Who coined the term memory? Definition of memory. Long-term and short-term memory

Performed: Elena Salkova, PR402.

When working on a person’s personal image (or our image), we pursue two goals: the first goal is camouflage (that is, creating a new image when entering a new group), the second is self-presentation (the ability to present oneself to people, hiding shortcomings and emphasizing one’s strengths).

When creating an image, we work not only with the appearance, but also with the inner world of a person. After all, the purpose of imageology is to, by creating an attractive image, help a person psychologically and morally feel confident and optimistic. In other words, a person should feel comfortable in the new image.

Based on this, work on a person’s appearance should occur in parallel with studying and working with the inner world. “I-concept” is the first stage of work in creating a personal image and in the technology of personal charm, the stage of knowing and accepting oneself, forming one’s own attitude towards a positive attitude to the world and to yourself. Working with the “I-concept” in the context of image, such functions of image as personally elevating and psychotherapeutic are realized. The formation of personality occurs in the process of socialization. The interaction of a developing personality with other people is of great importance. Self-awareness and value orientation of a person mirror the reactions of people around him.

In the process of communication, a person can monitor and analyze the reactions of other people to his actions, speech, movements, facial expressions, demeanor, etc. Thus, in the process of socialization, a person’s “I-concept” is formed. R. Burns, one of the leading English scientists in the field of psychology, defines this concept as follows:

“The self-concept is the totality of all a person’s ideas about himself, associated with his attitude towards himself or towards his individual qualities; this is called self-esteem”

Self-esteem reflects the degree to which a person develops a sense of self-esteem, a sense of intrinsic value and a positive attitude towards everything that is included in the sphere of his “I”. When working with the image of an individual according to the “Self-concept”, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the theoretical aspects of this phenomenon. What does the “I-concept” consist of? What happens to a person when working on his “I-concept”? How to set yourself up for success? What does a positive “I-concept” give an individual? A positive “I-concept” is determined by three factors: a firm conviction that other people like you, confidence in your ability to perform a particular type of activity, and a sense of self-worth. The descriptive component of “I-concept” concept” is often called the image of the Self, or the picture of the Self. The component associated with the attitude towards oneself or towards one’s individual qualities is called self-esteem, or self-acceptance. The “I-concept” is, in essence, determined by the individual: what he thinks about himself, how he looks at his active beginning and the possibilities of development in the future. Isolating the descriptive and evaluative components allows us to consider the “I-concept” as a set of attitudes aimed at oneself .

The installation includes three main elements:

1. An individual’s belief: it can be either justified or unfounded (the cognitive component of the attitude).
2. Emotional attitude to this belief (emotional-evaluative component).
3. An appropriate reaction that can be expressed in actions (behavioral component).

In relation to the “I-concept”, these three elements of attitude can be specified as follows:

1. Self-image is an individual's idea of ​​himself.
2. Self-esteem is an affective assessment of this idea, which can have varying intensity, since specific features of the self-image can evoke more or less strong emotions associated with their acceptance or condemnation.
3. Potential behavioral response, that is, those specific actions that can be caused by self-image and self-esteem.

The subject of an individual’s self-perception and self-esteem can be his body, image, manners, abilities, social relationships and many other personal manifestations. Let's focus on the three main components of the “I-concept”. The cognitive component of the “I-concept” An individual’s ideas about himself seem significant to him, regardless of whether they are based on objective knowledge or subjective opinion, true or false. Specific methods of self-perception leading to the formation of a self-image can be very diverse. If we are faced with the task of describing an individual, we will use adjectives: “reliable”, “sociable”, “strong”, “conscientious”, etc. .

All these are abstract characteristics that are in no way related to a specific event or situation. As elements of a generalized image of an individual, they reflect, on the one hand, stable trends in his behavior, and on the other, the selectivity of our perception. The same thing happens when we describe ourselves: we try to express in words the main characteristics of our habitual self-perception. They can be listed endlessly, because they include any attributive, role, status, psychological characteristics individual.

All of them are included in the image of the Self with different specific weight: some seem more significant to the individual, others - less. Moreover, the significance of the elements of self-description and, accordingly, their hierarchy can change depending on the context, the life experience of the individual, or simply under the influence of the moment.

This kind of self-description is a way to characterize the uniqueness of each personality through a combination of its individual traits. The evaluative component of the “Self-concept” Qualities that we attribute self, are not always objective and other people are not always ready to agree with them. Only age, gender, height, profession and some other data that are sufficiently indisputable will not cause disagreement.

Basically, in attempts to characterize oneself, there is a strong personal evaluative element. In other words, “I-concept” is not only a statement, a description of one’s personality traits, but also the entire set of their evaluative characteristics and associated experiences. Even such seemingly objective indicators as height or age, for different people can have different meaning, conditioned general structure their self-concepts. All this can be explained by existing stereotypes in society.

For example, excessive fatness is universally considered undesirable, and people who seem too fat to themselves (although they are not at all fat in the eyes of others) often come to feel inferior, because it is human nature to transfer external defects to the personality as a whole. If a person has an unattractive appearance, physical disabilities, or is socially inadequate (even if it only seems so to him), then he feels the negative reactions of others (often also only apparent) that accompany him in any interaction with the social environment. Thus, the social environment significantly complicates the development of a positive “I-concept”.

