When did the activity theory of memory arise? Theories of memory
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memory theories in psychology
Introduction
1. Psychological theories of memory
2. Biochemical theories of memory
3. Neural and physico-chemical theories of memory
Conclusion
Bibliography
INTRODUCTION
The process that ensures the construction of a comprehensive image of the world, linking disparate impressions into a coherent picture, the past with the present and future, is memory. Without memory processes, there can be neither an objective sensual nor an abstract mental image of the surrounding world.
Memory is the process of organizing and preserving past experience, making it possible to reuse it in activity or return to the sphere of consciousness. Memory connects the subject's past with his present and future and is the most important cognitive function underlying development and learning.
At present, there is no unified and complete theory of memory in science. A wide variety of hypothetical concepts and models of memory is due to the development of these problems by representatives of various sciences.
1. PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF MEMORY
1.1 Associative theory of memory G. Ebbinghaus
The theory of memory, which formed the basis of the first classical experimental studies of G. Ebbinghaus and his successors (G.E. Muller, A. Pilzeker, F. Schumann, and others), was entirely built on the doctrine of associations.
The essential thing in this theory is that the fact of external contiguity of impressions is in itself recognized as sufficient for establishing a connection between representations and for reproducing them.
Based on this, Ebbinghaus built his entire study. He used a series of meaningless syllables consisting of three letters (one vowel located between two consonants, for example, tug-fal-dor-set), with the exclusion of all those combinations that gave any meaningful word. In selecting such material, Ebbinghaus was guided by the desire to obtain homogeneous material and to create uniform conditions for various subjects. The absence of meaningful content in the material being memorized and semantic connections in it was not essential for Ebbinghaus, because for him the process of reproduction was determined by the fact that the external contiguity of the material being memorized created associative links.
About this classical theory, which tried to reduce memory to mere associative connections, we have to say the following: associative connections undoubtedly play a significant role, especially in elementary forms of memory; however, the functioning of memory as a whole, especially the higher forms of memory in humans, cannot be reduced to mere associations and cannot be completely explained by the associative theory.
In addition to associative connections by contiguity, semantic connections play an important role in the work of human memory, in the processes of memorization, recall, and reproduction. Human memory is meaningful.
The data of the experimental study clearly reveal the significance of semantic connections for the memorization process. Comparison of the results of memorizing meaningless syllables and meaningful words, then separate meaningful words and words combined into meaningful sentences of a coherent text, showed that the work of memory is directly dependent on the presence of semantic connections that unite the memorized material into more or less extensive semantic wholes. According to a number of researchers, the number of words combined into a phrase that the subjects memorize is several times greater than the number of incoherent words they remember - ceteris paribus.
The dependence of reproduction on semantic content was revealed in the work of A.G. Comm with a special experimental technique, which consisted in the fact that the subjects were asked to reproduce the same material according to a different plan. It turned out that with a change in the interpretation and the general plan of the story, the selection of reproduced details also changes: with one plan and one interpretation, some parts are reproduced and drop out, with a different plan and a different interpretation, other parts.
Another point, revealed in the same experiments, is that during the reproduction of meaningful texts, the words of the text (especially unusual ones) and grammatical constructions, especially complex ones, are replaced during reproduction by others, easier and more familiar, but in such a way that the meaning is preserved. A. Binet and K. Buhler conclude from this that it is not so much the words and sentences themselves that are remembered as the thoughts that they denote. It follows from this that although the memorization of thoughts is accomplished in speech form, however, it is impossible to reduce semantic memory (memorization of thoughts) to speech memory. But, in advancing this proposition that is in itself correct, Binet and Buhler, in accordance with the general tendencies of their doctrine of "pure" thought, completely break and outwardly oppose the memorization of thoughts and the memorization of words, i.e., thinking and speech in the process of memorization.
1.2 The concept of memory A. Binet and K. Buhler
The concept presented by A. Binet and K. Buhler brings semantic content to the fore, based on the indisputable fact that memorizing semantic content does not coincide mechanically with memorizing the speech form in which it is given.
Studies (A. Binet, K. Buhler and a number of others) clearly revealed the role of comprehension in memorization and showed that meaningful memorization is subject to other laws than mechanical reproduction based on contiguity associations. When a meaningful text is reproduced, its main, most significant parts are reproduced much better; For the most part, the secondary, the unimportant, is forgotten. The unimportant is thus eliminated; parts that are essential in meaning are, as it were, isolated from parts adjacent to them, but essentially not related to them in terms of meaning, uniting in memory with those with which they are connected by the semantic context. Thus, instead of the mechanical reproduction of adjacent parts, which should have taken place according to the laws of association, in fact, when memorizing and reproducing a meaningful text, a much more complex process of semantic selection takes place, as a result of which the most significant for a given subject, the main semantic framework of the text, is predominantly fixed. The text itself undergoes a more or less significant reconstruction. Reproduction in these cases is not determined by contiguity, but can be performed in spite of contiguity connections, in accordance with semantic connections.
Representatives of this trend are trying to turn memory into a reproduction of pure thoughts, not at all dependent on any speech form. Since they break and outwardly oppose the memorization of thoughts and the memorization of words, they inevitably come to conclusions that merge with the seemingly antagonistic theory of Ebbinghaus, in which the semantic content, although with an opposite tendency, is also torn off from the verbal text.
1.3 Activity theory of memory
In modern science, the theory is gaining more and more recognition, which, as a basic concept, considers the activity of the individual as a factor that determines the formation of all its mental processes, including memory processes. According to this concept, the course of the processes of memorization, preservation and reproduction is determined by the place this material occupies in the activity of the subject.
Among the regularities of a general order, expressing the significance of semantic connections and playing a significant role in the work of memory, one should also include what can be called a functional principle in the work of memory. It plays a particularly significant role in the process of recall.
Numerous observations that we have accumulated in this direction and which anyone can easily make, prompt us to consider all these facts as a manifestation of a general regularity and to put forward a functional principle or the law of reproduction according to a functional feature as one of the general laws of memory.
This functional principle, in particular, explains, apparently, one also everyday and yet, as it were, a paradoxical fact: we often remember that we do not remember something; when remembering something forgotten, if something different from what we tried to remember comes up to us, we immediately realize or feel: no, this is not it. Thus, we know that we have forgotten, although it would seem that, since it has been forgotten, we do not know it. In fact, in these cases, we usually have some functional knowledge about the connections in which the forgotten by us stands. Remembering, we very often look for a bearer of certain, more or less clearly conscious functions, connections. In the process of remembering, we proceed from them, and when we seem to remember what we have forgotten, we check whether we have remembered what we wanted to remember by the way that what has surfaced in memory enters into these connections. By identifying what has surfaced in memory with what we are looking for or by rejecting it as not what we wanted to remember, we are largely based on some semantic context from which recall comes.
1.4 Memory in terms of Gestalt therapy
theory memory neural activity
The totality of facts testifying to the role of the structural association of material in the process of memorization was used by Gestalt psychology. Its representatives tried to turn the structure into the same universal principle that the association was for the supporters of the associative theory. Structuring is recognized as the only and universal basis of memory.
The main concept of Gestalt psychology is the concept of Gestalt (from German Gestalt - image), which means an initially integral structure. Mental activity is characterized by the desire for integrity, completeness. In accordance with this, the organization of the material is recognized here as the basis for the formation of connections, which also determines a similar structure of memory traces in the brain according to the principle of isomorphism, i.e. similarity in form. In Gestalt psychology, the principle of integrity acts as originally given, and the laws of Gestalt (as well as the laws of associations) operate outside and in addition to the will and consciousness of the person himself.
The desire of mental activity for completeness is also manifested in the fact that an unfinished action, an unfulfilled intention leaves a trace in the form of tension in the psyche system. This tension seeks to discharge (in real or symbolic terms). The consequence of the remaining tension is, for example, the effect of an unfinished action, which consists in the fact that the content of an unfinished action is remembered by a person better than the content of a finished one. The lack of integrity, completeness generates not only tension, but contributes to internal conflicts, neuroses.
The main principle of the theory of memory, according to Gestalt, is that the analysis of individual elements of the association cannot lead to an understanding of the whole, since the whole is determined not by the sum, but by the interdependence of its individual parts. A single part is only a part and does not give any idea of the whole.
Thus, the whole manifold activity of memory is again reduced to one form. Instead of a universal law of association, Gestaltists try to establish a universal principle of structure.
2. BIOCHEMICAL THEORIES OF MEMORY
These theories suggest the formation of new protein substances (neuropeptides and others) during long-term memorization.
First, immediately after exposure to the stimulus, an electrochemical reaction occurs in the nerve cells, causing reversible physiological changes in the cells (short-term memorization), and then, on its basis, the actual biochemical reaction occurs with structural changes in the neuron, providing long-term memory (two-stage nature of the memorization mechanism). Experimentally obtained data on the important role of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and oligopeptides in the implementation of the memory function.
The most exciting experiments in recent years have been attempts to transfer memory from one animal to another ("memory transplant"). If you teach a planarian (flatworm) that light always precedes current, and then kill it and feed it to another planarian, it turns out that the experience gained by the first planarian is partially transferred to the second worm. The planarian is a comparatively primitive organism, and it may have special learning mechanisms that are of no relevance to the understanding of memory in higher organisms. However, there is evidence of the success of such an experiment in mice and rats - a "memory transfer" of the developed conditioned reflexes from one individual to another was carried out using injections of the brain homogenate of a previously trained donor animal.
3. NEURAL AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL THEORIES OF MEMORY
There are many theories that support the views of structural or chemical changes in the brain itself when it accumulates lifetime information.
Memory and learning are closely related. Even the simplest forms of learning are based on the fact that some event is remembered. Neuroscientists are now aware of three main types of learning:
1) addiction, or habituation (the body stops responding to a frequently acting stimulus);
2) sensitization (the occurrence of a reaction to a previously neutral stimulus);
3) classical or Pavlovian conditioning.
All characteristics of the resulting temporary neural connections, and above all the degree of strength, are determined by the nature of the reinforcement, which is a measure of the vital (biological) expediency of this or that action. It is also likely that the passage of any nerve impulse through a group of neurons also leaves a physical trace in the literal sense of the word. The physical materialization of the trace is expressed in electrical and chemical-mechanical changes in synapses, which facilitate the secondary passage of impulses along a familiar path. The simplest neural circuit that provides memory can be represented as a closed loop - excitation goes through the whole circle and starts a new one. This process of long-term circulation of impulses in neural circuits is called reverberation.
The idea of cycles of neural activity is considered by many to be the material substrate of memory. There are a huge number of neural ensembles (each about 100-300 cells). Each of them stores information about some memory object in the form of a stable wave pattern. The more brain neurons are involved in the rhythms of some pulsating ensemble, the higher the probability of understanding the corresponding image.
Not all memory units are used and updated at the same time, but only a small number of them. This number serves as a measure of attention span. Due to cyclic fluctuations in the excitability of neural ensembles, long-term memory images, including images of remembered and spoken words, are not updated all at once, but in turn, some more often, others less often. If the moments of actualization of different images coincide, then such units of memory have a chance to unite. Thus, a new concept is being developed. This is how learning occurs and acts of creativity are realized.
CONCLUSION
In the history of the study of this cardinal, theoretically and practically very important problem, it is therefore necessary to distinguish between three fundamentally different concepts. The first, presented by G. Ebbinghaus and his successors, completely excludes the significance of semantic content and semantic connections in the work of memory, since it reduces the memorization mechanism exclusively to external associative connections by adjacency. Therefore, the text in the experiments of representatives of this direction is taken to obtain a "clean" memory only as a set of letters, from which - as an insignificant moment for memory - any semantic content is turned off. One cannot even say that speech memory is being studied here, because the speech form, devoid of semantic content, ceases to be speech.
The second concept, presented by A. Binet and K. Buhler, brings semantic content to the fore, based on the indisputable fact that memorizing semantic content does not coincide mechanically with memorizing the speech form in which it is given.
The third concept that we defend, which is fundamentally different from both the first and the second, proceeds from the unity of thinking and speech and reveals this unity in the process of memorization and reproduction.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Fundamentals of psychology / L.D. Stolyarenko - Rostov-on-Don, - 1997, - 358 p.
2. Psychology. Textbook. / Ed. A.A. Krylov. - M.: "PROSPECT". - 2000. - 584 p.
3. Rean A. A., Bordovskaya N. V., Rozum S. I. Psychology and Pedagogy. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2002. - 432 p.
4. Rubinstein S. L. Fundamentals of General Psychology - St. Petersburg: Publishing House "Peter", 2000 - 712 p.
5. Sidorov P.I., Parnyakov A.V. Introduction to Clinical Psychology: T. I.: A Textbook for Medical Students. - M.: Academic Project, Yekaterinburg: Business Book, 2000. - 416 p.
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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RT
Almetyevsk State Oil Institute
Department of Humanitarian Education and Sociology
TEST
in the discipline "Psychology and Pedagogy"
Theories of memory in psychology. Types of memory»
Completed by a student
groups: 49-72V
Ravilova Alina R.
Record book number: 49-72V-14
Checked by teacher: associate professor
Department of State Educational Standards, PhD in Psychology
Kuzina R.Z.
Almetyevsk 2010
Introduction……………………………………………………………………..……….3
1. Definition of memory………………………………………………………...4
2. Types of memory…………………………………………………………………..6
3. Theories of memory in psychology………………………………………………….10
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….14
List of used literature
Introduction
Memory is the most enduring of our abilities. In old age, we remember the events of childhood eighty years ago, or even more ago. An accidentally dropped word can resurrect for us, it seemed, long-forgotten facial features, a name, a sea or mountain landscape. Memory defines our individuality and makes us act in one way or another, more than any other single feature of our personality. Our whole life is nothing but a path from the experienced past to the unknown future, sanctified only in that elusive moment, that moment of really experienced sensations, which we call "present". However, the present is a continuation of the past, it grows out of the past and is shaped by it through memory. It is memory that saves the past from oblivion, prevents it from becoming as incomprehensible as the future. In other words, memory gives direction to the course of time. For each of us, memory is unique. Memory allows us to be aware of both our own individuality and the personality of other people.
Memory underlies human abilities, is a condition for learning, acquiring knowledge, and developing skills and abilities. Without memory, the normal functioning of either the individual or society is impossible. Memory can be defined as the ability to receive, store and reproduce life experience. Diverse instincts, innate and acquired mechanisms of behavior are nothing but imprinted, inherited or acquired in the process of individual life experience. Without the constant renewal of such experience, its reproduction under suitable conditions, living organisms would not be able to adapt to the current rapidly changing events of life. Without remembering what happened to it, the body simply could not improve further, since what it acquires would have nothing to compare with, and it would be irretrievably lost.
1. Definition of memory
The process that ensures the construction of a comprehensive image of the world, linking disparate impressions into a coherent picture, the past with the present and future, is memory. Without memory processes, there can be neither an objective sensual, nor an abstract mental image of the surrounding world. Memory is the "cement" that connects all the building blocks of the mosaic into a single, life-filled picture.
Psychology, having its own subject and object endowed with memory, studies the specific features of memory, i.e. those of its mechanisms, forms and types that a person possesses. The study of the memory of animals serves, like any other information about them, to deepen the understanding of human memory.
Memory is the process of organizing and preserving past experience, making it possible to reuse it in activity or return to the sphere of consciousness. Memory connects the subject's past with his present and future and is the most important cognitive function underlying development and learning. Experience here is understood as any mental processes that preceded the fluid ones, regardless of the degree of their awareness. In fact, the concepts of "experience" and "information" are identical, since "information is a designation of the content received from the outside world in the process of our adaptation to it and the adaptation of our feelings to it" (N. Wiener).
There are several levels of information storage media - physical, biological, physiological and psychological.
