Research project "secrets of memory". Scientific work: Studying the memory of high school students What is memory
Mysteries of memory
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..
What is memory?........................................................ ...............................
Types of memory and mechanisms of its operation…………………………………….
Records memory
Level of memory development in 2nd grade students and ways to improve memory
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………
Bibliography…………………………………………………………
Introduction
For a long time, humanity has been interested in the question of what memory is, and where some people have such incredible memorization abilities. Why do some people need ten minutes to memorize, and others an hour? Why do some people remember everything, while others only remember fragments?
Memory has been studied since time immemorial, and it is hardly possible to determine the number of years spent on its study.
Even now, when many studies have been conducted on this issue, there are still many mysteries that are not so easy to solve.
Phenomenal memory was noted among such ancient inhabitants as Caesar and Socrates. Then people had vague ideas about memory in general, and they spoke about people who had such memory as if they were from the gods.
Now that science is at its peak, unique memory phenomena are being actively studied. Many hypotheses have emerged about the reasons for such 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
The subject of study in my work is directly memory.
The number of tasks that I set for myself when performing this work includes:
- study of memory, its types, characteristics, mechanisms;
- consideration of memory phenomena;
- to identify the level of memory development in 2nd grade students of Municipal Educational Institution “Secondary School No. 60” and consider ways to improve it.
1.What is memory?
Memory is a copper plate covered with letters, which time imperceptibly smoothes out, if sometimes they are not renewed with a chisel (D. Locke).
Memory is the mental process of imprinting (remembering), preserving and reproducing past experiences.
Human memory- an amazing creation of nature. Without it, people would not be able to recognize each other or communicate. We would not have a past, we would live only in the present. If possible, store information, classify it, instantly navigate through it, even modern supercomputers lose memory.
Memory is a very 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 through 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 retained, then the brain, in the end, would no longer be able to separate the important from the unimportant and its activity would be completely paralyzed. Therefore, memory is the ability not only to remember, but also to forget.
Representatives of various sciences are currently engaged in memory research: 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 about human memory, complement each other, and 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 operation
Different types of information are stored in different types of memory. The oldest of them is motor memory. It is programmed genetically and is responsible for remembering, storing and reproducing movements: walking, swimming, jumping... It is motor memory that helps us perform habitual actions automatically. It is very durable. Once a person has mastered a complex motor skill, for example, learning to ride a bicycle or knit, it is surprisingly easy to restore it even after a long break.
Emotional memory protects the experiences that accompanied the events of our lives. Emotional impressions are recorded 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 recorded more often and retained longer. This type of memory is the most durable. This is worth using when teaching. You will assimilate any material better if you find a way to saturate it with emotions and make it interesting for yourself.
Figurative memory is associated with the work of the senses and includes visual, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, and auditory. It is spontaneous, flexible and provides long-term storage of impressions. Many years later, we can absolutely remember the taste of grandma's pie, her voice or touch. Imaginative memory is bizarrely selective. We see thousands of faces in the city crowd, but for some reason one remains before our eyes for a long time. For no apparent reason, we remember a melody we 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. In early childhood this happens automatically, without understanding the meaning. Then we begin to subject the material to semantic processing. The assimilation of complex concepts, ideas, and thoughts occurs with the help of verbal and 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 spoken words, but as a mathematical proposition, it is necessary to use logical memory. It is this that helps us remember the meaning, regardless of the words we perceive. Having heard some explanation interesting idea or a new concept, when telling a story, we usually convey the essence in our own words, rather than remembering verbatim what we heard before. Logical memory does not have ready-made natural programs. It develops only through communication with other people, becoming fully formed only in adolescence.
A special, rare type of figurative memory is eidetic memory. It holds extremely vivid, detailed images for some time. If a person who has it is shown some picture on the screen, and then left in front of a blank screen and starts asking certain questions about what was shown, he will continue to “look at” this picture. At the same time, the eyes move as if she remained in front of him. This type of memory is the exception, not the rule. Most often it occurs in children.
Some outstanding artists and musicians were eidetics. For example, the following story is told about the famous French graphic artist Gustave Doré. One day, a publisher instructed him to make a drawing from a photograph of an alpine landscape. Dore left, forgetting to take the photograph with him, but the next day he brought a completely accurate copy of what he had seen the day before.
Eidetic memory is associated with such a feature of perception as synesthesia. This phenomenon occurs due to the close connection between sensory systems. For example, the perception of a certain color can be associated with a feeling of warmth, and the sound of music can evoke a series of visual images. Some composers have a “colored ear.” Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin even became the creator of light music.
Photographic memory also preserves this or that image in detail, but its difference from eidetic 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 information received through the channels of perception through vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch, but also our own thoughts, feelings, images, actions. A person does not simply absorb the flow of information from the outside, like a sponge water, but actively searches for it, as if questioning the world around him. Along the way, he changes, transforms in his soul all the information he has obtained - and only then sends it for storage.
Information coming from the senses is first captured sensory memory. It ensures that information is retained 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 asked to list them, he will name 10-12, i.e. about 70% of what was seen. But after 150 s he will remember 25-35% of the information, and after 250 s it is all lost from sensory memory.
In order for what is perceived to be preserved, attention must be paid to it. 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 grasp the general meaning of the phrase. Information in short-term memory is retained from several minutes to several hours. If they are not used during this time, they are forgotten; if they are needed in the future, they move to the neighboring long-term memory room.
Short-term memory is limited by the law “7+-2”. Human. After contemplating a drawing of 15-20 objects for a few seconds, he usually reproduces at least 5 and no more than 9 of them. It is curious that this restriction applies to both animals and birds. However, people are able to overcome the barrier set by nature and remember a much larger volume of material. To do this, you need to group it so that the number of parts obeys the law “7+-2”. For example, a large text can be divided into parts, each of which would clearly present an important, supporting idea. It is easier to remember a melody by combining sounds into beats, and a number series, for example, a telephone number, by perceiving two or three adjacent digits as one number. In this way, 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 it improves.
The most reliable safe - long term memory. Information placed here is stored and can be reproduced even after years. Over the course of a lifetime, only 28% of what we ever put into it disappears from our “archive”; the rest stays with us forever.
The consolidation period—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 familiar does not mean effective. Mechanical memorization will not provide stable memorization. Much better. If memory is helped by thinking. To remember, for example, a text, you need to establish the logic of presentation or the logic of the events described, break the material into semantic blocks and find a key phrase or supporting point in each of them. With such memorization, the material is divided into fragments according to one principle or another, and then from them, like from a mosaic, a complete picture is again compiled. Data in long-term memory is accumulated according to its significance. Retrieving information takes longer than from short-term memory: it takes time to reach the desired shelf of the brain storage, remove the desired folder from the shelf and open it on the desired document.
Sleep works on long-term memory. No wonder they say that the morning is wiser than the evening. During REM sleep, what is perceived during the day is processed. This explains the not so rare cases when in a dream a person comes up with a solution to a problem that is tormenting him. The connection between memory and the number of dreams was discovered by the American researcher Charles Pearlman. He studied the duration of the phases of “rapid” sleep (during such periods, which occur four to five times a night, we dream) in students with different levels of memory. It turned out that those with good memory have increased these phases. In other words, people with good memories dream more.
3.Memory records
Memory also depends on individual personality characteristics:
Interests and inclinations of the individual; (what a person is more interested in is easily remembered)
From the attitude of the individual to a particular activity;
From the emotional mood of the physical state;
From volitional effort and many other factors
Napoleon had exceptional long-term memory. One day, while still a lieutenant, he was put in a guardhouse and found in the room a book on Roman law, which he read. Two decades later he could still quote passages from it. He knew many of the soldiers in his army not only by sight, but also remembered who was brave, who was persistent, who was smart.
