How a person's memory works is just about the complex. Memory allows a person to accumulate and subsequently use personal life experience, knowledge and skills are stored in it

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Rite for accumulation of money With the help of this rite, you can save money and start attracting more money. Perform the ceremony on a full moon night. Light a red candle on the table. Prepare an ordinary piggy bank in advance. It should be large enough and

Ecology of life. Most people do not remember themselves in early childhood. However, these experiences are deeply embedded in bodily memory and affect the physical sense of self, relationships with others and the ability to cope with psychological problems throughout life. Therefore, the first years of life are the most important period in the development of the psyche.

Most people do not remember themselves in early childhood. However, these experiences are deeply embedded in bodily memory and throughout life affect the physical sense of self, relationships with others and the ability to cope with psychological problems. Therefore, the first years of life are the most important period in the development of the psyche.

Do any of you remember when you fell out of bed at the age of one and frightened your parents? Or what lullaby did your mother sing at night? How did his father throw him in his arms? Most likely no. Usually, people consciously remember themselves from about the age of four. And about everything that happened before, they know only from the words of loved ones. But it is the experiences of early childhood that leave a deep imprint on the memory for life.

In the usual sense of the word, "remember" means "to know." The person remembers the first day of school, the faces of friends, phone numbers. Such memory in science is called explicit(explicit). It consists of factual information stored in the cerebral cortex, which can be reproduced in consciousness and expressed in words. It allows you to mentally return to the past, learn from it and predict future events on their basis.

But many actions people do mechanically: they tie their shoelaces, pedal a bicycle, find a switch in the dark ... The algorithm of these actions is also stored in memory. The accurate reaction of an experienced goalkeeper, the ability to navigate in space, good (and bad) habits - all this is memory. A person does not just store memories, he is literally woven from them. Although he does not realize it.

This memory is called implicit- hidden. The information stored in it is not recognized, it is difficult to describe it in words. Its carrier is the body itself. German philosopher and psychiatrist Thomas Fuchs calls it “body memory”.

This is the bodily experience of the past, which a person is unconsciously guided by in life. Some of these skills are trained to automatism through conscious effort, which only then become unconscious. For example, someone who often works at a computer cannot reproduce the keyboard layout from memory. But his fingers already themselves "know" where to press. And among musicians and athletes, the coordination of movements is so complicated that it is better for the mind not to interfere with it. It's too slow.

However, there is also an experience that is initially acquired without the participation of consciousness. For example, everyone knows that hugging is soothing. And it can determine the mood of the interlocutor by the timbre of the voice.

As a rule, consciousness "turns on" only at the moment when some "anomaly" occurs that disrupts the usual course of things. When a person makes a "typo". Feels pain or anxiety. Or he notices that he is acting irrationally, but cannot sort out his feelings. For example, when the screeching of brakes suddenly awakens in the whole body a tangible memory of a car accident he experienced in the distant past.

Neurophysiology has long focused on the study of the phenomenon of consciousness. It was only recently that it became clear what a tremendous impact bodily experience has on emotions and thinking. First of all, there are unconscious memories of the first years of life, when a person comprehends the science of communicating with other people not at the level of words and intellect, but thanks to touch and sensation.

Infancy- the most important stage of mental development. It largely depends on him how the child grows up - shy or decisive, notorious or self-confident. And most importantly, how he will behave with other people.

Body memories are like a foreign language. Its study begins with imitation - that is, actions, when all experiences are reduced to physical sensations.

“Show despair on your face,” asks Beatrice Beebe, a psychoanalyst and professor at Columbia University (USA). All that remains is to wrinkle your forehead and curl your mouth, as if you are about to burst into tears. In response, Beebe turns away. Although this is just a game, its gesture clearly reads: leave me alone. Then she turns with a smile. But how can this be comforting?

Then she looks with a sneer, as if she wants to say: stop whimpering, it's not so bad! Inevitably, you begin to feel indignation. Her expression is now neutral.

She clearly does not notice someone else's plea for help. From facial expressions we have to move on to the words: "Help!" After that, she, too, depicts despair on her face and sighs sympathetically in response. And only at this moment do you feel that you have been understood.

Beatrice Beebe studies non-verbal communication between a child and a mother. Its purpose is to determine when two people can understand each other without words, and when not. Main the object of her research is a child aged from four months to one year.

This is in many ways a defining period. During the first year of life, the volume of the child's brain doubles, in the ninth month the process of the formation of new neural connections reaches its peak. The parts of the brain that are responsible for the regulation of stress conditions and the analysis of emotions are developing especially rapidly. Moreover, almost twice as many neural contacts (synapses) are formed in the baby's brain than necessary.

Synapses work on a use-or-lose basis, says Michael Merzenich, one of the leading neurophysiologists at the University of California. Depending on the conditions in which the child grows up, some neural connections are intensively used, while others “sleep” and eventually “turn off”. This is how the brain adapts to the reality in which it will exist.

The main stimulus for the development of the brain is contacts with loved ones, especially with the mother. At this moment, her main task is instill a sense of safety and stress in the child, acting as an intermediary between him and the outside world.