At the physical level, information is stored due to structural transformations carried out with physical bodies - this is the "external" memory of a person. At the biological level, in order to preserve information, biological structures are transformed, for example, DNA, RNA molecules, etc. At the physiological level, information is stored and transformed on the basis of dynamic physiological processes that differ from biological ones in their functional nature, involvement in current information processes and relative short duration. Thus, in the structure of nerve impulses carried along afferent fibers from receptors to the center, information is stored about the structure of those instantaneous changes in the state of receptors that occurred when they were exposed to stimuli. At the psychological level itself, qualitative transformations of information, its organization and storage take place, which are based on the transformation of semantic structures, i.e. the significance and significance for the subject of those changes occurring at previous levels that are available to him.
Corresponding to these levels, the mechanisms that take part in the processes of human memory are also considered, of which only two are within the competence of psychology - physical and proper psychological.
2. Types of memory
There are several reasons for classifying the types of human memory. One of them is the division of memory according to the time of information storage. Three forms of memory - instantaneous, short-term and long-term differ from each other in the way they represent information received from outside, as well as in the functions that each of them performs in human memory processes.
Instant, or sensory, memory is the memory of those sensory organs that received information. It is best studied in relation to vision and hearing. The image that arises as a result of excitation of receptors by any single impact does not immediately disappear, but continues to exist in the same form in which it arose, gradually fading within one second for the visual system and much longer for the auditory system. Instantaneous memory is the complete residual impression that arises from the direct perception of stimuli.
short-term memory is a way of storing information for a short period of time. The duration of retention of mnemonic traces here does not exceed several tens of seconds. In short-term memory, not a complete, but only a generalized image of the perceived, its most essential elements, is stored. This memory works without a preliminary conscious mindset for memorization, but instead with a mindset for the subsequent reproduction of the material. Short-term memory is characterized by such an indicator as volume. It averages 7 + 2 units of information and is determined by the number of units of information that a person is able to accurately reproduce after a few tens of seconds after a single presentation of this information to him. Short-term memory is associated with the so-called actual human consciousness. From instant memory, only that information gets into it that is recognized, correlates with the actual interests and needs of a person, and attracts his increased attention.
long-term is a memory capable of storing information for an almost unlimited period of time. Information that has fallen into the storage of long-term memory can be reproduced by a person as many times as desired without loss. Moreover, repeated and systematic reproduction of this information only strengthens its traces in long-term memory. The latter presupposes the ability of a person at any necessary moment to recall what he once remembered. When using long-term memory, recall often requires thinking and willpower. Long-term memory stores:
· a spatial model of the world, presented here in the form of abstract structures corresponding to the images of our home, city, country and the entire planet;
knowledge about the laws, the structure of the world and the properties of objects;
our ideas about people, ourselves, social norms and life values;
motor skills, such as speaking and writing, dressing for cycling, problem solving in various fields of activity;
Skills in understanding speech or interpreting works of art or music;
plans and programs for future activities.
The second group includes the qualitative characteristics of the stored information, which are presented in various types of memory. This classification reflects the three most general psychological categories: motive reflected in emotions, image and action.
Visual memory associated with the preservation and reproduction of visual images. It is extremely important for people of all professions, especially for engineers and artists. A good visual memory is often possessed by people with eidetic perception, who are able to “see” the perceived picture in their imagination for a sufficiently long time after it has ceased to affect the senses. In this regard, this type of memory implies a developed human ability to imagine. It is based, in particular, on the process of memorizing and reproducing material: what a person can visually imagine, he, as a rule, remembers and reproduces more easily.
auditory memory
-
this is a good memorization and accurate reproduction of various sounds, for example, musical, speech. It is necessary for philologists, people studying foreign languages, acousticians, musicians. A special kind of speech memory is verbal-logical, which is closely related to the word, thought and logic. This type of memory is characterized by the fact that a person who possesses it can quickly and accurately remember the meaning of events, the logic of reasoning or any evidence, the meaning of the text being read, etc. He can convey this meaning in his own words, and quite accurately. This type of memory is possessed by scientists, experienced lecturers, university professors and school teachers.
motor memory is the memorization and preservation, and, if necessary, reproduction with sufficient accuracy of diverse complex movements. It is involved in the formation of motor, in particular labor and sports, skills and abilities. The improvement of human hand movements is directly related to this type of memory.
Emotional memory - it is a memory of experiences. It is involved in the work of all types of memory, but it is especially manifested in human relationships. The strength of material memorization is directly based on emotional memory: what causes emotional experiences in a person is remembered by him without much difficulty and for a longer period. A person's emotions are closely related to his needs or motives, since they reflect the relationship between needs and the features of the situation that contribute to or hinder their satisfaction.
Tactile, olfactory, gustatory and other types of memory do not play a special role in human life, and their capabilities are limited compared to visual, auditory, motor and emotional memory. Their role is mainly reduced to the satisfaction of biological needs or needs related to the safety and self-preservation of the organism.
According to the nature of the participation of the will in the processes of memorization and reproduction of material, memory is divided into involuntary and arbitrary. In the first case, they mean such memorization and reproduction, which occurs automatically and without much effort on the part of a person, without setting a special task for himself (for memorization, recognition, preservation or reproduction). In the second case, such a task is necessarily present, and the process of memorization or reproduction itself requires volitional efforts.
Involuntary memorization is not necessarily weaker than voluntary, in many cases it surpasses it. It has been established, for example, that the material that is the object of attention and consciousness, acts as a goal, and not a means of carrying out an activity, is better remembered involuntarily. Involuntarily, material is also remembered better, which is associated with interesting and complex mental work and which is of great importance for a person.
* This work is not a scientific work, is not a final qualifying work and is the result of processing, structuring and formatting the collected information, intended to be used as a source of material for self-preparation of educational work.
Plan
1.Associative theory of memory
2. Gestalt theory
3. Behaviorism
4.Psychoanalysis
5.Semantic theory of memory
6. Activity theory
7.Cultural-historical theory
8.Cognitive direction
9.Genetic theory
10. Bibliography
1.Associative theory of memory
One of the first psychological theories of memory was the association theory. It arose in the 17th century, was actively developed in the 18th - 19th centuries, and received predominant distribution and recognition in England and Germany. This theory is based on the concept of association - the connection between individual mental phenomena, developed by G. Ebbinghaus, G. Muller, A. Pilzeker and others. Memory in line with this theory is understood as a complex system of short-term and long-term, more or less stable associations by contiguity, similarity, contrast, temporal and spatial proximity.
In the 80s. 19th century the German psychologist G. Ebbinghaus discovered the law of "clean" memory, derived from experiments with the memorization of three-letter meaningless syllables, forgetting after the first error-free repetition of a series of such syllables proceeds quite quickly at first. Already during the first hour, up to 60% of all information received is forgotten, and after six days less than 20% of the total number of originally learned syllables remains.
"Most of all, the sensual tone and the interest associated with it matter. Experiences accompanied by strong pleasure or displeasure are ineradicably imprinted, so to speak, and are often remembered more distinctly after many years. What a person is especially interested in, he remembers without much difficulty; everything else is forgotten with amazing ease. When memorizing meaningless syllables or words that are not related to each other, it is mainly the members that are especially noticeable for some reason, strange-sounding, for example, or rare "". (7, p. 258). G. Ebbinghaus also concluded that when memorizing a long row, the material at the ends is better reproduced (“edge effect”).
Another psychologist G.E. Muller's research was reduced to the study of special conscious mnemonic activity (the process of deliberate memorization and reproduction of material) and less attention was paid to the analysis of natural mechanisms for imprinting traces.
2. Gestalt theory
At the end of the XIX century. Gestalt theory replaced the associative theory of memory. According to the supporters of this theory (W. Wundt, E. B. Titchener, B. V. Zeigarnik, K. Levin), it is the laws of gestalt formation that determine memory.
In line with this theory, the importance of structuring the material, bringing it to integrity, organizing it into a system during memorization and reproduction, as well as the role of human intentions and needs in memory processes, was especially emphasized. The main idea of the study was that during memorization and reproduction, the material usually appears in the form of an integral structure, and not a random set of elements that has developed on an associative basis.
Studies by B.V. Zeigarnik showed that if subjects were offered a series of tasks, some of which were allowed to be completed to the end, while others were interrupted unfinished, then later the subjects recalled incomplete tasks twice as often as those completed by the time of interruption. When receiving a task, the subject has a need to complete it. This need, which K. Levin called a quasi-need, intensifies in the process of completing the task.
3. Behaviorism
The views of the supporters of behaviorism were close to the associationists. The only significant difference between the two was that behaviorists emphasized the role of reinforcement in remembering material and paid much attention to the study of how memory works in learning processes.
The American psychologist D. Watson emphasized the study of the processes of learning or the formation of new reactions during the life. "" In our understanding, memory is a general term for expressing the fact that after a certain period of non-exercise in certain habits, the function does not disappear, but remains as part of the organization of the individual, although it may, due to non-exercise, undergo more or less disturbance.
If after such a period the old stimulus is again given, then: 1) either the old reaction arises definitely and abruptly; 2) either it occurs, but with undesirable additions (errors); 3) either it arises with such great irregularities that the organization is hardly noticeable - renewed memorization is as difficult as the initial one. "" (7, p. 267) 4. Psychoanalysis
The merit of Z. Freud and his followers in the study of memory was to clarify the role of positive and negative emotions, motives and needs in memorizing and forgetting material. Thanks to psychoanalysis, many interesting psychological mechanisms of subconscious forgetting have been discovered related to the functioning of motivation. Z. Freud argued: "" There is reason to believe that forgetting is permissible for unimportant things; with important things, it serves as a sign that they are treated lightly, therefore, they do not recognize their importance. Forgetting is also explained by what might be called "false intentions"" (6, p. 231).
5.Semantic theory of memory
At the beginning of the XX century. there is a semantic theory of memory. Representatives of this theory argued that the work of the relevant processes is directly dependent on the presence or absence of semantic connections that unite the memorized material into more or less extensive semantic structures. A. Binet, K. Buhler proved that the semantic content of the material comes to the fore when memorizing and reproducing. ""When reproducing meaningful texts, the words of the text (especially unusual ones) and grammatical constructions, especially complex ones, are replaced during playback by others, easier and more familiar, but in such a way that the meaning is preserved. A. Binet and K. Buhler conclude from this that it is not so much the words and sentences themselves that are remembered, but the thoughts that they denote "". (5, p. 266).
6. Theory of activity in the study of memory
A.N.Leontiev, P.I.Zinchenko, A.A.Smirnov. In Russian psychology, the predominant development was the direction in the study of memory, associated with the general psychological theory of activity. Here, memory acts as a special type of activity, including a system of theoretical and practical actions subordinated to the solution of a mnemonic task - memorization, preservation and reproduction of various information. In the studies of A.A. Smirnov, it was found that "" the most important condition that determined memorization in the experiments was the main course of the subjects' activity,
the main line of their orientation and the motives that guided them in their activities. What was remembered best of all was what arose as an obstacle, a difficulty in activity. (7, p. 485).
In the experiments of P.I. Zinchechko, the memorization of pictures, which was obtained unintentionally in the course of activity, the purpose of which was the classification of pictures, without the task of remembering turned out to be definitely higher than in the case when the subject was given the task of remembering pictures.
7. Cultural - historical theory
The founders of this theory are domestic psychologists L.S. Vygotsky and A.R. Luria. For the first time, a systematic study of higher forms of memory in children was carried out by the outstanding psychologist L.S. Vygotsky, who at the end of the 1920s began to study the development of higher forms of memory and showed that higher forms of memory are a complex form of mental activity, social in origin. . Within the framework of the theory of the origin of higher mental functions proposed by Vygotsky, the stages of the phylo- and ontogenetic development of memory were distinguished, including voluntary and involuntary, as well as direct and indirect.
“Memory improves insofar as writing systems, sign systems and ways of using them improve. What was being called artificial memory in the ancient and Middle Ages is being improved. The historical development of human memory comes down, basically and mainly, to the development and improvement of those auxiliary means that a social person develops in the course of his cultural life ... The internal development and improvement of memory, therefore, is no longer an independent process, but a dependent and subordinate one, determined in its course by changes coming from outside - from the social environment surrounding a person "". (7, p. 403).
8. Cognitive direction in the study of memory
The cognitive approach to the study of memory is based on the idea of the human body as a system engaged in active search
information and information processing, i.e. on the notion that people have different kinds of influences on information.
Within the framework of the cognitive approach, structural theories of memory have been developed. The first theory is the theory of duality, first information gets into short-term memory, and only then, as a result of repetition, into long-term memory. The second - three-component theory assumes the presence of ultra-short-term (sensory) memory, which receives information from the outside.
A contribution to the study of this theory was made by the American psychologist W. Neisser, who studied thinking, memory, problems of artificial intelligence, as well as applied issues of the psychology of cognitive processes.
9. Genetic theory of memory
P.P. Blonsky made a significant contribution to understanding the phylogenetic development of memory. he expressed and developed the idea that the various types of memory presented in an adult are also different stages of its historical development, and, accordingly, they can be considered phylogenetic stages in the improvement of memory. "" In phylogenesis, we have the same series: motor memory - affective memory - figurative memory - logical memory in the sense of Janet. Each of the members of this series follows the other in a certain sequence. (7, p. 386).
Bibliography
1. Vygotsky L.S., Luriya A.R. Etudes on the History of Behavior: Monkey. Primitive. Child. - M.: 1993. - 224 p.
2. Luria A.R. Lectures on General Psychology. - St. Petersburg: Piter, 2004. - 320 p.
3. Maklakov A.G. General psychology: Textbook for universities. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2004. - 583 p.
4. Nemov R.S. Psychology: Textbook for students of higher pedagogical educational institutions: In 3 books. - 4th ed. - M.: 2003. - Book. 1: General foundations of psychology. - 688 p.
5. Rubinstein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2002. - 720 p.
6. Freud Z. Psychology of the unconscious. 2nd ed. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2004. - 400 p.
7. Reader in psychology. Psychology of memory / Ed. Yu.B.Gippenreiter and V.Ya.Romanova. - 3rd ed. - M.: 2002. - 816 p.
General idea of memory. The concept of memory. The value of memory in human life and activity, in training, education, communication with people. Definition of memory. Memory processes: memorization, preservation, reproduction, recognition, forgetting.
Types of memory and their peculiarities. Grounds for classifying types of memory. The division of memory according to the time of information storage into instant, short-term, operational, long-term, genetic. Classification of types of memory according to the sense organs and the use of mnemonic means: figurative, verbal-logical, motor, emotional, voluntary and involuntary, mechanical and logical, direct and mediated. Features of short-term memory, its volume, mechanisms, connection with consciousness. The phenomenon of substitution is the replacement of information in an overflowing short-term memory. Difficulties in mechanical memorization of names, surnames and the phenomenon of substitution. Acoustic recoding of information in short-term memory. The connection between short-term memory and long-term memory, their relative independence. The subconscious nature of human long-term memory. The connection of long-term memory with speech and thinking, in particular with inner speech. Semantic organization of material in long-term memory.
in people. Individual features of memory, their qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Differences in the amount of short-term memory. Visual and eidetic memory (example from the work of A.Rluria - memory of GL.). The connection of eidetic memory with imagination, its significance for artistic and creative activity. Auditory memory and the scope of its professional use. logical memory. Memory impairment in various diseases. The relationship of these disorders with general changes in the personality of the patient. The Zeigarnik effect and its psychological explanation.
Theories and laws of memory. Basic sciences dealing with memory. Theories of memory in psychology. Associative theory of memory. The concept of association and its main types: by meaning, contiguity, similarity and contrast. Gestalt theory of memory. The semantic concept of memory. Psychoanalytic theory of memory. Mechanisms of forgetting according to Z. Freud. Activity theory of memory: the concept of Vygotsky-Leontiev. Information-cybernetic theory of memory. Basic facts from the field of psychological research of human memory. The laws of memory. The phenomenon of reminiscence.