Academician A.F. Ioffe used a table of logarithms from memory, and the great Russian chess player A. A. Alekhine could play “blindly” from memory with 30-40 partners at the same time. Which illustrates their excellent visual memory.
A. S. Pushkin’s brother, 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 send it to print, and the draft chapter was destroyed. The poet sent a letter to his brother in the Caucasus and told about what had happened. Soon he received in response the full text of the lost chapter, accurate to the decimal point: his brother heard it once and read it once.
S.V. Shereshevsky could repeat a sequence of 400 words without errors after 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 light and saw sound, he tasted words and colors. “Your voice is so yellow and crumbly,” he said. Synesthesia was noted in N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. N. Scriabin, N. K. Ciurlionis. They all have vision
was related to hearing. Rimsky-Korsakov believed that “E major” is blue, “E minor” is lilac, “F minor” is grayish green, “A major” is 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 to remember numbers and operate with them, and the calculation process was presented in the form of endless symphonies of color.
4. Level of memory development in 2nd grade students
At Municipal Educational Institution “Secondary School No. 60” we conducted a study to identify the level of memory in 2 grades. 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 test result showed that 99% of children were able to remember from 5 to 9 pictures. This means that these children have average memory. And only one child was able to draw eleven pictures; this child has a good photographic memory.
A B G D J V S I K A O D V E I C
Within 50 seconds, the children remembered the order in which these letters were located. As a result, this test showed that children were able to remember from 2 to 15 letters. Unfortunately, not all study participants showed good results; 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 a high level of memorization; these children have well-developed memory.
After conducting these tests, we conducted special exercises for memory development every day after school for a month. Here are some of them.
1. Take any thing, carefully examine it 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 developing a child’s auditory memory is playing with word pairs. The exercise can be performed starting from preschool age. So, write down on a piece of paper 10 pairs of words related to each other in meaning, for example, chair - table, cat - dog, fork - plate. Now you should read these words to the baby 3 times. Be sure to highlight pairs of words using intonation, take your time. After a short period of time, tell your child the first words of the pair, while he must repeat the pair after each of your words. Thus, short-term memory is trained, and to develop long-term memory, do the same exercise half an hour later.
3. How to develop a child’s tactile memory? Blindfold the baby and place him in his hands various items. Then ask him to name the objects in the order in which he touched them. This is where recognition and memorization work.
4.We also recommend developing children’s visual memory. For the exercise you need to glue 2 towers from boxes. One tower will have 3 boxes, and the other will have 4. First, put the button in one of the boxes, and the child’s task is to name which tower and which compartment the button is in. Next, you can use 2 buttons in different towers. A child can start performing the exercise from the age of 3.
5. To develop memory and attention, it’s good to work with “find the differences” pictures. Concentrate on the details as you walk down the street, try to find things based on a specific feature as quickly as possible, for example, windows with blue curtains.
After carrying out this work, we repeated the test for memorizing sixteen letters. For the purity of the experiment, we took a different series of letters:
ATSYFTSSHCHDBLRGNIMV
The results of this test showed that the students' memory level increased and 90% wrote this test better than the previous time. This suggests that human memory needs to be trained daily, starting from an early age, and then you will always be confident that your memory will never let you down.
Conclusion
Throughout his life, a person receives a huge amount of information, which is consolidated and reproduced using 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, which covers its surface and has a large area due to folds. But the exact location of memory has not yet been established.
Memory can be 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 have not yet been fully studied, and no one can say how much information our brain can accommodate, but the fact remains that none of the people uses their brain to its full capacity.
However, there are special laws of memory, knowledge of which helps people better remember any information.
During the development of mankind, there were many people who amazed those around them with their extraordinary memory. They had unusual abilities associated with memorizing and retaining information in memory. Some could memorize long strings of numbers, and some could reproduce musical composition, heard only once.
And to this day, scientists have not been able to give a clear answer explaining such phenomenal memory.
In the course of our work, we conducted a study in which we proved that a person is able to remember about 70% of the information taken in 50 seconds, and after a few minutes this information is completely erased if it is not useful to him.
We have also proven that if you train your memory daily, the number of memorized symbols and pictures 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, Mir Publishing House, M. 1988. Translation from English Ph.D. E.Z.Golina.
Physiology of higher nervous activity. Voronin L.G. publishing house "Prosveshchenie" M. 1974
Article “Memory still suffers”, section “Health”, newspaper “Inform Polis” No. 48 (791) dated November 28, 2007.
Interesting 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.
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by o general psychology
on the topic“theories of learning memory”
Introduction
SECTION I. History of the development of the concept of memory
1.1 Concept of memory
1.3 Memory structure
1.4 Forgetting factors
SECTION II. Theories of memory learning
Conclusion
Introduction
What is memory and how does it work? Many people probably ask a similar question. The proposed work tries to answer the questions posed, which will be its goal.
Memory is one of the most complex and well-studied processes, including the phases of imprinting, storing and retrieving incoming information.
Memory is the basis of personality. According to the ancient Greeks, the goddess of memory Mnemosyne is the mother of nine muses, the patroness of all the then known sciences and arts. “A person deprived of memory, in fact, will cease to be a person” (Ch. Aitmatov.). And, on the contrary, among many outstanding personalities we often encounter examples of phenomenal memory, limitless in its capabilities. Let's give a few examples. Historians claim that the Persian king Cyrus, A. Macedonian and J. Caesar knew by sight and name all their soldiers, and the number of soldiers each exceeded 30 thousand people. The famous Themistocles, who knew by sight and name each of the 20 thousand inhabitants of the Greek capital Athens, had the same abilities. Academician A.F. Ioffe knew the table of logarithms from memory. Contemporary A.F. Ioffe - academician A.A. Chaplygin could learn any book on a dare, and accurately name the phone number he called five years ago, by accident and only once. Book scholars - the oldest monument of Indian literature for centuries was transmitted orally, preserving only in the memory of the Indians. The priests still remember folk epic, all the songs of Mahabhara in 300 thousand lines. All these examples clearly demonstrate the limitless possibilities of memory.
The modern greatest mathematician and cyberneticist von Neumann made calculations that showed that, in principle, the human brain can accommodate approximately 10 20 units of information. This means that each of us can remember all the information contained in the millions of volumes of the world's largest Russian State Library. Therefore, we can confidently conclude: no one knows the limit of his memory. We have never even come close to the limits of our capabilities and we use memory at a tiny fraction of its capacity. Nature has given everyone a colossal credit, but, alas, we do not always use it, either because we simply do not know how to use it, or because we are too lazy to do intellectual gymnastics.
Each of our experiences, impressions or movements leaves a trace that can persist for quite a long time, appear again and become an object of consciousness. Therefore, memory is understood as the imprinting, preservation and subsequent recognition and reproduction of traces of past experience, which allows one to accumulate information without losing previous knowledge, information, and skills. Thus, memory is a complex mental process consisting of several private processes associated with each other. Memory connects a subject’s past with his present and future and is the most important cognitive function underlying development and learning.
The relevance of the chosen topic will be the demand for studying memory, its functions and processes occurring in the cerebral cortex. After all, many have wondered what kind of mechanism this is and how it works?! What affects our ability to remember the information we need? Scientists are working on these and similar questions, and thanks to their results, we can learn in detail about such a complex mental process, which is memory.