Research material by Beatrice Beebe - video recordings of communication between mother and child. When filming, two cameras are used. For each - his own. Then the frames are analyzed every second. Only under such a "microscope" can unconscious signals be traced: gestures, facial expressions, touches, intonation. And to determine how mother and child react to each other and how mutual understanding and emotional connection arise between them.

Today is the era of industrialization. And modern parents try to accustom their children to a separate room as early as possible, forgetting that a person is a “social being”. And this property manifests itself even before birth.

Observing the behavior of twins in the mother's womb, Italian scientists have found that starting from the 14th week, embryos make purposeful movements towards each other. And already in the first hour after birth, newborns begin to copy the gestures and facial expressions of others. And this is not surprising. After all, successful communication with others is the key to survival.

Parents are often amused by the child's grimaces when he begins to imitate their facial expressions: pulling his lips with a tube or showing his tongue. But for scientists, this is a serious fact: newborns are already watching what the person in their field of vision is doing. Babies project what they see into their bodily sensations. And they know how to catch similarities. But this is no less than the beginnings of the most important ability - to understand another and mentally put oneself in his place.

This discovery is a real revolution in neurophysiology. If earlier it was believed that many functions of the brain are not connected with the outside world, now it has become clear: the brain is a “contact organ”.

Video scene: A four-month-old boy looks at his mother. She makes an exaggeratedly surprised face. He raises an eyebrow, spreads his legs slightly, and spreads his toes. The mother smiles. Both shake their heads and exchange smiles. The child looks frowning. The mother touches him with her hand. He relaxes.

Their body language is so rich in semitones that all of its nuances are impossible to convey in words.

Experiments show that when one person repeats the facial expressions and gestures of another, takes the same posture or adjusts to the rhythm of his steps, this enhances the feeling of emotional closeness. And during an intimate conversation, both interlocutors even synchronize the rhythms of the brain. And the ability to predict other people's words appears.

One of the rules of effective communication: a partner must behave in such a way that the other can predict his actions and his reactions for a few seconds ahead, says Beebe. Already at three or four months, children begin to calculate the possible consequences of their actions according to the principle "if I do this, this will happen." For example, if I look at my mother, she will smile at me and I will be delighted. If I scream, she will pet me and I will calm down.

Children learn that any expression of emotion affects the other person and themselves. They get to know themselves and receive recognition from others.

It would seem that adults are striving for this, not babies. But in fact, "self-knowledge and recognition" is not so much a goal as the fundamental principle of psychological well-being. The ability to understand oneself and keep in touch with others is vital, regardless of age..

The child begins to comprehend the "science of relationships" from infancy. Learns how to express your feelings in order to attract attention. How to behave with others. What kind of help you can count on in a stressful situation. Later, the patterns of behavior formed in childhood are repeated in friendships and loving relationships. In dealing with your own children. In such cases, they say: "You behave like your mother."

And judging by the results of long-term studies, this is the case.

Joy, fear, anger - the ability to express all these feelings is not given from birth. This is learned. And not always successfully. Incredible, but true: quite a few people suffer from alexithymia - an inability to be aware of their emotions and understand how others are feeling. Such people cannot distinguish internal irritation from indigestion, psychological discomfort from physical ailment. And all because they almost do not activate the part of the brain that is responsible for converting bodily sensations into emotions.

In extreme cases, even physical sensitivity is dulled. The body simply does not respond to emotional stimuli: sadness, joy, anger. This condition resembles emotional paralysis. But alexithymia is not a disease, but only a mechanism of psychological defense against unbearable fear, aggression or melancholy. And it is formed, as a rule, in early childhood.

What's going on?

Children are born with only a set of primitive facial signals and primary emotions: discontent, pleasure, fear and interest. At first, they serve as a kind of body state sensors for the child. If the internal balance is disturbed, the body sounds the alarm. And the child screams, notifying the adult about it. “Expressing emotions is a way of communication that allows you to get the necessary reaction from another person,” says emotional development specialist Manfred Holodinsky from the University of Münster in Germany.

Emotions is an incentive to restore internal balance. And for the one who tests them, and for the one to whom they are addressed.

But at first, the child's ways of expressing emotions are so similar that it is difficult for parents to guess whether he is screaming from hunger, from pain, or just from boredom. Adults react to the baby's cries with exaggerated facial expressions. Thanks to this, the child gradually understands how it is customary to express the feeling that he is now experiencing. For example, anger. Or fear. Parents usually “play along” to a frightened child only for a couple of moments. If you show him for a long time that I, they say, am also afraid, then it will not work to calm him down.

Little by little, the child learns to express his emotions more accurately. And, guided by experience, connects them with certain sensations. In his bodily memory, a base of emotional knowledge and corresponding physical reactions is accumulated. He begins to understand what exactly gives pleasure. What you can be proud of. And what should you be ashamed of.

He adopts both positive and negative emotional "attitudes" from his parents. Permeated by fear of the world around him - under the influence of a suspicious mother. Or disgust for snails - following the example of his father. Moreover, all this is deposited in the bodily memory at such an early age that in the future it does not lend itself to comprehension.