Even emotionally neutral characteristics of one’s own personality usually contain a hidden assessment. A person internalizes the evaluative meaning of various characteristics present in his “I-concept”. Moreover, new assessments can change the meaning of those previously acquired. Thus, self-esteem is not constant, it changes depending on the circumstances. Self-esteem reflects the degree to which an individual develops a sense of self-respect, a sense of self-worth and a positive attitude towards everything that is included in the sphere of his Self. Therefore low self-esteem involves self-rejection, self-denial, and a negative attitude towards one’s personality.

Self-esteem manifests itself in the individual's conscious judgments in which he tries to formulate his importance. It is hidden or explicitly present in any self-description. This is reflected in the “I-concept” method. Any attempt to characterize oneself contains an evaluative element, determined by generally accepted norms, criteria and goals, ideas about levels of achievement, moral principles, rules of conduct, etc.

Three things are important to understanding self-esteem.

First. Important role In its formation, the comparison of the image of the real Self with the image of the ideal Self - the idea of ​​​​what a person would like to be - plays a role. This comparison is often present in the “Self-concept” psychotherapeutic technique, where a high degree of agreement between the real Self and the ideal Self is considered an important indicator mental health. So, whoever achieves in reality the characteristics that define for him perfect image I, he must have high self-esteem. If a person perceives a gap between these characteristics and the reality of his achievements, his self-esteem is likely to be low.

The second factor in the formation of self-esteem is associated with the internalization of social reactions to a given individual. In other words, a person tends to evaluate himself the way he thinks others evaluate him. Finally, the individual evaluates the success of his own actions and manifestations through the prism of his identity.

He feels satisfaction not because he simply does something well, but because he has chosen a certain task and is doing it well. In general, the picture looks like this: people make great efforts to greatest success“fit” into the structure of society. Self-esteem is always subjective, regardless of whether it is based on the individual’s own judgments about himself or interpretations of the judgments of other people, individual ideals or culturally defined standards. Behavioral component of the “I-concept” Any attitude is an emotionally charged belief associated with a certain object.

The peculiarity of the “I-concept” as a set of attitudes is that the object in this case is the carrier of the attitude itself. Thanks to this self-direction, all emotions and evaluations associated with the self-image are very strong and stable. It is quite simple not to attach importance to another person’s attitude towards you: for this there is a rich arsenal of psychological defenses. But if we are talking about attitude towards oneself, then simple verbal manipulations may be powerless here.

A person who is tired of everyday affairs can take a vacation, change jobs, move to another city, or change the situation in some other way. But can he escape from himself?

The significance of the “Self-concept” is that it contributes to the achievement of internal consistency of the individual, determines the interpretation of experience and serves as a source of expectations. There are studies on personality theory based on the concept that a person always follows the path of achieving maximum internal consistency. Conceptions, feelings, ideas that conflict with other perceptions, feelings or ideas of the individual deharmonize the personality and create psychological discomfort (cognitive dissonance).

To restore the lost state inner harmony, the individual is ready for various actions. So, he can either refuse to see things as they are and believe people who tell him something about himself, or strive to change himself and those around him in some way.

An essential factor of internal consistency is what an individual thinks about himself; in his actions he is guided by self-perception. Contradictory experiences that introduce discord into the personality structure can also be assimilated with the help of protective psychological mechanisms, for example, rationalization. These mechanisms make it possible to maintain the “I-concept”. One of the main ideas of the “I-concept” is associated with the individual’s use of psychological defense mechanisms necessary to overcome the dissonance between his direct experience and the “I-concept”. Behavior is seen as an attempt to achieve self-concept coherence. Reacting to a state of such dissonance as a threat arising from experiences that contradict the “I-concept”, the individual uses one of two defense mechanisms - distortion or denial.

Distortion is used to change the personal significance of an experience; denial, as it were, eliminates the very fact of the presence of experience. Distortion is aimed at bringing the individual’s immediate experiences into conformity with his personal, integral Self.

Events are not assessed objectively, on their own; They are given meaning by an individual burdened by past experience, who cares about preserving his “I-concept.” We use client-centered therapy as a method aimed at modifying the state of the “self-concept” to eliminate the dissonance between it and the individual’s immediate experiences. As a result, the neurotic syndrome is eliminated and a state of psychological adaptation is achieved. If immediate experiences are blocked or distorted and their adequate connection to the “I-concept” becomes impossible, maladjustment occurs.

Maladjustment can be viewed as a state of inconsistency, internal dissonance, and its main source lies in the potential conflict between personal attitudes and the individual’s direct experience. Such a discrepancy can arise in cases where the self-concept is overly conditioned by the values ​​and perceptions emanating from other people and internalized by the individual. Internal conflict This kind of behavior occurs in a person if his “I-concept” strongly emphasizes love for other people and care for them, and the life situation is such that he is in an aggressive state under the influence of frustration. These feelings may be blocked because the self-concept cannot accept the idea that a person is capable of experiencing hatred.