Section I. History of the development of the concept of memory
1.1 Concept of memory
Memory is the basis of mental activity. Without it, it is not possible to understand the basics of the formation of behavior in thinking, consciousness, and subconsciousness. Therefore, to better understand a person, it is necessary to know as much as possible about memory.
Images of objects or processes of real reality that we previously perceived and now mentally reproduce are called representations.
Representations of memory are reproductions of objects or phenomena that once acted on our senses. Representations of the imagination are ideas about objects that we have never perceived in such combinations or in such a form. Representations of the imagination are also based on past perceptions, but these latter serve only as material from which we create new ideas with the help of imagination.
Memory is based on associations or connections. Objects or phenomena that are connected in reality are also connected in human memory. We can, having encountered one of these objects, by association remember another one associated with it. From a physiological point of view, an association is a temporary neural connection. There are two types of associations: by contiguity, by similarity and by contrast. Association by contiguity combines two phenomena related in time or space. Such an association by contiguity is formed, for example, when memorizing the alphabet: when naming a letter, the one that follows it is remembered. Association by similarity connects two phenomena that have similar features: when one is mentioned, the other is remembered.
Association by contrast connects two opposite phenomena.
In addition to these types, there are complex associations - associations in meaning; they connect two phenomena that in reality are constantly connected: part and whole, genus and species, cause and effect. These connections, associations in meaning, are the basis of our knowledge.
To form a temporary connection, the repeated coincidence of two stimuli in time is required; to form an association, repetition is required. But repetitions alone are not enough. Sometimes many repetitions do not produce results, and sometimes, on the contrary, a connection occurs in one go, if a strong focus of excitation has arisen in the cerebral cortex, facilitating the formation of a temporary connection.
A more important condition for the formation of an association is business reinforcement, i.e. inclusion of what needs to be remembered in the actions of students, their application of knowledge in the process of assimilation.
1.2 Basic processes and types of memory
The basic processes of memory are memorization, storage, recognition and reproduction.
Memorization is a process aimed at preserving received impressions in memory, a prerequisite for preservation.
Preservation is a process of active processing, systematization, generalization of material, and mastery of it.
Reproduction and recognition are processes of restoration of what was previously perceived. The difference between them is that recognition takes place when the object is encountered again, when it is perceived again. Reproduction occurs in the absence of an object.
Types of memory. In accordance with the type of material being remembered, the following four types of memory are distinguished. Motor memory is considered genetically primary, i.e. the ability to remember and reproduce a system of motor operations (type on a typewriter, tie a tie, use tools, drive a car, etc.). Then a figurative memory is formed, i.e. the ability to save and further use the data of our perception. Depending on which analyzer took the greatest part in the formation of the image, we can talk about five feats of figurative memory: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory and gustatory. The human psyche is focused primarily on visual and auditory memory, which is characterized by great differentiation.
Almost simultaneously with motor memory, emotional memory is formed, which is an imprint of the feelings we have experienced. The highest type of memory, inherent only to humans, is considered verbal memory. With its help, an information base of human intelligence is formed. Verbal (semantic) memory as a product of culture includes forms of thinking, methods of cognition and analysis, and basic grammatical rules of the native language.
The most general basis for distinguishing different types of memory is the dependence of its characteristics on the characteristics of the activity of memorization and reproduction. In this case, individual types of memory are distinguished in accordance with three main criteria: 1) according to the nature of mental activity prevailing in the activity, memory is divided into motor, emotional, figurative and verbal-logical. 2) according to the nature of the goals of the activity - voluntary and involuntary. 3) according to the duration of fastening and preserving the material - short-term, long-term and operational.
Motor memory is the memorization, storage and reproduction of various movements and their systems. Usually a sign of good motor memory is a person’s physical dexterity, dexterity in work, “golden hands”.
Emotional memory is memory for feelings. The ability to sympathize with another person, to empathize with the hero of a book, is based on emotional memory.
Figurative memory is the memory of ideas, pictures of nature and life, as well as sounds, smells, tastes. It can be visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory.
There is, however, a division of memory into types that is directly related to the characteristics of the actual activity being performed. Thus, depending on the goals of the activity, memory is divided into voluntary and involuntary. Memorization and reproduction, in which there is no special goal to remember something, is called involuntary memory. In cases where this is a purposeful process, they speak of voluntary memory.
Involuntary memory (information is remembered by itself without special memorization, but in the course of performing an activity, in the course of working on information). Strongly developed in childhood, weakens in adults.
Voluntary memory (information is remembered purposefully using special techniques). The efficiency of random memory depends on:
1. From the purposes of memorization (how firmly, for how long a person wants to remember). If the goal is to learn in order to pass an exam, then soon after the exam a lot will be forgotten; if the goal is to learn for a long time, for future professional activity, then little information is forgotten.
2. From memorization techniques. Methods of learning are:
a) mechanical memory, a lot of effort and time are spent, but the results are poor. Rote memory is memory based on repeating material without comprehending it;
b) logical retelling, which includes logical comprehension of the material, systematization, highlighting the main logical components of information, retelling in your own words - logical memory (semantic) works - a type of memory based on the establishment of semantic connections in the memorized material. The efficiency of logical memory is 20 times higher, better than mechanical memory;
c) figurative memorization techniques (translation of information into images, graphs, diagrams, pictures) - figurative memory works. Figurative memory is of different types: visual, auditory, motor-motor, gustatory, tactile, olfactory, emotional;
d) mnemonic memorization techniques (special techniques to facilitate memorization).
The ability to constantly accumulate information, which is the most important feature of the psyche, is universal in nature, covers all areas and periods of mental activity and in many cases is realized automatically, almost unconsciously. As an example, we can cite a case: a completely illiterate woman fell ill and, in a feverish delirium, loudly shouted Latin and Greek sayings, the meaning of which she clearly did not understand. It turned out that as a child she served under a pastor who used to memorize quotes from ancient classics out loud. The woman involuntarily remembered them forever, which, however, she herself did not suspect before her illness.
All living beings have memory. Evidence has emerged of the ability to remember even in plants. In the broadest sense, memory can be defined as a mechanism for recording information acquired and used by a living organism. Human memory is, first of all, the accumulation, consolidation, preservation and subsequent reproduction by a person of his experience, i.e., that which no longer exists in the present. Therefore, memory is a necessary condition for the unity of the human psyche, our psychological identity.
1.3 Memory structure
Most psychologists recognize the existence of several levels of memory, differing in how long each level can retain information. The first level corresponds to the immediate or sensory type of memory. Its systems hold fairly accurate and complete data about how the world is perceived by our senses at the receptor level. Data storage duration is 0.1-0.5 seconds.
Discovering how our sensory memory works is not difficult. Close your eyes, then open them for a moment and close them again. Observe how the clear, clear picture you see remains for some time, and then slowly disappears. This is the content of sensory memory. If the information received in this way attracts the attention of the higher parts of the brain, it will be stored for about 20 seconds (without repeating or replaying the signal while the brain processes and interprets it). This is the second level - short-term memory.
Short-term memory is still amenable to conscious regulation and can be controlled by a person. But the “immediate imprints” of sensory information cannot be repeated; they are stored only for tenths of a second, and the psyche has no way to prolong them.
