Memory scientists. Scientific schools in domestic and foreign psychology
The study of memory was one of the first branches of psychological science where an experimental method was applied: attempts were made to measure the amount of memory available to a person, the speed with which he can remember material, and the time during which he can retain this material.
Back in the 80s of the last century, the German psychologist G. Ebbinghaus proposed a technique for studying "pure" memory, which makes it possible to separate memory from the activity of thinking - this is the memorization of meaningless syllables. Offering the subject to remember 10-12 syllables and noting the number of retained members of the series, Ebbinghaus took this number as the amount of "clean" memory. The first and main result of this study was the establishment of the average amount of memory that characterized a person. It turned out that on average a person easily remembers 5-7 separate elements after the first reading. This number fluctuates considerably - people with poor memory retain only 4-5 isolated elements, people with good memory can retain 7-8 isolated and meaningless elements after the first reading.
The German psychiatrist E. Kraepelin applied the Ebbinghaus techniques to the analysis of how memorization proceeds in patients with mental changes. The German psychologist G.E. Muller studied the processes of fixing and reproducing traces of memory in humans.
At first, the processes of memory in humans were mainly studied. With the development of the objective study of animal behavior, the field of study of memory has been expanded. At the beginning of the XX century. Thorndike, an American psychologist, was the first to study the formation of skills in an animal. For this purpose, he studied how the animal learned to find its way through the maze and how it gradually consolidated the acquired skills.
In the first decade of the XX century. IP Pavlov proposed a method for studying conditioned reflexes. This new method made it possible to establish the conditions under which new temporary connections arise and are maintained. The doctrine of higher nervous activity later became the main source of our knowledge about the physiological mechanisms of memory, and the development and preservation of skills in animals constituted the main content of American behavioral science. All these studies were limited to the study of the most elementary processes of memory.
Higher voluntary and conscious forms of memory at the beginning of the 20th century. have been the subject of discussion by philosophers. Psychologists only pointed out that the laws of remembering thoughts differ significantly from the elementary laws of remembering. The question of the origin and, moreover, the development of higher forms of memory in humans has not been raised in psychology.
The first systematic study of higher forms of memory in children was carried out in the late 1920s. outstanding domestic psychologist L.S. Vygotsky. He showed that the highest forms of memory are a complex form of mental activity, social in origin. L.S. Vygotsky traced the main stages in the development of the most complex mediated memorization.
Studies of complex forms of memory associated with thought processes were carried out by Russian researchers A.A. Smirnov and P.I. Zinchenko. They studied the processes of involuntary (unintentional) memorization and the processes of conscious, meaningful memorization. A.A. Smirnov and P.I. Zinchenko singled out the main methods of memorizing complex material and established the dependence of memorization on the task.
For a long time, the physiological mechanisms underlying memory processes remained unexplored. And only in the last 30 years the situation has changed significantly. Studies have appeared that show that the imprinting, preservation and reproduction of traces are associated with biochemical changes in the structure of RNA, and that memory traces can be transferred in a humoral, biochemical way. Research began on the nervous processes of "reverberation of excitation", which began to be regarded as the physiological substrate of memory. Finally, there have been studies attempting to isolate the areas of the brain required for trace retention, as well as studies of the neurological mechanisms of remembering and forgetting.
All this made the section of the psychophysiology of memory one of the most studied in psychological science. Currently, there are different approaches to the study of memory processes - at the psychological, physiological, neural, and also at the biochemical level. There are other theories that still exist at the level of hypotheses. However, it is clear that memory is a complex mental process that includes the work of many mechanisms.
Mysteries of memory
Introduction………………………………………………………………..
What is memory? ............................................... ...............................
Types of memory and mechanisms of its work…………………………....
Records memory
The level of memory development in grade 2 students and ways to improve memory
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………
Bibliography…………………………………………………………
Introduction
Since ancient times, mankind has been interested in the question of what memory is, and where some people have such incredible abilities in memorizing. Why does someone need ten minutes to memorize, and someone an hour. Why does someone remember everything, and someone only fragments.
Memory has been studied since time immemorial, and it is hardly possible to determine the number of years that have gone into its study.
Even now, when a lot of research has been done on this issue, there are still many mysteries that are not so easy to solve.
Phenomenal memory was noted even among such ancient inhabitants as Caesar and Socrates. Then people had vague ideas about memory in general, and they spoke about people who possessed such a memory, as if from the gods.
Now, when science is at its peak, the unique phenomena of memory are being actively studied. There are many hypotheses about the causes of such a phenomenal memory. People are very interested in this phenomenon, and therefore this topic is very relevant today.
The purpose of my work is to study the phenomena of memory and their varieties.
Memory is the subject of study in my work.
Some of the tasks that I set myself in doing this work include:
- study of memory, its types, characteristics, mechanisms;
- consideration of the phenomena of memory;
-to identify the level of memory development among students of grade 2 of the MOU "Secondary School No. 60" and consider ways to improve it.