The essence of the developed theory of cognitive dissonance is that the individual cannot come to terms with inconsistent images of the self, and is forced to look for a way to eliminate the emerging contradiction, resorting, for example, to rationalization. However, internal contradictions of the “I-concept” quite often become a source of stress, since a person still has the ability to realistically assess the situation. Being a social being, a person cannot help but accept social and cultural roles, standards and assessments determined by the conditions of his life. He becomes the object not only of his own assessments and judgments, but of the assessments and judgments of other people. If a person seeks to gain the approval of others, he must conform to generally accepted standards.

Let us turn once again to the functions of the “I-concept”:

• contributes to the achievement of internal consistency of the individual;
• determines the interpretation of experience;
• is a source of expectations.

Let us consider the “I-concept” as a source of interpretation of experience. Two people faced with the same situation perceive it differently. The individual has a strong tendency to build not only his behavior, but also the interpretation of individual experience on the basis of his own ideas about himself. Therefore, the formed “I-concept” acts as an active principle - and it can be extremely difficult to change it. As a set of expectations, the “I-concept” determines how an individual will act in a specific situation, and how he will interpret the actions of others. This function of the “I-concept” also determines a person’s ideas about what should happen.

Thus, three modalities of self-attitudes can be defined:

1. Real Self - attitudes related to how an individual perceives his current abilities, roles, his current status, that is, his ideas about what he really is.
2. Mirror (social) Self - attitudes associated with the individual’s ideas about how others see him.
3. Ideal Self - attitudes associated with an individual’s ideas about what he would like to become.

External personal data and “I-concept” An image maker working with “I-concept” cannot help but take into account the external data of his client. These are the most important sources for the formation of an idea of ​​one’s Self, along with sexual identification, which retains its significance throughout life and is the primary element of the “I-concept”.

At all times in different cultures Various ideas arose about the ideal sizes and proportions of the human body; preference, as a rule, was given to large men and relatively small women. Positive review his appearance in a person’s mind, as well as in the judgments of others, can significantly affect the positivity of his “I-concept”, while a negative assessment entails a significant decrease in overall self-esteem. It has been established that the degree of satisfaction different characteristics one's body is linked to overall self-esteem.

A person’s height, weight, build, health, vision, complexion, etc. capable of becoming the leading components of his attitude towards himself, the main factors determining the sense of his own worth, adequacy and acceptability of his personality. The body is a visible and tangible part of our Self.

We feel, see, hear ourselves, and are never able to detach ourselves from our body. In addition, it is on permanent public display. A short child wearing glasses lives in a completely different world than his tall, athletic counterpart.

Think for a moment about how we react when we first meet a short, fat man or an unusually long and thin person. We assume that they have a number of specific personality traits and expect certain behavior from them. Moreover, we are ready to see features in their behavior that confirm our expectations. But for this person, your verbal and nonverbal reactions act as a manifestation of universal cultural attitudes; Thus, the actions of both parties contribute to the strengthening of stereotypes. Let us consider the possibilities of an image maker in working on body image as a source of development of the “I-concept”. In the literature on self-perception, two terms can be found: body schema and body image. The body diagram, which defines its boundaries and the location of individual parts, arises under the influence of sensory impulses and is retained in the cerebral cortex. In contrast, body image contains primarily an assessment of one’s physical self.

The image maker, having determined the image of his body together with the client, can subsequently construct an image based on individual characteristics, selecting the best lines for its shape, hiding flaws, emphasizing advantages. We all have some kind of idea about our appearance, which is not limited to a mirror image reflection and corresponds to a greater or lesser extent real structure our body. Being a purely psychological phenomenon, body image also includes our idea of ​​ourselves in physiological and social terms.

The complex combination of psychological factors influencing the structure of body image can be represented as follows:

1. The actual subjective perception of the body in terms of overall functional ability.
2. Psychological factors arising in connection with the emotional experiences of an individual in various life situations.
3. Social factors: reactions of others to the individual and his interpretation of these reactions.
4. An ideal body image that summarizes an individual’s attitude towards his body, which arises as a result of specific observations, comparisons and identifications with the bodily qualities of other people.

Any changes associated with a person’s body and appearance can make significant adjustments to his self-image as a result of the action of one or another of these factors.

Methodology for determining the “I-concept” A person lives among people and experiences their influence throughout his life. We hear the voices of loved ones that we remember from childhood, the voices of teachers and many other people we have met in our lives.

For example, adults have one habit - when they see a child, they say similar phrases to them: “Oh, what a child.” beautiful girl“,” “Oh, you’ll definitely become an athlete,” or when parents project onto their children something that they themselves did not do, did not achieve, but really wanted.

And then a person from childhood remains with all these words and messages that he tries to live up to, without wanting to. He may not even realize it. An incorrect life program may develop that is not realized and to which a person does not consciously make adjustments.

People live as if from someone else's voice - and this is wrong. It is even more wrong not to want to know anything about it. Those who do not want to change anything about themselves will still not be able to help but change, if only because time changes us without asking for advice or permission. Ideas about good and evil, assessment of actions and circumstances, our views and judgments were formed in contact (or in dispute, confrontation) with others. When the voices that sound within us interrupt each other, are inconsistent and contradictory, it is difficult for us to make a decision and generally understand ourselves.