Any information first enters short-term memory, which ensures that information presented once is remembered for a short time, after which the information can be completely forgotten or transferred to long-term memory, but subject to repetition. Short-term memory is limited in volume; with a single presentation, 7+, -2 are placed in short-term memory. This is a person’s magic formula, i.e., on average, a person can remember from 5 to 10 words, figures, figures, figures, pictures, pieces of information from one time. The main thing is to ensure that these “pieces” are information-rich through grouping, combining numbers and words into a single holistic “piece-image”. The volume of short-term memory is individual for each person; based on the volume of short-term memory, one can predict the success of training using the formula: OKP/2 + 1 = academic score.
Long-term memory ensures long-term retention of information. It comes in two types: 1) DP with conscious access (i.e. a person can voluntarily extract and remember the necessary information); 2) DP is closed (a person under natural conditions does not have access to it; only through hypnosis, when irritating parts of the brain, can he gain access to it and update in all details images, experiences, pictures of his whole life).
Working memory is a type of memory that manifests itself during the performance of a certain activity, serving this activity by storing information coming from both the CP and the DP necessary to perform the current activity.
Intermediate memory - ensures the retention of information for several hours, accumulates information during the day, and the time of night sleep is allocated by the body to clear intermediate memory and categorize information accumulated over the past day, transferring it to long-term memory. At the end of sleep, intermediate memory is again ready to receive new information. In a person who sleeps less than three hours a day, intermediate memory does not have time to be cleared, as a result, the performance of mental and computational operations is disrupted, attention and short-term memory decrease, and errors appear in speech and actions.
Long-term memory with conscious access is characterized by a pattern of forgetting: everything unnecessary, secondary, as well as a certain percentage of necessary information is forgotten.
Forgetting can be complete or partial, long-term or temporary. In case of complete forgetting, the material is not only not reproduced, but also not recognized. Partial forgetting of material occurs when a person does not reproduce it all or with errors, as well as when he learns it, but cannot reproduce it. Physiologists explain temporary forgetting by inhibition of temporary nerve connections, complete forgetting by their extinction. Research into the forgetting process has revealed interesting feature: the most accurate and complete reproduction of complex and extensive material usually occurs not immediately after memorization, but 2-3 days later. This enhanced delayed recall is called reminiscence.
1.4. Forgetting factors
Most memory problems are not related to difficulties in remembering, but rather in recall. Some data from modern science suggest that information is stored in memory indefinitely, but most of it a person (under normal conditions) cannot use. It is practically inaccessible to him, he “forgot” it, although he rightly claims that he once “knew” about it, read, heard, but... This is forgetting, temporary situational, sudden, complete or partial, selective and etc., i.e. a process leading to a loss of clarity and a decrease in the volume of data that can be updated in the psyche. The depth of forgetting can be amazing; sometimes those who “forgot” deny the very fact of their acquaintance with what they need to remember, and do not recognize what they have repeatedly encountered.
Forgetting can be caused by various factors. The first and most obvious of them is time. It takes less than an hour to forget half of the material you learned mechanically.
To reduce forgetting, it is necessary: 1) understanding, comprehension of information (mechanically learned, but incomprehensible information is forgotten quickly and almost completely); 2) repetition of information (the first repetition is needed 40 minutes after memorization, since after an hour only about 50% of the mechanically memorized information remains in the memory). It is necessary to repeat it more often in the first days after memorization, since on these days the losses from forgetting are maximum. It’s better this way: on the first day - 2-3 repetitions, on the second day - 1-2 repetitions, on the third to seventh days - one repetition each, then one repetition with an interval of 7-10 days. Remember that 30 repetitions over the course of a month is more effective than 100 repetitions per day. Therefore, systematic, without overload, studying, memorizing in small portions throughout the semester with periodic repetitions after 10 days is much more effective than concentrated memorization of a large amount of information in a short session, causing mental and mental overload and almost complete forgetting of information a week after the session.
Forgetting depends to a large extent on the nature of the activity immediately preceding and occurring after memorization.
Bad influence The activity preceding memorization is called proactive inhibition. The negative influence of the activity following memorization is called retroactive inhibition; it is especially pronounced in cases where, after memorization, an activity similar to it is performed or if this activity requires significant effort.
When we noted that forgetting is marked by the time elapsed after memorization, we can assume an obvious relationship: the longer the information remains in the psyche, the deeper the forgetting. But the psyche is characterized by paradoxical phenomena: older people (age is a temporary characteristic) easily remember the past, but just as easily forget what they just heard. This phenomenon is called Ribot's law, the law of reversal of memory.
An important factor in forgetting is usually considered to be the degree of activity in using available information. What is forgotten is what there is no constant need or necessity. This is true most of all in relation to semantic memory for information received in adulthood.
Childhood impressions and motor skills (riding a bicycle, playing the guitar, swimming) remain quite stable for decades, without any exercise. There is, however, a known case where a man, who had been in prison for about three years, forgot how to tie not only his tie, but also his shoelaces.
Forgetting may be due to the work of the protective mechanisms of our psyche, which displace traumatic impressions from consciousness into the subconscious, where they are then more or less reliably retained. Consequently, what is “forgotten” is something that disturbs the psychological balance and causes constant negative tension (“motivated forgetting”).
Reproduction forms:
Recognition is a manifestation of memory that occurs when an object is re-perceived;
· memory, which occurs in the absence of perception of the object;
· recall, which is the most active form of reproduction, largely dependent on the clarity of the tasks assigned, on the degree of logical ordering of the information remembered and stored in the DP;
· reminiscence - delayed reproduction of something previously perceived that seemed forgotten;
· eidetism - visual consolidation, which retains a vivid image for a long time with all the details of what is perceived.
Forgetting is expressed in the inability to remember or in erroneous recognition and reproduction.
Memory disorder. Memory is one of the most vulnerable human abilities; its various violations are very common. As La Rochefoucauld noted: “everyone complains about their memory, but no one complains about their mind.” Typical memory disorders clearly demonstrate its dependence on the entire complex of a person’s personal characteristics, and their analysis allows us to better understand memory as a psychological phenomenon.
Individual parameters of human memory have a very wide range, so the concept of “normal memory” is quite vague. For example, your memories suddenly become more vivid and sharper, more detailed than usual, the smallest details are reproduced in them, you did not even suspect that you “remember” all this. In this case, they talk about hyperfunction of memory, which is usually associated with strong excitement, feverish excitement, taking certain drugs or hypnotic influence.
Violation of emotional balance, feelings of uncertainty and anxiety set the thematic focus of the hyperfunction of memory, which in these cases takes the form of intrusive memories. We irresistibly remember (in the most vivid figurative form) our extremely unpleasant or shameful actions. It is almost impossible to expel such memories: they return again and again, causing us to feel shame and remorse (“memory of conscience”).
Much more common is a weakening of memory functions, a partial loss of the ability to store or reproduce existing information. The earliest manifestations of memory impairment include weakening of selective reproduction, difficulties in reproducing what is necessary in this moment material (dates, names, titles, terms, etc.). Memory loss can then take the form of progressive amnesia. Its causes: alcoholism, trauma, sclerosis, age-related and negative personality changes, some diseases.
With amnesia, the ability to remember new information is first lost, and then the information reserves of memory are successively reduced. First of all, what was learned quite recently is forgotten, that is, new data and new associations, then memories of the last years of life are lost. Events from childhood and youth recorded in memory last much longer.
People quickly lose memory associated with the rules of complex mental actions, complex assessments, the most stable way of holding oneself, gait, etc.
Impairment of immediate memory, or “Korsakov syndrome,” manifests itself in the fact that memory for current events is impaired, a person forgets what he just did, said, saw, so the accumulation of new experience and knowledge becomes impossible, although previous knowledge may be preserved.