Formation and memory development. The main changes that occur in the process of development with human memory. Two lines of development - phylogenetic and ontogenetic. The concept of the development of the memory of P.P. Blonsky. The theory of cultural and historical development in memory of L.S. Vygotsky. The development of direct and mediated memorization in children according to A.N. Leontiev. The role of speech in managing the development of mnemonic processes. Structural organization of the memorized material. Selection and use of effective stimuli-means for memorization and recall. Other ways to improve memory Imagination and memory. Mental associations and memorization. The negative role of interference in the reproduction of material.
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OVERVIEW OF MEMORY
The impressions that a person receives about the world around them leave a certain trace, are preserved, consolidated, and, if necessary and possible, are reproduced. These processes are called memory.“Without memory,” wrote S.L. Rubinshtein, “we would be creatures of the moment. Our past would be dead to the future. The present, as it flows, would irrevocably disappear into the past.
Memory is the basis of human abilities, it is a condition for learning, acquiring knowledge, developing skills and abilities. Without memory, the normal functioning of either the individual or society is impossible. Thanks to his memory and its improvement, man has stood out from the animal kingdom and has reached the heights at which he is now. And the further progress of mankind without the constant improvement of this function is unthinkable.
Memory can be defined as the ability to receive, store and reproduce life experience. Diverse instincts, innate and acquired mechanisms of behavior are nothing but imprinted, inherited or acquired in the process of individual life experience. Without the constant renewal of such experience, its reproduction under suitable conditions, living organisms would not be able to adapt to the current rapidly changing events of life. Without remembering what happened to it, the body simply could not improve further, since what it acquires would have nothing to compare with and it would be irretrievably lost.
All living beings have memory, but it reaches the highest level of its development in humans. No other living being in the world has such mnemonic possibilities as he possesses. Subhuman organisms have only two types of memory: genetic and mechanical. The first is manifested in the transmission by genetic means from generation to generation of vital biological, psychological and behavioral properties. The second appears in the form of the ability to learn, to acquire life experience, which cannot be preserved anywhere else but in the organism itself and disappears along with its death. The ability to remember
XRubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology: In 2 volumes - T. I. - M., 1989. - S. 302.
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animals are limited by their organic structure, they can remember and reproduce only what can be directly acquired by the method of conditioned reflex, operational or vicarious learning, without the use of any mnemonic means.
A person has speech as a powerful means of memorization, a way of storing information in the form of texts and all sorts of technical records. He does not need to rely only on his organic capabilities, since the main means of improving memory and storing the necessary information are outside him and at the same time in his hands: he is able to improve these means almost endlessly, without changing his own nature. Humans finally have three types of memory that are much more powerful and productive than animals: arbitrary, logical and mediated. The first is associated with a broad volitional control of memorization, the second with the use of logic, the third with the use of various means of memorization, mostly presented in the form of objects of material and spiritual culture.
More accurately and strictly than it was done above, human memory can be defined as psychophysiological and cultural processes that perform functions in life. remembering, saving and playback information. These functions are basic for memory. They are different not only in their structure, initial data and results, but also in the fact that they are developed differently in different people. There are people who, for example, have difficulty remembering, but on the other hand they reproduce well and keep the material they memorized in their memory for quite a long time. These are individuals with a developed long-term memory. There are people who, on the contrary, quickly remember, but also quickly forget what they once remembered. They have stronger short-term and operational types of memory.
MEMORY TYPES AND THEIR FEATURES
There are several reasons for classifying the types of human memory. One of them is the division of memory according to the time of saving the material, the other - according to the analyzer that prevails in the processes of storing, saving and reproducing the material. In the first case, instantaneous, short-term, operational, long-term and genetic pa-
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wrinkle. In the second case, they speak of motor, visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, emotional and other types of memory. Consider and give a brief definition of the main of these types of memory.
instant, or iconic, memory is associated with the retention of an accurate and complete picture of what has just been perceived by the senses, without any processing of the information received. This memory is a direct reflection of information by the sense organs. Its duration is from 0.1 to 0.5 s. Instantaneous memory is the complete residual impression that arises from the direct perception of stimuli. This is a memory-image.
short-term memory is a way of storing information for a short period of time. The duration of retention of mnemonic traces here does not exceed several tens of seconds, on average about 20 (without repetition). In short-term memory, not a complete, but only a generalized image of the perceived, its most essential elements, is stored. This memory works without a preliminary conscious mindset for memorization, but instead with a mindset for subsequent reproduction of the material. Short-term memory is characterized by such an indicator as volume. It averages from 5 to 9 units of information and is determined by the number of units of information that a person is able to accurately reproduce several tens of seconds after a single presentation of this information to him.
Short-term memory is associated with the so-called actual human consciousness. From instant memory, only that information gets into it that is recognized, correlates with the actual interests and needs of a person, and attracts his increased attention.
Operational called memory, designed to store information for a certain, predetermined period, in the range from several seconds to several days. The period of storage of information in this memory is determined by the task facing the person, and is designed only for solving this problem. After that, the information may disappear from the RAM. This type of memory, in terms of the duration of information storage and its properties, occupies an intermediate position between short-term and long-term.
long-term is a memory capable of storing information for an almost unlimited period of time. Information, according to
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that has fallen into the storage of long-term memory, can be reproduced by a person as many times as desired without loss. Moreover, repeated and systematic reproduction of this information only strengthens its traces in long-term memory. The latter presupposes the ability of a person at any necessary moment to recall what he once remembered. When using long-term memory, recall often requires thinking and willpower, so its functioning in practice is usually associated with these two processes.
genetic memory can be defined as one in which information is stored in the genotype, transmitted and reproduced by inheritance. The main biological mechanism for storing information in such a memory is, apparently, mutations and related changes in gene structures. Human genetic memory is the only one that we cannot influence through training and education.
Visual memory associated with the preservation and reproduction of visual images. It is extremely important for people of all professions, especially for engineers and artists. A good visual memory is often possessed by people with eidetic perception, who are able to “see” the perceived picture in their imagination for a sufficiently long time after it has ceased to affect the senses. In this regard, this type of memory implies a developed human ability to imagine. It is based, in particular, on the process of memorizing and reproducing material: what a person can visually imagine, he, as a rule, remembers and reproduces more easily.
Auditory memory - this is a good memorization and accurate reproduction of various sounds, for example, musical, speech. It is necessary for philologists, people studying foreign languages, acousticians, musicians. A special kind of speech memory is verbal-logical, which is closely related to the word, thought and logic. This type of memory is characterized by the fact that a person who possesses it can quickly and accurately remember the meaning of events, the logic of reasoning or any evidence, the meaning of the text being read, etc. He can convey this meaning in his own words, and quite accurately. This type of memory is possessed by scientists, experienced lecturers, university professors and school teachers.
motor memory is the memorization and preservation, and, if necessary, reproduction with sufficient
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precise accuracy of diverse complex movements. It is involved in the formation of motor, in particular labor and sports, skills and abilities. The improvement of human hand movements is directly related to this type of memory.
Emotional memory - it is a memory of experiences. It is involved in the work of all types of memory, but it is especially manifested in human relationships. The strength of material memorization is directly based on emotional memory: what causes emotional experiences in a person is remembered by him without much difficulty and for a longer period.
Tactile, olfactory, gustatory and other types of memory do not play a special role in human life, and their capabilities are limited compared to visual, auditory, motor and emotional memory. Their role is mainly reduced to the satisfaction of biological needs or needs related to the safety and self-preservation of the organism.
According to the nature of the participation of the will in the processes of memorization and reproduction of material, memory is divided into involuntary and arbitrary. In the first case, they mean such memorization and reproduction, which occurs automatically and without much effort on the part of a person, without setting a special mnemonic task for himself (for memorization, recognition, preservation or reproduction). In the second case, such a task is necessarily present, and the process of memorization or reproduction itself requires volitional efforts.
Involuntary memorization is not necessarily weaker than voluntary, in many cases it surpasses it. It has been established, for example, that the material that is the object of attention and consciousness, acts as a goal, and not a means of carrying out an activity, is better remembered involuntarily. Involuntarily, material is also remembered better, which is associated with interesting and complex mental work and which is of great importance for a person. It is shown that in the case when significant work is carried out with the memorized material to comprehend, transform, classify, establish certain internal (structure) and external (association) links in it, it can be remembered involuntarily better than voluntarily. This is especially true for children of preschool and primary school age.
Let us now consider some features and the relationship between the two main types of memory that a person uses in everyday life: short-term and long-term.
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Volume short term memory individual. It characterizes the natural memory of a person and reveals a tendency to be preserved throughout life. In the first place, he determines mechanical memory, its possibilities. With the features of short-term memory, due to the limitations of its volume, such a property is associated as substitution. It manifests itself in the fact that when the individually limited amount of short-term memory of a person overflows, newly incoming information partially displaces the information stored there, and the latter irretrievably disappears, is forgotten, and does not fall into long-term storage. This, in particular, occurs when a person has to deal with such information that he is not able to fully remember and which is presented to him continuously and sequentially.
Why, for example, do we so often experience serious difficulties in remembering and retaining in memory the names, surnames and patronymics of people new to us, with whom we have just been introduced? Apparently, for the reason that the amount of information available in these words is at the limit of short-term memory, and if new information is added to it (and this is exactly what happens when the person presented to us begins to speak), then the old, associated with his name is repressed. Involuntarily switching attention to what a person says, we thereby stop repeating his first name, last name and patronymic, and as a result, we soon forget about them.
Short-term memory plays an important role in human life. Thanks to it, the largest amount of information is processed, unnecessary is immediately eliminated and potentially useful remains. As a result, there is no information overload of long-term memory with unnecessary information, and a person's time is saved. Short-term memory is of great importance for the organization of thinking; the material of the latter, as a rule, is facts that are either in short-term memory or in short-term memory close to it in terms of its characteristics.
This type of memory actively works in the process of human-to-human communication. It has been established that in the case when people who met for the first time are asked to talk about their impressions of each other, to describe those individual characteristics that they noticed in each other during the first meeting, on average they usually name such a number of features that corresponds to the amount of short-term memory , i.e. 7+2.
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Without a good short-term memory, the normal functioning of long-term memory is impossible. Only what was once in short-term memory can penetrate into the latter and be deposited for a long time. In other words, short-term memory acts as an obligatory intermediate storage and filter that passes the necessary, already selected information into long-term memory.
The transition of information from short-term to long-term memory is associated with a number of features. The last 5 or 6 units of information received through the sense organs get into short-term memory, and they penetrate first of all into long-term memory. By making a conscious effort, repeating the material, you can keep it in short-term memory and for a longer period than a few tens of seconds. Thus, it is possible to ensure the transfer from short-term to long-term memory of such an amount of information that exceeds the individual amount of short-term memory. This mechanism underlies memorization through repetition.
Usually, without repetition, only what is in the sphere of human attention turns out to be in long-term memory. This feature of short-term memory is illustrated by the following experiment. In it, subjects are asked to remember only 3 letters and, after about 18 seconds, reproduce them. But in the interval between the initial perception of these letters and their recall, the subjects are not given the opportunity to repeat these letters to themselves. Immediately after the presentation of three different letters, they are invited to quickly start counting down in triplets, starting with some large number, for example, from 55. In this case, it turns out that many subjects are not able to remember these letters at all and accurately reproduce them through 18 p. On average, no more than 20% of the information they initially perceived is stored in the memory of people who have gone through such an experience.
Many life psychological problems that seem to be related to memory, in fact, do not depend on memory as such, but on the ability to provide a person with long-term and stable attention to the material being remembered or recalled. If it is possible to draw a person's attention to something, to focus his attention on it, then the corresponding material is better remembered and, therefore, is retained in memory longer. This fact can be illustrated using
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next experience. If you invite a person to close his eyes and unexpectedly answer, for example, the question of what color, shape and what other features an object has that he has seen more than once, past which he has repeatedly passed, but which did not arouse increased attention to himself, then a person with can hardly answer the question, despite the fact that he has seen this subject many times. Many people are mistaken when they are asked to say what numeral, Roman or Arabic, is shown on the dial of their mechanical wrist watch number 6. paid attention to this fact and therefore did not remember it. The procedure for introducing information into short-term memory is the act of paying attention to it.
One possible mechanism for short-term memory is time coding, those. reflection of the memorized material in the form of certain, sequentially located symbols in the auditory or visual system of a person. For example, when we memorize something that can be denoted by a word, then we usually use this word, mentally pronouncing it to ourselves several times, and we do this either consciously, thoughtfully, or unconsciously, mechanically. If we need to visually remember a picture, then after carefully looking at it, we usually close our eyes or divert our attention from looking at it in order to focus it on memorization. At the same time, we always try to mentally reproduce what we saw, visualize it or express its meaning in words. Often, in order to really remember something, we try to evoke a certain reaction in ourselves by association with it. The generation of such a reaction should be considered as a special psycho-physiological mechanism that contributes to the activation and integration of processes that serve as a means of memorization and reproduction.
The fact that when information is entered into long-term memory, it is usually recoded into an acoustic form, is proved by the following experiment. If the subjects are visually presented with a significant number of words that obviously exceed the amount of short-term memory in their number, and then analyze the mistakes that they make when reproducing it, it turns out that often the correct letters in
8. R. S. Nemov, book 1
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words are replaced by those erroneous letters that are close to them in sound, and not in spelling. This, obviously, is typical only for people who own verbal symbols, i.e. sound speech. People who are born deaf do not need to convert visible words into audible ones.
In cases of painful disturbances, long-term and short-term memory can exist and function as relatively independent. For example, in this painful memory impairment called retrograde amnesia, memory is mostly affected for recent events, but memories of events that took place in the distant past are usually retained. In another type of disease, also associated with memory impairment, anterograde amnesia, both short-term and long-term memory remain intact. However, the ability to enter new information into long-term memory suffers.
However, both types of memory are interconnected and work as a single system. One of the concepts describing their joint, interconnected activity was developed by American scientists Ratkinson and R. Shifrin. It is shown schematically in Fig. 42. In accordance with the theory of the named authors, long-term memory seems to be practically unlimited in volume, but it has limited possibilities for arbitrary recall of the information stored in it. In addition, in order for information from short-term storage to get into long-term storage, it is necessary that some work be done with it while it is in short-term memory. This is the work of recoding it, i.e. translation into a language understandable and accessible to the human brain. This process is somewhat similar to that which occurs when information is entered into an electronic computer. It is known that all modern computers are capable of storing information in binary codes, and in order for the memory of the machine to work, any information entered into it must be presented in this form.
In many life situations, the processes of short-term and long-term memory work in conjunction and in parallel. For example, when a person sets himself the task of remembering something that obviously exceeds the capabilities of his short-term memory, he often consciously or unconsciously turns to the use of semantic processing and grouping of material, which facilitates
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Rice. 42. Memory scheme according to R. Atkinson and R. Shifrin. The interconnected work of short-term and long-term memory, including displacement, repetition and coding as private processes that make up the work of memory
remembrance. Such a grouping, in turn, involves the use of long-term memory, appeal to past experience, extracting from it the knowledge and concepts necessary for generalization, ways of grouping the memorized material, reducing it to the number of semantic units that do not exceed the amount of short-term memory.
The translation of information from short-term to long-term memory often causes difficulties, since in order to do this in the best way, it is necessary to first comprehend and structure the material in a certain way, link it with what a person knows well. It is precisely because of the insufficiency of this work or because of the inability to carry it out
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To perform quickly and efficiently people's memory seems to be weak, although in fact it can be very powerful.
Let us now consider the features and some mechanisms of work long-term memory. This memory usually begins to function not immediately after the person has perceived and memorized the material, but after some time, necessary for the person to internally switch from one process to another, from memorization to reproduction. These two processes cannot occur in parallel, since their structure is different, and the mechanisms are incompatible, oppositely directed. Acoustic encoding is typical for the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory, where it is already stored, probably not in the form of sound, but in the form of semantic codes and structures associated with thinking. The reverse process involves the translation of thoughts into words.