1.What is memory?
Memory is a copper board covered with letters, which time imperceptibly smooths out, if sometimes they are not renewed with a chisel (D. Locke).
Memory is a mental process of capturing (remembering), preserving and reproducing past experience.
Human memory is an amazing creation of nature. Without it, people would not be able to recognize each other, communicate. We would not have a past, we would only live in the present. If possible, save information, classify it, instantly navigate it, even modern supercomputers lose memory.
Memory is a highly unreliable data store, the contents of which can easily change under the influence of new information. The events of our life pass through our memory like a sieve. Some of them linger in its cells for a long time, while others only for the time it takes to pass through these cells. On the other hand, if all non-essential information were preserved, then the brain, in the end, would no longer be able to separate the main from the secondary, and its activity would be completely paralyzed. Therefore, memory is the ability not only to memorize, but also to forget.
Memory research is currently occupied by representatives of various sciences: psychology, biology, medicine and a number of others. Each of these sciences has its own questions, its own problems of memory, its own system of concepts and its 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.
2. Types of memory and mechanisms of its work
Store different types of information different types memory. The oldest of them - motor memory. It is genetically programmed and is responsible for remembering, saving and reproducing movements: walking, swimming, jumping... It is motor memory that helps us to perform habitual actions automatically. She is very durable. Having once mastered a complex motor skill, for example, having learned to ride a bicycle or knit, a person restores it surprisingly easily even after a long break.
emotional memory cherishes the experiences that accompanied the events of our lives. Emotional impressions are fixed almost instantly. From a biological point of view, this is a kind of warning or attraction system: fear was once associated with one object or action, pain with another, pleasure with a third. Moreover, negative emotions are more often fixed and longer retained. This type of memory is the most durable. It should be used in teaching. Any material will be assimilated better if you find a way to saturate it with emotions, make it interesting for yourself.
figurative memory associated with the work of the senses and includes visual, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, auditory. It is spontaneous, flexible and provides long-term storage of impressions. Many years later, we can definitely remember the taste of grandma's pie, her voice or her touch. Figurative memory is bizarrely selective. We see thousands of faces in the city crowd, but for some reason one thing remains before our eyes for a long time. For no reason at all, we remember a melody heard somewhere. We remember the warmth of a stone heated by the sun, the smell of pine needles from a New Year tree ...
Verbal-logical memory captures information presented in verbal form. AT early childhood it happens automatically, without understanding the meaning. Then we begin to subject the material to semantic processing. The assimilation of complex concepts, ideas, thoughts occurs with the help of verbal-logical memory. Even in order to remember the simplest action 2 + 2 = 4 not as something written on a piece of paper or a series of sounding words, but as a mathematical judgment, it is necessary to use logical memory. It is she who helps us remember the meaning, regardless of the perceived words. When we hear an explanation of some interesting idea or new concept, when we tell a story, we usually convey the essence in our own words, and do not recall verbatim what we heard earlier. Logical memory does not have ready natural programs. It develops only through communication with other people, being fully formed only in adolescence.
A special, rare type of figurative memory is eidetic memory. It holds extremely bright, detailed images for some time. If a person who possesses it is shown some picture on the screen, and then left in front of an empty screen and starts asking certain questions about what is shown, he will continue to "consider" this picture. Her eyes move as if she were standing in front of him. This type of memory is the exception, not the rule. Most often it manifests itself in children.
Eidetics were some prominent artists and musicians. For example, the following story is told about the famous French graphic artist Gustave Dore. Once the publisher instructed him to make a drawing from a photograph of an alpine landscape. Doré left, forgetting to take a picture with him, but the next day he brought a completely exact copy of what he saw on the eve.
Eidetic memory is associated with such a feature of perception as synesthesia. This phenomenon arises due to the close connection between sensory systems. For example, the perception of a certain color can be associated with a sensation of warmth, and the sounds of music can cause a series of visual images. Some composers have "color hearing". Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin even became the creator of light music.
photographic memory also preserves one or another image in detail, but its difference from the eidetic one is that people have to remember what they saw.
There are other classifications of types of memory. One of them was proposed by R.L. Atkinson, R.S. Atkinson and E.E. Smith. They believe that it is legitimate to allocate only three types of memory. When explicit(explicit) memory a person consciously remembers the past, and the memories are experienced by him as occurring in a certain place and time. Implicit ( unexpressed) memory associated with previously acquired skills and abilities. Material stored in implicit memory cannot be consciously recalled. The third type is short-term memory.
We remember not only the information received through the channels of perception through sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, but also our own thoughts, feelings, images, actions. A person does not just absorb the flow of information from the outside, like a sponge water, but actively seeks it, as if questioning the world. Along the way, he changes, transforms in his soul all the information obtained - and only then sends them to storage.
