Types of memory verbal. What is nonverbal memory? Verbal and nonverbal memory

Very often you can hear that a person has verbal memory, and also that one should try in every possible way to develop it. However, what does this mean? this term? What is meant by verbal memory? This is exactly what this article will help you figure out. You will learn what verbal memory is, how it differs from nonverbal memory, how to check its condition, and how to develop it at any age.

What it is?

Verbal memory is the memory that is responsible for a person's ability to remember various information provided in verbal form. This means memorizing texts, news, poems, reports you are going to present, and so on.

As a rule, using exclusively verbal memory is fraught with problems, since remembering pure text can be extremely difficult. However, this type of memory will be very useful to you in life, regardless of what career path you choose. Accordingly, you need to develop it. Verbal memory is what allows you to assimilate the most complex information, that is, dry text.

Verbal and nonverbal memory

However, before we talk about how exactly this can be improved, it is necessary to fully understand what it is. And the easiest way to do this is through comparison - this way you can understand how verbal memory differs from nonverbal memory.

As mentioned earlier, in the first case, you remember information that comes to you from the outside in the form of text, words, speech. Accordingly, nonverbal memory is the exact opposite. And the information you receive and remember in this way is not text, speech, or anything else like that. Most often these are images, faces, images, aromas, sounds, etc.

Thus, verbal memory is responsible for verbal data, while non-verbal memory is responsible for figurative data. And at the same time, research shows that one type of memory is better developed in all people than the other. Why does this happen?

Hemispheres of the brain

The left hemisphere of the brain is precisely the center that is responsible for memorizing verbal information, while the right hemisphere is responsible for images, sounds and other non-verbal forms of information. Accordingly, now you know that if you want to develop verbal memory properties, then you should concentrate on the activity of the left hemisphere of the brain.

Separately, it is worth talking about left-handed people. Many people believe that absolutely all left-handers have completely opposite functions of the brain hemispheres compared to people who write and perform basic actions right hand. However, this is a common misconception - in fact, most people who write with their left hand have exactly the same brain functions as right-handers. Only thirty percent of them experience a change in the functionality of the brain hemispheres to the opposite.

Verbal intelligence

If you want to learn about how verbal memory develops, then you first need to understand one more concept, such as verbal intelligence. What is it and what does it have to do with memory?

The fact is that the connection between the two concepts is direct - verbal intelligence is responsible for a person’s ability to analyze textual information and generate it independently. Thus, the higher it is, the better you can understand the text, the wider your vocabulary.

You can easily understand that this also improves your verbal memory, since you are able to remember more different information, being aware of it, and not just memorizing it by heart. It will be much more effective to use your memory by filling it with what you understand, rather than just a set of letters and words that you can only mindlessly reproduce.

Verbal memory is formed in children, that is, already in younger age. So parents should think about stimulating its development and increasing the verbal intelligence of children from a very early age.

Semantic memory

There is one more concept that is worth mentioning before jumping directly into improving verbal memory. This is semantic memory. This concept is less common in everyday life, but it is used much more often in psychology. What it is?

Strictly speaking, this is a kind of system in which a person stores his generalized idea of ​​​​the world around him in verbal form. Thus, this is a subtype of verbal memory, since semantic memory does not imply the storage of any emotions or experiences associated with information about the surrounding world. And these emotions can be stored exclusively in verbal format.

Testing

So, it's time to move on to practice. What do you need to do to determine how well your verbal memory is? The test is mainly carried out only on young children under the age of ten, since in adults the level of verbal intelligence or verbal memory can be a little difficult to determine.

The reason here lies in the fact that it is at a very young age that there is a constant increase in certain knowledge, so you can easily determine at what stage of verbal development the child is. Adults do not differ too much from each other in this indicator.

Verbal memory in children is tested using game methods. For example, the child is asked to choose an extra object or image from a row or to finish the sentence he started. These small tests will help determine the baby's level of development.