Disturbances in the dynamics of mnestic activity may be observed (B.V. Zeigarnik): a person remembers well, but after a short time he cannot do it, for example, a person memorizes 10 words. And after the 3rd presentation, he remembered 6 words, and after the fifth, he could already say only 3 words, after the sixth, again 6 words, i.e., fluctuations in mnestic activity occur. This memory impairment is often observed in patients with vascular diseases of the brain, as well as after brain injury, after intoxication as a manifestation of general mental exhaustion. Quite often, forgetfulness, inaccurate assimilation of information, and forgetting of intentions occur as a consequence of a person’s emotional instability.
There are also violations of indirect memory, when indirect methods of memorization, for example, pictures, symbols associated with certain information, do not help, but complicate the work of memory, i.e., hints do not help in this case, but interfere.
If, with full functioning of memory, the “Zeigarnik effect” is observed, i.e. unfinished actions are remembered better, then with many memory disorders there is also a violation of the motivational components of memory, i.e. unfinished actions are forgotten.
Interesting facts about memory deceptions, which usually take the form of extremely one-sided selectivity of memories, false memories (confibulation) and memory distortions. They are usually caused by strong desires, unsatisfied needs and drives. The simplest case: a child is given candy, he quickly eats it, and then “forgets” about it and quite sincerely proves that he did not receive anything. It is practically impossible to convince him (like many adults) in such cases. Memory easily becomes a slave to human passions, prejudices and inclinations. That is why unbiased, objective memories of the past are very rare. Memory distortions are often associated with a weakening of the ability to distinguish between one’s own and someone else’s, between what a person actually experienced and what he heard or read about. With repeated repetition of such memories, their complete personification occurs, that is, a person quite naturally and organically considers as his own other people’s thoughts, ideas that he himself sometimes rejected, and recalls the details of events in which he never participated. This shows how closely memory is related to imagination, fantasy and what is sometimes called psychological reality.
It turned out that the same subcortical areas (primarily the limbic system) that are responsible for affective and motivational activation of the psyche play a major role in consolidating information.
It was found that damage to the occipital lobes of the brain causes visual impairment, the frontal lobes - emotions, destruction of the left hemisphere negatively affects speech, etc. But, to everyone's surprise, until very recently it was necessary to acknowledge the fact that not only animals, But people can also suffer extensive brain damage without obvious memory impairment. The only pattern discovered was of a very general nature: the more extensive the brain damage, the more serious its consequences for memory. This situation is called the law of mass action: memory is destroyed in proportion to the weight of the destroyed brain tissue. Even removing 20% of the brain (through surgery) does not lead to memory loss. Therefore, doubts arose about the existence of a localized memory center; a number of psychologists unequivocally argued that the entire brain should be considered a memory organ.
With a direct effect on certain areas of the brain, complex chains of memories can emerge in consciousness, i.e. a person suddenly remembers what he had long forgotten, and easily continues to remember what was “forgotten” after the operation. Secondly, if not a memory center, then at least a section was found that regulates the transfer of data from short-term memory to long-term memory, without which memorizing newly received new information is impossible. This center is called the hippocampus and is located in the temporal lobe of the brain. After bilateral hippocampal ablation, patients retained memory of what happened before surgery, but no new data were observed.
They also try to influence memory processes using pharmacological and physical factors. Many scientists believe that searches in the field of memory management should be aimed at creating biologically active compounds that selectively affect learning processes (for example, caffeine, biogenic amines), short-term or long-term memory (substances that inhibit the synthesis of DNA and RNA, affecting protein metabolism etc.), on the creation and formation of engrams - substances that influence the change in cell proteins (from protoplasm to soma).
Nowadays, the study of pharmacological agents that affect memory is proceeding rapidly. It has been established that long-known pituitary hormones can serve as memory stimulants. “Short” chains of amino acids - peptides, especially vasopressin and corticotropin, significantly improve short-term and long-term memory.
According to the hypothesis about the physical structure of memory, the basis of the memory phenomenon is the spatiotemporal pattern of bioelectrical activity of discrete and electrotonic nerve populations. Therefore, to manage memory, it is more adequate to influence the brain and its subsystems by electrical and electromagnetic factors. Success can be achieved by influencing the brain with various physical factors - electrical and acoustic. Memory can be developed, trained, significantly improved, and its productivity increased.
Section II. memory learning theories
2.1 Memory research by domestic and foreign scientists
Interest in the problem of memory has been evident since ancient times. We found attempts to approach its understanding in Plato and Aristotle, who conceptualized these issues mainly from a philosophical position. Ancient Greek philosophers believed that the human mind can be likened to a wax tablet for writing on it and the events that take place are imprinted.
English psychologists of the 18th - 19th centuries achieved greater success in the scientific study of memory. collected a large amount of experimental material, which made it possible to formulate a number of theoretical positions. In particular, the development of the concept of associations was obtained. And their roles in memory processes.
The problem of memory development and its individual differences was given great influence by Soviet and foreign psychologists. One of the earliest works is the study of Gelleth (1909), who conducted experiments on himself and his two-year-old son. A comparative study of the memory productivity of children from 5 to 10 years old was carried out by Dekroli and Degan. From later works, one can cite the study of Mak Elvy (1933) and Mak Peach (1935), who studied the memory of preschool children for objects. Lomley and Colquhoun devoted their research to the development of verbal memory.
Of the Soviet works devoted to the study of memory, it is necessary to mention, first of all, the work of A.N. Leontyev (1931), who studied age-related and individual differences in the productivity of memorizing nonsense syllables and meaningful words, as well as the development of direct and indirect memorization. In an extensive study by P.I. Zinchenko (1961), the productivity of two types of memorization - voluntary and involuntary - was compared in subjects of different ages.
L.V. Zaikov and D.M. Mayants investigated differences in children's memorization of objects presented alone and in pairs. In the work of E.D. Kazheradze (1949) studied the effect on memory capacity of grouping objects with varying degrees of complexity or difficulty in naming each group with corresponding generalizing words. In the studies of N.A. Kornienko (1955) compared the development of memorization of visual and verbal material.
A large number of works are devoted to the study of individual differences in memorization, a review of which is presented in the monograph by Meiman (1913,1916), Gaupp (1913), I.S. Prodanova in the general works of Whipma 1913), S.A. Rubinstein (1940), Mac Peach and Aaron (1952), Havland (1951).
The vast majority of these studies are aimed at calculating how the productivity of memorization, its volume, speed, and duration of retention of memorized material, change with age, i.e. quantitative and qualitative side of processes.
It was in this direction that the earliest memory studies went, conducted by Jacobs (1887) and Boltanov (1992), who studied the memorization of single-digit numbers by primary and secondary school students.
These were other studies carried out around the same time - in late XIX V. and in the mid-20th century carried out by Bene and Henri (1894) Bourdon (1894) Ebenhaus (1894) Keluis (1900) Nechaev (1900) Smedley, Cooley Maxilan (1900) Lobzin (1901) Snulten (1904) Menman and Winteler (1905) Bernstein and Bogdanov (1905) Pohlman (1906) Norsworthy (1906) Droli and Degan (1907) Wing (1905).
They used everything as memorization material: numbers, geometric shapes, letters, meaningless syllables, words, phrases, etc.