Information coming from the senses is first covered sensory memory. It provides retention of information for a very short time - less than a second. There are iconic sensory memory (associated with vision), echoic (associated with hearing) and durable, since a person remembers differently with “eyes”, “nose”, “skin”. Immediately after memorization, the process of forgetting begins. If the subject is presented with 16 letters within 50 seconds and immediately asks to list them, then he will name 10-12, i.e. about 70% of what you see. But after 150 seconds, he will remember 25-35% of the information, and after 250 seconds, all of it is lost from sensory memory.
In order for the perceived to be preserved, it must be paid attention to. Then the information will go to short term memory, which is also called operational or working: it ensures the unity and coherence of our activities. For example, when reading a sentence, the meanings of previous words are sent to short-term memory - without them it is impossible to catch the general meaning of the phrase. Information in short-term memory is delayed from several minutes to several hours. If during this time they are not used, they are forgotten; if they are needed in the future, they are moved to the neighboring hall of long-term memory.
Short-term memory is limited by the law "7+-2". Human. Having contemplated for several seconds a drawing depicting 15-20 objects, usually reproduces at least 5 and no more than 9 of them. It is curious that this restriction applies to animals and birds. However, people are able to overcome the barrier set by nature and remember a much larger amount of material. To do this, it is required to group it so that the number of parts obeys the law "7 + -2". For example, big text can be divided into parts, in each of which an important, supporting thought would be clearly presented. It is easier to memorize a melody by combining sounds into beats, and a digital series, for example, a phone number, by perceiving two or three adjacent digits as one number. Thus, the units of information are enlarged.
According to various studies, short-term memory improves significantly between the ages of 5 and 11 years. Then it remains at the same level until the age of 30, and after 30 years it gradually worsens. But in some older people, it remains at the same level as in youth, and sometimes improves.
The most secure safe long-term memory. The information placed here is saved and can be reproduced even years later. Over a lifetime, only 28% of what we have ever put into it disappears from our “archive”; the rest stays with us forever.
The period of consolidation - the transfer of information into long-term memory - requires from 15 minutes to an hour. The simplest and most familiar way to perform such an operation is repetition, but the usual does not mean effective. Mechanical memorization will not provide stable memorization. Much better. If memory helps thinking. To memorize, for example, a text, you need to establish the logic of presentation or the logic of the sequence of the described events, break the material into semantic blocks and find in each of them a key phrase or a pivotal moment. With such memorization, the material is divided into fragments according to one or another principle, and then from them, like from a mosaic, a complete picture is again compiled. Data in long-term memory is accumulated according to its importance. Retrieval of information takes longer than from short-term memory: it takes time to get to the right rack of brain storage, remove the right folder from the shelf and open it on the desired document.
Sleep works for long-term memory. No wonder they say that the morning is wiser than the evening. During REM sleep, the processing of what was perceived during the day occurs. This explains the not so rare cases when in a dream a person comes up with a solution to a problem that torments him. The connection between memory and the number of dreams was discovered by the American researcher C. Pearlman. He studied the duration of the REM sleep phases (during such periods, which occur four or five times a night, we see dreams) in students with different levels of memory. It turned out that the owners of a good memory, these phases are increased. In other words, people with good memories see more dreams.
3.Memory records
Memory also depends on individual characteristics personalities:
Interests and inclinations of the individual; (what a person is more interested in is remembered without difficulty)
From the attitude of the individual to a particular activity;
From the emotional mood of the physical state;
From willpower and many other factors
Napoleon had an exceptional long-term memory. Once, while still a lieutenant, he was placed in a guardhouse and found a book on Roman law in the room, which he read. Two decades later, he could still quote excerpts from it. He knew many of the soldiers of his army not only by sight, but also remembered who was brave, who was steadfast, who was quick-witted.
Academician A.F. Ioffe used a table of logarithms from memory, and the great Russian chess player A. A. Alekhin could play blindly with 30-40 partners at the same time from memory. Which illustrates their excellent visual memory.
The brother of A. S. Pushkin, Lev Sergeevich, had a phenomenal "photographic" memory. His memory played a saving role in the fate of the fifth chapter of the poem "Eugene Onegin". A. S. Pushkin lost it on the way from Moscow to St. Petersburg, where he was going to give it to print, and the draft of the chapter was destroyed. The poet sent a letter to his brother in the Caucasus and told about what had happened. Soon he received in reply the full text of the lost chapter, accurate to the comma: his brother heard it once and read it once.