At first, children express their feelings literally with their whole body. Only from the age of two do they begin to master a new powerful communication tool - speech.
And they learn to express emotions with words, not just actions. And internally distance yourself from experiences. “Instead of identifying with a feeling, they begin to realize that they are just experiencing it,” explains Manfred Holodinsky.

Language gives the child the key to his inner world.... But he cannot get there without the help of his parents. The guiding lines for him are their questions: “Why are you crying? What happened to you?" Only in this way can he understand what feelings are hidden behind external reactions - for example, tears. In later life, this helps him analyze and control his emotions.

By listening to his inner voice, the child learns to catch and correctly interpret even the weakest signals that the body gives in response to new emotional stimuli: "goose bumps", stomach cramps, muscle tension or dry mouth. American neuroscientist Antonio Damasio calls such reactions “ somatic markers". They serve as clues to consciousness when making decisions.

“I think - it means I exist,” Descartes once said. Damasio paraphrased his formula: "I feel - it means I exist."

Body memory stores much more information than consciousness.
In one test, ten-year-olds were unable to recognize their grown-up kindergarten friends in a photograph. But judging by the galvanic skin reaction, they remembered them. An indicator of arousal in such studies is the change in the electrical resistance of the skin. There is such a case: a two-year-old child who was abused at the age of one could not identify his abuser in the picture, but the photo itself caused him physical stress.

The deepest scars in emotional memory- the result of the most painfulexperiences. They serve as a warning for the future. But sometimes the mental trauma is so strong that the psyche is not able to cope with it. The experienced horror simply does not fit into consciousness in the form of a coherent whole.

This experience is stored only in implicit memory in the form of scattered impressions. Any such detail - a familiar smell, sound, gesture, fateful date - instantly resurrects a seemingly long forgotten past. To protect against unbearable memories, about every third victim resorts to the so-called "dissociation": subconsciously "splits" traumatic experiences into incoherent fragments. And then they are no longer perceived as real.

Beatrice Beebe only needs to watch a couple of minutes of video recording of the behavior of a four-month-old child in order to predict his future psychological problems - at least eight months, at least twenty years ahead.

A typical episode: a baby whimpers pitifully, and his mother, oblivious to it, tugs at his leg with a smile. He tries to dodge. But she doesn't notice his defensive reaction. And, continuing to smile, leans towards him. He presses his head into his shoulders and stretches his arms forward. She comes close to him.

The scene makes a repulsive impression. “This woman does not understand her child,” says Beebe. - Usually such mothers are too suspicious or suffer from depression. Or they want them to have the perfect, ever-smiling child. And that's why they ignore his other emotions. "

Such communication not only drives the child into stress, but also disorientates him. He reproduces the conflicting emotional signals of the mother, confuses the mutually exclusive forms of expression of emotions - a smile and tears. Calls the mother to her and at the same time repels. “This is how many future mental disorders begin,” says Beebe.

Even for adults, words alone are not enough for mutual understanding. It is necessary for the interlocutor to give confirmation signs: nodding, raising eyebrows, assenting. Like a four-month-old baby, an adult is distant from anyone who violates his personal space. And instantly notices shifting eyes or out of place laughter.

And if this does not happen episodically, but constantly - and in communication with the closest person? It is not hard to imagine how this affects a young child. After all, he cannot stand up for himself. Can't leave. Mom is the only person he knows in the whole world. And without her help he will not calm down.

At this age, the child is not yet familiar with the unconscious tricks with which adults relieve anxiety on their own: ruffle their hair, rub their nose or chin. Touching acts as a sedative. And help relieve stress... This is confirmed by the results of encephalographic studies carried out recently by Martin Grunwald, a tactile perception specialist from Leipzig (Germany).

Lack of tactile contact leaves gaps in the child's bodily memory... Touch is the first sense of a person. It develops even in the mother's womb. And it remains the main one for a long time. Through feeling, grasping and touching, the child defines personal "boundaries" and gets an idea of ​​his body. Tactile contact gives him a sense of security and confidence. Stimulates the production of growth hormones. They inhibit the release of stress hormones. Normalize heart rate, breathing and blood pressure. Adults also feel the beneficial effect of touch. But not all.

“Ten percent of our patients are intolerant to touch,” says Peter Joraschki, a psychosomatics specialist in Dresden. - They often have disgust for their own bodies. This is usually due to a lack of tactile contact during childhood. Perhaps they had mothers with complexes who avoided touching. Or, in childhood, they were either pressed too hard, or they were left unattended for a long time. "

Decades later, they experience the same emotional contrasts in intimate relationships. In severe cases, aversion to touch turns into a subconscious rejection of one's own body. Because of this, during puberty, anorexia, a weight loss mania, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, can develop.

Early experiences shape the developing psyche of the child... It is like the job of a gardener pruning the branches of seedlings to give the future tree the desired shape. If a child is not sure that he will have a diaper change or will be comforted in a hug, he grows up under conditions of constant stress. And the body will not forget it. He will become excitable, impulsive, ready for instant internal mobilization. Constant stress is expensive for the psyche. Leaves less room for pleasant emotions. Stress hormones inhibit the formation of synapses and neural connections. This means the development of those parts of the brain that are responsible for the control of internal impulses and the perception of signals from the body.

