and are not stored in memory in its pure form. In the process of memorization (reproduction), information undergoes various changes: sorting, selection, generalization, coding, synthesis, as well as other types of information processing.

Based on the nature of the participation of the will in the process of memorizing and reproducing material, memory is divided into voluntary and involuntary.

In the first case, a person is given a special mnemonic task (memorization, recognition, preservation and reproduction), carried out through volitional efforts. Involuntary memory functions automatically, without much effort on the part of the person. Involuntary memorization is not necessarily weaker than voluntary; in many cases in life it is superior to it.

Such a human mental function as memory is special. Other functions cannot be performed without her participation. The manifestations are very diverse and multifaceted. We present to your attention a classification of types of memory in psychology.

Types of human memory in psychology

According to the storage time of the material

Short-term memory. The material is not stored for long, about twenty seconds, and the volume of elements that is simultaneously retained in memory is small - from five to nine.
Sensory memory. Information is stored at the receptor level; if it is not subsequently transferred from the receptor storage to another form of storage, it is lost irretrievably. The storage time is very short - up to one second. This memory is most often used in newborns.
Long-term memory. It ensures long-term preservation of the material; storage time and volume of information are not limited. Long-term memory, unlike short-term memory, processes received information differently. Long-term memory optimally “arranges” information – this ensures its optimal storage. This phenomenon is called “reminiscence”; the volume of the required material increases, and the quality also improves.
RAM. It is an intermediate storage between long-term and short-term memory. Stores material for a certain required period.

By the nature of mental activity

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.

Such a human mental function as memory is special. Other functions cannot be performed without her participation. Manifestations of memory are very diverse and multifaceted. We present to your attention a classification of types of memory in psychology.

Types of human memory in psychology

According to the storage time of the material

Short-term memory. The material is not stored for long, about twenty seconds, and the volume of elements that is simultaneously retained in memory is small - from five to nine.
Sensory memory. Information is stored at the receptor level; if it is not subsequently transferred from the receptor storage to another form of storage, it is lost irretrievably. The storage time is very short - up to one second. This memory is most often used in newborns.
Long-term memory. It ensures long-term preservation of the material; storage time and volume of information are not limited. Long-term memory, unlike short-term memory, processes received information differently. Long-term memory optimally “arranges” information – this ensures its optimal storage. This phenomenon is called “reminiscence”; the volume of the required material increases, and the quality also improves.
RAM. It is an intermediate storage between long-term and short-term memory. Stores material for a certain required period.

By the nature of mental activity

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Types of human memory

All the diversity of human life and activity is impossible without memory. Existing types and types of human memory are determined by the accumulated experience and characteristics of the individual’s activities. Types of memory are determined by the individual characteristics of the individual, but types are distinguished by the nature of the goals of the activity, as well as the duration of fixation and storage of material.

What types of memory do humans have?

According to the time of information reservation, the following are distinguished:

Instant memory is the simplest type. It ensures the storage of information only during its perception;
short-term memory. It makes it possible to save data for approximately 30–40 seconds from the moment it is acquired. This type of memory is characterized by the maximum number of symbols, images and objects that an individual is able to recreate within one minute from the moment of receipt. When it is filled with 10 units, replacement occurs, that is, new data replaces old data with the latter being deleted without a trace;
RAM is designed to store data for a certain period of time. Most often, a few minutes or days after receiving information, data from RAM begins to be erased;
In psychology, such a type of human memory is also distinguished as long-term. Here information is stored for a long time, but in order for a person to reproduce it, it is necessary to make an effort and start the thought process. It is this memory that people use most often;
Storage of genetic memory is carried out in genes and is inherited.

Human memory, its features and types in accordance with the goals of the activity

We are talking about involuntary and voluntary memory. If a person remembers or remembers something without pursuing a special purpose for this, then involuntary memory works. If an individual sets a goal to remember some material, then they talk about voluntary memory. In this case, memorization and reproduction are possible thanks to special, mnemonic actions. It is these two types that ensure the consistent development of the entire memory as a whole.

Types of memory. Their brief description

The role of involuntary memory in human life is difficult to overestimate, because it is it that ensures the formation of the main part of life experience.