S.V. Shereshevsky could repeat without errors a sequence of 400 words in 20 years. One of the secrets of his memory was that his perception was complex. Images - visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile - merged for him into a single whole. Shereshevsky heard the light and saw the sound, he tasted the word and color. “Your voice is so yellow and crumbly,” he said. Synesthesia was noted in N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. N. Skryabin, N. K. Chyurlionis. They all have vision
was associated with hearing. Rimsky-Korsakov believed that "E-major" - blue, "E-minor" - lilac, "F-minor" - grayish-green, "A-major" - pink. For Scriabin, sound gave rise to the experience of color, light, taste, and even touch. U. Diamandi, who had unique abilities for counting, also believed that their color helps memorize numbers and operate with them, and the calculation process was presented in the form of endless symphonies of color.
4. The level of memory development in students of grade 2
In MOU "Secondary School No. 60" we conducted a study to identify the level of memory in 2 classes. 50 people took part in the study. At the first stage, we conducted a memory test. We took 16 pictures of different content and showed them to the children.
For 20 seconds, the children looked at them and remembered in what order they were located. Then, in a specially prepared table, the children tried to depict them in the order in which they were depicted in the original drawing.
The result of the test showed that 99% of children were able to remember from 5 to 9 pictures. This means that these children have an average memory. And only one child was able to draw eleven pictures, this child has a good photographic memory.
A L D G V S I K A O D V E I C
Within 50 seconds, the children memorized the sequence in which these letters are located. As a result, this test showed that children were able to remember from 2 to 15 letters. Unfortunately, not all participants in the study showed a good result, 65% showed an average level of memorization, 30% of students have a low level of memorization, that is, their memory requires training and development. The remaining 5% showed high level memorization, these children have a well-developed memory.
After conducting these tests for a month, every day after the lessons, we carried out special exercises for the development of memory. Here is some of them.
1. Take any thing, examine it carefully for 30 seconds, then close your eyes and try to reproduce it as accurately as possible. If some details are not clearly remembered, look at the object again, then close your eyes, and so on until the thing is completely reproduced.
2. An excellent exercise for the development of a child's auditory memory is a game with pairs of words. The exercise can be performed from preschool age. So, write down on your sheet 10 pairs of words that are interconnected in meaning, for example, a chair - a table, a cat - a dog, a fork - a plate. Now you should read these words to the baby 3 times. Be sure to highlight pairs of words with intonation, take your time. After a short period of time, call the child the first words of the pair, while he must repeat his pair after each of your words. Thus, short-term memory is trained, and for the development of long-term memory, do the same exercise after half an hour.
3. How to develop a child's tactile memory? Blindfold the baby, put various objects in his hands. Then ask him to name the items in the order in which he touched them. At the same time, recognition and memorization work.
4. We also recommend developing the visual memory of children. For the exercise, you need to glue 2 towers from boxes. There will be 3 boxes in one tower, and 4 in the other. First, put the button in one of the boxes, and the child’s task is to name which tower and in which compartment the button is located. Then it will be possible to use 2 buttons in different towers. You can start doing the exercise for a child from 3 years old.
5. To develop memory and attention, it is good to work with "spot the difference" pictures. Concentrate on the details as you walk down the street, trying to find things as quickly as possible by a certain feature, such as windows with blue curtains.
After this work, we re-tested the sixteen letter memorization test. For the purity of the experiment, we took another series of letters:
ATSYFTSSCHDBLRGNIMV
The results of this test showed that the memory level of students increased and 90% wrote given test better than last time. This suggests that human memory needs to be trained daily, starting from early age and then you will always be sure that your memory will never let you down.
Conclusion
Throughout his life, a person receives a huge amount of information, which is fixed and reproduced with the help of a mental process called memory.
Memory helps us throughout our lives. Without memory, our existence would be unthinkable. We would not remember or reproduce anything, and in this case, humanity would never have reached the level of civilization that we have now.
Now scientists have come to the conclusion that memory is located in the cerebral cortex, covering its surface and having, thanks to folds, large area. But until now, the exact localization of memory has not been established.
Memory is different: voluntary and involuntary, visual and auditory, emotional and verbal-logical, short-term and long-term, genetic and neurological, and so on.
The capabilities of the human brain today are not yet fully understood, and no one can say how much information our brain can accommodate, but the fact remains that none of the people use their brain to its full potential.
However, there are special laws of memory, the knowledge of which helps people to better remember any information.
In the course of the development of mankind, there were many people who amazed those around them with their extraordinary memory. They had unusual abilities related to remembering and retaining information in memory. Some memorized long strings of numbers, and some could reproduce musical composition heard only once.
And until today, scientists have not been able to give a clear answer to explain such a phenomenal memory.
In the course of our work, a study was conducted in which we proved that a person is able to remember about 70% of the information taken away in 50 seconds, and after a few minutes this information is completely erased if it is not useful to him.
We also proved that if you train your memory daily, the number of memorized symbols and drawings will increase. This means that memory can and should be trained and then you will achieve great results.
Bibliography
Brain, mind and behavior. F. Blaum, A. Lezerson, L. Hofstadter, publishing house "Mir", M. 1988. Translation from English Ph.D. E.Z.Golina.
