Types of memory and their features. Memory processes

Memory- preservation and reproduction of the circumstances of the life and activity of the individual. Memory is the basis of the mental life of the individual. Without the preservation of traces of the stimuli that acted upon, each sensation and perception would be experienced as having arisen for the first time. Man would cease to orientate himself in the environment. Thinking involves operating with the conceptual apparatus and representations. The creation of images in the imagination is impossible without a stock of representations, by transforming which one can create something new. In order to operate with representations and concepts, it is necessary to store them in memory. The integrity of the human "I", awareness of oneself as a person with a certain attitude to the world, with stable interests, motives, needs is impossible without memory.

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

At the same time, individual types of memory are distinguished in accordance with three main criteria:

by the nature of mental activity, prevailing in activity, memory is divided into motor, emotional, figurative and verbal-logical;

by the nature of the objectives of the activity- on involuntary and arbitrary;

by the duration of fixation and preservation materials (in connection with its role and place in activities) - for short-term, long-term and operational.

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

Tap your hand with 4 fingers. Watch the immediate sensations as they disappear so that at first you still have the actual feeling of the pat, and then just the memory of what it was.

Move your pencil or just your finger back and forth in front of your eyes while looking straight ahead. Notice the blurry image following the moving subject.

Close your eyes, then open them for a moment and close them again. Watch how the sharp, clear picture you see lasts for a while, and then slowly disappears.

short term memory

Short-term memory retains a different type of material than the immediate imprint of sensory information. In this case, the retained information is not a complete reflection of the events that occurred at the sensory level, but a direct interpretation of these events. For example, if a phrase was uttered in front of you, you will remember not so much the sounds that make it up as the words. Usually the last 5-6 units from the presented material are remembered. By making a conscious effort, repeating the material over and over again, you can keep it in short-term memory for an indefinitely long time.

Long term memory.

There is a clear and compelling difference between the memory of an event that has just happened and the events of a distant past. Long-term memory is the most important and most complex of the memory systems. The capacity of the first named memory systems is very limited: the first consists of a few tenths of a second, the second - a few storage units. However, there are still some limits on the amount of long-term memory, since the brain is a finite device. It consists of 10 billion neurons and each is capable of holding a significant amount of information. Moreover, it is so large that it can practically be considered that the memory capacity of the human brain is not limited. Anything that is retained for more than a few minutes must be in the long-term memory system.

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

RAM

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

motor memory

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

emotional memory

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

figurative memory

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

Verbal-logical memory

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

Arbitrary and involuntary memory

There is, however, such a division of memory into types, which is directly related to the features of the most currently performed activity. So, depending on the goals of the activity, memory is divided into involuntary and arbitrary. Memorization and reproduction, in which there is no special purpose to remember or recall something, is called involuntary memory, in cases where this is a purposeful process, they speak of arbitrary memory. In the latter case, the processes of memorization and reproduction act as special mnemonic actions.

At the same time, involuntary and voluntary memory represent two successive stages in the development of memory. Everyone from experience knows what a huge place in our life is occupied by involuntary memory, on the basis of which, without special mnemonic intentions and efforts, the main part of our experience, both in volume and in vital significance, is formed. However, in human activity, it often becomes necessary to manage one's memory. Under these conditions, an important role is played by arbitrary memory, which makes it possible to intentionally memorize or recall what is necessary.

process memorization proceeds in three forms: imprinting, involuntary memorization, arbitrary memorization.

imprinting- strong and accurate preservation in short-term and long-term memory of events as a result of a single presentation of the material for several seconds. By imprinting in short-term memory, eidetic images arise. Eidetism in short-term memory is especially common in children. Eidetic images differ from a sequential image in that they retain the color and stable form inherent in the object itself.

AT long-term memory imprinting occurs when we encounter events that make a strong emotional impression. However, with a high level of development of one of the types of memory, imprinting can be included in activity.

Involuntary memorization- storing events in the memory as a result of their repeated repetition. Involuntary memorization reflects permanent, recurring events.

The leading form of memory in humans is arbitrary. It arose in labor activity, in communication between people and is associated with the need to preserve the knowledge and skills necessary for labor activity.|.

memorization- memorization in order to keep one or another material in memory. Memorization is a specially organized mnemonic activity aimed at preserving in the mind what is connected with the goals and intentions of the individual.

In relation to the source text, memorization is distinguished verbatim close to the text and semantic. Literal memorization involves the exact reproduction of the entire text in those words and sentences, as it is written. Definitions, digital material, terms in the exact sciences, literary passages, significant statements, poems, figurative expressions in the humanities - all this is memorized verbatim.

Meaningful learning involves the preservation in memory of the main provisions of the text and the relationship between them. Argumentation, vocabulary and grammar of the text are created during playback.

Conditions for successful memorization

- organization of everyday educational behavior.

- development of own mnemonic actions

- grouping of memorized material

Completion of zap mat-la

Positive emotions

6. Thinking- an indirect generalized reflection of reality by a person in its essential connections and relationships. At the sensory level of cognition, external influences directly lead to the emergence of corresponding images in our consciousness. The reflection of objective reality at the logical level of cognition is much more complicated. It is not immediate, but mediated in nature, i.e., it is accomplished with the help of a whole system of means that are usually absent at the sensory level of cognition, presented as manifestations of thinking at the sensual stage of cognition.

The implementation of thinking through mental operations characterizes thinking as indirect reflection of reality.

Thinking must be based on sensory reflection of the world, i.e., the images of sensory cognition are the material with the help of which alone reflection can be realized at the level of thinking. The reflection of reality at the level of thinking is also mediated by the word.

In order to give a definition to any phenomenon, object or event, its one-time perception is usually insufficient. Therefore, it turns out to be important to accumulate some experience, to keep in memory a whole series of such ideas. But even this is not enough. To define a new object, one must have experience in defining other objects. The ideas that are in our memory, the vocabulary necessary for formulating definitions, constitute the fund of knowledge through which the process of thinking takes place.

Thinking is an indirect reflection of reality, and because it always proceeds based on the knowledge that a person has.

The reflection of reality at the level of thinking is generalized character. Such a generalization is the result of analyzing and comparing individual objects, highlighting and abstracting what is common in them. Highlighting the general, we usually rely not only on those objects that we perceive at the moment, but also use those representations that are available in our past experience. The wider and richer past experience, the broader and deeper is the generalization of a person.

The mediated and generalized nature of thinking ensures human cognition of both phenomena and their essence. Thanks to thinking, a person reflects not only what can be directly perceived with the help of the senses, but also what is hidden from perception and can be known only as a result of analysis, comparison, generalization. Thinking allows you to establish various connections and relationships.

Knowledge obtained as a result of logical knowledge exists in the form concepts. Conceptual knowledge is the result of an indirect reflection of reality and includes the general and essential about a certain phenomenon, a class of phenomena. This is where concepts differ from representations.

Concepts differ from representations in that there is always a representation. image, and the concept is thought, expressed in a word; representation includes both essential and non-essential features, only essential features are preserved in the concept.

The concept is also a more generalized reflection, since it includes common features not of random, individual objects, but that which is common to all objects of a given class. The concept is a generalized reflection also because it is usually the result of the cognitive activity not of an individual, but of the practical and theoretical activities of many people. By virtue of the latter circumstance, the concept also has the character of universality.

The operational component of thinking is a system of mental operations: analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, generalization, classification, systematization.

Each of these operations performs a specific function in the process of cognition and is in a complex relationship with other operations.

Function analysis is the division of the whole into parts, the allocation of individual features, sides of the whole.

Synthesis serves as a means of combining individual elements that are highlighted as a result of the analysis.