“The negative childhood experience does not disappear anywhere. Often it is imprinted in the psyche for life, says American physician Vincent Felitti. - Time does not heal the psychological trauma of the first years of life. It only preserves them. It only seems to us that we have forgotten them. But the body remembers everything. "

University campus of Cambridge near Boston (USA). The best students of the country come out of the metro. And on the square in front of the station completely different young people “hang out”: homeless people, alcoholics, drug addicts. A sad contrast ... Why do some manage to reveal their potential, while others sink to the bottom, not really starting to live?

All losers have something in common: almost 70 percent of American psychiatric patients complain of a difficult childhood. Among the prisoners, there are almost 100 percent of them.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The true scope of the problem was revealed in 1995 after a unique study of "adverse childhood experiences" was conducted in US medical institutions. More than 17 thousand people took part in the survey. A third of the respondents admitted that they were beaten in childhood.

20 percent complained of sexual harassment. Almost one in four of the closest relatives had an alcoholic. Every fifth person is mentally ill. Every eighth in childhood witnessed fights and quarrels between parents.

The list goes on. Researchers have found a direct relationship: the more affirmative answers a respondent gives to questions about negative childhood experiences, the higher the likelihood that in adulthood he will suffer from depression, obesity, alcoholism, drug addiction, cardiovascular disease, cancer or diabetes. Only six such unfavorable factors shorten life by 20 years.

When exactly do unpleasant experiences develop into mental trauma? What happens at each stage of the development of neural connections? Scientists are getting more and more accurate answers to these questions. It has already been established that reliable emotional support in the first two years of life serves as a shield for a child against traumatic experiences - even with an innate tendency to stress.

If a child is physically or mentally abused in a family, the result can be a whole bunch of violations. That is why many experts demand that a developmental trauma be officially recognized as a disease.

“Children with this diagnosis need to physically learn to control their emotions,” says Bessel van der Kolk, professor of psychiatry and organizer of a trauma center in Boston. He was one of the first to realize that the human body "remembers" mental trauma... And he created a theater studio for his adolescent patients. And for children - a special playroom.

There is a carousel, balls, trampoline. And thick mats are spread all over the place. An ideal playground for nervous, notorious, capricious and emotionally squeezed kids. Here they can get the missing bodily experience: relax, "make friends" with their own body.

A seven-year-old boy, screaming, throws the dolls against the wall, not responding to persuasion. Therapist Elizabeth Warner invites him to jump on a trampoline - with her. In the same rhythm. There is a contact. The shackles are thrown off. The child changes before our eyes: laughs, talks without hesitation.

Elizabeth Warner, the project manager, sees such miraculous transformations all the time. Some particularly tight-lipped toddlers have to be literally awakened from "emotional hibernation."

Warner's secret lies in the ability to balance the level of arousal in the child's nervous system. Only in this way can he "return to his body", sort out his feelings, learn to control them. And learn new experience. In this case, she was able to calm a seven-year-old patient through distracting physical activity - jumping on a trampoline.

Now the boy falls to the floor and demands that she throw the ball in his face. This is not without reason - once the father poked him with his nose in the soiled diapers and slapped him in the face; since then, the child does not allow touching his face while washing. The therapist hesitates at first. But there is nothing to do. She throws the ball. He hits it with his forehead. Again. He dodges. Beats him off with his hands and feet. Calls the mother to join the game.

All this Sigmund Freud described a century ago - people who have received mental trauma reproduce again and again painful experiences at the physical level, repressed from their conscious memory. Often they are doomed to this repetition throughout their lives. Victims of violence often find an outlet for themselves by acting as the abuser. And thus they pass on the traumatic experience further - to their children. But this seven-year-old boy is unconsciously trying to break out of the vicious circle. Connect the unbearable past with new pleasant experiences.

“As soon as a child begins to feel a reliable connection with another person, he tries to change: to get out of the role of a passive victim. And become an active partner, ”says Elizabeth Warner.

It turns out that the body is not only a memory carrier, but also a tool for self-development. And not only in children, but also in adults. The only problem is that adult patients do not move at a psychotherapist's appointment, but sit in an armchair or lie on a couch. And they say, they say, they say ...

They try to find words to describe their fears. Irrational behavior. Childhood experiences. Until they finally comprehend these facts and sort them "on the shelves" in the conscious memory.

But this does not relieve one of the burden of the past: the body continues to subconsciously remember what it has experienced. And the past comes back again and again - in the form of physical reactions. “To reprogram physical memory, you need to re-experience old emotions in a safe environment and learn to perceive them in a new way,” says Bessel van der Kolk.

What would a child do in a difficult situation? I would call my mother with a shout. I would have asked for my hands. He slammed the door. He began to cry.

In a child, all emotional signals are a stimulus for others. And for an adult - for himself. The rush of adrenaline, increased heart rate and breathing, muscle tension, loss of appetite - all this is nothing more than a call to act.