Physiology of higher nervous activity. Voronin L.G. publishing house "Enlightenment" M.1974
The article “Memory still suffers”, heading “Health”, newspaper “Inform policy” No. 48 (791) dated November 28, 2007.
Entertaining psychology. Platonov K.K. publishing house "Young Guard", M. 1999.
Tests and psychological games "Your psychological portrait", A.N. Sizanov, AST publishing house, M. 2002.
Many domestic and foreign psychologists have been studying memory: L.S. Vygotsky, F.I. Zinchenko, A.N. Leontiev, P.P. Blonsky, A.A. Smirnov, P. Janet, G. Ebbinghaus, G. Muller and others. In studying memory, these scientists developed a number of laws and theories of memory.
One of the first psychological theories memory, which has not lost its scientific significance up to the present time, was the associative 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 the association of connections 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 Figure 1.
Figure 1. Forgetting curve according to G. Ebbinghaus.
In accordance with this law, introduced on the basis of 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 total number originally learned syllables.
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.
Nevertheless, the associative theory of memory has given a lot of useful information for the knowledge of its laws. In line with this theory, it was established how the number of memorable elements changes with different number 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 19th century, the associative theory of memory was replaced by Gestalt theory. 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 and organization - gestalt. 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, which 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 in representatives of two other areas of psychological research on the mnemonic processes of 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 the behaviorists emphasized the role of reinforcement in remembering material and paid much attention to the study of how memory works in the learning process.
The merit of Freud and his followers in the study of memory was to elucidate the role of positive and negative emotions, motives and needs in remembering 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, a semantic theory of memory arises.
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 during memorization and reproduction. 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 science and the development of programming began the search for optimal ways of accepting, processing and storing information by a machine. Accordingly, we started cybernetic 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 research memory, because it opened up opportunities for improving programming languages, its technology and machine memory. This mutual interest led to the fact that psychology began to develop new theory memory, which can be called information-cybernetic. At present, it is taking only the first, but very promising steps towards 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.
AT domestic psychology the predominant development was the direction in the study of memory associated with the general psychological theory of activity. 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 - memorization, preservation and reproduction of various information. Here, the composition of mnemonic actions and operations, the dependence of memory productivity on the place in the structure occupied by the goal and means of memorization (or reproduction), the comparative productivity of arbitrary and involuntary memorization depending on the organization of mnemonic activity (A.N. Leontiev, P.I. Zinchenko, A.A. Smirnov, etc.).
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.
In our country, this concept was further developed in the cultural-historical theory of the origin of higher mental functions. The stages of phyllo - and ontogenetic development memory, especially voluntary and involuntary, direct and indirect.
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.
Row interesting facts, revealing the features of memorization mechanisms, the conditions under which it occurs better or worse, A.A. Smirnov discovered in his studies. 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.
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, obtained a number of interesting facts. 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.
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.
A person can experience more complex and less interesting events dozens of times, but they are not imprinted in memory for a long time.
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.
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.
If the number of members of the memorized series is increased 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.
Preliminary repetition of the material to be memorized (repetition without memorization) saves time for its assimilation if the number of such preliminary repetitions does not exceed their number necessary for complete memorization of the material by heart.
When memorizing a long row, its beginning and end are best reproduced from memory (“edge effect”).
For the associative connection of impressions and their subsequent reproduction, it is especially important whether they are separate or form a logically connected whole.
The repetition of learned material in a row is less productive for its memorization than the distribution of such repetitions over a period of time. certain period time, such as a few hours or days.
New repetition contributes to a better memorization of what was learned before.
With increased attention to memorized material, the number of repetitions needed to learn it by heart can be reduced, and the lack of sufficient attention cannot be compensated by an increase in the number of repetitions.
What a person is especially interested in is remembered without any difficulty. This pattern is especially pronounced in mature years.
Rare, strange, unusual impressions are remembered better than the usual, often encountered.
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 cases of amnesia - temporary memory loss, important for understanding the psychology of memory, notes two more patterns:
a person's memory is connected 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: in case of 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. It has been established that in the memorization, preservation and reproduction of the material, various operations are involved in processing, recoding it, including 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.
The setting for memorization contributes to it, i.e. memorization occurs better if a person sets himself an appropriate mnemonic task. If a this installation is designed to memorize and store information for a certain period, which happens when using RAM, then it is by this period that the memory mechanisms work.
What in the structure of an activity takes the place of its goal is remembered better than something that constitutes the means of carrying out this activity. Therefore, in order to increase the productivity of memorizing the material, it is necessary to somehow connect it with the main goal of the activity.
Repetition plays an important role in memorization and reproduction. Their productivity in to a large extent 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.