Via comparisons the similarity and difference of individual objects is established.

abstraction provides the selection of some features and distraction from others.

Generalization is a means of combining objects or phenomena according to their essential features and properties.

Classification is aimed at the division and subsequent unification of objects for any reason.

Systematization provides separation and subsequent unification, but not of individual objects, as happens during classification, but of their groups, classes.

All these operations cannot manifest themselves in isolation, out of connection with each other. In order for something to be singled out by analysis, it is necessary to have a holistic view of the object. This initial representation of the object is the result of a primary, undifferentiated synthesis.

The process of solving a mental problem

Finding the problem and its formulation. The process of problem solving begins with the formulation of a question in a problem situation. Such a formulation of the question is one of the most difficult stages in the process of solving the problem. To formulate a question, one must see the inconsistency of the problem situation, formulate these contradictions in one form or another.

In the process of formulating the question, one realizes what must be found, defined. But at the same time, it is equally important to clearly enough identify in a problem situation the original, known data, that is, what you can rely on, transform, use in one way or another to find the unknown.

Proposing and analyzing hypotheses. Both the success of solving a problem and the creation of favorable conditions for the development of thinking depend on the variety of hypotheses put forward. It is the wide variability of hypotheses that makes it possible to consider the same object from different angles, in different systems of relations, to find the most correct and economical way of solving it. Putting forward hypotheses, as it were, anticipates the future activity of a person, makes it possible to foresee solutions and possible results, and therefore the experience of putting forward hypotheses acquired by a person is essential for the development of the predictive function of thinking.

Solution of the mental problem. Further testing of the remaining hypotheses is the third step in solving the problem. And at this stage, sometimes there is a need for additional clarification of the conditions of the problem, obtaining some new information, further clarification, reformulation of the question.

The decision can be based on passive using an algorithm, i.e., as a direct execution of an already known prescription. A more creative approach to solving a mental problem would be active the use of an algorithm that can find its expression either in adapting it to the content of the problem, or in transforming the problem.

A truly creative solution to a problem involves overcoming various degrees of inertia in thinking and building a new solution strategy.

Checking the problem solution. Here it is important once again to correlate the conditions of the problem, its question and the results obtained. The process of verifying a solution is also important because in the course of it a person manages to rethink the problem. Such a rethinking is possible because here the main efforts of a person can be directed not to how to solve a given problem, but to the meaning of its solution, to the consequences that may arise as a result of solving the problem. During the verification process, you can see the same problem in another communication system, you can find new problems that have not yet been solved.

Types of thinking

Depending on the content of the problem being solved in psychology, it is customary to single out three kinds of thinking: practical-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical.

Action-Practical Thinking characterized by the fact that here the mental task is solved directly in the process of activity. Practically effective thinking is both historically and ontogenetically the earliest type of human thinking. It was from this type that the development of thinking in a person began in the process of the birth of his labor activity, when mental activity had not yet separated from subject-practical activity. From this species begins the development of thinking in ontogeny. Initially, the child solves problems by directly acting with the object.

This type of thinking turns out to be necessary and indispensable in all those cases when it is most expedient to solve a mental problem directly in the process of practical activity.

Practical-effective thinking is applied and turns out to be the most expedient in solving incomparably more complex problems.

Meaning Practical-effective thinking is determined by the greater weight that the practical activity of people has, by the fact that many tasks in the process of this activity can be solved more productively and economically in the process of practical-effective thinking.

Visual-figurative thinking is characterized by the fact that here the content of the mental task is based on figurative material. We can talk about this type of thinking in those cases when a person, solving a problem, analyzes, compares, and seeks to generalize various images of objects, phenomena, and events.

Meaning visual-figurative thinking in that it allows a person to reflect objective reality in a more multifaceted and diverse way. The development of visual-figurative thinking in the learning process should include tasks that require operating with images of varying degrees of generalization, direct depiction of objects, their schematic representation and symbolic designations. feature verbal-logical thinking is that the task here is solved in a verbal (verbal) form. Using the verbal form, a person operates with the most abstract concepts. It is this type of thinking that makes it possible to establish the most general patterns that determine the development of nature and society, of man himself. Thanks to this type of thinking, a person manages to solve mental problems in the most generalized way. This is the main advantage, but also the possible disadvantages of this type of thinking.

7. The social essence of a person is manifested in his material and spiritual life.

Isolated from other people, he could not turn from a slave of nature into her master. Only social labor activity provided people with the means of subsistence, increased their strength in the struggle against nature. At the same time, the social environment, relationships in work were a decisive factor in the formation and development of the psyche, the emergence of a specifically human property - consciousness.

The historical conditions of life and communication have led to the fact that people have united in nations, states, classes, parties and other communities. They were formed not at will, but by virtue of objective laws. Each community is characterized by certain psychological characteristics.

A person during his life directly communicates with other people, realizing his social essence. This communication takes place in groups and teams. These communities are not homogeneous. They can be classified on several grounds: the proximity and depth of the emerging relationships, the principle of education, the attitude of the individual to the norms of the group, etc.

depending from the proximity and depth of the emerging relationships distinguish primary group- a relatively stable, small in composition, connected by common goals, an association of people in which direct contact is carried out between its members. Everyone who enters it knows each other personally and communicates with each other in the process of solving the task facing the group. The size of the primary group cannot be less than two, but does not exceed 30-40 people.

According to the principle and method education distinguish real and conditional, official and informal groups.

A real group is an actually existing association of people with real connections and relationships between its members, with goals and objectives. It exists and functions as a community. A community of people, composed nominally, is called a conditional group.

According to the same principle, age categories of preschool children, younger schoolchildren, adolescents, young men are distinguished for studying anatomical, physiological, mental and other patterns and features.

team is a group of people united by common goals, subordinated to the goals of society.

Since a team is a group of people, it has the characteristics of a group. However, the collective has properties that the group does not have. Therefore, we can assume that every collective is a group, but not every group is a collective. At the same time, the most important sign of the team - the social significance of goals and objectives - remains unshakable. If this sign is absent, then the group cannot be called a collective.

Team development levels

The collective as the most developed community of people does not arise immediately. It is formed under the influence of external and internal forces. Considering the question of the formation of a team, you need to keep in mind that it grows out of the group. Consequently, in the early stages it has signs of this community and only in development acquires the properties of a collective.

On the first stage, a group of people is united by the requirements of the leader. Each member of the group recognizes these requirements, fulfills them, and in this way there is an association, connections between individuals are carried out and approved. On the second stage requirements for the individual makes a group. This group requirement is also accepted by the individual for execution. On the third stage, the individual makes demands on himself based on value orientations, attitudes, goals of the team.

It has been established that the lowest level of association of people is conglomerate(another term is also used - a diffuse group), an unorganized, due to circumstances, random gathering of people.

At the conglomerate stage, there is no common goal, no leadership, and therefore no organization, no meaningful communication, stable relationships. This community freely arises and disintegrates painlessly for each individual. The development of a community from a conglomerate goes in the direction of cooperation.

Cooperation is an association in which meaningful contacts have been established, interdependence has been established. The main features of cooperation are the following: the concentration of people at the same time in one place, the presence of a clear organization, the focus of efforts on solving the problem facing the association. Cooperation implies free business communication of its members. The development of cooperation leads to the formation of a team.

The development of cooperation and the transition to the collective of the group presupposes the emergence and strengthening of a sense of solidarity and cohesion, which is manifested in the unity of value judgments, value orientations, concern for the honor, dignity, and authority of the collective. The collective is not a frozen, motionless community. He is a living social organism: the content of activity changes in it, the structure and position of specific individuals are rebuilt, the relations between them change.