The self-concept arises in a person in the process social interaction as an inevitable and always unique result of mental development, as a relatively stable and at the same time susceptible internal changes and fluctuations in mental acquisition.

It leaves an indelible imprint on all manifestations of a person’s life - from childhood to old age. The initial dependence of the self-concept on external influences is undeniable, but later it plays an independent role in the life of every person.

These are two sides of one integrity, always existing simultaneously. One of them is pure experience, and the other is the content of this experience (I as an object). It is impossible to imagine consciousness devoid of content, as well as the content of mental processes that exist in isolation from consciousness. Therefore, in real mental life these elements are so fused that they form a single, practically indissoluble whole. I as an object exists only in processes of awareness and is the content of these processes, since a person can be aware of himself. We can separate the result and the process of reflective thinking only conceptually; psychologically, they exist together.

Working with the “I-concept” is necessary. You can dress a person like a million dollars, and still it’s not a fact that he will feel his best. If a person is not happy with himself, everything goes wrong. I woke up in the morning, looked in the mirror - I didn’t like it, and that’s it - the day was ruined.

And it's just a day. What if a person is constantly dissatisfied with himself? This is a nightmare! If you are dissatisfied with yourself, the result is a bad mood, a bad mood - a sour expression on your face - people move away, or you scare them away by barking at them. There is also distrust of people, anger towards beautiful people, and lack of self-confidence.

And if a person is confident in himself, if he loves himself, he radiates strength, positivity, optimism and happiness. And people are drawn to such people; it is pleasant and useful to communicate with them. Again, positivity and optimism have a very good effect on health. There are many simple, interesting and useful techniques for working on creating a positive “I-concept”.

Some of them (exercise “My Self-Perception”, exercise “I-Real”, exercise “My Life Plans”, Mini-Hymn) were tested on myself. It is always interesting to learn something new about yourself, to understand yourself, to work on yourself. In conclusion, I would like to say that the external and internal world of a person should be in harmony, this should be constantly strived for.

A type of sensory memory is iconic memory. Iconic memory is a discrete sensory recorder of visual stimuli. A feature of iconic memory is the recording of information in a holistic, portrait form.

The experiments of George Sperling are associated with the study of iconic sensory memory and its volume. In his experiments, Sperling used both the “Whole Report Procedure” and his own development, the “Partial Report Procedure”. Due to the transience of iconic memory, the general report procedure did not allow for an objective assessment of the volume of information recorded in sensory memory, since during the reporting process itself, the portrait information was “forgotten” and erased from the sensory iconic memory. The partial report procedure showed that 75% of the visual field is recorded in iconic memory. Sperling's experiments showed that information fades quickly in iconic memory (within tenths of a second). It was also found that the processes associated with iconic memory are not controlled mentally. Even when subjects could not observe the symbols, they still reported that they continued to see them. Thus, the subject of the memorization process does not distinguish between the content of iconic memory and objects that are in the environment.

Erasing information located in iconic memory with other information coming from sensations allows visual sensation be more receptive. This property of iconic memory - erasure - ensures the storage of information in iconic memory, given its limited volume, even if the rate of receipt of sensory information exceeds the rate of attenuation of sensory information in iconic memory. Studies have shown that if visual information arrives quickly enough (up to 100 milliseconds), then overlap occurs. new information to the previous one, which is still in memory, without having time to fade in it and move to another level of memory - a more long-term one. This feature of iconic memory is called reverse masking effect . So, if you show a letter, and then for 100 milliseconds at the same position in the visual field - a ring, then the subject will perceive the letter in the ring.

Echoic memory

Echoic memory stores stimulus information received through the auditory organs.

Tactile memory

Tactile memory registers stimulus information coming through the somatosensory system.

Long-term and short-term memory

Physiological studies reveal 2 main types of memory: short-term and long-term. One of Ebbinghaus's most important discoveries was that if the list is not very large (usually 7), then it can be remembered after the first reading (usually a list of items that can be remembered immediately is called short-term memory capacity).

Another law established by Ebbinghaus is that the amount of material retained depends on the period of time from memorization to testing (the so-called “Ebbinghaus curve”). A positional effect was discovered (occurring if the volume of information being remembered exceeds short-term memory). It lies in the fact that the ease of memorizing a given element depends on the place it occupies in the series (the first and last elements are easier to remember).

In the theory of memory by D. O. Hebb, it is believed that short-term memory is based on electrophysiological mechanisms that support the excitation of associated neural systems, and long-term memory is fixed by structural changes in individual cells that make up the neural systems and is associated with chemical transformation and the formation of new substances.