If, for example, after a certain number of readings or listening, we try to reproduce a long series of words after a while, then we usually make mistakes just as often as when short-term memory does not work when memorizing. However, these errors are different. In most cases, instead of forgotten words, when remembering, we use others that are close to them not in sound or spelling, but in meaning. It often happens that a person, being unable to accurately recall a forgotten word, at the same time remembers its meaning well, can convey it in other words and confidently rejects other combinations of sounds that are not similar to the given word. Due to the fact that the meaning of what is remembered comes to mind first, we can eventually remember what we want, or at least replace it with something that is close enough to it in meaning. Were it not for this, we would have great difficulty remembering and often fail. The process of recognizing something once seen or heard is probably based on the same feature of long-term memory.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN MEMORY IN PEOPLE
People's memory differs in many ways: speed, strength, duration, accuracy and memorization volume. All this quantitative memory characteristics. But there are also quality differences. They relate both to the dominant
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of certain types of memory - visual, auditory, emotional, motor and others, and their functioning. In accordance with which sensory areas dominate, the following individual types of memory are distinguished: visual, auditory, motor, emotional and various combinations. One person, in order to better remember the material, must necessarily read it, since when memorizing and reproducing it is easiest for him to rely on visual images. The other is dominated by auditory perception and acoustic images, it is better for him to hear once than to see several times. The third person most easily memorizes and reproduces movements, and he can be recommended to write down the material or to accompany his memorization with any movements.
"Pure" types of memory in the sense of unconditional dominance of one of the listed ones are extremely rare. Most often in practice we are faced with various combinations of visual, auditory and motor memory. Their typical mixtures are visual-motor, visual-auditory and engine-but-auditory memory. However, for most people, visual memory is still dominant.
There are unique cases of such memory described in the literature. One of them introduced us to A-R-Luriya1. He studied and described in detail the memory of a man named Sh., who could quickly, firmly and permanently memorize visual information. The amount of its memory has never been experimentally determined. “He,” A.R. Luria wrote, “was indifferent to whether meaningful words, meaningless syllables, numbers or sounds were presented to him, whether they were given R orally or in writing; he only needed one element of the proposed series to be separated from the other by a pause of 2-3 seconds. This time, probably, is that which this person needed to carry out the said transfer and the necessary rest. For ordinary people, this time and the efforts made for this are much greater.
As it turned out later, Sh.'s memory mechanism was based on eidetic vision, which he was particularly well developed. After a single visual perception of the material and its slight mental processing (mostly figurative), Sh., as it were, continued to “see” it in the absence of self-
"Cm.: Luria A.R. Little book about great memory // Reader in general psychology: Psychology of memory. - M., 1979. 2Ibid.
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my given material in sight. He was able to restore in detail the corresponding visual image after a long time, even after several years (some experiments with him were repeated 15-16 years after he first saw the material and did not return to it during this time; however, less did he remember it).
eidetic memory, especially strongly developed in Sh., not such a rare occurrence. In childhood, all people have it, and in adults it gradually disappears. This type of memory is exercising, sometimes well developed among artists and, apparently, is one of the inclinations for the development of the corresponding abilities. The sphere of professional application of such memory can be music, those activities in which special requirements are placed on visually accurate memorization and reproduction of what is seen.
The greatest development in humans is usually achieved by those types of memory that are most often used. Professional activity leaves a big imprint on this process. For example, scientists have a very good semantic and logical memory, but a relatively weak mechanical memory. Actors and doctors have a well-developed memory for faces.
Memory processes are closely related to the characteristics of a person's personality, his emotional mood, interests and needs. They determine what and how a person remembers, stores and recalls. Memorization also depends on the attitude of the individual to the material being memorized. Attitude determines the selective nature of memory. We tend to remember things that are interesting and emotionally meaningful to us. “There is no doubt,” wrote S.L. Rubinshtein, “that moments play a more or less significant role in memorization”1. Emotionally rich will be better remembered than emotionally neutral.
In addition to the emotional nature of the impression, a significant role in memory can be played by the general state of the individual at the time of receiving this impression, as well as her physical condition as a whole. The fact that memory is closely connected with the physical state is proved by cases of painful memory impairment. In almost all such cases (they are called amnesias and represent short-term or long-term loss of various types of memory)
1
Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology: In 2 volumes - T. I. - M., 1989. - S. 318.
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characteristic memory disorders, which in their characteristics reflect the personality disorders of the patient. The well-known researcher of memory disorders T. Ribot wrote on this occasion that our more or less constant idea of ourselves at any given moment of time is supported by memory, nourished by it, and as soon as the memory enters a state of disorder, the person’s idea of himself immediately changes. Let's continue this thought: it is likely that the daily changes in our behavior are connected with the fact that at some point in time we remember something and forget something about ourselves. There are, apparently, not very noticeable, but similar to painful disorders of normal human memory, which we do not notice in the same way as accentuations character. In life, the same memory disorders often manifest themselves, which are observed in an extremely pronounced form in patients, so it is important to have an idea about typical such disorders.
According to the dynamics of the flow of mnemonic processes, amnesias are divided into retrograde, anterograde, retarded. retrograde amnesia represents forgetting past events; anterograde- impossibility of remembering for the future; retarded amnesia - a type of memory change associated with the preservation in memory of events experienced during illness, and their subsequent forgetting. Another type of amnesia progressive- manifests itself in the gradual deterioration of memory up to its complete loss. At the same time, what is unstable in memory is first lost, and then more durable memories.
The founder of psychoanalysis, Z. Freud, paid great attention to the analysis of the mechanisms of forgetting that occur in everyday life. He wrote that one of these very common mechanisms consists in “disturbance of the train of thought by the force of internal protest emanating from something repressed”1. He argued that in many cases of forgetting, it is based on the motive of unwillingness to remember. One can argue with such a statement, but it should hardly be denied that such a mechanism of forgetting does not work in life.
Examples of motivated forgetting, according to Z. Freud, are cases when a person involuntarily loses, lays somewhere things related to what he wants to forget, and forgets about these things so that they do not remind him of psychologically unpleasant circumstances.
1 Freud 3. Forgetting foreign words // Reader in general psychology: Psychology of memory. - M., 1979.
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The tendency to forget the unpleasant is indeed widespread in life. Especially often such motivated forgetting of unpleasant intentions and promises is manifested in cases where they are associated with memories that generate negative emotional experiences.
Many interesting facts about human memory have been found in studies whose authors were guided by the Gestalt theory of memory. One of them was discovered by B.V. Zeigarnik and was named the Zeigarnik effect. It consists of the following. If people are offered a series of tasks and some of them are allowed to be completed, while others are interrupted unfinished, then it turns out that subsequently the subjects are almost twice as likely to recall incomplete tasks than those completed by the time of interruption. This phenomenon is explained as follows. Upon receiving the task, the subject has a need to complete it, which intensifies in the process of completing the task (the scientific director of the experiment, Zeigarnik Klevin, called such a need quasi-need). This need is fully realized when the task is completed, and remains unsatisfied if it is not completed. Due to the connection between motivation and memory, the former affects the selectivity of memory, preserving traces of unfinished tasks in it.
After conducting the relevant experiments, B.V. Zeigarnik noted another interesting fact: “The predominance of incomplete tasks is expressed not only in the number of tasks withheld, but also in the sequence in which the subject names the tasks during the survey. First of all, the subjects list the unfinished tasks. From this observation, we can draw the following conclusion: a person involuntarily retains in his memory and first of all (also involuntarily) reproduces what meets his most urgent, but not yet fully satisfied needs.
THEORIES AND LAWS OF MEMORY
Memory research is currently occupied by representatives of various sciences: psychology, biology, medicine, genetics, cybernetics, and a number of others. In each of these sciences, there are
"Zeigarnik B.V. Reproduction of unfinished and completed actions // Reader in general psychology: Psychology of memory. - M., 1979.
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have their own questions, by virtue of which they turn to the problems of memory, their own system of concepts and, accordingly, their own theories of memory. But all these sciences, taken together, expand our knowledge of human memory, complement each other, allow us to look deeper into this, one of the most important and mysterious phenomena of human psychology.
The actual psychological teachings about memory are much older than its medical, genetic, biochemical and cybernetic research. One of the first psychological theories of memory, which has not lost its scientific significance to this day, was association theory. It arose in the 17th century, was actively developed in the 18th and 19th centuries, and received predominant distribution and recognition in England and Germany.
This theory is based on the concept of association - the connection between individual mental phenomena, developed by G. Ebbinghaus, G. Muller, A. Pilzeker and others. Memory in line with this theory is understood as a complex system of short-term and long-term, more or less stable associations by contiguity, similarity, contrast, temporal and spatial proximity. Thanks to this theory, many mechanisms and laws of memory were discovered and described, for example, the law of forgetting G. Ebbinghaus, presented as a curve in fig. 43. In accordance with this law, derived from experiments with the memorization of three-letter meaningless syllables, after the first unmistakable repetition of a series of such syllables, forgetting proceeds quite rapidly at first. Already during the first hour, up to 60% of all information received is forgotten, and after 6 days less than 20% of the total number of originally learned syllables remains.
Separate elements of information according to the associative theory are remembered, stored and reproduced not in isolation, but in certain logical, structural-functional and semantic associations with others.
Over time, the associative theory faced a number of intractable problems, the main of which was the explanation of the selectivity of human memory. Associations are formed on a random basis, and memory always selects certain information from all incoming and stored in the human brain. It was necessary to introduce into the theoretical explanation of mnemonic processes one more factor explaining the purposeful nature of the corresponding processes.
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TIMEWithTHE MOMENT OF MEMORY (inhours)
Rice. 43. Forgetting curve according to G. Ebbinghaus
Nevertheless, the associative theory of memory provided a lot of useful information for understanding its laws. In line with this theory, it was established how the number of memorable elements changes with
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different number of repetitions of the presented series and depending on the distribution of elements in time; how the elements of the memorized series are stored in memory, depending on the time elapsed between memorization and reproduction.
At the end of the XIX century. replaced the associative theory of memory gestaliptheory. For her, the initial concept and at the same time the main principle on the basis of which it is necessary to explain the phenomena of memory was not the association of primary elements, but their original, integral organization - Geshtalt. It is the laws of gestalt formation, according to the supporters of this theory, that determine memory.
In line with this theory, the importance of structuring the material, bringing it to integrity, organizing it into a system during memorization and reproduction, as well as the role of human intentions and needs in memory processes (the latter was intended to explain the selectivity of mnemonic processes) was especially emphasized. The main idea that ran like a red thread through the studies of the supporters of the discussed concept of memory was that both during memorization and during reproduction, the material usually appears in the form of an integral structure, and not a random set of elements that has developed on an associative basis.
The dynamics of memorization and reproduction in Gestalt theory was seen as follows. A certain need state that is relevant at a given moment in time creates a certain setting for memorization or reproduction in a person. An appropriate attitude revives in the mind of the individual some integral structures, on the basis of which, in turn, the material is remembered or reproduced. This setting controls the course of memorization and reproduction, determines the selection of the necessary information.
Having found a psychological explanation for some facts of memory selectivity, this theory, however, faced the no less complex problem of the formation and development of human memory in phylogenesis and ontogenesis. The fact is that both the motivational states that determine the mnemonic processes in a person and the gestalts themselves were thought of as predetermined, non-developing formations. The question of the dependence of the development of memory on the practical activity of a person was not directly raised or resolved here.
No satisfactory answer was found to the question of the genesis of memory among representatives of the other two directions.
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psychological studies of mnemonic processes - behaviorism and psychoanalysis. The views of the supporters of behaviorism on the problem of memory turned out to be very close to those shared by the associationists. The only significant difference between the two was that behaviorists emphasized the role of reinforcement in remembering material and paid much attention to the study of how memory works in learning processes.
The merit of Z. Freud and his followers in the study of memory was to clarify the role of positive and negative emotions, motives and needs in memorizing and forgetting material. Thanks to psychoanalysis, many interesting psychological mechanisms of subconscious forgetting associated with the functioning of motivation have been discovered and described.
Around the same time, i.e. at the beginning of the 20th century, there semantic theory of memory. It is argued that the work of the relevant processes is directly dependent on the presence or absence of semantic connections that unite the memorized material into more or less extensive semantic structures (A. Binet, K. Buhler). The semantic content of the material comes to the fore when memorizing and reproducing. It is argued that semantic memorization is subject to other laws than mechanical memorization: the material to be memorized or reproduced in this case is included in the context of certain semantic connections.
With the beginning of the development of cybernetics, the advent of computer technology and the development of programming (languages and methods for compiling programs for machine information processing), the search for optimal ways for receiving, processing and storing information by a machine began. Accordingly, we started technical and algorithmic modeling of memory processes. Over the past few decades, such studies have accumulated a wealth of material that has proven to be very useful for understanding the laws of memory.
Representatives of these sciences began to show an increased interest in the actual psychological studies of memory, because this opened up opportunities for improving programming languages, its technology and machine memory. This mutual interest led to the development of a new theory of memory in psychology, which can be called information-cybernetic. At present, she is taking only the first, but very promising steps on the way to
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a deeper understanding of human memory using the achievements of cybernetics and informatics. After all, the human brain is also a kind of complex electronic computer and analog machine.
In domestic psychology, the predominant development was the direction in the study of memory associated with general psychological activity theory. In the context of this theory, memory acts as a special type of psychological activity, including a system of theoretical and practical actions subordinated to the solution of a mnemonic task - memorizing, preserving and reproducing various information. Here, the composition of mnemonic actions and operations, the dependence of memory productivity on the place in the structure of the goal and means of memorization (or reproduction), the comparative productivity of voluntary and involuntary memorization depending on the organization of mnemonic activity (A.N. Leontiev, P. I. Zinchenko, A. A. Smirnov and others).
The beginning of the study of memory as an activity was laid by the works of French scientists, in particular P. Janet. He was one of the first to interpret memory as a system of actions focused on remembering, processing and storing material. The French school in psychology proved the social conditionality of all memory processes, its direct dependence on the practical activity of a person.
In our country, this concept has been further developed in the cultural and historical theory of the origin of higher mental functions. The stages of phylo- and ontogenetic development of memory, especially voluntary and involuntary, direct and mediated, were identified. According to the activity theory of memory, the formation of links-associations between different representations, as well as the memorization, storage and reproduction of material are explained by what a person does with this material in the process of its mnemonic processing.
A number of interesting facts revealing the features of memorization mechanisms, the conditions under which it happens better or worse, were discovered in his studies by AA Smirnov. He found that actions are remembered better than thoughts, and among actions, in turn, those associated with overcoming obstacles, including these obstacles, are more firmly remembered.
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Let us consider the main facts obtained in line with various theories of memory.
The German scientist G. Ebbinghaus was one of those who in the last century, guided by the associative theory of memory, received a number of interesting data. In particular, he deduced the following patterns of memorization, established in studies where meaningless syllables and other poorly organized material in terms of meaning were used for memorization.
1. Relatively simple events in life that make a particularly strong impression on a person can be remembered immediately firmly and for a long time, and after many years from the moment of the first and only meeting with them, they can appear in consciousness with distinctness and clarity.
2. A person can experience more complex and less interesting events dozens of times, but they are not imprinted in memory for a long time.
3. With close attention to an event, it is enough to experience it once in order to accurately and in the right order reproduce its main points from memory.
4. A person can objectively correctly reproduce events, but not be aware of this and, conversely, make mistakes, but be sure that he reproduces them correctly. Between the accuracy of reproduction of events and confidence in this accuracy, there is not always an unambiguous relationship.
5. If you increase the number of members of the memorized series to an amount exceeding the maximum amount of short-term memory, then the number of correctly reproduced members of this series after its single presentation decreases compared to the case when the number of units in the memorized series is exactly equal to the amount of short-term memory. At the same time, with an increase in such a series, the number of repetitions necessary for its memorization also increases. For example, if after a single memorization, on average, a person reproduces 6 meaningless syllables, then in the case when the initial row consists of 12 such syllables, it is possible to reproduce 6 of them, as a rule, only after 14 or 16 repetitions. If the number of syllables in the original row is 26, then about 30 repetitions will be needed to obtain the same result, and in the case of a series of 36 syllables, 55 repetitions.