At the stage of cooperation and its transition to the team, there may be deviations. Formed corporation- closed community. The goals of the corporation are not carried out beyond its limits. In terms of content, they can be close or identical with the goals of society, but they can sharply diverge from them. In such communities there are signs of a collective, in addition to the main thing - the connection and consistency of goals with the public.

Personality and team

The personality in the collective is connected with other personalities and together with them expresses the direction of this community. Through the collective, the individual is related to other collectives and society as a whole. Insofar as team - a part of society, it inevitably carries its political, aesthetic, moral and other ideas. The person shares these ideas, is guided by them in deeds and behavior.

In the course of interaction with the material world and communication with people, a person not only acquires individual experience, on the basis of which individual traits and properties are formed, but also appropriates social experience, which becomes the most important component of his spiritual wealth. The ideological, moral community of the nearest and wider social environment creates conditions for the development and formation of an integral harmonious personality.

The relationship between the individual and the team is diverse. It can be distinguished: the influence of the collective on the individual and the influence of the individual on the collective.

The influence of the team on the individual. The collective is interested in the comprehensive development of the individual, since the fullness and richness of each individual, each member of the collective makes the life of the collective more full-blooded. At the same time, it is impossible to deny the fact that the collective has a certain impact on the individual included in it, and the individual cannot but influence the collective. In relation to the individual, the team performs a number of functions:

1) attaches it to ideological, moral, aesthetic and other values. It performs this function insofar as it is an open social system and brings its goals and tasks from society. If we consider the individual in relation to the collective, then it also appears as a system open in relation to this community;

2) the influence of the collective on the personality is reflected in the educational and corrective functions. A person must shape himself, and even more so, he must have a desire to be better, more valuable for society. But with all this, the team is a powerful force. In his arsenal, he contains such means of education that the individual does not have. Collective opinion, persuasion, clarification, criticism, competition - not a complete list of measures at the disposal of the team.

The influence of the individual on the team. The measure of the influence of the individual on the team is expressed in the categories of authority, leadership, leadership.

These qualities of a person contribute to the influence on collective opinion due to the recognition of respect, under

Conformity- a personality trait that is expressed in a tendency to conformism(from late lat. conformis- “similar”, “consistent”), that is, a change by an individual of attitudes, opinions, perceptions, behavior, and so on, in accordance with those that prevail in a given society or in a given group. At the same time, the dominant position does not have to be expressed explicitly or even exist in reality at all.

8. Communication- the exchange of information between people. A person can communicate with other people not only in direct contact. Watching a TV show, reading a book, perceiving works of art are also acts of communication.

Thus, the concept of communication is narrower than the concept of communication. In social psychology, one can find a different understanding of the relationship between people (labor, economic, etc.), and communication is considered as a special case of communication associated with the exchange of information.

The peculiar content of communication should be recognized as relations and relationships that fill communication, give it a peculiar color, coloring, dictate means, manner of communication. The whole system of communication of a given person depends on what kind of relationship develops.

Means of communication. The content side of communication is realized through ways, means. The main remedy communication in human society is language. However, in parallel with the language, non-verbal means are widely used within verbal communication: appearance, gestures, facial expressions, the position of partners relative to each other, and the image.

Appearance man consciously changes and to a certain extent is created by him. The appearance is made up of a physiognomic mask, clothes, demeanor. The physiognomic mask - the dominant facial expression - is formed under the influence of thoughts, feelings, and relationships that often arise in a person. Significantly contribute to the creation of a mask hairstyle, cosmetics, plastic surgery. Complements the appearance and clothes.

Types of communication

The division of communication into types is possible for several reasons: the contingent of participants, duration, degree of mediation, completeness, desirability, etc.

Depending on the contingent of participants, interpersonal, personal-group, intergroup communication can be distinguished.

In the primary group, the primary collective, each person communicates with everyone. In the course of such paired communication, both personal and group goals and objectives are realized. If communication is based on content related only to these persons, then they themselves choose means that reflect the position of each of them to a greater extent. Such communication is called interpersonal.

Personal-group communication is the case in which one side, one participant is an individual, the other is a group, a collective. Personal-group communication is most clearly manifested between the leader and the group, the team.

Intergroup communication involves the contact of two communities. Such are the team competitions in sports. The goals and objectives of communication between groups and collectives may or may not coincide. The personality is the bearer of the collective content, defends it, is guided by it.

direct and indirect communication. When the term “direct” is used, they mean face-to-face communication, communication in which each participant perceives the other and makes contact using all the means at his disposal. In direct communication, there are more channels for feedback, and, accordingly, each of the communicants receives information through them about the degree of acceptance of the content by the other party, the reaction to it.

mediated communication- this is communication, in which intermediate links are wedged in the form of a third person, a mechanism, a thing.

Completed and unfinished (interrupted) communication. An indicator of the completeness of communication is the exhaustion of the content of the topic, joint action. Completed can be considered such communication, which is identically evaluated by its participants. At the same time, the assessment fixes not the subjective significance of the result of communication (satisfaction, indifference, dissatisfaction), but the fact of completeness, exhaustion. But, quite naturally, the contacts have a certain attitude to the course and result of communication.

In the course of unfinished communication, the content of the topic or joint action is not brought to the end, to the result pursued by each of the parties. The incompleteness of communication can be due to objective and subjective reasons.

Depending on the time of communication, there are short-term and long-term communication.

In groups, collectives, there are relationships and relationships.

Attitude- this is the position of the individual to everything that surrounds her, and to herself. A person in one way or another relates to things, events of social life, people. He likes something, but something does not, some events, facts excite him, while others leave him indifferent. Feelings, interests, attention - these are the mental processes that express a person's attitude, his position. In social communities (groups, collectives), the people who make them up do not have relationships, but relationships.

Relationship- the mutual position of one person to another, the position of the individual in relation to the community.

Relationship is a relationship that goes from people to people, "towards each other." At the same time, if in relation it is not necessary for a person to receive a return signal, then in the relationship, “feedback” is constantly carried out. The relationship of the contacting parties does not always have the same modality (the same tone).

Between communication and relation, relationship, there is a certain correlation. Communication is a visible, observable, external connection of people. Attitude and relationship are aspects of communication. They can be explicit, but they can also be hidden, not shown. The relationship is realized in communication and through communication. At the same time, the relationship imposes a seal on communication, it serves as a kind of content for the latter.

It is customary to distinguish business and personal relationships. Business ones are created in the course of the performance of official duties, regulated by the instruction, charter, resolution. When forming a group, the functions of its members are determined. Personal relationships arise on the basis of psychological motives: sympathy, commonality of views, interests, complementarity (complementing each other), hostility, etc. Documents are not valid in personal relationships. It is impossible to establish personal relationships by orders, directives. A necessary condition for the emergence of these relationships is understanding each other.

In the process of communication, several ratio options business and personal relationships.

1. Coincidence of positive direction. In a group that does not have business conflicts between members, good personal contacts contribute to the successful completion of the task at hand.