Short-term memory

Short-term memory exists due to temporary patterns of neural connections emanating from areas of the frontal (especially dorsolateral, prefrontal) and parietal cortex. This is where information comes from sensory memory. Short-term memory allows you to remember something after a period of time from a few seconds to several minutes without repetition. Repetition preserves the contents of short-term memory. Its capacity is very limited. George Miller, while working at Bell Laboratories, conducted experiments showing that the capacity of short-term memory is 7 ± 2 objects (the title of his famous work is “The Magic Number 7 ± 2”). Modern estimates of short-term memory capacity are somewhat lower, typically 4-5 objects, and short-term memory capacity is known to increase through a process called “Chunking.” For example, if you present the line

FSBKMSMCHSEGE

a person will be able to remember only a few letters. However, if the same information is presented differently:

a person will be able to remember much more letters because he is able to group (combine into chains) information about semantic groups of letters (in the English original: FBIPHDTWAIBM and FBI PHD TWA IBM). Also Herbert Simon showed that perfect size for chunks of letters and numbers, whether meaningful or not, is three units. This may be reflected in some countries in the tendency to present phone number as several groups of 3 digits and a final group of 4 digits, divided into 2 groups of two.

There are hypotheses that short-term memory relies primarily on an acoustic (verbal) code to store information and to a lesser extent on a visual code. In his study (), Conrad showed that subjects have a more difficult time recalling sets of words that are acoustically similar.

Modern research Ant communications have proven that ants are capable of remembering and transmitting information up to 7 bits. Moreover, the impact of possible grouping of objects on message length and transmission efficiency is demonstrated. In this sense, the law “Magic number 7±2” is also true for ants.

Long-term memory

Storage in sensory and short-term memory usually has a strictly limited capacity and duration, that is, information remains available for some time, but not indefinitely. In contrast, long-term memory can store much more information potentially infinite time(throughout life). For example, a certain 7-digit telephone number may be stored in short-term memory and forgotten after a few seconds. On the other hand, a person can remember a telephone number through repetition for many years. In long-term memory, information is encoded semantically: Baddeley (1960) showed that after a 20-minute pause, subjects had significant difficulty recalling a list of words with a similar meaning (e.g., big, huge, large, massive).

Long-term memory is maintained by more stable and unchanging changes in neural connections widely distributed throughout the brain. The hippocampus is important in consolidating information from short-term to long-term memory, although it does not appear to actually store information there. Rather, the hippocampus is involved in changes in neural connections after 3 months of initial learning.

Neurological memory

Memory is a set of activities, including both biological-physiological and mental processes, the implementation of which in this moment due to the fact that some previous events, close or distant in time, significantly modified the state of the organism. (C. Flores).

• Visual (visual) memory responsible for storing and reproducing visual images.

• Motor memory responsible for storing information about motor functions. For example, a top baseball player is an excellent thrower due in part to memory of the motor activity of past throws.

• Episodic memory is the memory of events in which we were participants or witnesses (Tulving, 1972). Examples might be remembering how you celebrated your seventeenth birthday, remembering the day you got engaged, or remembering the plot of a movie you saw last week. This type of memory is characterized by the fact that memorizing information occurs without visible effort on our part.

• Semantic memory- memory of facts such as multiplication tables or the meaning of words. You probably won't be able to remember where or when you learned that 9 x 8 = 72, or from whom you learned what the word "stock" meant, but that knowledge is nevertheless part of your memory. Perhaps you will be able to remember all the torment that studying the multiplication tables brought you. Both episodic and semantic memory contain knowledge that can easily be narrated and declared. Therefore, these two subsystems form part of a larger category called declarative memory.

• Procedural memory, or remembering how to do something, has some similarities to motor memory. The difference is that the description of the procedure does not necessarily imply knowledge of any motor skills. For example, in school years you should have been trained to use a slide rule. This is a kind of “knowing how” that is often contrasted with descriptive tasks that involve “knowing what.”

• Topographic memory- the ability to navigate in space, recognize a path and follow a route, recognize familiar places.

Features of memory functioning

Memory properties

• Accuracy
• Volume
• Speed ​​of memorization processes
• Speed ​​of playback processes
• Speed ​​of forgetting processes

Patterns of memory

Memory has a volume limited by the number of stable processes that are supporting when creating associations (connections, relationships)

The success of recall depends on the ability to switch attention to supporting processes and restore them. Basic technique: sufficient number and frequency of repetitions.

There is such a pattern as the forgetting curve.

Mnemonic memorization techniques

Mythology, religion, philosophy of memory

• In ancient Greek mythology there is a myth about the river Lethe. Lethe means "oblivion" and is an integral part of the kingdom of death. The dead are those who have lost their memory. On the contrary, some who were given preference, among them Tiresias or Amphiaraus, retained their memory even after their death.
• The opposite of the river Lethe is the Goddess Mnemosyne, personified Memory, sister of Kronos and Okeanos - the mother of all muses. She has Omniscience: according to Hesiod (Theogony, 32 38), she knows “everything that was, everything that is, and everything that will be.” When the poet is possessed by the muses, he drinks from the source of knowledge of Mnemosyne, this means, first of all, that he touches the knowledge of “sources”, “beginnings”.
• According to Plato's philosophy, Anamnesis is recollection, recollection is a concept that describes the basic procedure of the process of cognition.