One of the interesting effects of memory, which has not yet been found a satisfactory explanation, is called reminiscence. This is an improvement over time in the reproduction of the learned material of its 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 and 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. 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.
The study of memory until the last quarter of the 19th century. in the works of philosophers of antiquity Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, and further in the works of R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, I. Kant, it is defined more as a description of its features than a proper scientific analysis.
Start scientific study memory dates back to 1885 - the publication of the famous work "On Memory" by G. Ebbinghaus, who set the task of experimentally studying memory, developed methods for measuring mnemonic processes and established a number of important patterns in the processes of memorization, preservation, reproduction and forgetting. G. Ebbinghaus firmly stood on the positions of associationism. He understood the processes of memory as the formation of associations: "if some mental formations ever filled consciousness simultaneously or in close succession, then later the repetition of one member of this former experience causes representations of the remaining members."
Scientists were given the task of abstracting as completely as possible from the relationship of the subject with the objective world, from the specific activity of a person and to study the influence of the contiguity factor in the most “pure” form possible. Therefore, in his experiments, G. Ebbinghaus investigated the deliberate rote memorization of mostly meaningless material, which significantly "impoverishes the subject of the psychology of memory," according to P.I. Zinchenko.
Representatives of the associative theory (G. Ebbinghaus, G. E. Müller, A. Pilzeker, and others) made an important contribution to the experimental study of memory by studying the stability, strength, and strength of associations; revealing patterns of influence on the memorization of the number of repetitions, the quantity and quality of the material being memorized, the methods of its presentation, etc. However, the researchers could not explain the selective and purposeful nature of human memory.
The concept of association has firmly entered the psychology of memory, having subsequently received a significant rethinking and scientific rationale. The emergence of new concepts of memory in line with well-known areas of psychological science is characterized in terms of content by the fact that they criticized in associative psychology.
Representatives of Gestalt psychology (W. Keller, K. Koffka, M. Wertheimeg, K. Levin, B.V. Zeigarnik and others) opposed the principle of contiguity of elements in time and space as a condition for the emergence and consolidation of associations, putting forward a new principle of integrity. Holistic education - Gestalt is primary in relation to its constituent elements. Gestalt psychologists emphasized the importance of structuring the material, bringing it to integrity, organizing it into a system during memorization and reproduction ("Structural theory of memory"), as well as the role of human intentions and needs in memory processes. Having found a psychological explanation for some facts of memory selectivity (activity, interest, attention, awareness of the task, emotions), Gestalt psychologists could not explain the formation and development of human memory in phylo- and ontogenesis.
Did not give a satisfactory answer to the question of the origin of memory and representatives of two other areas of psychology: behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Proponents of behaviorism (E. Thorndike, D. Watson, E. Tolman, K. Hovland, E. Gilford, J. Dease, J. Miller, O. Selfridge) in their own way narrowed the circle of memory phenomena, limiting themselves to the processes of acquiring and maintaining skills. Researchers emphasized the role of reinforcement in remembering material, based on the assertion that for successful memorization, it is necessary to reinforce the memorization process with some kind of stimulus. However, the behaviorists have retained the spirit of associationism, presenting skill as the result of a simple association of movements.
The problem of memory in psychoanalysis appears in an exclusively one-sided form - it is the disclosure of its emotional side and, deepening this aspect as much as possible, the discovery of the causes that cause the appearance of neurotic symptoms. Thanks to Z. Freud, the dependence of the productivity of memorization on various needs and motives, the role of emotions in remembering and forgetting the events of everyday life was shown. So, according to Z. Freud, forgetting impressions is a spontaneous process that takes place over a certain period of time. In forgetting, there is a selection of present impressions, as well as individual elements of each given impression or experience.
At the same time, in all cases, the "Motive of reluctance" lies at the basis of forgetting, i.e. denial of bad experiences.
Fundamentally new approach to the study of memory is associated with the names of Russian psychologists (L.S. Vygotsky, P.I. Zinchenko, A.N. Leontiev, A.R. Luria, A.A. Smirnov, etc.), who began to interpret memory as an activity. In this regard, L.S. Vygotsky wrote: "Memory means the use and participation of previous experience in present behavior; from this point of view, memory, both at the moment of fixing a reaction and at the moment of its reproduction, is an activity in the full sense of the word."
Activities aimed at memorizing and reproducing the retained material began to be called mnemonic activity.
Thus, thanks to the views of domestic psychologists, according to P.I. Zinchenko (1961), it became possible to study not only the results of memorization, as was the case with G. Ebbinghaus, but also the very activity of memorization, its internal structure. Memory began to be studied in close connection with goals, motives, and methods of performing activities.
The activity approach to the study of memory made it possible to formulate three important provisions:
rejection of the idea of memory as an elementary passive trace, affirmation of the active principle in memory processes;
recognition of the union of memory and thinking. This, in turn, meant that memory can be controlled and developed by learning the techniques of semantic memorization;
consideration of the possibility of memory development as a problem of qualitative restructuring of mnemonic activity.