And to write new impressions into the memory of the body. published

All living beings have memory, but man has reached the highest level of development. Memory connects the past with the present. It is memory that allows a person to be aware of his “I”, to act in the world around him, to be who he is. Human memory is a form of mental reflection, which consists in the accumulation, consolidation, preservation and subsequent reproduction by the individual of his experience. Ours is a functional education that does its job through the interaction of three main processes: memorization, preservation and reproduction of information. These processes not only interact, there is mutual conditioning between them. After all, you can only save what you have memorized, and reproduce what you have saved.

Memorization. Human memory begins with memorizing information: words, images, impressions. The main task of the memorization process is to memorize accurately, quickly and a lot. Distinguish between involuntary and voluntary memorization. Voluntary memorization is turned on when the goal is to remember not only what is itself imprinted in his memory, but also what is necessary. Voluntary memorization is active, purposeful, and has a volitional origin.

That which is personally significant, is associated with a person's activities and his interests, has the character of involuntary memorization. With involuntary memorization, a person is passive. Involuntary memorization clearly demonstrates such a property of memory as selectivity. If you ask different people what they remember most at the same wedding, then some will easily tell about who presented the newlyweds and what gifts, others - what they ate and drank, others - to what music they danced, etc. However, at the same time, neither the first, nor the second, nor the third did not set a clear goal for themselves to remember something concretely. Memory selectivity worked.

It is worth mentioning the "Zeigarnik effect" (it was first described in 1927 by the Soviet psychologist Bluma Wolfovna Zeigarnik (1900-1988): a person involuntarily remembers unfinished actions, situations that did not receive natural resolution.

If we could not finish something, finish eating, get what we want, while we were close to the goal, then this is remembered thoroughly and for a long time, and what we successfully completed is forgotten quickly and easily. The reason is that an unfinished action is a source of strong negative ones, which are much more powerful than positive ones in terms of the strength of their impact.

Many scientists have studied memorization techniques. In particular, the German psychologist G. Ebbinghaus formulated a number of patterns of memorization. He believed that repetition (indirect or direct) is the only relative guarantee of the reliability of memorization. Moreover, the result of memorization is in a certain dependence on the number of repetitions. Ebbinghaus's law states: the number of repetitions required to memorize the entire row grows much faster than the object of the presented row. If the subject memorizes 8 digits from one presentation (display), then to memorize 9 digits he will need 3-4 presentations. The scientist also emphasizes the importance of the volitional factor. The higher the concentration of attention on any information, the faster memorization will occur.

However, it has been found that mechanical repetition is less effective than meaningful memorization. The direction of modern psychology - mnemonics - is engaged in the development of numerous memorization techniques based on the principle of associative communication: the translation of information into images, graphics, pictures, schemes.

Allocate four types of human memory in accordance with the type of memorized material.
1. Motor memory, i.e. the ability to memorize and reproduce a system of motor operations (drive a car, weave a braid, tie a tie, etc.).
2. Figurative memory - the ability to save and further use the data of our perception. It is (depending on the receiving analyzer) auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory and gustatory.
3. Emotional memory captures the feelings we experienced, the peculiarity of emotional states and affects. A child who is frightened by a large dog, most likely, even becoming an adult, will have dislike for these animals for a long time (fear memory).
4. Verbal memory (verbal-logical, semantic) is the highest type of memory inherent only in humans. With its help, most of the mental actions and operations (counting, reading, etc.) are carried out, the information base of the human is formed.

Different people have developed this or that type of memory to a greater extent: in athletes - motor, in artists - shaped, etc.

Preservation of information. The main requirement for a person's memory is to store information reliably, for a long time and without loss. Several memory levels are distinguished, differing in how long information can be stored on each of them.

1. Sensory (direct) type of memory. The systems of this memory retain accurate and complete data on how the world is perceived by our senses at the receptor level. The data is saved for 0.1-0.5 seconds. The mechanism of action of sensory memory is easy to detect: close your eyes, then open them for a second and close them again. The clear picture you see remains for a while, and then slowly disappears.
2. Short-term memory allows you to process a colossal amount of information without overloading the brain, due to the fact that it eliminates all unnecessary and leaves useful, necessary for solving urgent (momentary) problems.
3. Long-term memory provides long-term storage and use of information. The capacity and duration of long-term memory storage can be limitless. There are two types of long-term memory. The first one is at the level of consciousness. A person in his own way can remember, extract the necessary information. The second type is a closed long-term memory, in which information is stored at the subconscious level. Under normal conditions, a person does not have access to this information, only with the help of psychoanalytic procedures, in particular hypnosis, as well as stimulation of various parts of the brain, one can access it and actualize images, thoughts, experiences in all details.
4. Intermediate memory is between short-term and long-term memory. It ensures the preservation of information for several hours. In the waking state, a person accumulates information during the day. To prevent the brain from overloading, it is necessary to free it from unnecessary information. The information accumulated over the past day is cleared, categorized and stored in long-term memory during a night's sleep. Scientists have determined that this requires at least three hours of sleep a night.
5. Working memory is a type of human memory that manifests itself in the course of performing a certain activity and serves this.