However, verbal is also tested in adults. How does this happen? The most common option is that the psychologist reads to the patient a list of fifteen words that are absolutely unrelated to each other, and the latter must reproduce them. Typically, the average person is able to remember seven out of fifteen words after one reading. When the list is read to him four times in a row, he can already reproduce from twelve to fifteen words. And after fifteen minutes this number drops again to ten words.

This means that if you show similar results, then your verbal memory is normal, but if the results are worse, then you should work on it. However, even if the results are normal, you can always strive for something more. How exactly? This is what we will talk about now.

Development in children

As mentioned earlier, it is best to develop verbal memory in children. The fact is that memorizing words, sentences and entire texts is a rather boring and uninteresting activity, therefore Small child is unlikely to show serious interest in this. And as you know, small child You definitely need to interest him in order to achieve something from him. So try to come up with ideas various games which will involve memorizing words and sentences. Instead of texts, let your child learn poems, as they come much easier, and the rhythm of their pronunciation always pleases children. Later, you can move on to more serious options, but always remember that children should be interested, otherwise the results will be scanty.

Trainings

If we are talking about adults, then such simple techniques will have far from the most impressive effectiveness. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the trainings that psychologists can recommend.

One of the most popular is repeating TV news. Its essence is that when watching the news, you need to repeat what the presenter said as accurately as possible. This way you can develop your verbal memory much more effectively than when you simply read and memorize any text.

Age-related characteristics of memory

Naturally, when a person ages, his memory deteriorates significantly. However, it is worth noting that when trying to reproduce the story they have just read, seventy-year-old people do not show worst result than twenty-year-olds. But if you ask them to try to reproduce the same story as accurately as possible half an hour after reading it, young people cope with the task much better.

Vv

Vagobondage

Vagobondage (synonym: dromomania) is an illogical, irresistible desire of a person who is in a prosperous state. social environment, to vagrancy. It manifests itself as a desire to wander, change places of residence, live outside the home, and communicate with a specific contingent.

Inspiration

Inspiration is special emotional condition personality, which is characterized by a combination of factors: a huge rise vitality, strong psycho-emotional stress, creative passion, high productivity, amazing results.

Autonomic nervous system

The autonomic nervous system (synonym: autonomic, visceral) is a conditionally separate independent structure nervous system human, divided into two sections: sympathetic and parasympathetic. The work of the autonomic nervous system is controlled by a special segment located in the hypothalamic region of the brain, but is not subject to control by the human consciousness. Regulates functioning internal organs, endocrine and exocrine glands, controls involuntary functions of the body. Maintains homeostasis, ensures preservation at a given level blood pressure, body temperature, activity of blood and lymphatic vessels.

Leading activity

Leading activity is a theoretically created construct to designate the activity of an individual, which contributes to the emergence, formation and development of the dominant elements for psychological development personality. Is a kind of criterion for the level of its mental development and the foundation for the transition to new forms of activity and knowledge of the world.

Faith

Faith is unconditional recognition and sincere acceptance of any fact, circumstance, model. An irrational belief that is true for a person, absolute confidence in something. Faith arises without preliminary verification of the logic and adequacy of the phenomenon due to the individual having a subjectively truthful and true conclusion; it does not require the presentation of well-founded arguments and objective evidence.

Verbal aggression

Verbal aggression is a type of aggressive human reaction that causes real harm to the victim by expressing the negative feelings of the aggressor through tonal changes in vocals: screaming, screeching and certain content of speech: curses, insults, threats.

Verbal memory

Verbal memory is a conditional subsection of memory that determines an individual’s ability to consolidate, retain and reproduce elements of text (speech) information.

Verbal thinking(verbal)

Verbal thinking (verbal) is a purposeful mental activity based on the presence of knowledge in verbal form about the world around us in the form of definitions, judgments, conclusions, the result of which can be expressed using words.

Verbigeration

Verbigeration is a rhythmic, monotonous, continuous, meaningless and aimless repetition of any syllables, words, phrases or phrases.