However, often a person resorts to the need to manage his memory. Voluntary memory gives him the opportunity to deliberately remember something, memorize it, and then use it when necessary.

What other types of memory do humans have?

Speaking about types, one cannot fail to note the types of memory that are determined by the individual characteristics of the human psyche. There are visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, emotional and other types. They all function in organic unity and do not occur separately. There are people who have a highly developed specific memory - artists have visual memory, and musicians have auditory memory, but for the majority they function together.

Moreover, in psychology, the types of human memory, in addition to the fact that they are individual, in each particular case can be voluntary or involuntary, short-term or long-term, etc. Motor, figurative, auditory and other types cannot exist separately also because, first of all, identical characteristics of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, and therefore the forms of their reflection, are connected with each other. Complex successive connections can be traced between involuntary and voluntary memory, and short-term and long-term memory are two stages of one process. It all starts with short-term memory, bypassing which the information goes into long-term memory.

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Memory types

There are a variety of types of memory, determined by the individual characteristics of the human psyche. They do not occur separately, but always function together, although in some people one type of memory may predominate over others.

Definition of memory. Types of memory

Definition of memory

Memory- this is a mental property of a person, the ability to accumulate, (memorize) store, and reproduce experience and information. Another definition says: memory is the ability to remember individual experiences from the past, realizing not only the experience itself, but its place in the history of our life, its placement in time and space. Memory is difficult to reduce to one concept. But let us emphasize that memory is a set of processes and functions that expand a person’s cognitive capabilities. Memory covers all the impressions that a person has about the world around him. Memory is a complex structure of several functions or processes that ensure the recording of a person’s past experiences. Memory can be defined as a psychological process that performs the functions of remembering, preserving and reproducing material. The three functions mentioned are the main ones for memory.

Classification of main types of memory

Another important fact: memory stores and restores very different elements of our experience: intellectual, emotional, and motor-motor. Memory of feelings and emotions can last even longer than intellectual memory of specific events.

Basic features of memory

The most important features, integral characteristics of memory are: duration, speed, accuracy, readiness, volume (memorization and reproduction). How productive a person’s memory is depends on these characteristics. These memory traits will be mentioned later in this work, but for now here is a brief description of the memory productivity traits:

1. Volume - the ability to simultaneously store a significant amount of information. The average memory capacity is 7 elements (units) of information.

2. Speed of memorization- varies from person to person. The speed of memorization can be increased with the help of special memory training.

3. Accuracy - accuracy is reflected in the recall of facts and events that a person has encountered, as well as in the recall of the content of information. This trait is very important in learning.

4. Duration– the ability to retain the experience for a long time. A very individual quality: some people can remember the faces and names of school friends after many years (long-term memory is developed), some forget them after just a few years. The duration of memory is selective.

5. Ready to play - the ability to quickly reproduce information in the human mind. It is thanks to this ability that we can effectively use previously acquired experience.

Types and forms of memory

There are different classifications of types of human memory:

1. By the participation of the will in the process of memorization;

2. By mental activity, which predominates in the activity.

3. By the duration of information storage;

4. The essence of the subject and method of memorization.

By the nature of the participation of the will.

Based on the nature of the target activity, memory is divided into involuntary and voluntary.

Schematic representation of memory

1) Involuntary memory means remembering and reproducing automatically, without any effort.

2) Arbitrary memory refers to cases where a specific task is present and volitional efforts are used to remember.

It has been proven that material that is interesting to a person, that is important, that is of great importance is involuntarily remembered.

By the nature of mental activity.

According to the nature of mental activity with the help of which a person remembers information, memory is divided into motor, emotional (affective), figurative and verbal-logical.

3) Figurative memory - associated with memorizing and reproducing sensory images of objects and phenomena, their properties, and relationships between them. This memory begins to manifest itself by the age of 2 years, and reaches its highest point by adolescence. Images can be different: a person remembers both images of various objects and a general idea of them, with some abstract content. In turn, figurative memory is divided according to the type of analyzers that are involved in memorizing impressions by a person. Figurative memory can be visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile and gustatory.