see also

Notes

1. Maklakov A. G. General psychology. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2001. - 592 p.
2. Norman, D. A. (1968). Toward a theory of memory and attention. Psychological Review, 75,
3. Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1971). The control of short-term memory. Scientific American, 225, 82-90.
4. Craik, F.I.M.; Lockhart RS (1972). "Levels of processing: A framework for memory research." Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior 11 (6): 671-84.
5. Zinchenko P. I. The problem of involuntary memorization // Scientific. notes of Kharkov ped. institute of foreign languages. 1939. T. 1. P. 145-187.
6. C. Jung Tavistock Lectures
7. Coltheart, Max (1980). "Iconic memory and visible persistence". Perception & Psychophysics 27(3): 183–228.
8. Sperling, George (1960). "The information available in brief visual presentations." Psychological Monographs 74: 1-29.
9. Unwin. Baxt, N. (1871). Ueber die Zeit, welche notig ist, damit ein Gesichtseindruck zum Bewusstsein
10. John Kihlstrom professor University of California Berkeley Lecture 10. Memory. Part 1.
11. B. Meshcheryakov, V. P. Zinchenko, Bolshoi psychological dictionary, St. Petersburg: prime-EVROZNAK, 2003.- 672 p. Article “In Memory physiological mechanisms" P. 370.
12. Miller, G. A. (1956) The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.
13. FSB - Federal Service Security, KMS - candidate master of sports, Ministry of Emergency Situations - Ministry of Emergency Situations, Unified State Exam - unified state exam.
14. FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation, PHD - Philosophy Doctor, TWA - Trans World Airlines, IBM - International Business Machines.
15. Conrad, R. (1964). "Acoustic Confusions in Immediate Memory". British Journal of Psychology 55 : 75–84.
16. Reznikova Zh. I., Ryabko B. Ya., Information-theoretic analysis of the “language” of ants // Journal. total Biology, 1990, T. 51, No. 5, 601-609.
17. Reznikova Zh. I. The language of ants will lead to discovery, First-hand Science, 2008, N 4 (22), 68-75.
18. Stanislav Grof Areas of the human unconscious. - M.: Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, 1994. - 280 p. - ISBN 5-88389-001-6
19. Athanassios Kafkalides. Knowledge from the womb. Autopsychodiagnostics with psychedelic drugs. - St. Petersburg: IPTP, 2007. - ISBN 5-902247-11-X
20. Kuzina S.A. How to improve your memory. - M.: Publishing house of the agency "Yachtsman". - 1994.

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• Mesyats S.V. Aristotle’s treatise “On memory and recollection” // Questions of Philosophy. M., 2004. No. 7. P.158-160.
• Assman Ya. Cultural memory. Writing, memory of the past and political identity in the high cultures of antiquity. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic culture, 2004
• Halbwachs M. Social framework of memory. M.: New publishing house, 2007
• Psychology of memory: Reader / Ed. Yu. B. Gippenreiter, V. Ya. Romanova
• Maklakov A. G.

- Every time you can’t remember a name or the name of a place, make a note in your diary.
- What if I can’t remember about the diary?..

In this article, we will introduce you to the principles of memory, talk about techniques for memorizing and retrieving memories, share exercises, recommendations from scientists, and unexpected facts about memory. You will definitely remember this :)

How memory works

Did you know that the very word “memory” misleads us? It makes it seem like we're talking about one thing, one mental skill. But over the past fifty years, scientists have discovered that there are several different memory processes. For example, we have short-term and long-term memory.

Everyone knows that short term memory used when you need to hold a thought in your mind for about a minute (for example, a telephone number you are about to call). At the same time, it is very important not to think about anything else - otherwise you will immediately forget the number. This statement is true for both young and old people, but for the latter its relevance is still slightly higher. Short-term memory is involved in various processes, for example, is used to track changes in a number when adding or subtracting.

Long term memory b is responsible for everything that we need in more than a minute, even if during this period you were distracted by something else. Long-term memory is divided into procedural and declarative.

1. Procedural memory concerns activities such as riding a bicycle or playing the piano. Once you have learned to do this, subsequently your body will simply repeat the necessary movements - and this is controlled by procedural memory.
2. Declarative memory, in turn, is involved in the conscious retrieval of information, for example when you need to retrieve a shopping list. This type of memory can be either verbal (verbal) or visual (visual) and is divided into semantic and episodic memory.

• Semantic memory refers to the meaning of concepts (particularly people's names). Let us assume that knowledge of what a bicycle is belongs to this type of memory.
• Episodic memory- to events. For example, knowing when you are last time went for a bike ride, appeals to your episodic memory. Part of episodic memory is autobiographical - it concerns various events and life experiences.

Finally we got to prospective memory- it refers to things you are going to do: call a car service, or buy a bouquet of flowers and visit your aunt, or clean the cat's litter box.

How memories are formed and returned

Memory is a mechanism that causes impressions received in the present to influence us in the future. For the brain new experience means spontaneous activity of neurons. When something happens to us, clusters of neurons come into action, transmitting electrical impulses. Gene work and protein production create new synapses and stimulate the growth of new neurons.

But the process of forgetting is similar to how snow falls on objects, covering them with itself, from which they become white-white - so much so that you can no longer distinguish where everything was.

The impulse that triggers the retrieval of a memory - an internal (thought or feeling) or external event - causes the brain to associate it with an incident from the past. works as a kind of predictive device: it constantly prepares for the future based on the past. Memories condition our perception of the present by providing a “filter” through which we look and automatically assume what will happen next.