6. Preliminary repetition of the material to be memorized (repetition without memorization) saves time on its assimilation if the number of such preliminary
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of repeated repetitions does not exceed their number necessary for the complete memorization of the material by heart.
7. When memorizing a long row, its beginning and end are best reproduced from memory (“edge effect”).
8. For the associative connection of impressions and their subsequent reproduction, it is of particular importance whether they are separate or form a logically connected whole.
9. Repetition of learned material in a row is less productive for its memorization than the distribution of such repetitions over a certain period of time, for example, within several hours or days.
10. New repetition contributes to a better memorization of what was learned before.
11. With increased attention to memorized material, the number of repetitions necessary for learning it by heart can be reduced, and the lack of sufficient attention cannot be compensated by an increase in the number of repetitions.
12. What a person is especially interested in is remembered without any difficulty. This pattern is especially pronounced in mature years.
13. Rare, strange, unusual experiences are remembered better than the usual, often encountered.
14. Any new impression received by a person does not remain isolated in his memory. Being remembered in one form, it may change somewhat over time, entering into an associative relationship with other impressions, influencing them and, in turn, changing under their influence.
T. Ribot, analyzing the cases of amnesia, which are important for understanding the psychology of memory - temporary memory loss, notes two more patterns:
- a person's memory is associated with his personality, and in such a way that pathological changes in personality are almost always accompanied by memory impairments;
- a person's memory is lost and restored according to the same law: with memory loss, the most complex and recently received impressions suffer first; when restoring memory, the situation is vice versa, i.e. the simplest and oldest memories are restored first, and then the most complex and recent ones.
The generalization of these and many other facts made it possible to derive a number of laws of memory. Let's turn to the main ones. It has been established that in the memorization, preservation and reproduction of
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ala involved various operations for processing, recoding it, including such mental operations as analysis, systematization, generalization, synthesis etc. They provide the semantic organization of the material, which determines its memorization and reproduction.
When a text is reproduced in order to memorize it, not so much the words and sentences that make up this text are imprinted in memory, but the thoughts contained in it. They are the first to come to mind when the task arises to remember a given text.
Memory setting contributes to it, i.e. memorization occurs better if a person sets himself an appropriate mnemonic task. If this setting is designed to memorize and store information for a certain period, which happens when using random access memory, then it is by this period that the memory mechanisms are triggered.
That which in the structure of activity takes the place of its goal is remembered better than that which constitutes the means of carrying out this activity. Therefore, in order to increase the productivity of memorizing material, you need to somehow associate it with the main purpose of the activity.
play an important role in memory and reproduction. repetitions. Their productivity largely depends on the extent to which this process is intellectually saturated, i.e. is not a mechanical repetition, but a new way of structuring and logically processing the material. In this regard, special attention should be paid to understanding the material and understanding the meaning of what is done with it in the process of memorization.
For a good memorization of the material, it is not advisable to immediately learn it by heart. It is better if the repetitions of the material are distributed in time in such a way that at the beginning and end of memorization there are a relatively larger number of repetitions than at the middle. According to the data obtained by A. Pieron, the distribution of repetitions during the day saves time by more than two times, compared with the case when the material is immediately learned by heart.
Any of the parts into which the whole material is divided by memorization as a whole must in itself represent a more or less complete whole. Then all the material is better organized in memory, easier to remember and reproduce.
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Rice. 44. Hypothetical curves showing the laws of forgetting mechanically memorized and meaningful material (we used data obtained
G. Ebbinghaus (---------), other researchers (_____._____) and the curve,
representing their sum (_____)
One of the interesting effects of memory, for which no satisfactory explanation has yet been found, is called reminiscence. This is an improvement over playback time for-
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learned material without additional repetitions. More often this phenomenon is observed in the distribution of repetitions of the material in the process of memorization, and not when memorizing immediately by heart. Delayed playback by several days often gives better results than playback of the material immediately after learning it. Reminiscence is probably due to the fact that over time, the logical, semantic connections that form within the material being memorized become stronger, become clearer, more distinct. Most often, reminiscence occurs on the 2-3rd day after learning the material. On fig. 44, taking into account the phenomenon of reminiscence, G. Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve is shown. It should be noted that reminiscence as a phenomenon arises as a result of the imposition of two different laws on each other, one of which characterizes the forgetting of meaningful, and the other - meaningless material.
We will demonstrate some other laws of memory in demonstrative experiments, the generalization of the results of which allows us to see them in the most distinct form.
Experience 1. (Shows that when perceiving material, we usually see much more than we remember and are able to reproduce. This experience also proves that much more of what we are able to realize settles in our memory.)
The subjects are presented with a table containing 9 letters for about 0.05 s (Fig. 45). After removing the table from view, the subjects are asked to report how many of the letters presented on it they remembered. On average, 4-5 letters are usually called. Then the same subjects are sequentially presented with 9 cards, where the places where the perceived letters were located are marked with the help of black squares. Several of these cards are shown in Fig. 46. At the same time, the subjects are asked to remember which letters were in the places where the black square is now located. It turns out that in this case, not 4-5, but much more letters are remembered, almost all 9.
The result of this experiment is explained as follows. By the time the subject is asked to remember the perception of a letter, some of them have already left the store of short-term memory and are on their way to long-term memory. Therefore, in order to remember, the subject already needs some stimulus-means. The restored visual field, apparently, is one of such stimuli-means.
It has been established, in addition, that the ability to reproduce a letter arbitrarily indicated by the location of the square in this
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Rice. 45. Table with nine letters presented to the subjects in the experiment 
Rice. 46. A card with squares drawn on the places where the letters used to be (selectively presented only three cards out of nine)
The experience gradually decreases as the appearance of the mark in the visual field is delayed. If this time interval exceeds 0.5 s from the moment the card was presented (first, in the experiment, the card appeared on the screen, and then the corresponding mark was lit), then the subject cannot completely restore the rest of the letters in memory.
FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF MEMORY
Let us now turn to the question of the development of memory, i.e. about those typical changes that occur in it as the individual socializes. From early childhood, the process of developing a child's memory goes in several directions. First of all,
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mechanical memory is gradually supplemented and replaced by logical memory. Secondly, over time, direct memorization turns into indirect memorization, associated with the active and conscious use of various mnemonic techniques and means for memorization and reproduction. Thirdly, involuntary memorization, which dominates in childhood, becomes voluntary in an adult.
In the development of memory in general, two genetic lines can be distinguished: its improvement in all civilized people, without exception, as social progress progresses, and its gradual improvement in a single individual in the process of his socialization, familiarization with the material and cultural achievements of mankind.
P.P. Blonsky made a significant contribution to understanding the phylogenetic development of memory. He expressed and developed the idea that the different types of memory presented in an adult are also different stages of its historical development, and, accordingly, they can be considered phylogenetic stages of memory improvement. This refers to the following sequence of types of memory: motor, affective, figurative and logical. P.P. Blonsky expressed and substantiated the idea that in the history of human development these types of memory consistently appeared one after another.
In ontogenesis, all types of memory are formed in a child quite early and also in a certain sequence. Later than others, it develops and starts to work logical memory, or, as P.P. Blonsky sometimes called it, “memory-story”. It already exists in a child of 3-4 years of age in relatively elementary forms, but it reaches a normal level of development only in adolescence and youth. Its improvement and further improvement are connected with teaching a person the basics of science.
Start figurative memory is associated with the second year of life, and it is believed that this type of memory reaches its highest point only by adolescence. Earlier than others, about 6 months old, begins to manifest itself affective memory, and the very first in time is motor, or motor, memory. In genetic terms, it precedes all others. P.P. Blonsky thought so.
However, many data, in particular facts that testify to a very early ontogenetic emotional response of the infant to the mother’s treatment, suggest that,
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apparently, affective rather than motor memory begins to operate earlier than others. It may well be that they appear and develop almost simultaneously. In any case, the final answer to this question has not yet been received.
L.S. Vygotsky considered the historical development of human memory from a slightly different angle. He believed that the improvement of human memory in phylogeny proceeded mainly along the line improving the means of memorization and changing the connections of the mnemonic function with other mental processes and human states. Developing historically, enriching his material and spiritual culture, man developed more and more perfect means of memorization, the most important of which is writing. (During the 20th century, after the departure of L.S. Vygotsky from life, many other, very effective means of memorizing and storing information were added to them, especially in connection with scientific and technological progress.) Thanks to various forms of speech - oral, written , external, internal - a person turned out to be able to subordinate memory to his will, reasonably control the course of memorization, manage the process of storing and reproducing information.
Memory, as it developed, came closer and closer to thinking. “Analysis shows,” wrote L.S. Vygotsky, “that a child’s thinking is largely determined by his memory... Thinking for a young child means remembering... Thinking never shows such a correlation with memory as at a very early age. Thinking here develops in direct dependence on memory. Examination of the forms of the underdeveloped child's thinking, on the other hand, reveals that they are reminiscences about one particular case, similar to the case that took place in the past.
Decisive events in a person's life that change the relationship between memory and his other psychological processes occur closer to adolescence, and in their content these changes are sometimes opposite to those that existed between memory and mental processes in the early years. For example, the attitude “to think is to remember” with age in a child is replaced by an attitude that agrees
1 Vygotsky L.S. Memory and its development in childhood // Reader in general psychology: Psychology of memory. - M., 1979. - S. 161.
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but to which memorization itself is reduced to thinking: "to remember or remember means to understand, comprehend, think."
Special studies of direct and mediated memorization in childhood were carried out by A. N. Leont'ev. He experimentally showed how one mnemonic process - direct memorization - with age is gradually replaced by another, mediated one. This happens due to the child's assimilation of more perfect stimuli-means of memorizing and reproducing material. The role of mnemotechnical means in improving memory, according to A.Nle-ontiev, is that, “turning to the use of auxiliary means, we thereby change the fundamental structure of our memorization act; formerly direct, direct our memory becomes mediated" 1.
The very development of stimuli-memory tools obeys the following regularity: at first they act as external (for example, tying knots for memory, using various objects, notches, fingers, etc. for memorization), and then they become internal (feeling, association, representation, image, thought).
Speech plays a central role in the formation of internal means of memorization. “It can be assumed,” notes A.N. Leontiev, “that the very transition that takes place from externally mediated memorization to internally mediated memorization is closely connected with the transformation of speech from a purely external function into an internal function”2.
On the basis of experiments conducted with children of different ages and with students as subjects, A.N. Leontiev deduced the curve for the development of direct and indirect memorization, shown in Fig. 47. This curve, called the “parallelogram of memory development”, shows that direct memorization improves with age in preschoolers, and its development is faster than the development of indirect memorization. In parallel with this, the gap in the productivity of these types of memorization increases in favor of the first.
Starting from school age, there is a process of simultaneous development of direct and indirect memorization, and then a more rapid improvement of the
"Leontiev A.N. Development of higher forms of memorization // Reader in general psychology: Psychology of memory. - M., 1979. - S. 166. 2Ibid. - S. 167.
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Rice. 47. Development of direct (upper curve) and indirect (lower curve) memorization in children and young men (according to A.N. Leontiev)
redacted memory. Both curves show a tendency towards convergence with age, since indirect memorization, developing at a faster pace, soon catches up with direct memorization in terms of productivity and, if we hypothetically continue further shown in Fig. 47 curves, should eventually overtake him. The latter assumption is supported by the fact that adults who systematically engage in mental work and, therefore, constantly exercise their mediated memory, if desired and with appropriate mental work, can very easily memorize material, while possessing at the same time a surprisingly weak mechanical memory.
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While memorization in preschoolers, as the curves under consideration testify to, is mainly direct, in adults it is mainly (and perhaps even exclusively due to the assumption made above) mediated.
Speech plays a significant role in the development of memory, so the process of improving a person’s memory goes hand in hand with the development of his speech.
* * *
Let us summarize what has been said about memory in this chapter, and at the same time try to formulate some practical recommendations for improving memory based on the material presented here.
The last of the facts we noted - about the special role that speech plays in the processes of memorization and reproduction - makes it possible to draw the following conclusions:
1. What we can express in words is usually remembered more easily and better than what can only be perceived visually or by ear. If, moreover, words do not simply act as a verbal replacement for perceived material, but are the result of its comprehension, i.e. if the word is not a name, but a concept that contains an essential thought related to the subject, then such memorization is the most productive. The more we think about the material, the more actively we try to visualize it and express it in words, the easier and stronger it is remembered.
2. If the subject of memorization is a text, then the presence of pre-conceived and clearly formulated questions to it, the answers to which can be found in the process of reading the text, contributes to its better memorization. In this case, the text is stored in memory longer and reproduced more accurately than when questions are put to it after it has been read.
3. Preservation and recall as mnemonic processes have their own characteristics. Many cases of forgetting associated with long-term memory are explained not so much by the fact that the reproduced material was not properly remembered, but by the fact that when recalling it was difficult to access it. A person's poor memory may be more related to recall difficulties than to memory itself. Attempts
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remembering something, retrieving it at the right moment from long-term memory, where a colossal amount of information is usually stored, is analogous to searching for a small book in a huge library or a quote in a collection of works numbering dozens of volumes. Failure to find a book or a quotation in this case may turn out to be not due to the fact that they are not at all in the appropriate repositories, but to the fact that we may be looking for them in the wrong place and in the wrong way. Hypnosis provides us with the most telling examples of successful recall. Under its influence, a person can suddenly recall long-forgotten events of distant childhood, the impressions of which, it would seem, have been lost forever.
4. If two groups of people are asked to remember the same list of words that can be grouped according to meaning, and if, in addition, both groups of people are provided with different generalizing stimulus words with which to facilitate recall, then it turns out that each of them is able to will remember more precisely those words that are associated with the stimulus words offered to her.
The richer and more varied the stimuli-means that we have at our disposal for remembering, the simpler and more accessible they are to us at the right moment in time, the better is voluntary recall. Two factors, in addition, increase the likelihood of successful recall: the correct organization of the memorized information and the provision during its reproduction of such psychological conditions that are identical to those in which the corresponding material was memorized.
5. The more mental effort we put into organizing information, giving it a coherent, meaningful structure, the easier it is to remember later. One of the effective ways of structuring memorization is to give the memorized material a structure of the "tree" type (Fig. 48). Such structures are widespread wherever it is necessary to present a large amount of information concisely and compactly.
The organization of the memorized material into structures of this kind contributes to its better reproduction because it greatly facilitates the subsequent search for the necessary information in the “storerooms” of long-term memory, and this search requires a system of thoughtful, economical actions that will surely lead to the desired result. With the preliminary structural organization of the memorized material along with it in
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KEYWORD TRANSFERING THE MOST GENERAL MEANING OF THE TEXT
KEYWORDS CONVEYING THE MEANING OF INDIVIDUAL PARTS OF THE TEXT
KEYWORDS THAT CONVEY THE MEANING OF INDIVIDUAL SENTENCES
Rice. 48. The semantic structure of the organization of material according to the "tree" type, most widely used in various "repositories" of information
Long-term memory is also laid down by the scheme itself, with the help of which the material was organized. When playing it, we can use this scheme as a finished one. Otherwise, it would have to be created and redesigned, since memory also occurs according to schemes.
At present, a considerable number of various systems and methods of practical influence on human memory have been developed and are being used in practice in order to improve it. Some of these methods are based on the regulation of attention, others involve improving the perception of material, others are based on the exercise of the imagination, the fourth - on the development of a person's ability to comprehend and structure the memorized material, the fifth - on the acquisition and active use in the processes of memorization and reproduction of special mnemotechnical means, tricks and actions. All these methods are ultimately based on the facts established in scientific research and confirmed by life of the connection between memory and other mental processes of a person and his practical activities.
6. Since its memorization directly depends on attention to the material, any techniques that allow you to control attention can also be useful for memorization. This, in particular, is based on one of the ways to improve the
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commemoration by preschoolers and younger schoolchildren of educational material, which they try to make in such a way that it arouses involuntary interest on the part of students, attracts their attention.