The results of all these studies showed that all people, according to their ability to remember, are divided into two types: those who memorize material quickly and those who remember it slowly. It has been experimentally proven that people who learn quickly are able to reproduce 8 elements the first time, while those who learn slowly remember only 3. If we add to the characteristics of these groups the fact that those who learn quickly forget quickly, and those who learn slowly forget slowly, then it becomes It is clear that to assess the quality of memory as a whole, it is impossible to use any one indicator. Therefore, it should be noted that people’s memory differs in several parameters: speed, strength, duration, accuracy, filling volume. All these quantitative characteristics of memory have essentially and qualitative differences.
Those. speaking about people with good or bad memory, bearing in mind the general undifferentiated characteristics of memory, we can also distinguish the level of development of each person by its types.
So, for example, verbal - logical memory for knowledge in speech form, logical schemes, mathematical symbols, a person with a well-developed this type of memory easily remembers words, ideas, logical constructions. The memorized material often does not evoke visual associations; such a person easily remembers last names, first names and patronymics. But figurative identification of the model is carried out with great effort. The verbal-logical type of memory is associated with the mentality of a person prone to philosophical generalizations and theoretical reasoning. .
Speaking about figurative memory for representation, it is also necessary to emphasize that its level of development is also not the same for different modalities, that is, the dominance of certain types of memory visual, auditory, emotional, motor and others is not the same, as well as their functioning.
For this reason, a reservation should be made in the provision on the coincidence of the properties of rapid learning and rapid forgetting, and slow learning and slow forgetting. Because among others, there are also those who are slow to learn and quickly forget, and those who are gifted with a very good memory, who quickly learn and slowly forget.
Sometimes, in order to better remember the material, one person needs to read it because when memorizing and reproducing it is easier for him to rely on visual memory, while for another it is easier to rely on auditory memory and acoustic images.
It is easier for the third person to remember and reproduce the movement and he can be recommended to write down the material or accompany its memorization with some movements.
Pure types of memory in the sense of unconditional dominance of one of the above are extremely rare. Most often you can encounter various combinations of visual, auditory, and motor memory. Their typical mixtures are: visual-motor, visual-auditory, auditory-motor. However, for most people, visual memory is still dominant.
There are unique cases of such memory. One of them was introduced to us by A.R. Lurie. He studied in detail and described the memory of a man named Sh., who could quickly remember visual information firmly and for a long time. The volume of his memory could not be established experimentally. A.R. wrote to him. Lurie: “It made no difference to present him with meaningful words, meaningless syllables, numbers or sounds; he only needed a pause of two or three seconds.” U ordinary people this time is much longer.
As it turned out, Sh.’s memory mechanism was based on eidetic vision, which he had especially well developed. After a single visual perception of the material, Sh. seemed to continue to see it. He was able to restore the visual image after a long time, even after several years.
Eidetic memory is not such a rare phenomenon. In childhood, all people have it, and in adults it gradually disappears. This type of memory is well developed among artists and, apparently, is one of the makings of the development of corresponding abilities. The sphere of professional application of such memory can be music, i.e. types of activities that place special demands on visually accurate memorization and reproduction of what is seen.
The greatest development in humans is usually achieved by those types of memory that are most often used. Professional activity leaves a big imprint on this process. For example: scientists have very good semantic and logical memory, but relatively weak mechanical memory. Actors and doctors have a well-developed memory for faces.
Memory processes are closely related to the characteristics of a person’s personality, his emotional mood, interests, and needs. They determine what and how a person remembers, stores and recalls. Memorization also depends on the individual’s attitude towards the material being memorized. Attitude determines the selective nature of memory. We usually remember what is interesting and emotionally significant to us. A significant role in memorization can be played by the general state of the individual at the time of imprinting, as well as his physical state as a whole; evidence of this is painful memory impairment. In such cases, a characteristic memory disorder occurs, which in its characteristics reflects the patient’s personality disorders. The famous researcher of memory disorders T. Ribot wrote on this occasion that our more or less idea of ourselves at any given moment in time is supported by memory, and feeds on it, and as soon as the memory becomes disordered, a person’s idea of himself immediately changes. There is a not very noticeable, but similar to a noticeable disorder of human memory, which we do not notice in the same way as character accentuations. Also, disorders in life are very common, so it is important to have an idea of such typical disorders.
According to the dynamics of mnemonic processes, amnesia is divided into retrograde, anterograde, and retarded. Retrograde amnesia is the forgetting of past events, anterograde amnesia is the inability to remember for the future; recurrent amnesia is a type of memory change associated with the retention in memory of events experienced during illness and their subsequent forgetting. Another type of amnesia is progressive amnesia - manifests itself in the gradual deterioration of memory, until it is completely lost. In this case, first what is lost is what is not stable in memory, and then more durable memories.
Freud paid great attention to the analysis of the mechanisms of forgetting that occur in Everyday life. He wrote that one of the common mechanisms is to disrupt the train of thought, by the force of an internal test; coming from something repressed. He argued that in forgetting lies the motive of unwillingness to remember.
An example of motivated forgetting according to S. Freud are cases when a person involuntarily loses, pawns, somewhere things that he intentionally wants to forget, because. they can remind him of psychologically unpleasant circumstances. Therefore, such forgetting manifests itself especially often in cases where these memories are associated with negative experiences.
Many factors concerning memory have been identified by the genital theory of memory. One of them was called the Zeigarnik effect, discovered by B.V. Zeigarnik. It is as follows: if people are offered a series of tasks and one of them is allowed to be completed, and the other is interrupted unfinished, then it turns out that subsequently the subjects are almost twice as likely to remember unfinished tasks than those completed at the time of interruption. This is explained by the fact that when receiving a task, the subject has a need to remember it, which intensifies during the execution of the task. This need is fully realized when the task is completed, and remains unsatisfied if it is not completed. Due to the connection between motives and memory, the former influences the selectivity of memory, preserving in it environments of unfinished tasks. Conducting relevant experiments, B.V. Zeigarnik noted another interesting fact - “The predominance of unfinished tasks is expressed not only in the number of retained tasks, but also in the sequence in which the subject lists unfinished tasks.” From this remark we can draw the following conclusion: a person involuntarily retains in his memory and first of all reproduces what meets his most pressing, but not yet fully satisfied needs.
Speaking further about memory, the question arises whether memory is a sign of great intelligence. In reality, there are a huge number of people who are distinguished by phenomenal memory, but are not distinguished by deep intelligence, because... phenomenal memory does not always serve as a true criterion of intelligence.
Another statement is also true: it is not at all necessary to be a person of average or below average abilities in order to have a phenomenal memory, for example, truly great mathematicians like A.M. Ampère, John Wallace, and Carl Friedrich Gauss also had a phenomenal memory. But memory, while helping them in their work, was by no means the reason for their genius.
And yet it must be said that memory and intelligence are closely interrelated, because The more gifted a person is mentally, the better his memory. For example, a person’s vocabulary is a pretty good indicator of both memory and intelligence. It is known that people with poor experience gravitate toward rote memorization.
Any work of a scientific nature helps improve memory, because... enriches with new categories, points of view, based on which it is possible to memorize facts and phenomena by classifying them. Thus, memory cannot be separated from other mental processes, including thinking, with which it is closely connected, because in most cases, with good intelligence we have good memory. All other things being equal, memory is a valuable quality of intellectual ability. This parallelism, however, is not necessary. A number of studies are cited, including the famous psychologist Offner, who proved a smaller volume of memorization, a lower rate of memorization and lower accuracy of reproduction in the mentally retarded. The memory of the weak-minded is purely mechanical in nature, without the inclusion in this process of any intellectual elaboration of the information received. The memory of the weak-minded almost does not reflect the specific features of human memory; its indirect nature and its most significant qualities lie in the fact that a person owns his knowledge and can use it. Mechanical memory is observed in mentally retarded people and does not carry the highest manifestations of memory and cannot be used intelligently. Experiments conducted with schoolchildren by H. Ebbenhaus at the Bresna Gymnasium showed that the elements of memory contained in the immediate reproduction of a number of simple relative impressions are on average no better than those of gifted children. True, there are a number of other studies that establish better memory in more gifted children. Research conducted in France showed that gifted students had stronger memories, and students' success in school activities varied greatly among themselves. Since some good students had unsatisfactory memory, and some averagely gifted ones, their memory turned out to be very good.