The mechanism for retrieving memories has an important property. It has only been thoroughly studied in the last twenty-five years: when we retrieve an encoded memory from internal storage, it is not necessarily recognized as something from the past.

Let's take cycling for example. You get on a bike and just ride, and clusters of neurons fire in your brain that allow you to pedal, balance, and brake. This is one type of memory: an event in the past (trying to learn to ride a bike) influenced your behavior in the present (you ride it), but you do not experience today's bike ride as a memory of the first time you managed to do it.

If we ask you to remember the very first time you rode a bicycle, you will think, scan your memory storage, and, say, you will have an image of your dad or older sister who were running after you, you will remember the fear and pain from the first fall or the delight that you managed to get to the nearest turn. And you will know for sure that you are remembering something from the past.

Two types of memory processing are closely related in our Everyday life. Those that help us pedal are called implicit memories, and the ability to remember the day we learned to ride is called explicit memories.

Master of mosaics

We have short-term working memory, a slate of consciousness, on which we can place a picture at any given moment. And, by the way, it has a limited capacity where the images present in the foreground of consciousness are stored. But there are other types of memory.

In the left hemisphere, the hippocampus generates factual and linguistic knowledge; in the right - arranges the “bricks” life story by time and topic. All this work makes it more efficient " search engine» memory. The hippocampus can be compared to a jigsaw puzzle: it connects individual fragments of images and sensations of implicit memories into complete “pictures” of factual and autobiographical memory.

If the hippocampus is suddenly damaged, for example due to a stroke, memory will also be impaired. Daniel Siegel told this story in his book: “Once at a dinner with friends, I met a man with this problem. He politely told me that he had had several bilateral hippocampal strokes and asked me not to be offended if I went away for a second to get myself some water and he didn’t remember me later. And sure enough, I returned with a glass in my hands, and we introduced ourselves to each other again.”

Like some types of sleeping pills, alcohol is notorious for temporarily shutting down our hippocampus. However, the state of blackout caused by alcohol is not the same as temporary loss of consciousness: the person is conscious (albeit incapacitated), but does not encode what is happening in explicit form. People experiencing such memory lapses may not remember how they got home or how they met the person with whom they woke up in the same bed in the morning.

The hippocampus also shuts down when angry, and people who suffer from uncontrollable rage are not necessarily lying when they claim not to remember what they said or did in this altered state of consciousness.

How to test your memory

Psychologists use different techniques to test memory. Some of them can be done independently at home.

1. Verbal memory test. Ask someone to read 15 words to you (only unrelated words: “bush, bird, hat”, etc.). Repeat them: people under 45 usually remember about 7-9 words. Then listen to this list four more times. Norm: reproduce 12–15 words. Go about your business and after 15 minutes repeat the words (but only from memory). Most middle-aged people cannot reproduce more than 10 words.
2. Visual memory test. Draw this complex diagram, and after 20 try to draw it from memory. The more details you remember, the better your memory is.

How memory is related to the senses

According to scientist Michael Merzenich, “One of the most important conclusions drawn from the results of the recent study is that the senses (hearing, vision, and others) are closely related to memory and cognitive abilities. Because of this interdependence, the weakness of one often means, or even causes, the weakness of the other.

For example, it is known that patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease gradually lose their memory. And one of the manifestations of this disease is that they begin to eat less. It turned out that since the symptoms of this disease include visual impairment, patients (among other reasons) simply do not see food...

Another example concerns normal age-related changes cognitive activity. As a person ages, he becomes more and more forgetful and absent-minded. This is largely explained by the fact that the brain no longer processes sensory signals as well as before. As a result, we lose the ability to retain new visual images of our experiences as clearly as before, and we subsequently have trouble using and retrieving them.”

By the way, it is curious that exposure to blue light enhances the reaction to emotional stimuli of the hypothalamus and amygdala, that is, the areas of the brain responsible for organizing attention and memory. So looking at all shades of blue is helpful.

Techniques and exercises for memory training

The first and most important thing you need to know to have a good memory is. Studies have shown that the hippocampus, responsible for spatial memory, is enlarged in taxi drivers. This means that the more often you engage in activities that use your memory, the better you improve it.

And also here are a few more techniques that will help you develop your memory, improve your ability to recall and remember everything you need.

1. Go crazy!

It is difficult to imagine how we would live without memory. But what is memory? What processes are involved so that we can easily accumulate and reproduce information? Scientists have determined what properties memory has and how this complex associative mechanism works. We will talk about the laws, theories, psychology and physiology of this property.

What is memory

Memory is a complex of mental abilities to accumulate, retain and reproduce information. Without these skills it is difficult to imagine human existence. Academician Ivan Sechenov argued that without the ability to store sensations and information, we would forever remain in the developmental phase of a newborn. After all, how can you satisfy basic needs if not a single idea is formed about it?

The title of leader in the study of memory was secretly awarded to Hermann Ebbinghaus. The researcher, experimenting on himself, formulated a definition of memory, revealed the nature and mechanism of its action.