7. The recall of material is also influenced by the emotions associated with it, and depending on the specifics of the emotional experiences associated with memory, this influence can manifest itself in different ways. We think more about situations that have left a vivid, emotional trace in our memory than about emotionally neutral events. We better organize the impressions associated with them in our memory, and correlate them more and more often with others. Positive emotions tend to promote recall, while negative emotions hinder it.
8. Emotional states that accompany the process of memorization are part of the situation imprinted in the memory; therefore, when they are reproduced, then, by association with them, it is restored in representations and the whole situation, recollection is facilitated. It has been experimentally proven that if a person is in an elevated or depressed mood at the time of memorization, then the artificial restoration of an appropriate emotional state in him during recall improves memory.
9. On the technique of improving the perception of the material, various methods of teaching the so-called "accelerated" reading are based. A person is taught here to quickly discover the most important in the text and perceive mainly this, consciously skipping everything else. To a large extent, such learning, and consequently, the improvement of memorization can be helped by psycholinguistic knowledge about the semantic structure of texts.
10. It is shown that the imagination can be controlled. With thoughtful and systematic exercises, it becomes easier for a person to imagine what is visible in his imagination. And since the ability to visually represent something has a positive effect on memorization, the techniques aimed at developing the imagination in children simultaneously serve to improve their figurative memory, as well as speed up the process of transferring information from short-term and operative memory to long-term.
11. The habit of meaningful perception of the material is also associated with improved memory. Especially great benefit in improving the memory of students is provided by exercises and tasks for understanding various texts, compiling for them
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plans. The use of notes (for example, shorthand), drawing up diagrams of various objects in order to remember them, creating a certain environment - all these are examples of the use of various mnemonic tools. Their choice is determined by the individual characteristics and personal capabilities of a person. When improving memory, it is best for a person to rely on what he has most developed: vision, hearing, touch, movement, etc.
Let us consider some specific methods of improving memory that any person could use, regardless of how developed his individual mental functions and abilities are. One of them is based on more active use of imaginative thinking and imagination when memorizing and reproducing material. remember quickly and for a long time, it is recommended to perform the following sequence of actions in relation to the material:
A. Mentally associate what is remembered with some well-known and easily imagined subject. This item is further associated with some other one that will be at hand just when you need to remember what you remember.
B. Both objects in the imagination are combined in some bizarre way with each other into a single, fantastic object.
B. Mentally imagine what this object will look like. These three steps are practically enough to
at the right moment in time, recall the memorized, and thanks to the actions described above, it is immediately transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory and remains there for a long time.
For example, we need to remember (do not forget to do) the following series of tasks: call someone, send a written letter, borrow a book from the library, go to the laundry, buy a train ticket (this series can be quite large - up to 20-30 and more units). Suppose also that it is necessary to make sure that we remember the next task immediately after the previous one is completed. To make this happen, let's do the following. Let us invent for each case some familiar, easily conceivable, related subject in meaning, which will surely catch our eye at the right time and in the right place. In accordance with the number of cases indicated above, such items can be the following: a handset, a mailbox, a book, a laundry bag, money.
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Now we act in accordance with the second and third of the rules formulated above: we connect the listed objects in pairs with each other in unusual associations and mentally imagine what we have invented. The first such item may be, for example, a mailbox made in the form of a telephone receiver; the second is a huge mailbox full of books; the third is a long arm wrapped in linen; the fourth - huge banknotes stacked and tied in the form of a linen pack. After this procedure, it is enough to consistently imagine how the objects we have invented will look like, so that at the right time, when these objects catch our eye, we can recall the cases related to them.
One technique based on the formation of associations should be kept in mind. If, for example, it is necessary to remember the text as well as possible, or the proof of the theorem, or some foreign words, then you can do the following. Set yourself the additional task of finding an answer to the questions: “What does this remind me of? What is it like?"
Reading further the text or the proof of the theorem, we will have to answer the following specific questions: “What other text or episode from life reminds me of this text? What other proof resembles the method of proving this theorem? Getting acquainted with a new word, we must immediately mentally answer such a question, for example: “What other word or event reminds me of this word?”
The following regularity operates here: the more various associations the material causes at the first acquaintance with it and the more time we devote to the mental development of these associations, the better the material itself is remembered.
The basic principle underlying many mnemonic techniques is the use of images that link the memorized material with the sign, or the formation of such connections within the memorized material itself. In order to memorize a sequence of unrelated words well, it is enough to do the following. Let's imagine the path that we walk every day, going to school or work. Consistently passing it in the mind, we will “arrange” along the way what needs to be remembered in the form of objects related to the memorized in meaning. Once we have done such work, then, following this path, we will be able to remember everything we need. It will be enough for this even just to imagine the appropriate path.
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An important means of improving memory, as studies by domestic psychologists have shown, can be the formation of special mnemonic actions, as a result of which a person is able to better remember the material offered to him due to the special, conscious organization of the process of its cognition for the purpose of memorization. The development of such actions in a child, as shown by special studies, passes through three main stages. In the first of these (younger preschoolers), the child's mnemonic cognitive actions are organized in him by an adult in all essential details. At the second stage, older preschoolers are already able to independently classify, distribute objects on the basis of common characteristics into groups, and the corresponding actions are still performed in an external expanded form. At the third stage (younger schoolchildren), there is a complete mastery of the structure and performance of a cognitive mnemonic action in the mind.
For better memorization of the material, it is recommended to repeat it shortly before the normal bedtime. In this case, what is remembered will be better deposited in memory, since it will not mix with other impressions that usually overlap each other during the day and thus interfere with remembering, diverting our attention.
However, in connection with this and other recommendations for improving memory, including those discussed above, it should be remembered that any techniques are good only when they are suitable for a given person, when he chose them for himself, invented or adapted according to my own tastes and life experience.
The effectiveness of memorization is sometimes reduced by interference, i.e. mixing one information with another, one memory scheme with another. Most often, interference occurs when the same memories are associated in memory with the same events and their appearance in consciousness gives rise to the simultaneous recall of competing (interfering) events. Interference often occurs when, instead of one material, another is learned, especially at the memorization stage, where the first material has not yet been forgotten, and the second is not well learned, for example, when words of a foreign language are memorized, some of which have not yet been deposited in long-term memory, and others are just beginning to be explored at the same time.
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Topics and questions for discussion at seminars Topic 1. General idea of memory.
1. The value of memory in human life.
2. Expanded definition of memory.
3. Basic memory processes: memorization, preservation, reproduction.
T e m a 2. Views memory and them peculiarities.
1. Grounds for classifying types of memory.
2. Varieties of memory.
3. Human short-term memory.
4. Long-term human memory.
5. Interrelation and interaction of short-term and long-term memory.
T e m a 3. Individual memory differences in people.
1. Quantitative individual features of memory.
2. Qualitative characteristics of individual memory.
3. The connection of memory with a person's personality.
4. Memory disorders (amnesia).
5. Memory and motivation (explaining forgetting).
Theme 4. Theories and laws of memory.
1. Associative theory of memory.
2. Gestalt theory of memory.
3. Semantic theory of memory.
4. Psychoanalytic theory of memory.
5. Activity theory of memory.
6. Information-cybernetic theory of memory.
7. Laws of memory and facts from her research.
8. The phenomenon of reminiscence.
Theme 5. Formation and development of speech.
1.
The main lines of human memory development in phylo- and ontogenesis.
2. The theory of phylogenetic development of memory by P.P. Blonsky.
3. Cultural-historical theory of the development of the memory of L.S. Vygotsky.
4. The development of direct and indirect memorization in children according to A.N. Leontiev.
5. Factors affecting the development of memory.
6. Practical conclusions-recommendations for improving memory.
Topics for abstracts
1. Types of memory in humans.
2. Individual characteristics and memory disorders.
3. Theories of memory in psychology.
4. Factors that determine the development of memory in humans.
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1. Relationship and interaction of different types of memory in humans.
2. Individual features of memory and human abilities.
3. Comparative analysis of the main mechanisms of memory according to its psychological theories.
4. Ways, techniques and means of improvement memory person.
LITERATURE
I
atkinson (Short-term memory: 27-52. Theories of memory: 53-203, 273-292. Memory and thinking: 362-427.)
Wayne A.M., Kamenetskaya B.I. Human memory. - M., 1973. (Memory in animals: 61- 72. The concept of good and bad memory: 85. Methods for studying memory: 73-98. Diseases and memory. Memory disorders: 131-190. Memory enhancement: 191-207.)
Zints R. Learning and memory. - Minsk, 1984. (Classification of types of memory: 199-209.)
Leather F. Memory training. - M, 1979. (What is memory: 37-43. Basic processes of memory. Remembering, remembering, forgetting: 73-114.)
Lindsey P., Norman E. Human Information Processing: An Introduction to Psychology. - M., 1974. (Types of memory: 313-354. Memory: 355-384. Mechanisms of memory: 385-419.)
Luria A.R. Attention and memory. - M., 1975. (Memory: 42-103.)
Norman YES. Memory and learning. - M., 1985. (How we learn and remember: 10-14. Sensory memory: 15-20. Primary memory: 30-37. Secondary memory: 37-41. Forgetting: 47-51.)
Rogovin M.S. Problems of the theory of memory. - M., 1977. (Phenomenology of memory: 23-38. Theories of memory: 38-64. Disorders of memory: 64-71. Associations and memory: 90-98. Personality and memory: 98-129. Structure-level concept of memory: 161-180.)
Rubinstein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology: In 2 vols. - Vol. 1. - M., 1989. (Memory: 300-344.)
Smirnov A.A. Problems of the psychology of memory. - M., 1966. (Theories of memory in psychology: 10-36, 378-381. Voluntary memorization: 37-73. Involuntary memorization: 106-136. Understanding and remembering. Correlation of processes: 137-198.)
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Reader in general psychology. Psychology of memory. - M., 1979. (General amnesia- memory loss (T. Ribot): 25-48. Two Memory (A. Bergson): 61-75. Memory (P-Flores): 244-270.)
II
Blonsky P.P. Selected pedagogical and psychological works. - T. II. - M., 1979. (Memory and thinking: 118-341. Memory. Remembrance: 341-366.)
WayneA.
M.,
Kamenetskaya B.I. Human memory. - M., 1973. (Types of memory: 99-113. Age-related changes in memory: 114-121.)
Zinchenko P.I. Involuntary memory. - M., 1961. (The problem of involuntary and voluntary memorization in psychology: 9-137. Involuntary memorization and activity: 141-221. Involuntary memorization and motivation: 222-241. Comparison of involuntary and voluntary memorization: 245-425. Development of memory: 425-514.)
Ippolitov F.V. The memory of a student. - M., 1978. (Memory Tips: 28-45.)
R. Human memory. Structures and processes. - M., 1978. (Short-term memory: 83-159. Long-term memory: 160-215. Memorization: 216-236. Recall (reproduction): 237-271. Memory and vision: 272-291.)
Leontiev A.N. Selected psychological works: In 2 volumes - M., 1983. - T. I. (Development of higher forms of memorization: 31-64.)
Lyaudis V.Ya. Memory in the process of development. - M., 1976. (Memory development: 8-37, 94-137. Arbitrary memorization: 38-93. The relationship between short-term and long-term memory: 138-219. Memory development in the learning process: 220-246.)
(Memory, its functions and connection with the work of the brain: 7-20. Emotions and memory regulation: 325-351. Neuropsychological regulation of memory: 351-356. Psychophysiological aspects of memory modulation: 374-388.)
Nikolov N., Neshev G. (Mechanisms of memory: 67-83.)
(Memory: 291-321.)
Cognitive activity in the system of memory processes. - M., 1989. (Activity approach to memory: 7-10. Relationship between cognitive activity and memory: 10-24. Relationship between voluntary and involuntary memorization: 25-43.)
9. R. S. Nemov, book 1
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Memory development. - Riga, 1991. (What is memory: 5-10. Paradoxes of memory: 11-117. Memory through the eyes of a physiologist: 18-30. Memory through the eyes of a psychologist: 31-42. Is it possible to train memory: 43-47. What is my memory: 48-53.)
Development of creative activity of schoolchildren. - M., 1991. (Memory development: 126-149.)
Smirnov A.A. Selected psychological works: In 2 volumes - T. II. - M., 1987. (Problems of the psychology of memory: 5-294. About some correlations in the field of memory: 316-327.)
III
Asmolov A.G. Principles of organization of human memory. System-dark-Activity approach to the study of cognitive processes: Educational and methodological manual. - M., 1985. (Memory: 31-103.)
atkinson R. Human memory and the learning process. - M., 1980. (Recognition: 293-361.)
Vecker L.M. Mental processes. - T. 3. - L., 1981. (Memory as a universal integrator of the psyche: 206-262.)
Velichkovsky B.M. Modern cognitive psychology. - M., 1982. (Functional structure of memory: 66-113.)
Perception. Mechanisms and models. - M., 1974. (Information and memory: 28-36.)
Vygotsky L.S. Collected works: In 6 vols. - Vol. 2. - M., 1982. (Memory and its development in childhood: 381-395.)
Vygotsky L.S. Collected works: In 6 vols. - Vol. 3. - M., 1983. (Development of mnemonic and mnemonic functions: 239-254.)
Gromova E.A. Emotional memory and its mechanisms. - M., 1980. (Relationship between memory and emotions: 70-90.)
Dudkin K.N. Visual perception and memory. Information processes and neural mechanisms. - L., 1985. (Visual memory system: 11-29.)
Zhinkin N.I. Speech as a conductor of information. - M., 1982. (Perception and Iconic Memory: 46-61.)
Ippolitov F.V. The memory of a student. - M., 1978. (Theories of memory: 7-15. Classification of types of memory: 15-28.)
Istomin Z.M. Memory development. Teaching aid. - M., 1978. (Dependence of memorization on the nature of the activity: 62-86.)
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Cole M., Skibner S. Culture and thinking. Psychological essay. - M., 1977. (Culture, learning and memory: 153-173.)
Ladanov I.D. Stress management. - M., 1989. (Memory training: 69-83.)
Luria AL*. A small book about a big memory. Mind me-monist. - M., 1968.
memory mechanisms. Guide to Physiology. - L., 1987. (Evolution of memory. Types of memory: 21-41. Systemic organization of memory: 263-300. Memory disorders: 356-369.)
Miller J., Galanter E., Pribram K. Plans and structure of behavior. - M., 1964. (Plans for memorization: 132-148.)
Neisser U. Cognition and reality. - M., 1981.
Nemchin T.A. States of neuropsychic stress. - L., 1983. (Peculiarities of memory during neuropsychic stress: 55-63.)
Nikolov N., Neshev G. Mystery of the Millennium. What do we know about memory? - M., 1988. (What we know and don't know about memory: 22-36. Managing memory: 84-112, 133-140.)
Norman YES. Memory and learning. - M., 1985. (Stages of information processing: 20-30.)
Cognitive processes and abilities in learning. - M., 1990. (Memory: 61-79.)
Slobin D., Green J. Psycholinguistics. - M., 1976. (Language and memory: 173-182.)
Smirnov A.A. Selected psychological works: AT 2 volumes - T. I. - M., 1987. (The relationship between the image and the word in the development of memory: 186-203.)
Ushakova T.N. etc. Human speech in communication. - M., 1989. (Memory in the structure of speech-thinking activity: 61-98.)
Hoffman I. active memory. - M., 1986. (Representation in memory: 56-211. Organization of memory: 212-252. Creation of new information in memory: 253-276.)
Horn G. Memory, imprinting and the brain. Study of mechanisms. - M., 1988.
Chistyakova M.I. Psychogymnastics. - M., 1990. (Methodological recommendations for the development of attention, memory, emotional expression and motivation in children 4-7 years old: 45-51.)
Shabanov P.D., Borodkin Yu.S. Memory disorders and their correction. - L., 1989. (Principles for the study of memory disorders in the experiment: 5-63. Pharmacological correction of memory disorders: 64-111.)