If it is true that talent and memory do not go in parallel, then talent without memory alone would be, in a figurative expression, a commander without an army or a painter without paints. Therefore, to the question of why one person has a better memory than another, or why one person is smarter than another. We can say that this is still a physiological mystery.
Perhaps, in exceptional cases, the brain may have such a structure that a certain type of long-term memory, for example, for numbers, arises with particular ease, and therefore there are people who remember names but do not remember faces. Conversely, absent-minded scientists remember aspects of their subject in great detail, but have difficulty remembering their home address.
2.2 Memory as a system of intelligence
Memory integrates not only individual cognitive units and then their aggregates (collections of perceptions, concepts, etc.), but also various cognitive processes - sensory, perceptual and mental - into a holistic system of intelligence. And this aspect of the integrative function of memory is also largely determined by the organic connection of memory, first of all, with mental time, and then with the specifics of mental space. The integration of intelligence into an integral system (as well as the synthesis of any psychophysiological formation) is carried out at different levels of organization of neuropsychic processes, primarily at the level of their nervous mechanisms (at the level of general code structures of nervous excitation as an information process and at the same time the central mechanism for the formation and synthesis of any mental process ). And the integrating function of memory is also directly related to this level of intelligence integration.
The function of memory as the transmission of information through a temporary channel, as the storage of information, goes far beyond the actual psychological level. But precisely because this memory function is of such a multi-level nature, in the present context, of particular interest is, first of all, the psychological level of memory itself, and in particular, the psychological level of its integrating function in the processes of synthesis of various cognitive structures into an integral system of intelligence as a mental formation . It was the presence of this psychological aspect of the integrity of the intellect that gave us the basis to talk about intellect as one of the highest forms of psychological gestalts. But such a psychological synthesis can no longer be carried out only on the basis of the general properties of all processes, as mental processes. It is carried out on the basis of common psychological characteristics found in sensory, perceptual, general mental and conceptual cognitive processes.
Conclusion
The question of whether memory is a sign of great intelligence cannot be said unambiguously because... in fact, there are a huge number of people who have a good memory and even a phenomenal one, but are not distinguished by deep intelligence. And it was already said above that phenomenal memory does not always serve as a true criterion of intelligence. Although it is fair to say that most people, in addition to their high intellectual abilities, had good or even excellent memory, which in itself was not the reason for their genius. Memory is not only a gift of nature, but also the result of purposeful upbringing.
Memory ensures the integrity and development of a person’s personality and occupies a central position in the system of cognitive activity. However, it should be emphasized that memory capabilities only partly reflect the innate properties of the human brain. To a large extent, memory can be developed through systematic training, and this is evidenced by many of the examples given. Of undoubted importance, especially for the highest manifestations of memory, is the general level of human erudition, which makes it possible to connect each new fact with existing knowledge.
Therefore, it would be correct to say that there is no such thing as bad memory if it is not associated with pathology. Memory can be improved with the help of special exercises; memory can be improved through constant memorization of poems. Active development of memory occurs as a result of reading, writing, speaking, reading a monologue out loud, and then there will be no need to carry notebooks with you. Knowledge of the world would be impossible if people did not have the ability to imprint and retain in memory for a long time what they learned about reality in the process of perception and thinking.
So, the work carried out on this topic reflects the general knowledge accumulated to date and answered questions of interest.
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Memory, you are the hand of a giantess
You lead life like by the bridle of a horse...
Nikolay Gumilyov.
A schematic representation of a nerve cell shows numerous points of contact - synapses - with other nerve cells.
Georges de Latour (1593-1652). Education of Our Lady. The artist managed to convey the state of spiritualized experience in what seemed to be the most ordinary activity: memorizing what was newly learned.
Academician Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva and Professor Henry Wagner in his laboratory, where they study problems related to the functioning of the brain. Johns Hopkins Institute, Baltimore, USA. 1988
The mollusk Aplysia, which has large nerve cells, is one of the objects that is used in the study of the biochemical mechanisms of memory. A photograph taken with an electron microscope clearly shows synaptic endings in the form of “plaques.”
Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky - poet and educator of the heir, future Tsar Alexander II.
Memory is our main guide in the world around us. It gives direction to the passage of time, connecting the present with the past, us with our ancestors, today with yesterday. Memory makes each of us what we are. Having lost his memory, a person loses himself. It was memory - the accumulation of information and its transmission from generation to generation - that made the emergence and development of civilization real.
The memory capabilities are amazing. Until the end of our days we remember pictures of childhood, poems learned in school years, friends of youth... How is all this imprinted in the brain, stored for years and decades, and “removed from memory” at our request? Can modern science understand and at least partially explain this miracle? Or are we left to exclaim, like the heroine of one of the novels from the beginning of the last century: “Really, our ability to remember and forget seems completely incomprehensible to me”?
The human brain contains many billions of nerve cells - neurons, each of which is connected to other nerve cells by thousands of synapses. If you counted all these connections at the rate of one connection per second, it would take millions of years to complete the count! This number of cells and connections is enough to store a lifetime of memories. In recent decades, amazing methodological opportunities have opened up for studying the neurobiological foundations of memory and learning: microelectrode technology, electron microscopy, biochemistry and molecular biology of the brain. Of course, the task of a detailed study of the coordinated work of billions of cells of the human brain is fantastically complex and yet, in the figurative expression of N.P. Bekhtereva, one of the largest brain researchers, “we are now no longer at the foot of the peak called the “Human Brain.” We are walking along the slopes of this Everest."
The works of N.P. Bekhtereva and her colleagues established that a thought born of the perception and reproduction of words is accompanied by changes in the activity of neurons in a variety of areas of the cortex and in the subcortical structures of the brain. Even the most simple shapes During learning, neurons of many parts of the brain are involved in joint work - old nerve connections are strengthened and new ones arise, and, as N.P. Bekhtereva puts it, “a reorganization of the activity of nerve cells, directly related to thinking,” occurs. Moreover, the same cells can take part in solving different problems.
As you know, memory can be short-term and long-term. Short-term memory is based on the movement of “excitation flows” along closed neural circuits. Long-term memory is ensured by biochemical changes in nerve cells. Fifty years ago, Donald Hebb, in his book “Organization of Behavior,” first suggested that the formation of “memory traces” is associated with the biochemical restructuring of synapses - a process when a new system of interneuron connections is built that lasts quite a long time. Research over the next decades (and they were carried out on various biological objects and using increasingly advanced methods of biochemistry and molecular biology) confirmed the correctness of this concept.