Of particular interest is the sociological direction in the study of the psychology of memory. In the works of P. Janet, F. Bartlett, L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev presents the idea of the social nature of human memory and the possibility social management her processes.
One of the first human memory as a product of social, historical development considered P. Janet (1928). He linked the emergence and development of memory with the needs of people's communication, with the need to preserve and transmit a story, other people's assignments, etc. Thus, memory was not reduced to the mechanical association of impressions and movements, their passive reproduction; she was special social action, social reaction to the absence, overcoming the absence.
F. Bartlett's concept reflected the idea of the dependence of memory on the interests of the individual, determined by society. The material accumulated by a person as a result of life experience is organized and reorganized into certain groups under the influence of special interests, and a person remembers it, when it is needed, by "working groups" corresponding to the direction of interests. According to F. Bartlett, reproduction is always not a reproduction, but a personal reconstruction of elements of past experience.
In Russian psychology, the idea of a social approach to understanding the nature of memory was in connection with the study of the genesis of the child's psyche. So, L.S. Vygotsky and A.R. Luria, applying the principle of comparative genetic research, traced the phylogeny of memory on the basis of comparison with ontogenesis data. According to scientists, "a decisive step in the transition from the natural development of memory to a cultural one lies in the pass that separates mnemu from mnemotechnics, the use of memory from dominating it, the biological form of its development from the historical, internal from external" .
Research by A.N. Leontief (1931) was the first experimental work devoted to the problem of mediation of higher mental functions, and primarily memory. Using the method of double stimulation, A.N. Leontiev developed a position on the "rotation" of external means and methods of memorization, the essence of which is that memorization from a direct, and then externally mediated process becomes an internally mediated arbitrary act that ensures high memory productivity. This position was confirmed by an empirical regularity known as the "parallelogram of development".
Thus, in domestic psychology, a structural-genetic approach was proposed (A.R. Luria, 1960; A.N. Leontiev, 1972; B.G. Ananiev, 1977; B.F. Lomov, 1984, etc.), according to which assumes the existence of hierarchical systems underlying the organization of mental functions - from the lower, the origin of which is, to a greater extent, hereditary, to the higher, with the greatest influence of social factors.
In cognitive psychology, the computer metaphor has been adopted. It considers a person as a cognitive system and interprets the processes taking place in this system as a gradual processing of information by analogy with the processing of information in a computer.
The field of the psychology of memory has become central to cognitive psychology. During the 1950-70s. research was carried out within the framework of informational and structural-functional approaches, where memory is considered as an information system continuously engaged in receiving, modifying, storing and retrieving information. Memory was compared with a workshop (R. Klacki, 1978), storage (R. Atkinson, 1980), etc., but the main analogy was always blocks of operational and external memory of a computing device. Many models of memory have emerged. The three-component memory model of R. Atkinson and R. Shiffrin (1968) is the most famous in psychology. It presents three information stores - perceptual, short-term and long-term stores with their specific organization, constantly circulating flows between them and the control system (Atkinson, 1980).
It can be noted that, despite the successful development of memory models using computer metaphors, it has become clear that the analogy between information processing in humans and computers is not satisfactory. This is due, first of all, to the fact of the intermittent influence on the effectiveness of the mnemonic system of such variables as motivation, interest, attention, meaningfulness of the material, etc.
However, the cognitive approach has driven numerous studies. The main directions of memory research in cognitive psychology are presented in the work of R. Solso (1996).
Another promising direction cognitive psychology in the study of memory has become a theory of "levels of processing", or structural-level approach. So, B.M. Velichkovsky noted: "a common feature modern approaches to the description of memory is the transition from linear chains of control to hierarchical level structures" .
For the first time this new conceptual approach to the study of memory was proposed in 1972 by F. Craik and R. Lockhart. The novelty of the theory was that the main subject of analysis was not the external determinants of memory (the time of presentation of the material, the nature of the material, the number of repetitions, etc.), but active processes information processing, mental operations themselves. Each stimulus can be processed at different levels, ranging from the perceptual, as a simpler level, to the more complex, abstract one. Scientists have shown that certain types of memory can be mapped to levels of processing. At each of the levels, a visual, auditory or other code can be used, however, the nature of information processing is determined not only by the code of the incoming information, but also by the combination of the code with the level.
Information based memory models and layered processing models differ in their relationship to the role of structure and process and the nature of repetition. The informational approach emphasizes the role of structure and rote repetition, while layered processing theory focuses on processes and meaningful repetition.
Since the 70s. and psychology, a systematic approach is beginning to be implemented. B.F. Lomov noted: "The nature of the mental can only be understood on the basis of system analysis, i.e. consideration of the mental in the multitude of external and internal relations in which it acts as an integral system. This requires the study of the internal mechanisms, laws and patterns of the psyche as an integral system.