9*
Chapter 10. IMAGINATION
Summary
Definition and types of imagination. The concept of imagination, its main differences from the images of memory and perception. Types of imagination: active, passive, productive, reproductive - their features. Dreams, hallucinations and daydreams as types of imagination.
Functions of imagination, its development. The role of imagination in human life. The main functions of the imagination: activation of visual-figurative thinking, management of emotional-need states, arbitrary regulation of cognitive processes, creation and implementation of an internal action plan, behavior programming, management of physiological states. The use of imagination in auto-training and psychotherapy.
Imagination and creativity. Relationship between creativity and imagination. Two types of creative fantasy: concrete (figurative) and abstract (logical), their connection with the dominance of the human right and left hemispheres of the brain. Creative imagination as a reflection of a person's personality, its psychological state. The use of this fact in the design of design methods for studying the personality of the TAT type and the Rorschach test.
Imagination and organic processes. Interrelation and interaction of imagination as ideal with organic processes as material. Psychogenic feelings (feeling of fear). The adaptive nature of physiological reactions caused by emotionally saturated imagination of moderate strength. ideomotor act. The manifestation of a person's thoughts and feelings in his facial expressions, gestures, pantomime, their use in non-verbal communication. Sleep and dreams. Psyche and biogenic rhythms of the body.
DEFINITION AND TYPES OF IMAGINATION
Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory. The specificity of this form of mental process lies in the fact that imagination is probably characteristic only of a person and is strangely connected with the activity of the organism, being at the same time the most “mental” of all mental processes and states. The latter means that the ideal and mysterious nature of the psyche is not manifested in anything other than imagination. It can be assumed that it was the imagination, the desire to understand and explain it, that drew attention to mental phenomena in antiquity, supported and continues to stimulate it today.
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As for the mystery of this phenomenon, it lies in the fact that so far we know almost nothing about the mechanism of imagination, including its anatomical and physiological basis. Where is imagination located in the human brain? With the work of what nervous organic structures known to us is it associated? We have almost no concrete answers to these important questions. In any case, we can say much less about this than, for example, about sensations, perception, attention and memory, which were discussed in the previous chapters of the textbook. Due to this circumstance, this chapter will be one of the smallest in volume in the book, which, of course, does not mean that this phenomenon is of little importance in human psychology and behavior.
Here the situation is just the opposite, namely: we know a lot about the importance of imagination in a person’s life, how it affects his mental processes and states, and even on the body. This prompts to single out and specifically consider the problem of imagination in the textbook.
Thanks to the imagination, a person creates, intelligently plans his activities and manages them. Almost all human material and spiritual culture is a product of the imagination and creativity of people, and we already know quite well what significance this culture has for the mental development and improvement of the “homosa-piens” species. Imagination takes a person beyond the limits of his momentary existence, reminds him of the past, opens the future. Possessing a rich imagination, a person can “live” in different times, which no other living being in the world can afford. The past is fixed in images of memory, arbitrarily resurrected by an effort of will, the future is presented in dreams and fantasies.
Imagination is the basis of visual-figurative thinking, which allows a person to navigate the situation and solve problems without the direct intervention of practical actions. It helps him in many ways in those cases of life when practical actions are either impossible, or difficult, or simply inappropriate (undesirable).
Imagination differs from perception in that its images do not always correspond to reality, they contain elements of fantasy, fiction. If the imagination draws to consciousness such pictures, to which nothing or little corresponds in reality,
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ness, then it is called fantasy. If, in addition, the imagination is aimed at the future, it is called a dream.
Imagination can be of four main types: active, passive, productive and reproductive. active imagination It is characterized by the fact that, using it, a person, at his own request, by an effort of will, causes in himself the corresponding images. Images of passive imagination arise spontaneously, in addition to the will and desire of a person. Productive imagination differs in that in it reality is consciously constructed by a person, and not just mechanically copied or recreated. But at the same time, in the image it is still creatively transformed. AT reproductive imagination the task is to reproduce reality as it is, and although there is also an element of fantasy, such imagination is more like perception or memory than creativity.
The process of artistic creativity. Thus, a direction in art called naturalism, as well as partly realism, can be correlated with reproductive imagination. It is well known that botanists can study the flora of the Russian forest from the paintings of I.I. Shishkin, since all the plants on his canvases are drawn with “documentary” accuracy. Works of democratic artists of the second half of the 19th century. I. Kramskoy, I. Repin, V. Petrov, for all their social sharpness, also represent a search for a form that is as close as possible to copying reality.
The source of any direction in art can only be life, it also acts as the primary base for fantasy. But no fantasy can invent something that a person would not know. In this regard, it is reality that becomes the basis of the creativity of a number of masters of art, whose flight of creative imagination is no longer satisfied with realistic, and even more so naturalistic means of expression. But this reality is passed through the productive imagination of the creators, they construct it in a new way, using light, color, filling their works with air vibration (impressionism), resorting to a dotted image of objects (pointillism in painting and music), decomposing the objective world into geometric shapes ( cubism), etc. Even the works of such a non-communist modernist art movement as abstractionism, which became the basis of the modern avant-garde, were often created with the help of a productive
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imagination. For example, the famous abstract painting by P. Picasso "Guernica" is not a chaotic heap of geometrized bodies or their parts, but primarily a reflection of the tragic events of the war in Spain in 1936-1939. If we consider and try to interpret every single detail of this picture, then a very specific image, a specific thought, arises behind the abstract form.
Thus, we also encounter productive imagination in art in cases where the artist is not satisfied with the reconstruction of reality by the realistic method. His world is a phantasmagoria, irrational figurativeness, behind which are quite obvious realities. The fruit of such an imagination is M. Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita", the fiction of the Strugatsky brothers, dystopias in Russian and foreign literature (E. Zamyatin, O. Huxley, J. Orwell), fantastic centaurs and centaurs of the fourteen-year-old Moscow schoolgirl Nadia Rusheva ( Fig. 49). Appeal to such unusual, bizarre images makes it possible to enhance the intellectual, emotional and moral impact of art on a person.
Most often, the creative process in art is associated with active imagination: before imprinting any image on paper, canvas or music sheet, the artist creates it in his imagination, applying conscious volitional efforts to this. Often, active imagination captures the creator so much that he loses touch with his time, his “I”, “getting used to” the image he creates. There is ample evidence of this in the literature on writers. For example, one of them: while working on the novel Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, describing the poisoning of his heroine, felt the taste of arsenic in his mouth.
Less often, passive imagination becomes the impulse of the creative process, since “spontaneous”, images independent of the will of the artist are most often the product of the creator’s subconscious work, hidden from him. Nevertheless, observations of the creative process described in the literature provide an opportunity to give examples of the role of passive imagination in artistic creation. So, Franz Kafka gave an exceptional role in his work to dreams, capturing them in his fantastically gloomy works. In addition, the creative process, starting, as a rule, with an effort of will, i.e. from the act of imagination, gradually captures the author so much that the imagination becomes spontaneous, and it is no longer he who creates images, but images own and control the artist, and he obeys
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Rice. 49. Drawings by Nadia Rusheva
their logic. In this regard, the work of F. MDo-stoevsky is very illustrative. Through all the novels of the writer there are literally several global ideas, over which his characters “fight” and suffer, so different and so united in the writer’s creative imagination that unites them.
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The work of the human imagination is, of course, not limited to literature and art. To no lesser extent, it manifests itself in scientific, technical, and other types of creativity. In all these cases fantasy as a kind of imagination plays a positive role. But there are other kinds of imagination. These are dreams, hallucinations, daydreams and daydreams. dreams can be attributed to the category of passive and involuntary forms of imagination. Their true role in human life has not yet been established, although it is known that in a person’s dreams many vital needs are expressed and satisfied, which, for a number of reasons, cannot be realized in life.
hallucinations called fantastic visions, which, apparently, have almost no connection with the reality surrounding a person. Usually they are the result of certain disorders of the psyche or the work of the body - they accompany many painful conditions.
dreams unlike hallucinations, this is a completely normal mental state, which is a fantasy associated with desire, most often a somewhat idealized future. Dream it differs from a dream in that it is somewhat more realistic and more connected with reality, i.e. in principle feasible. Dreams and dreams of a person take up quite a large part of the time, especially in youth. For most people, dreams are pleasant thoughts about the future. Some also have disturbing visions that give rise to feelings of anxiety, guilt, and aggressiveness.
IMAGINATION FUNCTIONS, ITS DEVELOPMENT
People dream so much because their mind cannot be "unemployed". It continues to function even when new information does not enter the human brain, when it does not solve any problems. It is at this time that the imagination begins to work. It has been established that a person, at will, is not able to stop the flow of thoughts, stop the imagination.
In human life, imagination performs a number of specific functions. The first of these is to represent reality in pictures and be able to use them to solve problems. This function of imagination is connected with thinking and is organically included in it. The second function of the imagination is in the regulation of emotional states. With the help of his
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of his imagination, a person is able to at least partially satisfy many needs, to relieve the tension generated by them. This vital function is especially emphasized and developed in psychoanalysis. The third function of the imagination is related to its participation in arbitrary regulation of cognitive processes and human states, in particular perception, attention, memory, speech, emotions. With the help of skillfully evoked images, a person can pay attention to the necessary events. Through images, he gets the opportunity to control perception, memories, statements. The fourth function of the imagination is formation of an internal action plan - ability to perform them in the mind, manipulating images. Finally, the fifth function is planning and programming activities, drawing up such programs, assessing their correctness, the implementation process.
With the help of imagination, we can control many psycho-physiological states of the body, tune it to the upcoming activity. There are known facts that with the help of imagination, by a purely volitional way, a person can influence organic processes: change the rhythm of breathing, pulse rate, blood pressure, body temperature. These facts underlie autotraining, widely used for self-regulation.
With the help of special exercises and techniques, you can develop the imagination. In creative types of labor - science, literature, art, engineering and others - the development of the imagination naturally occurs in the pursuit of these types of activities. In autogenic training, the desired result is achieved through a special system of exercises that are aimed at learning to relax individual muscle groups (arms, legs, head, torso), arbitrarily increase or decrease pressure, body temperature (in the latter case, imagination exercises are used). heat, cold).
IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY
The question indicated in the title of this paragraph, we have already touched at the beginning of the chapter. In this section, we will focus mainly on how human fantasy is used in psychology itself, as well as on the psychological analysis of the products and mechanisms of imagination.
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First of all, we note that the images of fantasy are never completely divorced from reality, having nothing in common with it. It has been noted that if any product of fantasy is decomposed into its constituent elements, then among them it will be difficult to find something that would not actually exist. Even when we subject the works of abstract artists to this kind of analysis, in their constituent elements we see at least geometric figures familiar to all of us. The effect of unreality, fantasticness, novelty of products of creative and other imagination is achieved for the most part due to an unusual combination of known elements, including a change in their proportions.
There are individual, typological features of the imagination associated with the specifics of memory, perception and thinking of a person. For some people, a concrete, figurative perception of the world may prevail, which internally appears in the richness and diversity of their imagination. Such individuals are said to have an artistic type of thinking. By assumption, it is physiologically related to the dominance of the right hemisphere of the brain. Others have a greater tendency to operate with abstract symbols, concepts (people with a dominant left hemisphere of the brain).
The imagination of a person acts as a reflection of the properties of his personality, his psychological state at a given moment in time. It is known that the product of creativity, its content and form well reflect the personality of the creator. This fact has found wide application in psychology, especially in the creation of psychodiagnostic personality techniques. Personality tests of a projective type (Thematic Apperceptive Test - TAT, Rorschach test, etc.) are based on the so-called projection mechanism, according to which a person in his imagination tends to attribute his personal qualities and states to other people. Conducting a meaningful analysis of the subjects' fantasy products according to a special system, the psychologist, on its basis, judges the personality of the person to whom these products belong. On fig. Figure 50 illustrates one of the plot-indeterminate pictures used in the TAT-type design test to explore the need for achievement (see Chapter 17).
After looking at such a picture for about 20 seconds, the subject then has to write a whole story on it, answering
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Rice. 50. One of the plot-indefinite pictures used in the projective technique to assess the degree of development of the motive for achieving success
tea on the following list of questions: 1. Who are these people? What is shown in this picture? 2. What happened to these people before this? 3. What are they thinking about at the moment? What thoughts, desires and feelings do they have? 4. What happens next? The stories written by the subjects based on three or four similar pictures are subjected to meaningful analysis, evaluated in points, and through their subsequent processing, a conclusion is made about the degree of development of the subject's personality trait under study.
IMAGINATION AND ORGANIC PROCESSES
Imagination is one of the subjectively most striking mental phenomena, where the quality of the mental as ideal is most clearly manifested. In this respect, the imagination seems to be the exact opposite of the organic as the material. And all the more surprising are the facts that show that imagination and organic processes are closely interconnected. Let's take a closer look at some of these facts.
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In people with a sufficiently rich imagination, as a result of a highly developed imagination, organic processes can change, for example, signs may appear that usually accompany certain emotions (increased heart rate, shortness of breath, increased blood pressure, sweating, etc.). They take place when a person imagines a situation, for example, that carries a threat to him. An irrepressible fantasy in especially sensitive, emotionally unbalanced people can even cause certain types of diseases, including such serious ones as cardiovascular and gastrointestinal. Some modern doctors, who believe in the psychogenic nature of such diseases, even argue that, for example, gastric diseases often occur not from what we eat, but from what “eats” us, i.e. from various kinds of experiences, accompanied by fantasies.
Physiological reactions to psychological states associated with imagination should be considered as quite normal. They contribute to the pre-adjustment of the body to the upcoming activity and thereby facilitate it. One or another, conscious or unconscious organic changes are accompanied by almost all images associated with fantasy. The well-known phenomenon is called ideomotor act. Its essence lies in the fact that a clear idea of a movement causes a person to have this movement itself, which, as a rule, is not controlled by either the senses or consciousness. If, for example, you ask a person to hold a thread with a weight on his outstretched arm and imagine how this weight rotates, then after a while you will notice that he actually begins to describe circles, to perform rotational movements.
The involuntary manifestation of movements associated with the corresponding emotions (facial expressions, gestures, pantomime) is widely used by people in non-verbal communication. Subconsciously noticing them, we judge the emotional states of the other, better understand him and choose the right reactions to his actions. In addition to the sphere of everyday communication, the ideomotor act is used by pop artists who demonstrate from the stage the ability to find objects hidden in the hall (by capturing micro-movements of hands or eyes made by a person next to them who knows where the corresponding object is hidden), the so-called "psychics", guessing people's thoughts according to the movements they involuntarily produce.
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The theory and practice of psychotherapeutic influences, including those that have gained popularity in our country in recent years (A. Kashpirovsky, A. Chumak and others), are based on the facts of the existence of a connection between the images of a person and his organic states.
Of particular psychological interest is the connection between dreams and organic states. Our brain, as research shows, continues to work during sleep, involving in its activity almost all organic structures associated with psychological processes: perception, attention, memory, thinking and speech. But this usually happens at the subconscious level, against the background of the inhibitory effect exerted by the reticular formation on the human cerebral cortex. The fact of recalling the content of dreams tells us beyond doubt that memory is active in sleep.
People who sleep are psychologically not completely isolated from the perception of the surrounding reality and are able to react to it in a certain way. In a dream, the selectivity of reactions is partially preserved. Parents, for example, especially a mother, are very sensitive to the movements of their child and instantly wake up when they hear them. In a dream, a person can even make certain decisions, form plans, which are then often realized in reality (as consciously accepted intentions).
The mode of sleep and wakefulness in different people and children of different ages is not the same. A newborn spends all his time in a systematic change of states of sleep and wakefulness. His sleep time ranges from 13 to 16 hours a day. Most adults sleep an average of 7.5 hours, but individual differences are quite large. There are, for example, people who sleep only three hours a day, and this is enough for them. There are those who cannot be satisfied even by sleeping nine hours or more. Differences in individually normal sleep time are also recorded in the ordinary consciousness of people, in ideas about the so-called "owls" and "larks". The first are those who go to bed late and get up late, and the second are those who tend to go to bed and get up early.