Playback... The requirements for the memory reproduction process are accuracy and timeliness. In psychology, four forms of reproduction are distinguished:
1) recognition - arises from the repetition of the perception of objects and phenomena;
2) recollection - is carried out in the real absence of perceived objects. Memories are usually carried out through associations that provide automatic, involuntary reproduction;
3) recollection - carried out in the absence of a perceived object and is associated with active volitional activity to update information;
4) reminiscence - delayed reproduction of what was previously perceived and seemed forgotten. With this form of memory reproduction, older events are remembered more easily and more accurately than those that occurred in the recent past.

Forgetting is the flip side of memory preservation. This is a process that leads to a loss of clarity and a decrease in the amount of data that can be updated in. For the most part, forgetting is not a memory anomaly; it is a natural process that is caused by a number of factors.
1. Time - in less than an hour a person forgets half of the information he just received mechanically.
2. Active use of available information - forgetting, first of all, what is not a constant need. However, childhood experiences and motor skills such as ice skating, playing a musical instrument, swimming, remain fairly stable for many years without any exercise. Remains at a subconscious level, as if forgetting what violates the psychological balance, causes negative stress (traumatic impressions).

Information in our memory is not stored unchanged, like documents in an archive. In memory, the material undergoes a change and a qualitative reconstruction.

Human memory disorders... Multiple memory impairments are very common, although most people do not notice them or notice them too late. The very concept of "normal memory" is rather vague. Memory hyperfunction is usually associated with strong excitement, febrile excitement, taking certain medications or hypnotic effects. The form of obsessive memories is called a violation of emotional balance, feelings of insecurity and anxiety, which create a thematic focus of memory hyperfunction. So, for example, we constantly remember our extremely unpleasant, unseemly actions. It is almost impossible to banish such memories: they haunt us, cause a feeling of shame and a pang of conscience.

In practice, weakening of the memory function, partial loss of preserving or reproducing existing information are more common. The weakening of selective reduction, difficulties in reproducing the material necessary at a given moment (names, dates, names, terms, etc.) are attributed to the earliest manifestations of memory impairment. Then the weakening of memory can take the form of progressive amnesia, the causes of which are alcoholism, trauma, age-related and negative personality changes, sclerosis, and diseases.

In modern psychology, there are facts of memory deceptions in the form of an extremely one-sided selectivity of memories, false memories and distortions of memory. Usually they are caused by strong desires, passions, unmet needs. For example, when a child is given a sweet, he quickly eats it, and then “forgets” about it and sincerely proves that he did not receive anything.

Distortion of memory is often associated with a weakening of the ability to distinguish between one's own and another's, what a person experienced in reality, and what he heard, saw in the movies or read. In the case of multiple repetitions of such memories, their complete personification occurs, i.e. a person begins to consider other people's thoughts as his own. The presence of the facts of deceiving memory testifies to how closely it is connected with the person's fantasy.

Short-term memory Is a type of human memory, thanks to which you can retain a small amount of information for a short time. The duration of storing information with a one-time perception is estimated at a few seconds. Short-term memory is also called primary or active memory. Short-term and long-term memory are opposed to each other, they differ in the amount of information retention time.

Short-term memory in children can simultaneously hold no more than 5-6 elements (different images, words or numbers). In an adult, it can retain 7-9 elements for a short time. These figures are approximate, since there are individual characteristics of memorization.

Many scientists argue that short-term memory in children has the highest intensity of development in preschool age. This period is considered the basis for its further development.

Poor short-term memory can be associated with various impairments. Such violations are pathological conditions that are characterized by the inability to save and use the information received. Statistics say that problems with short-term memory are found in a quarter of the world's population. Elderly people suffer most from problems, both with short-term and long-term memory, they may experience both episodic and permanent disorders.

Short-term memory is quite vulnerable and suffers greatly from the development of pathological conditions that affect it. Memorization problems are manifested in a decrease in the intensity of a person's learning, forgetfulness and inability to concentrate on a particular subject. At the same time, a person remembers well what happened to him a year or even a decade ago, and tries, but cannot remember what he was thinking or what he was doing a couple of minutes ago.

Short-term memory problems occur with or with the use of alcohol or drugs. There may be other reasons for memory problems, for example, tumors of the brain structures, trauma, or.

Signs of short-term memory disorder can appear instantly, in the event of an injury, or appear gradually, from age-related changes or schizophrenia.

Short-term memory

The volume of the short-term is a characteristic that determines the amount of potentially possible memorized material.

The amount of short-term memory is quite limited, and on average it stores 7 +/- 2 units of memory. The breadth of the covered volume of short-term memory has an individual character and tends to be preserved throughout life. The volume first of all establishes a feature of mechanical memorization, which functions without the active connection of thinking in memorization.

The peculiarity of short-term memory due to the limited volume of memory is called substitution. With the help of substitution, the process of partial displacement of already stored information by new material takes place. This can be expressed in the person's involuntary switching of his attention from memorization to some other process.