The implementation of the principle of consistency in the study of memory problems was a natural development of many modern approaches: informational, structural-functional, and activity-based.
Considering memory from the standpoint of a systematic approach, S.P. Bocharova defines it as a basic functional system that performs not only a cognitive function associated with the reflection and transformation of new information, but also a productive one related to the organization of all human activity (Bocharova, 1981; 1984; 1990). Other scientists also point out the need to take into account productive moments. So, V.Ya. Laudis notes that memory provides "a productive reconstruction of the formed and actualized experience in accordance with the values and meanings of the individual."
Supporters of the systemic approach (SP. Bocharova, Ya.A. Bolylunov, JLM. Vekker, V.Ya. Lyaudis, R.M., Granovskaya and others) consider memory as a phenomenon that permeates the entire human psyche. In particular, S.P. Bocharova proposed a scheme that reflects the relationship of memory with the perceptual, intellectual and motor components of the psyche, united in "the general outline of a complex hierarchically organized structure of human activity."
Summarizing the ideas about memory that existed at the end of the 20th century, L.V. Cheremoshkina notes that "memory is a multi-level, hierarchical, dynamic system of organizing information open to the formation of new connections in order to carry out future activities."
It is fundamentally important to note that memory acts as a complex system in which two principles are connected - biological (natural memory - "mnema") and social (associated with the environment, with the ability to manage one's memory, with mastering the methods of its organization and development). Therefore, it is supposed to study the different levels of memory properties - from biochemical to psychological (Petrov, 1977; Sereda, 1985; Chuprikova, 1989; Bocharova, 1990, etc.).
Yu.M. Zabrodin, V.P. Zincheiko, B.f. Lomov (1980) emphasize that the disclosure of the neurophysiological and psychophysiological foundations of mnemonic processes is one of the most important conditions further development memory theory. The natural foundations of mnemonic abilities were studied from the standpoint of the differential psychophysiological school. It has been shown that the properties nervous system are the most important physiological determinants that largely determine the individual originality of memorization processes.
Thus, surveying the state of modern foreign and domestic works, it can be noted that memory, first of all, acts as an activity and as a system. This means that the psychology of mnemonic processes must be viewed through the prism of purposeful cognitive activity a person who is dynamic and changeable. The conditions for the efficiency of memorization and reproduction are not stable and unambiguous determinants of the mnemonic result.
An association is a relationship between separate views whereby one of those views invokes another.
Associations are formed on a random basis, so the association theory does not explain the selectivity of memory. Nevertheless, the associative theory has given a lot of useful information for understanding the laws of memory. Within the framework of this theory, G. Ebbinghaus worked (“on memory”, 1885), who owns the discovery of a number of mechanisms and patterns of memory.
Memory is the ability of the soul to form, store and reproduce associations (G. Ebbinghaus)
The process of reviving some mental content, previously perceived in the form of representations, Ebbinghaus called reproduction. He called the reproduction mechanism an association - a mental connection that arises between a process observed in reality and the possibility of its occurrence in the event of its absence, a connection between psychological phenomena, when the actualization of one of them entails the appearance of another. So the association is the internal cause of the reproduction. At the same time, Ebbinghaus emphasized that reproducible sensations and ideas are not identical with those that existed before, but are only similar to them, and, nevertheless, are capable of awakening previously observed mental formations.
The flow of human ideas, in his opinion, is regulated by 4 different associations:
1. by similarity;
2. by contrast;
3. by adjacency in time and space
4. by causality (causal relationship)
Features of the study of memory in associative psychology:
the study of "clean" memory, i.e. maximum shutdown of complex mental activity (mental, emotional, etc.) when memorizing,
the strictest regulation and standardization of experimental research,
study of the dependence of memory efficiency on external conditions, especially on the number and organization of repetitions,
almost exclusive attention to the productive (quantitative, not qualitative) side of memory.
Methods of experimental study of memory
They were first proposed in associative psychology by G. Ebbinghaus:
recognition method,
learning method,
anticipation method (anticipation),
savings method.
Experimental studies of memory in associative psychology
study of memory change over time - the forgetting curve (G. Ebbinghaus), It was obtained by G. Ebbinghaus in an experimental study by the savings method.
study of the position of elements in a row for memorization - the edge effect (G. Ebbinghaus). When memorizing, preserving and reproducing homogeneous and large material, its elements located at the beginning and at the end of a row are better remembered.
study of the influence of the degree of homogeneity of the material on memorization - the effect A. von Restorf, Heterogeneous elements of the material, included in a number of homogeneous elements, are stored in memory better than homogeneous ones, regardless of the nature of the material.
study of the influence of the meaningfulness of the material on memorization (McTech),
study of the influence of the method of organization of repetitions on memorization.