Today it is known that the level of its development depends on:

• work nervous system;
• formation of each of the memory processes;
• education, level of education;
• type of activity.

In addition to personal characteristics, memory has age limits. For example, preschoolers, primary school students, and teenagers remember new things differently. Based on this, there are theories that claim that before the age of 3, a child is able to learn several languages.

It is difficult to answer the question “what is normal memory”, since it is developed differently in everyone. But some deviations still occur. We can live with them all our lives without giving them due importance.

The most common disorders are:

• hypomnesia– decreased ability to remember something;
• hypermnesia– obsessive memories, feverish excitement;
• paramnesia– distortions of memories, their substitution or deformation.

Memory properties

• Capacity- the amount of material that can be remembered.
• Memory speed– individual pace of learning new things.
• Storage duration– the period from the appearance to the disappearance of a material.
• Fidelity– level of reliability of the initial facts.
• Playback speed– the pace of searching for the necessary statements.
• Noise immunity– resistance to all kinds of obstacles.

Memory processes

Memorization

We remember information both voluntarily and non-voluntarily. Personally significant facts are usually deposited in consciousness on their own, while we maintain a passive position. Memories in this case are fragmentary. We remember what bouquet of flowers we received on our first date, but we forget what we were wearing. The point is not that someone set a goal to remember the bouquet and spent the whole evening looking at its components. This is how selectivity works.

An interesting study was conducted by psychologist Bloom Zeigarnik. She proved that unfinished actions are remembered better. For example, if we were late for the train, did not achieve a promotion, or did not receive what we expected, then we will definitely firmly fix this event in our minds. As it turns out, situations with a positive resolution do not last long. This is how negative emotions resulting from stress and disappointment influence.

Psychologists have determined how does the memorization process work?. It is based on repetition and meaningful perception. There is a special branch of psychology - mnemonics, within which the principles of associative memorization are studied. For example, the transfer of information through images, pictures, schematic images.

Depending on the type of memorization, there are 4 types of memory: motor, figurative, verbal and emotional. Each person has one or another type more developed.

Material preservation

Depending on the level at which the material is recorded, sensory, short-term, long-term and operational types of memory are distinguished. Each of them has its own characteristics.

Playback

There are four forms of information reproduction:

• Recognition– occurs when we see an object again.
• Memory– the object is missing, but with the help of associations you can involuntarily reproduce what was forgotten.
• Recall– to reproduce the material, you need to make an effort.
• R eminiscence- delayed reproduction, that is, remembering something that seemed long forgotten.

Forgetting

This is the process of reducing the amount of data stored. This is a natural, natural action, which is only in rare cases an anomaly. Forgetting is caused by the following factors:

• Time– after 60 minutes we tend to forget half of what we heard.
• Usage activity– we forget what we don’t use all the time. But the ability to swim, ride a bike or know a language is recorded on a subconscious level, so it is not forgotten.

Physiology and psychology of memory

Physiological aspect

Physiologists carefully study memory, the definition of which is determined by studies of the nervous system. Thus, the volume of our “archive” depends on the number of people involved nerve cells. It has also been proven that the proteins DCO, LEO, and CaMKII are necessary for memorization and active brain function. It is their deficiency that causes various diseases associated with amnesia.

The connection between memory and physiological activity is known. Californian scientists have found that physical activity increases the levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid and glutamic acid in the brain. 20 minutes of active exercise is enough to increase the concentration of the necessary compounds to a level sufficient for memorization.

Theories of memory in psychology

Memory in psychology is a property that helps a person navigate space and time. Entire theories have been developed about what processes happen to us during memorization.

• Associative– our brain looks for connections between objects, pulling from the “archive” everything that is involved in a given situation. The search occurs in categories of similarity or contrast.
• Behavioral– To remember the material, you need to do exercises. This way the material is reliably preserved.
• Cognitive– information is processed using blocks. Some blocks recognize it, others create an oriental map, and others hold it.
• Activity– a view of the process as the interaction of a person with the world.

How the laws of memory work

• Law of Interest– interesting or unusual facts are remembered for a long time.
• Conceptualization– what we understand, realize, is perceived more deeply.
• Settings– if you want to remember something, then that’s what will happen.
• Actions– when theory is consolidated in practice, the action is better remembered.
• Attentions– memory and attention are inseparable, since only concentration on an object helps to maintain an accurate idea of ​​it.
• Context– facts fixed by associations are absorbed more reliably.
• Braking– if we study similar concepts, then one “overlaps” the other, neutralizing both.
• The edges– what is presented at the beginning or end of the text is more clearly preserved.
• Repetition– if the material was repeated several times, it will be remembered better than that which was spoken once.
• Incompleteness– unsaid phrases or unfinished actions are remembered better
• Graduality– portioned material is easier to remember.

Human memory has become the subject of many studies and theories. It is not surprising, since humans have the unique ability to accumulate, store and reproduce information. We told what laws govern this process, revealed its psychological and physiological characteristics. In order not to forget, use the article as a cheat sheet.

Memory is one of the most important processes of the psyche. Any shape 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 had to experience strange experience: you come to 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 and helps to select in our memory required material 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.