2. Strained business relationships and unfriendly personal relationships. This is a pre-conflict or conflict situation.

3. Neutral business and equally personal - both parties adhere to the instructions without going beyond them.

9. All Vygotsky's thoughts were focused on putting an end to the version of "two psychologies" that split a person. Understanding the word as an action (first a speech complex, then a speech reaction), Vygotsky sees in it a special socio-cultural mediator between the individual and the world. He attaches special importance to its symbolic nature, due to which the structure of a person’s mental life changes qualitatively and his mental functions (perception, memory, attention, thinking) become higher from elementary ones. Interpreting language signs as mental tools that, unlike labor tools, do not change the physical world, but the consciousness of the subject operating with them, Vygotsky proposed an experimental program for studying how a system of higher mental functions develops thanks to these structures. This program was successfully carried out by him together with the team of employees who formed the Vygotsky school. The center of interest of this school was the cultural development of the child. Along with normal children, Vygotsky paid great attention to abnormal children (suffering from defects in vision, hearing, mental retardation), becoming the founder of a special science of defectology, in the development of which he defended humanistic values. The first version of his theoretical generalizations concerning the patterns of development of the psyche in ontogenesis, Vygotsky outlined in the work "The Development of Higher Mental Functions", written in 1931. The fundamental innovation, which immediately separated his theoretical search from traditional functional psychology, was that special regulators were introduced into the structure of the function, namely, signs that are created by culture. A sign (word) is a "psychological tool" through which consciousness is built. This concept was a kind of metaphor. It brought into psychology an explanation, going back to Marx, of the specifics of human communication with the world. The specificity lies in the fact that communication is mediated by tools. They change the external nature and, by virtue of this, the person himself. The speech sign, according to Vygotsky, is also a kind of tool. But a special tool. It is directed not at the external world, but at the inner world of a person and transforms it. After all, before a person begins to operate with words, he already has a pre-verbal mental content. This "material", obtained from earlier levels of mental development (elementary functions), is given a qualitatively new structure by the psychological tool. And then higher mental functions arise, and with them the laws of cultural development of consciousness come into play, qualitatively different from the "natural", natural development of the psyche (which is observed, for example, in animals). The concept of function, developed by the functional direction, changed radically. After all, this direction, having mastered the biological style of thinking, represented the function of consciousness according to the type of body functions. Vygotsky took a decisive step from the world of biology into the world of culture. Following this strategy, he began experimental work to study the changes that a sign produces in traditional psychological objects: attention, memory, thinking. The experiments that were carried out on children, both normal and abnormal, prompted us to interpret the problem of the development of the psyche from a new angle. Vygotsky's innovations were not limited to the idea that the highest function is organized by means of a psychological tool. Not without the influence of Gestaltism, he introduces the concept of a mental system. Its components are interconnected functions. It is not a single function (memory or thinking) that develops, but an integral system of functions. At the same time, the ratio of functions changes in different age periods. (For example, for a preschooler, the leading function among others is memory, for a schoolchild it is thinking.) The development of higher functions takes place in communication. Taking into account the lessons of Janet, Vygotsky interprets the process of development of consciousness as internalization. Every function arises first between people, and then becomes the "private property" of the child. In this regard, Vygotsky entered into a discussion with Piaget about the so-called egocentric speech. Vygotsky experimentally showed that this speech, contrary to Piaget, is not reduced to the child's drives and fantasies divorced from reality. She plays the role not of an accompanist, but of an organizer of a real practical action. Reflecting with himself, the child plans it. These "thoughts aloud" are further internalized and transformed into inner speech, coupled with thinking in concepts. Thinking and Speech (1934) is Vygotsky's main, generalizing book. In it, relying on extensive experimental material, he traced the development of concepts in children. Now the meaning of the word came to the fore. The history of a language shows how the meaning of a word changes from epoch to epoch. Vygotsky, on the other hand, discovered the development of the meanings of words in ontogenesis, the change in their structure during the transition from one stage of the child's mental development to another. When adults communicate with children, they may not suspect that the words they use have a completely different meaning for them than for a child, since children's thought is at a different stage of development and therefore builds the content of words according to special psychological laws. The importance of discovering these laws for the training and development of the little thinker is obvious. Vygotsky substantiated the idea that "only that learning is good which runs ahead of development." In this regard, he introduced the concept of "zone of proximal development." By it was meant the discrepancy between the level of tasks that a child can solve independently or under the guidance of an adult. Education, creating such a "zone", leads to development. In this process, not only thought and word are internally closed, but also thought and the motive driving it (in Vygotsky's terminology, affect). Their integral is experience as a special integrity, which Vygotsky, at the end of his early career, called the most important "unit" of personality development. He interpreted this development as a drama in which there are several "acts" - age epochs. Vygotsky attached great importance in the development of the child to the crises that the child experiences during the transition from one age stage to another. Mental development was interpreted by Vygotsky as inseparably associated with motivational (in his terminology - affective), therefore, in his studies, he affirmed the principle of the unity of "affect and intellect". However, he was prevented from carrying out a program of research analyzing this principle of development by an early death. Only preparatory materials have been preserved in the form of a large manuscript "Teaching about emotions. Historical and psychological research." The main content of the study is the analysis of Descartes' Passions of the Soul, a work that, according to Vygotsky, defines the ideological image of modern psychology of feelings with its dualism of lower and higher emotions. Vygotsky believed that the prospect of overcoming dualism lay in Spinoza's Ethics, but he did not show how it would be possible to rebuild psychology based on Spinoza's philosophy. Vygotsky based the periodization of the human life cycle on the alternation of stable periods of development and crises. Crises are characterized by revolutionary changes, the criterion of which is the emergence of neoplasms. Thus, each stage of life opens with a crisis (accompanied by the appearance of certain neoplasms), followed by a period of stable development, when the development of neoplasms takes place.

A significant contribution to educational psychology is the concept of the zone of proximal development introduced by Vygotsky. The zone of proximal development is “the area of ​​not matured, but maturing processes”, embracing tasks that a child at a given level of development cannot cope with on his own, but which he is able to solve with the help of an adult; This is the level reached by the child so far only in the course of joint activities with an adult.

The most famous and recognized in world psychology is the periodization of E. Erickson, covering the entire life cycle.

Of great importance for understanding the dynamics of the formation of the intellect were the works of Claparede's student J. Piaget, who revealed not only the periods, but also the mechanisms of ascent from one stage to another.

Based on the ideas of Piaget, L. Kohlberg outlined the stages of moral development based on the intellectual maturity of children.

Kohlberg, like Piaget, assumed that the change in the stages of moral development is associated with general cognitive age-related changes, primarily with decentration and the formation of logical operations. At the same time, he believed that moral development is influenced by both the general level of education and the communication of the child with adults and peers, the desire to receive a reward for good behavior. It is this last factor that causes the greatest number of criticisms, although most researchers generally accept the sequence of stages in the formation of morality developed by the scientist.

The most complete motivational criterion of periodization was embodied in the works of Freud, although the intellectual side was practically not taken into account. Freud created his periodization based on the patterns of development of libidinal energy, which is directly related to the drive to life, procreation and is the basis of personality development.

Despite the significant differences between the periodizations discussed above, they have in common not only the age boundaries of ontogenesis segments, which is associated both with psychological symptoms and with external, social conditions (for example, with the beginning of systematic learning), but also a predominantly evolutionary approach, since in them, the transition from one stage of thinking to another (or from one type of motivation to another) occurs gradually, and the transition itself is not associated with the appearance of negative components in various types of activity.

This view has been partly modified in Erickson's theory. Developing Freud's ideas about the dominance of the motivational component as a criterion for determining the stages of the life path, Erickson argued that for a person the leading need is the desire to preserve the identity, the integrity of the Ego, and its transformations mark the transition from stage to stage. Since the Ego, the self-consciousness of a person develops throughout his life, the need to preserve identity remains always relevant; therefore, periodization should not end at adolescence, but cover the entire life path.

An original approach to the problem of periodization was developed in Russian psychology. Its peculiarity is associated primarily with the introduced L.S. Vygotsky concepts of the social situation of development and critical and lytic periods alternating in ontogenesis. He also formulated the principles that scientific psychological periodization should meet. Its criterion, Vygotsky emphasized, must be internal, and not external in relation to development, must be objective and not lose its significance throughout the entire period of childhood.