By duration of information storage:

1) Instantaneous or iconic memory

This memory retains material that was just received by the senses, without any processing of information. The duration of this memory is from 0.1 to 0.5 s. Often, in this case, a person remembers information without conscious effort, even against his will. This is a memory-image.

The individual perceives electromagnetic vibrations, changes in air pressure, changes in the position of an object in space, giving them a certain meaning. A stimulus always carries certain information that is specific only to it. The physical parameters of the stimulus affecting the receptor in the sensory system are converted into certain states of the central nervous system (CNS). Establishing a correspondence between the physical parameters of a stimulus and the state of the central nervous system is impossible without memory work. This memory manifests itself in children even in preschool age, but over the years its importance for a person increases.

2) Short-term memory

Storing information for a short period of time: on average about 20 seconds. This type of memorization can occur after a single or very brief perception. This memory works without conscious effort to remember, but with the intention of future reproduction. The most essential elements of the perceived image are stored in memory. Short-term memory “turns on” when the so-called actual consciousness of a person operates (i.e., what is realized by a person and somehow correlates with his current interests and needs).

— Information is entered into short-term memory by paying attention to it. For example: a person who has seen his wristwatch hundreds of times may not answer the question: “Which numeral - Roman or Arabic - represents the number six on the watch?” He never purposefully perceived this fact and, thus, the information was not deposited in short-term memory.

— The volume of short-term memory is very individual, and there are developed formulas and methods for measuring it. In this regard, it is necessary to mention such a feature as substitution property. When an individual's memory capacity becomes full, new information partially replaces what is already stored there, and old information often disappears forever. A good example would be the difficulty in remembering the abundance of surnames and first names of people we have just met. A person is able to retain no more names in short-term memory than his individual memory capacity allows.

- By making a conscious effort, you can retain information in memory longer, which will ensure its transfer to working memory. This is the basis of remembering by repetition.

In fact, short-term memory plays a vital role. Thanks to short-term memory, a huge amount of information is processed. The unnecessary is immediately eliminated and what is potentially useful remains. As a result, long-term memory does not become overloaded with unnecessary information. Short-term memory organizes a person’s thinking, since thinking “draws” information and facts from short-term and operative memory.

3) RAM is memory designed to retain information for a certain, predetermined period. The storage period for information ranges from a few seconds to several days.

After solving the task, information may disappear from RAM. A good example would be the information that a student is trying to absorb during an exam: the time frame and task are clearly defined. After passing the exam, there is again complete “amnesia” on this issue. This type of memory is, as it were, transitional from short-term to long-term, since it includes elements of both memory.

4) Long-term memory - memory capable of storing information indefinitely.

This memory does not begin to function immediately after the material has been memorized, but after some time. A person must switch from one process to another: from memorization to reproduction. These two processes are incompatible and their mechanisms are completely different.

Interestingly, the more often information is reproduced, the more firmly it is fixed in memory. In other words, a person can recall information at any necessary moment through an effort of will. It is interesting to note that mental ability is not always an indicator of memory quality.

Psychology of memory.

For example, in mentally retarded people, phenomenal long-term memory is sometimes found.

Why is the ability to retain information necessary to perceive information? This is due to two main reasons. Firstly, a person deals at each moment with only relatively small fragments of the external environment. In order to integrate these temporally separated influences into a holistic picture of the surrounding world, the effects of previous events when perceiving subsequent ones must be, so to speak, “at hand.” The second reason is related to the purposefulness of our behavior. The acquired experience must be remembered in such a way that it can be successfully used for the subsequent regulation of forms of behavior aimed at achieving similar goals. The information stored in a person’s memory is assessed by him from the point of view of its significance for controlling behavior and, in accordance with this assessment, is retained in varying degrees of readiness.

Human memory is not in the least bit a passive repository of information—it is an active activity.

Types of memory in psychology

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. His entire memory 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.

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 and emotions experienced once in the past. 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.

How to better remember what you read?

You can learn to remember what you read well if you follow certain rules. Take notes on important points, discuss and retell what you learned from the book. Sit down to work at those hours when the brain works best.

How to quickly memorize a verse?

In this article we will talk about simple but quite effective ways to quickly memorize a verse.

Types of memory in psychology. Long-term and short-term memory

You will learn about the most effective order of memorizing a piece and some other nuances.