Short-term memory is capable of processing a significant amount of information, which eliminates unnecessary material and, as a result, does not overload long-term memory with unnecessary information.

Short-term and long-term memory are dependent on each other. Long-term memory functioning is impossible without short-term memory.

Short-term memory acts as a kind of filter that allows only the necessary information to pass into long-term memory, while at the same time carrying out strict selection.

One of the main features of short-term memory is that, under certain conditions, this type of memory has no boundaries of memorization in time. This condition consists in the possibility of continuous repetition of the numbers, words, and so on just heard.

To preserve information in short-term memory, you need to maintain an activity aimed at remembering, without being distracted by other activities or complex mental work.

The term "short-term memory" speaks of an external, temporary property of a phenomenon without regard to its connection with human activities, goals and motives. Nevertheless, here it is necessary to remember about the connection between the temporal characteristics of events and their importance for the organism.

The duration of an event is very significant for short-term memorization, even for memory in itself, since the long-term effect contains the very possibility of repetition, which requires greater readiness.

The consolidation of traces is considered as a kind of assessment of the significance of the material for the fulfillment of the upcoming significant goals. But the influence of only one temporary factor is not unlimited. Long-term repetition of one stimulus causes only protective inhibition, and not the transfer of information into long-term memory.

Medical research that is associated with impaired memorization demonstrates that short-term and long-term memory exist independently. For example, with retrograde, a person does not remember recent events, but remembers those that happened a long time ago.

Poor short-term memory may be associated with anterograde amnesia, in which short-term and long-term memory remains intact. However, this hurts the ability to store new information in long-term memory.

The information first enters the short-term memory department, which ensures the preservation of the information presented once for a short time (up to seven minutes), after which the information can be completely erased or transferred to the long-term memory department, provided it is repeated once or twice.

The above mentioned formula for the volume of short-term memory (7 +/- 2) means that it is limited in its volume. But the main thing that needs to be done is to ensure that the parts of the memorized material (numbers, figures, pictures) are informationally saturated due to their grouping, unification and unity into a holistic image.

Short-term memory has a connection with the actual state of human consciousness, therefore, to maintain information, it is necessary to maintain attention to the memorized information throughout the entire time of its retention; in the case of long-term memorization, this is no longer necessary.

In the process of filling the volume of short-term memory with information, the temporal coding mechanism acts as a display of memorized information in the form of sequentially placed symbols displayed in the auditory and visual human systems.

Very often people, when they need to remember something, try to come up with an association and evoke an emotional reaction, which can be considered as a psychophysical mechanism that activates and integrates processes that serve as a way to memorize and reproduce information.

A person is able to increase the volume of short-term memory and memorized information through the recoding of material into new structural elements. Operational units of short-term memorized material depend on the individual's ability to form the perception of information. It has been determined that one individual letter is displayed much better than two letters, and two than three. When a combination of letters forms a word familiar to a person, then it is reproduced as well as one letter.

It has also been proven that memorization improves not only when letters are organized into words, but also when meaningless syllables are pronounced as a rhythmically connected sequence. In this case, the average number of objects to be remembered increases. Any way of organizing information can reduce a significant amount of material into a much smaller number of operational or structural elements.

Limitations of the volume of short-term memory are considered not only the average depth of the presented phrase, but also the average length of the words themselves. Researchers have found that in different languages ​​the most common (90-99% of the total frequency of all words) are words from one to four syllables. Words with a length of 5-9 syllables are much less common, which indicates the limited volume of short-term memory, and even longer words are used even less often. Thus, Braille (the creator of a font for the blind) came to the conclusion that it is impossible to use more than six dots when constructing an alphabet for the blind.

How to improve short-term memory

There are several ways to improve short-term memory, which will be given below. Improving memorization is associated with the development of creative thinking and training, using associations. In order to better memorize long multi-digit numbers, they can be represented in the form of animals or plants or some inanimate objects that come to a person's mind. For example, the number two appears as a swan or a hanger, one is a pillar or a nail, seven is braids, antennas, and the number eight is a bow, a butterfly. Any round object - a ball, an eye, a moon and others - can be associated with the number zero. If it is difficult to keep the association in your mind, then you can transfer an imaginary picture to a drawing, a sketch.

Short-term memory training should be carried out under the guidance of certain principles. One of them is repetition. But the main thing is to observe the measure, otherwise frequent repetition will lead to cramming. You can memorize absolutely everything that is necessary, but the unpleasant moment here can be that all memorized information will not be conscious and will not be remembered for a long time. Therefore, it is best not to repeat the material many times in a row, but to consolidate the information, repeating it once for several days.

Another principle is the need to focus on the memorization process itself. All presented and stored information must be comprehensible. If possible, analogies should be established with already in the head, memorized data or some specific life factors. The more extensive and strong the parallels are set, the better the process of memorizing something really significant will be.

An active lifestyle, movement, a positive mood have a beneficial effect on improving short-term and long-term memory. Physical activity, sports, dancing, fitness stimulate blood circulation in the body, in particular in the brain, which in turn activates mental processes that are associated with the perception, processing and reproduction of information.