Developing the ideas of Vygotsky, D. Elkonin proposed one of the most complete periodizations to date, in which he singled out two aspects of activity - cognitive and motivational. These aspects exist in every leading activity, but develop unevenly, alternating in the rate of development in each age period.

Psyche, mental phenomena, human behavior

Psyche - a property of highly organized matter, which consists in the subject's active reflection of the objective world and self-regulation on this basis of his behavior and activities. The psyche manifests itself in three main types of mental phenomena: mental processes, mental states and mental properties. Let us consider some of the psychic phenomena.

Feeling - mental reflection of individual properties of objects of the objective world, arising from their direct impact on the sensory system (sense organs).

Perception - a holistic reflection of objects and phenomena of the objective world based on sensations. Depending on which of the forms of existence of matter is reflected, they distinguish

perception of space, perception of time and perception of movements.

Attention - orientation of mental activity, focus on objects and phenomena that are important at the moment. Attention properties:

sustainability (concentration of attention on one object for a long time),

distribution (the ability to keep attention on several objects at the same time),

volume (the maximum number of objects simultaneously covered by attention),

concentration (focusing attention on essential objects and maintaining focus),

switching (intentional transfer of attention from one object to another).

Attention may be involuntary (does not require willpower) and arbitrary (requires willpower). The current behavior of a person is guided by the need prevailing at the moment. It is called principle of dominance .

Memory - mental reflection of past experience, ensuring its use or exclusion from activity and consciousness. Memory is based on the following processes:

memorization,

preservation,

recognition,

playback,

forgetting .

During the course of memory processes in the nervous system, certain changes occur that persist for some time and affect the nature of the course of reflex reactions.

The forms of manifestation of memory are extremely diverse.

Depending on the nature of mental activity, predominant in activity, memory happens:

motor or motor (memory of movements - household, sports, labor and other motor skills),

figurative (memory of images of surrounding objects, sounds, smells, etc.),

emotional (memory of experienced feelings and emotions),

verbal-logical (memory of read, heard, spoken words and thoughts).

Verbal-logical memory is divided into:

logical (remembering cause-and-effect relationships of verbal information) and mechanical (memorization of texts that are difficult for logical organization).

depending from goals activity memory is divided into

involuntary (memorization and reproduction occur automatically, without volitional efforts) and

arbitrary (there is a goal of memorization, willpower is required) .

Depending on the storage time memory happens:

short-term (information will either be forgotten or transferred to long-term memory),

long-term (long-term preservation of experience; safety depends on the frequency of use of the stored information, the total amount of information received by a person before and after this material, etc.)

operational (can be both short-term and long-term; always ready for use).

By way memorization is:

mechanical (a person is not able to apply such knowledge in life) and meaningful . Memory can be trained. One of the important conditions for remembering repetition .

Thinking - the process of cognition of the real world on the basis of an indirect and generalized reflection of reality. Thinking allows you to discover the essential aspects of objects and phenomena hidden from direct observation.

Depending on the material that a person operates in mental activity, thinking is divided into:

visual-effective (operating with specific objects),

visual-figurative (operating with images of objects) and

conceptual or abstract (operating with abstract concepts).

Feelings - a mental process that reflects a person's attitude to objects and phenomena, characterized by relative stability.

Emotions - momentary subjective attitude of a person to reality and to himself in a particular situation; outward expressions of feeling.

Needs, feelings and emotions play the role of internal regulators of behavior in human life.

Feelings perform two functions :

signal (imprinting in the memory of a particular situation and the emotional experiences associated with it) and

regulatory (expression of emotion in various changes in the internal environment and in various motor manifestations).

Depending on whether the needs of a person are satisfied or not, he has positive feelings (such as joy) or negative (for example, grief).

Usually isolated five basic shapes feeling experiences:

sensual tone,

emotions,

affects,

stress,

mood .

On the basis of simple feelings, so-called higher feelings. These include moral, intellectual, aesthetic and practical feelings.

Temperament - a stable combination of dynamic features of the psyche (activity, emotionality, etc.), determined by persistent innate properties of the nervous system. Based on a different combination of indicators characterizing the processes of excitation and inhibition (strength, balance and mobility of nervous processes), I.P. Pavlov singled out 4 types of higher nervous activity. This division coincides with the classification of temperaments proposed by Hippocrates more than 2 thousand years ago.

1.Strong balanced movable type (sanguine) - a strong nervous system (high performance of nerve cells), balance of excitation and inhibition, high mobility of nervous processes (rapid change of states of the nervous system).

2.Strong balanced inert type (phlegmatic person) - a strong nervous system, balance of excitation and inhibition, low mobility of nervous processes.

3.Strong unbalanced movable type (choleric) - a strong nervous system, the predominance of excitatory processes over inhibition, high mobility of nervous processes.

4.Weak unbalanced inert type (melancholic) - a weak nervous system (low performance of nerve cells), the predominance of inhibition processes over excitation, low mobility of nervous processes.

?Human behavior. The normal vital activity of an organism is possible only if the composition of the internal environment is maintained relatively constant. The need for something necessary for this causes a special state - a need.

Need - a source of activity, a state that expresses a person's dependence on the conditions of existence.

There are two levels of needs.

First level includes vital, social and ideal needs.

vital needs associated with the life support of a person as a biological being (need for oxygen, water, food, warmth, sleep, security, procreation, economy of strength, etc.).

Social needs are determined by a person's life in society (the need for attention, love, care, belonging to a group, following norms and ideology, a certain place in a group and society, self-realization, etc.).

Ideal Needs associated with the emergence of consciousness in a person (the need for truth, faith, knowledge: oneself, the world around, one's place in the world, the meaning of life, the need for beauty, justice, etc.).

Second level represented by intrinsic needs.

Needs in themselves - secondary needs, without which the satisfaction of primary needs is difficult or impossible (the need for armament - a reserve of forces and means, the need to overcome - arises in the process of forming the will and self, etc.).

motive - an object (material or ideal) that serves to satisfy a need. Motives are

conscious (beliefs, aspirations, intentions, dreams, ideals, passions, interests)

unconscious (desires, emotions, attitudes).

Human behavior - a complex set of motor acts aimed at meeting the needs of the body. The individual behavior of a person, his character depends to the greatest extent on his social experience (experience of communicating with people and the outside world) and to a lesser extent (for people without congenital malformations) from heredity .

The formation of social experience begins at birth. The most persistent character traits (altruist or egoist, sociable or withdrawn, active or passive) are formed by 3-5 years. Character, behavior, habits can change throughout life, but in childhood the most important traits are laid that determine behavior in extreme situations, when there is no time for reflection.

Consciousness

Consciousness - this is the highest level of reflection of reality, manifested by the ability of a person to be aware of the surroundings, about the present and past time, make decisions and, in accordance with the situation, manage their behavior.

Consciousness is characterized by the inclusion of itself in the totality of knowledge about the surrounding world, that is, the awareness of its existence. Of all living organisms that live on Earth, consciousness is inherent only in humans.

Signs of consciousness:

1) attention and ability to concentrate;

2) the ability to evaluate the upcoming act, that is, the ability to expect and predict;

3) the ability to generate abstract thoughts, operate with them, express them in words or in any other way;

4) awareness of one's "I" and recognition of other individuals;

5) the presence of aesthetic values.

There are different states of consciousness.

Unconscious state - an extreme state in which only psychovegetative reactions are recorded; manifestations of cognitive and emotional processes are absent.

Dream - a state that involves the experience of dreams, allows for subliminal perception and partial memorization of the content of dreams.

wakefulness - a state of awareness of the surrounding world and oneself, accessible to self-observation. It includes all spectrum of mental manifestations within the framework of awareness perception, memory, attention, thinking and self-regulation.