Together with mammals, humans form a single biological group, which is characterized by a rhythm called biological clock. In science it is known as circadian rhythm and represents periodic changes in the body that occur during the day. They are associated with
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states of sleep and wakefulness, have a full cycle period of approximately 24 hours. It increases slightly, up to approximately 25 hours, when a person is unable to sleep and is not able to externally distinguish the time of day from the time of day. In people blind from birth, this rhythm may also differ somewhat from sighted people, but even in them its individual duration is very stable. A case is known when in a blind person it systematically lasted 24.9 hours, and with amazing constancy, so that every two weeks he got out of the rhythm and, in order not to be late for work, had to take sleeping pills or do something else, giving him sleep. Attempts to change the cyclical onset of sleep and wakefulness through the use of psychotropic and other influences usually end in failure. Therefore, the circadian rhythm can be considered a fairly stable psychophysiological characteristic of a person.
Themes and questions for seminar discussions
Topic 1. Definition and types of imagination.
1. The concept of imagination.
2. Types of imagination.
3. Dreams, hallucinations and dreams.
4. Dreams and fantasies.
Topic 2. Imagination functions, its development.
1. The role of imagination in human life.
2. Basic functions of the imagination.
3. Imagination and cognitive processes.
4. Imagination and thinking.
5. Imagination and means of psychotherapeutic influence.
6. Imagination and artistic creativity.
T e m a 3. Imagination and creativity.
1. The connection of the creative process with the imagination.
2. Two types of creative thinking: figurative and conceptual, their connection with the phenomenon of functional asymmetry of the brain.
3. Creative imagination and personality.
4. Using products of the imagination in personality tests.
Theme 4. Imagination and organic processes.
1. Psychogenic bodily changes.
2. The adaptive nature of physiological reactions to mental states.
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3. Ideomotor act.
4. Using the connection of imagination and movements in non-verbal communication.
5. Psychobiological rhythms. Sleep and dreams.
Topics for abstracts
1. Definition and functions of the imagination.
2. Imagination and individual creativity.
3. The influence of imagination on the state of the body.
Topics for independent research work
1.
The development of the imagination.
2. Imagination and individual creativity of the artist. Comparative analysis of various trends in contemporary art.
3. Use of imagination for psychotherapeutic purposes.
4. Imagination and projective personality tests.
LITERATURE
I
Bruner D.S. Psychology of knowledge. Beyond immediate information. - M., 1977. (Representation ^ Imagination in children: 304-319.)
Korshunova L.S. Imagination and its role in cognition. - M., 1979. (Difficulties in defining imagination: 3-7. Imagination and practical activity: 8-30. Imagination as a reflection of reality: 31-85. Imagination and scientific knowledge of the world: 86-131.)
General psychology. - M., 1986. (Imagination: 344-365.)
Rozet I.M. The psychology of fantasy. Experimental and theoretical study of the internal patterns of productive mental activity. - Minsk, 1977. (Fantasy concept: 13-24. Theoretical Concepts of Fantasy: 25-78. Psychological Mechanisms of Fantasy: 169-228. Conditions for the process of fantasy: 229-270.)
Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology: In 2 vols. - Vol. 1. - M., 1989. (Imagination: 344-360.)
II
Vygotsky L.S. Collected works: AT 6 vol. - vol. 2. - M., 1982. (Imagination and its development in childhood: 436-454.)
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Karandashev Yu.N. The development of ideas in children. Tutorial. - Minsk, 1987. (Age dynamics of the development of ideas: 74-87.)
Korshunova L.S., Pruzhinin B.I. imagination and rationality. Experience of methodological analysis of the cognitive function of imagination. - M., 1989. (Psychological approach to imagination. Perspective and limits: 18-39. Imagination and play activity: 83-97. Sensory display and imagination: 113-122. Imagination and thinking: 122-138.)
Neisser U. Cognition and reality. - M., 1981. (Imagination and Memory: 141-165.)
III
Vecker L.M. Mental processes. - T. 1. - L., 1974. (Imagination and psychological time: 262-271. Representation (imagination): 278-295.)
Galin AL. Personality and creativity. Psychological studies. - Novosibirsk, 1989. (Psychological description of creativity: 64-102.)
Karandashev YL. The development of ideas in children. Tutorial. - Minsk, 1987. (Psychology of representations and problems of creativity: 5-13.)
Marr D. Vision. Information approach to the study of representation and processing of visual images. - M., 1987.
Natadze R.G. Imagination as a factor of behavior. Experimental study. - Tbilisi, 1972.
Nikiforova O.I. Research on the psychology of artistic creativity. - M., 1972. (Imaginative thinking. Imagination: 4-50.)
Cognitive processes and abilities in learning. - M., 1990. (Representation and imagination: 80-100.)
Memory – this is a special form of reflection, one of the main mental processes aimed at fixing mental phenomena in a physiological code, preserving them in this form and reproducing them in the form of subjective representations.
In the cognitive sphere, memory occupies a special place; without it, knowledge of the world around us is impossible. The activity of memory is necessary in solving any cognitive problem, since memory underlies any mental phenomenon and connects a person's past with his present and future.
Memory allows a person to be what he is, helps him to act, learn, love - because for this at least you need to recognize the one you love. (It is not for nothing that instead of “falling out of love” they say “forgotten.”) But all successes and failures cannot be attributed to memory alone. Another French thinker of the 17th century. F. La Rochefoucauld remarked: "Everyone complains about his memory, but no one complains about his common sense."
Memory theories:
Over the centuries, many theories (psychological, physiological, chemical, etc.) have been created about the essence and patterns of memory. They arose within certain areas of psychology and solved problems from the standpoint of the corresponding methodological principles.
Psychological theories of memory: associationist, gestaptpsychological, behavioral and active theories of memory.
One of the first psychological theories of memory, which still has not lost its scientific significance, was associationist theory. The concept of association, which means connection, connection, became the source for it. The association mechanism consists in establishing a connection between the impressions that simultaneously arise in the mind and its reproduction by the individual.
The basic principles for creating associations between objects are: coincidence of their influence in space and time, similarity, contrast, as well as their repetition by the subject. W. Wundt believed that a person's memory consists of three types of associations: verbal (connections between words), external (connections between objects), internal (logical connections of meanings).
Thanks to the associationist theory were discovered and described mechanisms and laws of memory. for example law of forgetting G. Ebbinghaus. According to this law, after the first error-free repetition of a series of such compositions, forgetting occurs fairly quickly. During the first hour, up to 60% of all information received is forgotten, and after 6 days - over 80%.
The associationist theory of memory was strongly criticized by gestalt psychology. The starting point in the new theory was the concept " gestalt"- an image as a holistically organized structure, which is not reduced to the sum of its parts. This theory especially emphasized the importance of structuring the material, bringing it to integrity, organizing it into a system during memorization and reproduction, as well as the role of human intentions and needs in memory processes.
In studies based on gestalt theory of memory many interesting facts have been established. for example Zeigarnik phenomenon: if people are offered a series of tasks, and after a while they interrupt their execution, then it turns out that subsequently the study participants recall incomplete tasks almost twice as often as completed ones. This phenomenon is explained as follows. When receiving a task, the researcher has a need to fulfill it, which increases in the process of fulfillment (the supervisor of the experiment B.V. Zeigarnik K. Levin called such a need quasi-need). This need is fully realized when the task is completed, and remains unsatisfied if it is not completed. Motivation, due to its connection with memory, affects the selectivity of the latter, preserving traces of unfinished tasks in it.
Memory, according to this theory, is essentially determined by the structure of the object. It is known that is poorly structured material is very difficult to remember, while well-organized material is remembered easily and almost without repetition. When the material does not have a clear structure, the individual often divides or combines it by rhythmization, symmetryrization, etc. The person himself seeks to reorganize the material so that he can better remember it.
At the same time, the most important achievements of this theory are the study memory in connection with perceptual and other mental processes- played an important role in the formation of a number of psychological concepts.
Behavioral theory of memory arose on the basis of the desire to introduce objective scientific methods into psychology. Behavioral scientists have made a great contribution to the development of the experimental psychology of memory, in particular, they have created many methods that allow us to obtain its quantitative characteristics. Using the conditioned reflex scheme developed by I. P. Pavlov (“stimulus-reaction”), they sought to establish the laws of memory as an independent function, abstracting from specific types of human activity and regulating the activity of the subjects as much as possible.
In behavioral theory of memory the role of the exercises necessary to consolidate the material is emphasized. In the process of consolidation, there is a transfer of skills - a positive or negative impact of the results of previous training on the future. The success of consolidation is also influenced by the interval between exercises, the measure of similarity and the amount of material, the degree of learning, age and individual differences between people. For example, the connection between an action and its result is remembered the better, the more pleasure this result causes. Conversely, memorization weakens if the result turns out to be undesirable or indifferent (E. Thorndike's law of effect).
The views of the supporters of behaviorism and associationists on the problem of memory turned out to be very close. The only significant difference between them is that Behaviorists emphasize the role of exercises in memorizing material and pay much attention to the study of how memory works in the learning process..
The active theory of memory relies on the theory of acts, whose representatives (J. Piaget, A. Vallon, T. Ribot and others) consider memory as a historical form of activity, the highest manifestation of which is arbitrary memory. They consider free memory to be a biological function, in connection with which they deny the existence of memory in animals, as well as in children under 3-4 years old.
The principle of the unity of the psyche and activity, formulated by L. S. Vygotsky, A. N. Leontiev, S. L. Rubinshtein, became fundamental in the studies of memory carried out on the basis of this theory.
A genetic method for studying memory was developed, ways of its experimental study were determined in connection with the role of the leading activity at a certain age, the relationship with other mental processes - perceptual, mental, emotional-volitional.
It has been proven that a person gradually masters his memory, learns to manage it. This is confirmed by the results of the experiment: preschoolers, schoolchildren and students were offered 15 sentences for memorization and subsequent reproduction. Then, when memorizing another 15 sentences, these groups of subjects were provided with auxiliary means - pictures with images of various objects that were not directly related to the content of the sentences. As it turned out, the introduction of aids practically does not improve the memorization of preschoolers, but significantly helps students. In a group of students, the result of memorization with pictures is worse than that of students. These data are explained by the fact that the memorization of preschoolers is direct, natural. Students begin to master their own behavior and memory, therefore they are able to use auxiliary means when memorizing. Their memorization is at the stage of transition from an external, direct to an internal, mediated process. Students no longer need external means - they have internal means of memorization. A survey of students showed that they used such means (associations, groupings of words, creating images, repetition) from the very beginning of the experiment. In this case, their advantage was quite obvious.
Representatives active theory of memory studied this mental process in connection with the operational, motivational and target structures of specific types of activity. The main results of the active approach to the study of memory are the disclosure of the patterns of arbitrary and spontaneous memory, the practical focus on its study in the structure of various activities, forms of interaction with other processes.
At the same time, it should be noted that this theory pays insufficient attention to the statistical characterization of memory processes. There is inconsistency in its conceptual apparatus: memory is interpreted either as an element of the structure of activity, or as its by-product, or as an independent activity.
Physiological theories of memory. The most important provisions of the teachings of IP Pavlov on the laws of higher nervous activity were further developed in physiological and physical theories. According to the views of this scientist, the material basis of memory is the plasticity of the cerebral cortex, its ability to form conditioned reflexes. The physiological mechanism of memory lies in the formation, strengthening and extinction of temporary nerve connections. Creating a connection between new and previously fixed content is a conditioned reflex, which is the physiological basis of memorization.
To understand the causation of memory, the concept of reinforcement. It is revealed in the theory of IP Pavlov as the achievement of the immediate goal of the individual's action or a stimulus that motivates the action, the coincidence of the newly formed connection with the achievement of the goal of the action. The latter contributes to the fact that the newly formed connection remains and is fixed. Thus, the physiological understanding of reinforcement correlates with the psychological concept of the purpose of the action. This is precisely the act of merging the physiological and psychological analysis of memory mechanisms, i.e. the main vital function of this mental process is directed not to the past, but to the future. Remembering what "was" would be meaningless if it could not be used for what "will be".
Joins the physiological theory physical theory of memory. According to this theory, the passage of excitation through a certain group of cells (neurons) leaves a physical trace that predetermines mechanical and electronic changes at the junction of nerve cells (synapses). Changes make it easier to repeat the impulse in a familiar way. These views are called the theory of neural models.
Chemical theories of memory. Human memory functions both at the psychological, physiological, and at the molecular, chemical levels. Proponents of the chemical theory of memory believe that the specific chemical changes that occur in nerve cells under the influence of external stimuli are the mechanisms of the processes of fixation, preservation and reproduction, namely: the rearrangement of nucleic acid protein molecules in neurons. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the carrier of generic memory: it contains the genetic codes of the organism, determining the genotype. Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is the basis of individual memory. Excitation of neurons increases the content of RNA in them, and an unlimited number of changes in its molecules is the basis for storing a large number of traces of excitation. Changes in the structure of RNA scientists associate with long memory.
Advances in biochemical research have made it possible to formulate assumptions about the two-level nature of the memorization process. At the first level, immediately after exposure to stimuli, a short-term electrochemical reaction occurs in the brain, which predetermines the reverse physiological processes in the cell. This level lasts for seconds or minutes and is the short-term memory mechanism. The second level - the actual biochemical reaction - is associated with the formation of proteins and is characterized by the irreversibility of chemical changes in cells and is considered a mechanism for long-term memory.
Thus, the memory of the individual is realized through multilevel mechanisms - psychological, physiological and chemical. All three levels are necessary for the normal functioning of human memory. A person can realize and manage only the highest psychological level, which is the determining relatively low one. Only at this level does memory become a process mediated by mnemonic actions, a component of cognitive activity.
Question 23. Types of memory.
There are several types of memory according to various criteria.
1. According to the nature of mental activity that prevails in activity, memory can be figurative, emotional, and verbal-logical.
figurative memory includes visual, auditory, eidetic memory (a rare type of memory that retains a vivid image for a long time with all the details of the perceived, which is a consequence of the inertia of excitation of the cortical end of the visual or auditory analyzers); olfactory, tactile, gustatory and motor, or motor (a special subspecies of figurative memory, which consists in memorizing, preserving and reproducing various movements and their systems). Motor memory is the basis for the formation of practical, labor and sports skills.
Figurative memory is inherent in both animals and people.
emotional memory is a memory for feelings and emotional states, which, being experienced and stored in the mind, act as signals that either encourage activity or prevent actions that caused negative experiences in the past. The ability to sympathize, empathize is based on emotional memory, as it regulates human behavior depending on previously experienced feelings. Lack of emotional memory leads to emotional dullness.
In animals, what caused pain, anger, fear, rage is remembered faster and allows them to avoid similar situations in the future.
Verbal-logical (semantic, symbolic) memory is based on the establishment and memorization of semantic concepts, formulations, ideas, sayings. This is a specifically human kind of memory.
2. According to the degree of volitional regulation, the presence or absence of a goal and special mnemonic actions, they distinguish involuntary memory, when information is remembered by itself - without setting a goal, without effort, and arbitrary memory, in which memorization is carried out purposefully with the help of special techniques.
3. According to the duration of the preservation of the material, they are distinguished short-term, long-term and operational memory (for the physiological mechanisms of these types of memory, see p. 102).
long-term memory is the main type of memory that ensures long-term preservation of the imprinted (sometimes for a lifetime). Long-term memory is of two types: open access, when a person can voluntarily extract the necessary information, and closed, access to which is possible only under hypnosis.
At short-term memory material is stored up to 15 min.
Operational memory involves the retention of intermediate materials in memory as long as a person deals with them.
Two heads and six legs; four walk, and two lie still
Self-esteem - what is it: concept, structure, types and levels
Cassandra's Path, or Pasta Adventures War on Earth and Underground