Summit experiences (peak)

Summit experiences (peak) is a term introduced by A. Maslow as a general designation of a person’s personal subjective positive experiences: love, boundless happiness, harmony, insight, consciousness of the fullness of existence, “absolute truth.”

Types of actions

Types of actions - division of human activity processes into different kinds, related to different levels. According to S. Rubinstein, they distinguish: reflex movements (instinctive actions), impulsive actions (occurring in the absence or minimum of control), volitional (acts with the obligatory participation of consciousness).

Types of memory

Types of memory - structuring memory elements according to different criteria. Based on the nature of memorizing information, they differentiate into types of memory: visual, auditory, tactile. According to the duration of data storage: sensory, short-term, long-term. According to the ongoing processes: memorization, preservation, reproduction, forgetting. Depending on the prevailing mental activity: motor, emotional, figurative, verbal-logical. From the presence of goals: voluntary and involuntary.

Visualization

Visualization is the process and methods of transforming abstract information into visual view. A method of consciously forming images in the mind, which leads to the emergence of certain sensations. Creating a model of the desired reality in your imagination, a practical tool in psychology for achieving your goals.

Viruses are mental

Taste

Taste is one of the types of sensations in physiology, an elementary process that starts as a result of the influence of a specific stimulus on the corresponding receptor. In European culture, there are four basic tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, salty. In aesthetics, taste is a category that denotes an individual’s preferences and own point of view about certain objects and phenomena.

Power

Power is the individual’s potential and ability to impose his opinion on others, to force him to act according to his will, to influence behavior, to subordinate him to his will without encountering resistance.

Attraction

Attraction is a primary instinctive state, a need not processed by consciousness, a subjective attraction to a goal, leading to a state of emotional tension and prompting one to take some action to satisfy the desire.

Sanity

Sanity is a term meaning normal condition mental health, expressed in the individual’s ability to account for his actions and consciously manage his actions.

Attention

Attention is important and necessary condition for all types of human activities. A dynamic, goal-oriented process with a certain selective focus, implying the concentration of consciousness, involving increased sensory, intellectual or motor activity.

Internal barriers

Internal barriers are a set of special character traits of a person that limit or prevent the free choice of a model of behavior, leading, in the presence of appropriate circumstances, to internal conflict.

Internal conflict

Internal conflict is normal: the natural state of a healthy person, necessary for further development personality. However, a protracted clash of multidirectional desires of an individual, a long-term confrontation of different needs and motives, ardent contradictions in the personality structure act as the foundation for mental disorders.

Inner speech

Inner speech is a form of speech, different from auditory (external) speech, that arises in the process of thinking. A universal mechanism aimed at solving various problems in the mind and mental planning, allowing you to better understand the messages of other people, read to yourself and remember information.

Suggestibility

Suggestibility is the degree of individual pliability of a person, the level of a person’s readiness to submit to external influences, a kind of indicator of the ability to immerse themselves in hypnosis.

Age crises

Age crises are difficult time periods in psychological aspect associated with staying in a certain age category. Natural processes necessary for the normal progressive development of personality, which are characterized by a significant restructuring of mental activity.

Age characteristics

Age-related characteristics are a number of natural psychophysiological characteristics characteristic of a person at a certain age. Specific personality traits that naturally change during certain periods of life.

Will

Will – special shape organization of activity and behavior of the individual, focused on overcoming existing obstacles to achieve the goal. The ability to consciously manage one’s behavior and control one’s emotions, the ability to purposefully concentrate one’s efforts.

Imagination

Imagination is a person’s ability to immerse himself in inner world. The ability, based on previously perceived impressions, to mentally create new images, ideas, ideas and manipulate them.

Perception of space

Perception of space is the ability of an individual to perceive characteristics about the spatial arrangement of objects and form judgments about their shape, size, and relative position.

Playback

Reproduction is a type of action in the structure of memory aimed at updating information received in the past, for example: recognizing a familiar person.