The alternation of sleep and wakefulness is a necessary condition for human life. A person spends about a third of his life in sleep. During wakefulness, the brain is maintained in an active state due to impulses coming from receptors. When the flow of impulses to the brain is stopped or sharply limited, sleep develops.

There are the following basic functions of sleep :

compensatory and restorative - during sleep, a number of metabolic transformations take place, aimed at restoring the spent resources of the body and providing trophic processes in tissues;

informational - during sleep, apparently, there is a processing, analysis and sorting of the information received during wakefulness;

adaptive - in evolutionary terms, in animals, sleep provides security, while maintaining immobility in secluded places.

During sleep, the muscles are relaxed, breathing is rare, skin sensitivity, vision, hearing, smell, metabolism, blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature are reduced.

During sleep the brain goes through several different phases , which are repeated approximately every one and a half hours. Sleep consists of two qualitatively different states - slow sleep and REM sleep. They differ in the types of electrical activity of the brain, heart contractions, respiration, muscle tone, eye movements.

slow sleep is divided into several stages:

1.Drowsiness. At this stage, the main bioelectric rhythm of wakefulness, the alpha rhythm, disappears in the electroencephalogram (EEG). It is replaced by low-amplitude oscillations . This is the sleep stage. At this stage, a person may experience dream-like hallucinations.

2.Superficial sleep . It is characterized by the appearance of sleep spindles - a spindle-shaped rhythm of 14-18 oscillations per second. When the first spindles of sleep appear, a person’s consciousness turns off. In the pauses between such spindles, it is easy to wake a person up.

3.delta sleep . At this stage, high-amplitude, slow oscillations - delta waves - appear in the EEG. This is the deepest period of sleep. A person has reduced muscle tone, no eye movements, breathing rhythm and pulse stabilize and become less frequent, body temperature drops (by 0.5 ° C). Awakening a person from delta sleep is very difficult. As a rule, awakened in this phase of sleep, a person does not remember dreams, he is poorly oriented in the environment, incorrectly estimates time intervals (underestimates the time spent in a dream). Delta sleep is the period of greatest disconnection from the outside world. It prevails in the first half of the night.

REM sleep - it is the last stage in the sleep cycle. At this point, EEG rhythms are similar to those of wakefulness. The cerebral blood flow increases with strong muscle relaxation, with sharp twitches in individual muscle groups. The combination of EEG activity and complete muscle relaxation gave another name for this sleep stage. - paradoxical dream. There are sharp changes in heart rate and breathing (a series of frequent inhalations and exhalations, alternating with pauses), an episodic rise and fall in blood pressure. There are rapid eye movements with closed eyelids. When awakening from this phase of sleep, people report dreaming in 80-90% of cases. According to I.M. Sechenov, a dream is an unprecedented combination of experienced impressions.

The structure and duration of sleep changes with age. Newborns sleep 17-18 hours a day, and REM sleep accounts for about half of the total sleep duration. At the age of 4-6 years, the need for sleep is reduced to 10-12 hours a day, and the proportion of the paradoxical phase decreases to 20% of its total duration. This ratio, as a rule, remains in adulthood. The required total duration of sleep in adults is usually 7-8 hours. It has been established that if the duration of night sleep is reduced by 1.3-1.5 hours, this will affect the state of wakefulness during the day. Sleeping 6.5 hours for a long time can undermine human health. However, the need for sleep duration is very individual. In addition, the structure of sleep changes under the influence of external factors, for example, during training, adaptation to a new environment, etc.

Chapter 3. Psychology of cognitive processes

2. Patterns of memory

Memory is a form of mental reflection, which consists in fixing, preserving and subsequent reproduction of past experience, making it possible to reuse it in activities 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.

Memory is the basis of mental activity. Without it, it is impossible to understand the foundations of the formation of behavior, thinking, consciousness, subconsciousness. Therefore, in order to better understand a person, it is necessary to know as much as possible about our memory.

Images of objects or processes of reality that we perceived earlier, and now mentally reproduce, are called representations.

Memory representations are reproductions, more or less accurate, of objects or phenomena that once acted on our senses. Imagination representations are representations of objects that we have never perceived in such combinations or in such a form. The representations of the imagination are also based on past perceptions, but these latter are only the material from which we create new representations with the help of the imagination.

Memory is based on associations, or connections. Objects or phenomena connected in reality are connected in the memory of a person. We can, having met with one of these objects, by association recall another associated with it; to remember something means to connect what you want to remember with something already known, to form an association.

From a physiological point of view, an association is a temporary neural connection. There are two kinds of associations: by contiguity, by similarity and by contrast. An adjacency association combines two phenomena that are related in time or space. Such an association by adjacency is formed, for example, when memorizing the alphabet: when naming a letter, the next one after it is remembered. A similarity association connects two phenomena that have similar features: when one of them is mentioned, the other is remembered.

Association by contrast connects two opposite phenomena.

In addition to these types, there are complex associations - associations in meaning; in them two phenomena are connected, which in reality are constantly connected: part and whole, genus and species, cause and effect. These connections, associations in meaning, are the basis of our knowledge.

For the formation of a temporary connection, a repeated coincidence of two stimuli in time is required; for the formation of an association, repetition is required. But repetition alone is not enough. Sometimes many repetitions do not give results, and sometimes, on the contrary, a connection arises from one time, if a strong focus of excitation has arisen in the cerebral cortex of the brain, facilitating the formation of a temporary connection.

A more important condition for the formation of an association is business reinforcement, i.e. the inclusion of what is required to be remembered in the actions of students, the application of knowledge by them in the process of assimilation.

The main processes of memory are memorization, preservation, recognition and reproduction.

Memorization is a process aimed at storing the received impressions in memory, a prerequisite for saving.
preservation - the process of active processing, systematization, generalization of the material, mastering it.
reproduction and recognition are the processes of restoring what was previously perceived. The difference between them lies in the fact that recognition takes place when the object is encountered again, when it is perceived again. reproduction takes place in the absence of the object.

Types of memory:

Violation of direct memory, or "Korsakov's syndrome", is manifested in the fact that memory for current events is impaired, a person forgets what he has just done, said, seen, so the accumulation of new experience and knowledge becomes impossible, although previous knowledge can be preserved.

Violations of the dynamics of mnestic activity can be observed (B.V. Zeigarnik): a person remembers well, but after a short time he cannot do it, for example, a person memorizes 10 words. And after the 3rd presentation - I remembered 6 words, and after the fifth - I can already say only 3 words, after the sixth - again 6 words, i.e. there are fluctuations in mnestic activity. This memory impairment is often observed in patients with vascular diseases of the brain, as well as after brain injury, after intoxication as a manifestation of general mental exhaustion. Quite often there are forgetfulness, inaccuracy in assimilation of information, forgetting intentions as a result of a person's emotional instability.

Violations of mediated memory are also distinguished, when mediated methods of memorization, for example, pictures, symbols associated with some information, do not help, but impede the work of memory, i.e. hints do not help in this case, but hinder.

If the “Zeigarnik effect” is observed during the full functioning of memory, i.e. incomplete actions are remembered better, then with many memory impairments, a violation of the motivational components of memory also occurs, i.e. pending actions are forgotten.

Interesting are the facts of memory deceptions, which usually take the form of extremely one-sided selectivity of memories, false memories (confibulation) and memory distortions. They are usually caused by strong desires, unsatisfied needs and drives. The simplest case: a child is given a candy, he quickly eats it, and then "forgets" about it and absolutely sincerely proves that he did not receive anything. It is almost impossible to convince him (like many adults) in such cases. Memory easily becomes a slave to human passions, prejudices and inclinations. That is why unbiased, objective memories of the past are very rare. Memory distortions are often associated with a weakening of the ability to distinguish between one's own and others, what a person actually experienced and what he heard or read about. With repeated repetition of such memories, their complete personification occurs, i.e. a person quite naturally and organically considers other people's thoughts, ideas that he himself sometimes rejected, recalls the details of events in which he never participated. This shows how closely memory is related to imagination, fantasy, and what is sometimes called psychological reality.