An important role in improving memory is played by the correct regimen and proper nutrition. Foods such as vegetables, cereals, fish, seafood and eggs have a beneficial effect on the memory process.

To improve short-term memory, mnemonics are used, with the help of which a certain reaction of the individual is determined. Mnemonics include images, colors, sounds, contact, tongue, tastes and smells. Almost all elements are associated with the senses and help people to quickly remember what they need. For example, if you combine color or sound with certain information, then later it will be much easier to remember. Created with the help of mnemonics, mnemonic images must be positive and pleasant for a person, otherwise these images will be rejected.

Let's say this is an example of using mnemonics. If a person likes a certain melody, he can try to remember the phone number or something else, in the rhythm of this melody. It is necessary to speak and sing the memorized material several times to the melody. Using this method, you can make sure how much more firmly the information will linger in your head.

Training short-term memory in a mnemonic way is useful if a person needs to constantly face the problem of memorization, especially when it comes to the type of activity. This method will help develop short-term memory, which is often used when doing operations with numbers in the mind.

Researchers have figured out how long short-term memory can store the necessary knowledge. The information begins to “wipe out” 18 seconds after it is used. Some people, after 18 seconds, can keep only 10% of the information in their short-term memory, but if it is not possible to write down what needs to be remembered (phone number or address), then this may not help. Therefore, it is necessary to silently repeat the numbers necessary for memorization for every 15 seconds, thus updating the received data.

Short-term memory training involves the body analogy method. With this method, you can remember a lot more small information. The method of memorizing parts of the human body by landmarks is unusual, but in practice he proved that this is an excellent method of preserving material and retrieving information at the right time. The bottom line is to connect the desired information directly with a specific part of the human body, while creating in the imagination a certain image associated with the knowledge necessary for a person.

So, if you need to remember a number of fruits, then they can be associated: an apple with an eye, a carrot with a nose.

Many pupils (pupils and students) are sure that the turned on TV or computer does not interfere with their studies at all, but during the research it was found that extraneous sounds, music, or even more flickering of images become an obstacle to memorizing very important information.

No matter how hard a person tries, he cannot do several things at the same time, or he can, but then one of his activities will be damaged. It is important to remember that this applies only to external activities, but has nothing to do with such natural processes as breathing and walking, since these processes are not amenable to the processing of consciousness.

Short-term memory training using coherent storytelling is a technique that is designed to memorize things that have little connection to each other. When you need to remember a shopping list or something else, you can come up with a story that will mention items that need to be remembered. The stories can be the most crazy, but the method really works, which has already been proven by many scientists. The only drawback of this method is that if the list of elements necessary for memorization is too extensive, then you will have to come up with a too long story or several small stories.

The "keywords" method is often used in school when learning foreign languages, this kind of trick can be very helpful. For example, to memorize the word “look”, you can pick up the Russian word - onion, thus creating the phrase: “I don’t look when I cut the onion”. Thus, it turns out that during memorization, an image is created, a new word is pronounced and its meaning is remembered.

Locus method of training short-term memory is also called the "method of travel" or "the method of the Roman room." This method originated from the ancient world. The principle of the implementation of this method is as follows: a person mentally imagines himself in a room or on the street, which is very familiar to a person and leaves pieces of information near different landmarks, by which it is easy to find out this information. When a person needs information, he again mentally moves himself to a room or to the street, on which he, by reference, comes to the place where he left information about the information for storage.

Short-term memory can be improved by breaking information into blocks. It has been proven that a person's short-term memory can store from five to nine items, but many people can easily remember phone numbers, which are ten digits long. Since most numbers are written with a dash or spaces. If the numbers were always written together, and not in blocks, then their memorization would be worse.

Short-term memory is trained using the environmental recovery method. So, for example, when children have lost something, they are told to go to the place where they saw the object they were looking for the last time, and indeed, in this way, the object was. This process is called context sensitive. The memory is influenced by the environment, the situation and the restoration of the conditions in which the person saw the thing for the last time and remembered the lost object there, this can lead to the idea that the thing was lost or left in that place, this works with the memorization mechanism.

For example, scuba divers, when they are in the water, are given certain information that will be easier for them to remember if they are in the water again.

Context-dependent memorization assumes that things recorded while intoxicated are recalled much faster if a person re-enters a state of intoxication.

Another method to improve short-term memory is to remember smells. Smell is one of the powerful memorization tools that can be used to retrieve the deepest memories, researchers say.

In order for children to have better short-term memory, it is necessary to formulate the correct diet. Children who are malnourished and, accordingly, do not receive the required amount of vitamins and minerals, remember information much worse. Therefore, the food of a child, like that of an adult, should be rich in proteins (therefore, it is not necessary to pinch a child vegetarianism from childhood) and sugar (healthy sugar, so as not to provoke overeating and obesity) and include vitamin supplements.

In addition, intellectually directed classes with a child should be carried out in short periods, for example, 15-20 minutes each with a transfer of the child's attention to another type of activity. Along with this, the child must rest from intellectual activity, engage in physical activity and receive physical activity. Active games and physical education improve the blood supply to the brain, which in turn activates short-term and long-term memory.