Higher mental functions

Higher mental functions are a theoretical construct that denotes a set of the most complex specific voluntary processes of the human psyche, controlled by the consciousness of the individual. They are social in origin, formed under the influence of human culture, and are not innate, genetically based components of the psyche. These include: perception, memory, thinking, speech. In the scientific community there is no single point of view on the legitimacy of classifying attention, will, motivation, feelings and emotions as higher mental functions.

crowding out

Repression is one of the defense mechanisms in psychology, the essence of which is: active, conscious, motivated elimination of any facts from consciousness by deliberately ignoring and purposefully forgetting. Often an unconscious process of removing unfavorable, inconvenient or interfering circumstances from the space of perception.

Learned helplessness

Learned helplessness is an acquired condition that manifests itself in impaired motivation. It arises as a consequence of an uncontrollable situation experienced by an individual, events the result of which does not depend on the efforts made by the person. It manifests itself in the fact that the person does not take any steps to improve his condition, does not try to eliminate negative circumstances, does not strive to receive positive incentives, although he has such an opportunity.

Verbal memory is the memory that is responsible for a person’s ability to remember any textual information. As a rule, remembering just text can be quite difficult. Experts advise dealing with these quite simply: selecting vivid visual, tactile, and emotional associations for words, which will make it much easier.

Verbal and nonverbal memory

All information that comes from the outside can be verbal, that is, verbal, and non-verbal, that is, not related to speech designation (these are faces, routes, music, smells, etc.). As a rule, in humans one of these two types of memory is better developed than the second.

The left hemisphere of the brain is more capable of remembering verbal information, and the right hemisphere is more capable of processing non-verbal information. This corresponds to the general division of brain functions. In 66% of all left-handers, the brain works in a similar way, and only 33% of them show changes in the functioning of the cerebral hemispheres.

Development of verbal memory

Verbal memory is responsible, first of all, for the ability to reproduce text information. Therefore, to develop it, it is necessary to turn specifically to texts.

For example, this type of memory training is perfect for any age. It is not at all necessary to choose complex works right away; you can start by choosing short and simple texts that do not contain complex or outdated words and expressions that are not characteristic of the modern language.

Once you have mastered learning poetry, you will notice that it will become easier and easier for you to memorize the texts. After this, you can move on to monologues of characters from plays or more complex texts. As a result of this work, it will be easier for you to perceive and transmit any verbal information.

Semantic memory is a memorization system based on the semantic characteristics of concepts. The organization and structuring of semantic memory is thus based on a meaningful description of concepts and words denoting these concepts. Such memory, as we have already seen, is in a certain sense the opposite of figurative memory. The differences lie in the fact that if figurative memory is a memory for “raw”, “undistorted” images that preserve the topology, i.e. relationships of its spatial parts, then semantic (verbal, or verbal) memory is based on a code description of concepts.

The code description, in principle, does not retain any topological features of the original concept, if such features existed. For example, when describing a person in a code, we can talk about sequential lists of characteristics individual parts expressed in terms of length, area, cut™, etc. This type of memorization, of course, is compatible with figurative memory and complements it.

However, semantic memory is most important when memorizing concepts, words and ideas that do not have figurative analogues. For example, it is difficult to imagine images of concepts such as “kindness” or “difference.” Such abstract concepts, of course, have connections with in various ways, but these connections, as a rule, are indirect and associative. Perhaps the exception is the examples of synesthesia and exotic figurative associations used by some mnemonists, discussed below. Thus, semantic memory is based on the structuring of meanings and meanings of concepts. Moreover, it is based on, firstly, memorizing the codes of individual characteristics of concepts, which occurs as a result of complex processes of isolating and describing these characteristics, and, secondly, establishing a system of associative connections between individual signs and whole concepts. As a result, it is clear that semantic memory represents many more memory options and ways of establishing connections between concepts than figurative memory.