It turned out that the same subcortical areas (primarily the limbic system) that are responsible for the affective and motivational activation of the psyche play an important role in fixing information.

It was found that damage to the occipital lobes of the brain causes visual impairment, damage to the frontal lobes - emotions, destruction of the left hemisphere negatively affects speech, etc. But, to everyone's surprise, until very recently it was necessary to state the fact that not only animals, but also people can endure extensive brain damage without obvious memory impairment. The only regularity found was of the most general nature: the more extensive the damage to the brain, the more serious its consequences for memory. This position is called the law of mass action: memory is destroyed in proportion to the weight of the destroyed brain tissue. Even removing 20% ​​of the brain (during surgical operations) does not lead to memory loss. Therefore, doubts arose about the existence of a localized memory center, a number of psychologists unambiguously argued that the entire brain should be considered an organ of memory.

With a direct impact on some parts of the brain, complex chains of memories may emerge in consciousness, i.e. a person suddenly remembers something that he has long forgotten, and easily continues to remember the “forgotten” after the operation. Secondly, if not a memory center, then, in any case, a site was found that regulates the transfer of data from short-term memory to long-term memory, without which it is impossible to memorize newly received new information. This center is called the hippocampus and is located in the temporal lobe of the brain. After bilateral removal of the hippocampus, patients retained the memory of what was before the operation, but the memorization of new data was not observed.

They also try to influence memory processes by pharmacological and physical factors. Many scientists believe that searches in the field of memory management should be aimed at creating biologically active compounds that selectively affect learning processes (for example, caffeine, biogenic amines), short-term or long-term memory (substances that inhibit DNA and RNA synthesis, affect protein metabolism). etc.), on the creation and formation of engrams - substances that affect the change in cell proteins (from protoplasm to soma).

Now the study of pharmacological agents that affect memory is proceeding rapidly. It has been established that the long-known pituitary hormones can serve as memory stimulants. "Short" chains of amino acids - peptides, especially vasopressin, corticotropin significantly improve short-term and long-term memory.

According to the hypothesis about the physical structure of memory, the basis of the phenomenon of memory is the spatio-temporal pattern of the bioelectrical activity of nerve populations - discrete and electrotonic. Therefore, for memory management, it is more adequate to influence the brain and its subsystems with electrical, electromagnetic factors. Success can be achieved by influencing the brain with various physical factors - electrical and acoustic.

All this speaks of the real possibility of memory management.

Memory can be developed, trained, significantly improved, and its productivity increased. Memory productivity consists of parameters: volume, speed, accuracy, duration, readiness for memorization and reproduction. Memory productivity is influenced by subjective and objective reasons. Subjective reasons include: a person's interest in information, the chosen type of memorization, the methods of memorization used, innate abilities, the state of the body, previous experience, and the person's attitude. The objective factors influencing the productivity of memory include: the nature of the material, the amount of material, the visibility of the material, its rhythm, meaningfulness and understandability, its coherence and the specifics of the environment in which memorization takes place.

Summing up, we emphasize that memory ensures the integrity and development of a person's personality, occupies a central position in the system of cognitive activity.

TEST QUESTIONS

1. Is intelligent activity possible without attention? What types and qualities of attention are manifested in a person?
2. What should be done in practice to prevent forgetting important material? What factors influence forgetting?
3. How is working memory different from short-term memory? What types and processes of memory are most effective for you?
4. What are mnemonic tricks?
5. How do memory disorders manifest themselves?
6. Why is memory central to cognitive activity?
7. What are the methods of influencing human memory?

LITERATURE

1. Atkinson R. Human memory and learning process. M., 1980
2. Wayne A.M., Kamenetskaya B.I. Human memory. M., 1973
3. Atkinson R. Memory and care for her. Eagle, 1992
4. Andreev O.A., Khromov L.N. memory training technique. Yekaterinburg, 1992
5. Baskakova I.L. preschooler's attention, methods of development. M., 1993
6. Golubeva E.A. Individual features of memory. M., 1980
7. Godfroy J. What is psychology. M., 1994
8. Leather F. Memory training. M., 1990
9. Lapp D. Improving memory at any age. M., 1993
10. Matyugin I.Yu., Chaekaberya EI Development of figurative memory. M., 1993
11. Norman D. Memory and learning. M., 1985
12. Postovit V.A. Memory. SPb., 1993
13. Shabanov P.D., Borodkin Yu.S. Memory disorders and their correction. L., 1989
14. Memory development. Riga, 1991

- a form of mental reflection, which consists in fixing, preserving and subsequent reproduction of 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. this is a complex mental process consisting of several private processes related to each other: imprinting, storing and reproducing information, as well as forgetting

However, we can do more than just recognize objects. We can call in our mind an image of an object that we do not perceive at the moment, but perceived it before. This process - the process of recreating the image of an object that we perceived earlier, but not perceived at the moment, is called reproduction. Not only objects perceived in the past are reproduced, but also our thoughts, experiences, desires, fantasies, etc.

A necessary prerequisite for recognition and reproduction is the imprinting, or memorization, of what was perceived, as well as its subsequent preservation.

Images of objects or processes of reality that we perceived earlier, and now mentally reproduce, are called representations.

Even Aristotle tried to deduce the principles by which representations can communicate with each other. These principles, later called the principles of association (the word "association" means "connection", "connection"), have become widespread in psychology. These principles are as follows.

Theories of memory.

Memory representations are a reproduction, more or less accurate, of objects or phenomena that once acted on our senses. The representation of the imagination is the representation of objects and phenomena that we have never perceived in such combinations or in such a form. Such representations are a product of our imagination. The representations of the imagination are also based on past perceptions, but these latter serve only as the material from which we create new representations and images with the help of the imagination.

Adjacency associations combine two phenomena related in time or space.

Similarity associations connect two phenomena that have similar features: when one of them is mentioned, the other is remembered. Associations are based on the similarity of neural connections that are caused in our brain by two objects.

3. Association by contrast. Perceptual images or certain ideas evoke in the mind ideas that are in some respect opposite to them, contrasting with them. For example, by imagining something black, one can thereby evoke an image of a white color in the representation, and by imagining a giant, one can thereby evoke the image of a dwarf in the representation.

In addition to these types, there are complex associations - semantic ones. They connect two phenomena that are in fact constantly connected: part and whole, genus and species, cause and effect. These associations are the basis of our knowledge.

The existence of associations is due to the fact that objects and phenomena are really imprinted and reproduced not in isolation from each other, but in connection with each other. The reproduction of some entails the reproduction of others. The study of memory was one of the first sections of psychological science where the experimental method was applied. Back in the 80s of the XIX century. the German psychologist G. Ebbinghaus proposed a method by which, he believed, it was possible to study the laws of "pure" memory, independent of the activity of thinking. This technique is the memorization of meaningless syllables. As a result, he deduced the main curves for memorization (memorization) of the material and revealed a number of features in the manifestation of association mechanisms. So, for example, he found that relatively simple events that made a strong impression on a person can be remembered immediately, firmly and for a long time. At the same time, a person can experience more complex, but less interesting events dozens of times, but they do not remain in memory for a long time. G. Ebbinghaus also found that with close attention to an event, a single experience of it is enough to accurately reproduce it in the future. One of the most important achievements of G. Ebbinghaus was the discovery of the law of forgetting. This law was derived by him on the basis of experiments with memorizing meaningless three-letter syllables. In the course of experiments, it was found that after the first error-free repetition of a series of such syllables, forgetting at first proceeds very quickly. 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 in memory.

the German psychiatrist E. Kraepelin studied how memorization proceeds in mentally ill people. Another well-known German scientist, psychologist G. E. Muller, carried out a fundamental study of the basic laws of fixing and reproducing memory traces in humans.