In Fig. 9.10 shows a small area as an example or, more precisely, a model of part of human semantic memory semantic network, defining possible systems of connections between concepts defined by the words of the lines of the famous poem by D. Kharms:

Ivan Toporyshkin went hunting,

The poodle went with him, jumping over the fence,

Ivan, like a log, fell into a swamp,

And the poodle in the river jumped over the ax...

Using Kharms’s rather bizarre, exotic text as an example may help to more fully understand the ideology of constructing semantic memory. Indeed, its structure makes it possible to establish connections between any concepts. Moreover, the structure of memory makes it possible to assign to each connection a certain value of the frequency of its use, and the frequency or, as they say, weight can be different depending on the situation of use of this connection, i.e. from the general context. Figure 9.10 also illustrates the fact that a given concept has a different and constantly changing number of properties. Properties that describe a certain concept or, as is often said, attributes of this concept, can themselves represent complex hierarchically organized structures.

In order to more deeply imagine the organization of semantic memory, you can try as an exercise to supplement Fig. 9.10, describing additional connections, weight, concepts, their definitions and attributes. This work leads to an important conclusion: The structure of semantic memory is constantly reorganized. This property is intrinsic to memory and follows from its network structure. Indeed, depending on the situation, the list of attributes of each memory node must change, and in addition, the priorities of the attributes must change. In some conditions we rely on some properties of objects, in others - on others.

Rice. 9.10. Model of the semantic memory region. Each concept, represented by a rectangle or ellipse, may have multiple arrows representing properties, parameters, or characteristics. A section of the semantic memory network can be completed or rebuilt depending on the situation. Various link arrows may have different weight or frequency of use, and the variety of human mental activity is based on this effect.

The development of semantic memory models is based on large quantities experimental data. In particular, based on the results showing that semantic memory in general case is not a graph, but a network structure (Fig. 9.11). Under count in this case we mean some economically constructed structure in which there is a single path of communication between any two points. From these examples it is clear that in a complex network simpler sections can be identified, which are graphs.

The main difference between graph and network structure is related to the principle cognitive economy, or the non-redundancy of the structure of connections between concepts. Within the semantic model, one can go from one concept to another using many paths. The link graph model requires a single path, a high degree of parsimony, and hierarchy. The term “cognitive economy” thus means the economy of connections between knowledge traces (cognio- knowledge, concept).

Experimental verification of the correctness of a particular model is based on measuring the time of decision-making when determining the similarity of various concepts. For example, determining whether pairs of words such as hemlock and daisy belonged to the same category took longer than determining whether the words hemlock and parrot were similar. Thus, this experiment showed that in order to go from the name of one flower to the name of another, a longer path is required than when determining the connection between the name of a flower and an animal. In a graph model of memory structure, one would expect the opposite. Strict ordering of concepts and

Rice. 9.11. Scheme of differences between graph (A) and network (B) models of semantic memory organization. The graph model implements the principle of cognitive economy, the network model - the possibility of direct connections between any concepts; the economy of connections of this model requires a short path to move from the name of one plant to the name of another; for this you need to do no big number steps up the graph to the “plants” node. However, moving between distant nodes of a particular plant and a particular animal must require a much longer path and much more time.

The conclusion from many similar experiments was made in favor of a model of an uneconomical semantic network, allowing for the possibility of a disordered and seemingly strange system of connections “from everyone to everyone.”

The variant of the network model of semantic memory is in good agreement with the assumptions that in the process of development, memory is formed according to the principle of “nuclei”, when a certain concept is reflected by the structure of a network section. Moreover, as a rule, individual concepts in the process of development of memory and the body represent partial, far from complete, and sometimes not entirely correct knowledge. As a result, each “core,” each “atom” of knowledge is formed gradually and carries within itself many previous, previously established connections. That is why, as the results of experiments show, the time for making decisions about the correctness (assessment of the truth) of statements often does not depend on the minimum number of connections between concepts and is shorter when analyzed in frequently occurring expressions.

Verbal memory