In addition to the theory of associations, there were other theories that considered the problem of memory. So, the associative theory was replaced by Gestal theory. The initial concept in this theory was not the association of objects or phenomena, but their original, integral organization - gestalt. According to supporters of this theory, memory processes are determined by the formation of gestalt.

"Gestalt" in translation into Russian means "whole", "structure", "system". This term was proposed by representatives of the direction that arose in Germany in the first third of the 20th century. Within the framework of this direction, a program was put forward for studying the psyche from the point of view of integral structures (gestalts), therefore this direction in psychological science began to be called Gestalt psychology.

The main postulate of this direction says that the systemic organization of the whole determines the properties and functions of its constituent parts. Therefore, when studying memory, the supporters of this theory proceeded from the fact that both during memorization and during reproduction, the material with which a person deals, acts as an integral structure, and not as a random set of elements that has developed on an associative basis, as structural psychology interprets. The dynamics of memorization and reproduction from the standpoint of Gestalt psychology was conceived as follows. Some current state at a given time creates a certain setting for memorization or reproduction in a person. An appropriate attitude revives some integral structures in the mind, 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.

Memory problems have also been studied within the framework of behaviorism. Representatives of behaviorism in their views turned out to be very close to associationists. The only difference was that behaviorists emphasized the role of reinforcement in remembering material. They proceeded from the assertion that for successful memorization it is necessary to reinforce the memorization process with some kind of stimulus.

In turn, the merit of the representatives of psychoanalysis is that they revealed the role of emotions, motives and needs in remembering and forgetting. So, they found that the most easily reproduced in the memory of a person are events that have a positive emotional connotation, and vice versa, negative events are quickly forgotten.

At about the same time, that is, at the beginning of the 20th century, the semantic theory of memory arose. 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. The most prominent representatives of this trend were A. Binet and K. Buhler, who proved that the semantic content of the material comes to the fore when memorizing and reproducing.

A special place in the study of memory is occupied by the problem of studying higher arbitrary and conscious forms of memory, which allow a person to consciously apply the methods of mnemonic activity and arbitrarily refer to any segments of his past.

For the first time, a systematic study of higher forms of memory in children was carried out by the outstanding Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky, who in the late 1920s. began to study the question of the development of higher forms of memory and, together with his students, showed that the 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.

It should be noted that Vygotsky's works were a further development of the studies of the French scientist P. Janet, who was one of the first to interpret memory as a system of actions focused on memorizing, processing and storing material. It was the French psychological school that proved the social conditioning of all memory processes, its direct dependence on the practical activity of a person.

Domestic psychologists continued to study the most complex forms of voluntary mnemonic activity, in which memory processes were associated with thought processes. Thus, the studies of A. A. Smirnov and P. I. Zinchenko, carried out from the standpoint of the psychological theory of activity, made it possible to reveal the laws of memory as a meaningful human activity, established the dependence of memorization on the task and identified the main methods of memorizing complex material. A. A. Smirnov found that actions are remembered better than thoughts, and among actions, in turn, those associated with overcoming obstacles are more firmly remembered.

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.

Despite the real success of psychological research on memory, the physiological mechanism of imprinting traces and the nature of memory itself has not been fully studied.

Memory – a form of mental reflection, which consists in fixing, preserving and subsequent reproduction of 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.

Memory is a process organization and preservation of past experience, making it possible to reuse it in activity or return to the sphere of consciousness again. This is the most important mental function, which is a unifying link in the organization of the psyche. It ensures the integrity and unity of the individual. Every cognitive process turns into a memory, and every memory turns into something else. Memory is of great importance for the life and work of not only each individual, but society as a whole.

Unlike perception, thinking and other mental processes, memory is not directly aimed at reflecting the surrounding world. It deals with second-order reflections, which are called representations .

Basic memory processes- This memorization , storage , reproduction , recognition , remembrance and forgetting .

memorization- This the process of memory, through which traces are imprinted, new elements of sensations, perception, thinking or experience are introduced into the system of associative links. The basis of memorization is the connection of material with meaning into one whole. The establishment of semantic connections is the result of the work of thinking on the content of the memorized material.

Storage - the process of accumulation of material in the structure of memory, including its processing and assimilation. The preservation of experience makes it possible for a person to learn, develop his perceptual (internal assessments, perception of the world) processes, thinking and speech.

Reproduction and recognition - the process of updating elements of past experience (images, thoughts, feelings, movements). A simple form of reproduction is recognition - the recognition of a perceived object or phenomenon as already known from past experience, the establishment of similarities between the object and its image in memory.

Playback it happens arbitrary and involuntary . With involuntary the image pops up in the head without human effort. If there are difficulties in the process of reproduction, then there is a process of recall. Selection of elements necessary from the point of view of the required task. The reproduced information is not an exact copy of what is imprinted in memory. Information is always being transformed, rearranged.

Forgetting- loss of the ability to reproduce, and sometimes even recognize previously memorized. Most often we forget what is insignificant. Forgetting can be partial (reproduced incompletely or with an error) and complete (impossibility of reproduction and recognition). Allocate temporary and prolonged forgetting .

Memory serves all kinds of diverse human activities. Hence the variety of forms of its manifestation, concentrated in two types of memory genetic (hereditary) and intravital .

1. Hereditary memory stores information that determines the anatomical and physiological structure of the organism in the process of development, innate forms of species behavior (instincts), as well as some predisposition to certain forms of social behavior.

2. Lifetime memory is a repository of information received from birth to death. According to the content of mental activity in the interaction of a person with the environment in lifetime memory distinguish such kinds: motor, figurative, emotional, verbal-logical.

A) motor memory- this is the memorization, preservation and reproduction of various movements and their systems. It serves as the basis for the formation of various motor skills and abilities (walking, writing, driving a car, using tools in the repair and adjustment of machines and mechanisms, and other practical and labor skills and abilities). A sign of a good motor memory is the physical dexterity of a person, dexterity in working with equipment and tools, etc.

B) figurative memory- this is the memorization, preservation and reproduction of images of previously perceived objects and phenomena of reality. There are forms of figurative memory: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory and gustatory. Visual and auditory memory is most clearly manifested in all people, and the development of tactile, olfactory and gustatory memory is associated mainly with various types of professional activities (for example, tasters or perfumers) or is observed in people deprived of sight and hearing. Figurative memory reaches high development in people involved in art: artists, musicians, writers.

B) emotional memory It is a memory of experienced feelings and emotional states. They do not disappear without a trace, but are remembered and reproduced by a person under certain conditions - a person rejoices again, remembering a joyful event, blushes when remembering an awkward act, turns pale, remembering an experienced fear. Emotional memory is the most important condition for the moral development of a person. It can be a powerful motivator for repeating actions and deeds and underlies the formation of habits.

D) Verbal-logical memory expressed in memorization, preservation, reproduction of thoughts and concepts. This type of memory is specifically human, in contrast to motor, figurative and emotional, which in the simplest forms are also characteristic of animals. An essential point in the characterization of verbal-logical memory is that memorization can occur in the same verbal form that was perceived (i.e., verbatim), but can also be carried out in a different speech design (i.e., reproduction in your own words) . It depends on the task that the person faces, and on the methods of memorization developed by him.