The Englishman S. Rose studied “memory mechanisms” for many years and wrote a fascinating book “Memory Devices from Molecules to Consciousness” (it was published in Russian translation in 1995). He conducted his experiments on chickens. They were offered several beads, one of which was bitter. When the chicks learned not to peck the bitter bead, different parts of the brains of the trained and untrained chicks were subjected to biochemical analysis. It was revealed that during learning a cascade of cellular processes occurs. They begin with the opening of ion channels in synaptic membranes and the operation of a complex system of intracellular signals leading to the synthesis of new proteins. These proteins are in turn incorporated into the membranes of nerve cell processes (dendrites) and lead to changes, such as an increase in the number of "spines" on the surface of the dendrites, which can be seen with a microscope. And then a change in the electrical properties of nerve cells occurs. The most interesting thing is that already an hour after the formation of such “memory traces”, those parts of the brain where they were formed turn out to be unnecessary in order to remember what was learned. It seems that the traces “move”, being distributed between different parts of the brain.
So, biochemists have established a picture of the formation of “memory traces” at the cellular level. And physiologists and clinicians have identified a connection between the ability to memorize and recall what is memorized and the state of various parts of the brain. It is known that the temporal areas of the cerebral cortex are essential for human memory. If they are irritated with electricity, visual and auditory memories from a past life arise, while irritation of different areas causes different memories. In 1933, London psychologist Ritchie Russell observed a 22-year-old man who fell from a motorcycle and suffered an injury to the left front part of his brain. A week after the accident, he could speak rationally, and it seemed that his consciousness had been completely restored. However, he attributed everything that happened to 1922! Next came a memory loss, which was eliminated only after many weeks.
In 1953, a 27-year-old Canadian man with epilepsy underwent surgery to relieve his symptoms. He had part of the temporal lobe of his brain, part of the hippocampus and the amygdala removed. After the operation, the patient remembered the past well and was well versed in current events, but he lost the ability to incorporate new information into long-term memory. There was no connection between events. He said: “Every day passes by itself, no matter what joy or sorrow it brings.” Observers had the impression that many events were erased from his memory long before the end of the current day, just as we erase everything written on the board after the end of the lesson...
But even in a normal, undamaged brain, the information received is not always translated into long-term memory. The brain carries out a sort of filtering, separating the necessary from the unnecessary, thereby saving itself from overload. As a person grows up, he learns to select the most essential things to remember. In older people, mental processes do not proceed as quickly as in youth, but the most rational strategy for processing information is formed. IN last years Among psychologists, the opinion is increasingly growing that in today’s world, perhaps the main task of the education system should not be to memorize huge amounts of information, but to provide students with the skills necessary for “active defense” from the flow of media - not to isolate themselves from it with a high wall, but learn to choose what you need.
Among peoples who did not have writing, memory was subject to constant exercise, and memories were subject to preservation and renewal. Writing, printing, and today computer databases have significantly expanded the capabilities of our memory, freeing the brain from the need to store a huge amount of information that can be “transferred” to artificial memory. Even the simplest habit of writing down where and when to be, what to do, saves us from unnecessary fuss and negative emotions, allowing our nerve cells to do more important work.
The ability to remember everything and not forget anything is not ideal. Neuropsychologist Alexander Luria observed an extraordinary patient for thirty years who could not forget. He was able to memorize complex series of numbers and symbols and, what is most surprising, reproduce them at long intervals - while creating the impression that he was reading a book visible to him alone. Did such a fantastic memory make him happy? Apparently not. On the contrary, an excess of memory constantly prevented him from doing current affairs. In the end, he nevertheless found a use for his phenomenon, beginning to demonstrate his unique abilities on the stage...
Memory is a property of the brain as a single system. It depends not only on the specific biochemical processes occurring in individual nerve cells, but first of all on which cells these changes occur, on the location of these cells in different parts of the brain and their connection with each other. The basis of memory is the establishment of connections between perceived images, nerve cells and their ensembles, between departments and levels of the brain. Retrieving information from the storehouses of memory is like playing an instrument of amazing complexity, from which an experienced performer extracts wonderful melodies.
It is on the establishment and subsequent search for connections that mnemonics is based - a system of techniques that facilitate memorization. In his treatise On the Oracle, Cicero attributes the discovery of the rules of memorization to the poet Simonides, who lived in the 5th century BC. e. That's how it was. The noble Thessalian Skopas organized a festival where Simonides was supposed to perform a poem in honor of the owner. But Simonides included in the poem praise not only to the owner, but also to the divine twin brothers - Castor and Polluas. The angry owner said that he would pay him only half the amount, and let the gods pay the rest. A few minutes later the poet was informed that two young men were waiting for him on the street. When Simonides left, the roof of the hall collapsed and buried the owner and all the guests. The young men who called the poet were gods praised by him, they rewarded him for his kind words and punished the owner for his baseness.
The bodies of the dead were so mutilated that even relatives could not recognize their loved ones in order to bury them properly. Simonides helped them. He remembered the order in which people sat at the table, and therefore was able to identify the dead. This incident, according to Cicero, suggested to Simonides the principle of the art of memorization: the main condition for good memory is the ability to orderly arrange in thoughts everything that should be remembered.
It was this principle that later formed the basis for the creation of the so-called “theater of memory,” which was very popular during the Renaissance. Its essence was as follows: objects to be remembered were placed at the base of symbolic sculptures. Over time, these “theaters” became more and more complex, with aisles, tiers of seats, and classical statues that personified virtues, vices, and other key concepts. The Venetian Giulio Camillo even built a real wooden theater filled with sculptures, which he offered to the rulers as a wonderful means for exercising memory. Giordano Bruno used the principle of "theater of memory" as a means of classification to comprehend the mysteries of the Universe. "Theatres of memory" served as models of heaven and hell. It is assumed that it was precisely this mnemonic system that was the source of the “systematized” description of the circles of hell and heaven in Dante’s “Divine Comedy”.
This principle, intuitively grasped by man many centuries ago, appears to be universal. Isn’t it what we use today when making plans when writing essays, entering categories into computer databases? If the rubrication is successful, we quickly find what we need, if not, we “rummage” through all the material in search of a small reference. Our university education was built on the same principle, at least forty years ago, when I studied at the biology department of Moscow State University: we were taught not so much to memorize facts, but to find connections between them, to navigate the world of books, reference books, magazines, where these facts can be found, that is, to build the same “theater of memory”. Years have passed, the learned facts have been forgotten or become outdated, but the principles learned throughout life still help to work with new information.
After birth, the size of the human brain increases more than four times (in chimpanzees - only 1.6 times), and most of the nerve contacts-synapses present in the adult brain are formed. Each of us has such a long “childhood, adolescence and youth” that no other animal living on our planet has. This is in order to comprehend all the best that was created by our ancestors, learn about their mistakes and not repeat them (alas, this does not always happen). "Education begins from the cradle, teaching in adolescence, both continue until the end of young years. Then fate takes the pet from the hands of the educator and mentor and continues his earthly education until the grave; the duty of the educator and mentor is solely to make his pet capable listen to the instructions of fate and use them with human dignity,” wrote the wonderful poet and teacher Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky in the “Teaching Plan,” which he compiled for his pupil, the Tsarevich, the future Emperor Alexander II. Zhukovsky uses the same principle of “theater of memory”. He planned, in the course of training, which he likened to traveling with a compass along a map of knowledge, to give the student detailed and related answers to the basic questions of life: “where am I?”, “What am I?”, “What should I be and what am I destined for?”
Let me give you a few examples from this plan.
Where am I and what surrounds me: celestial bodies; The earth and everything on it.
What am I: a physical person (body structure); a moral person; man in relation to the environment; a person in relation to other people; the course of change in human society (history together with geography); the current state of human society.
All this “must be taught in connection” and in a clear and complete system in order to teach to understand the logic of the world, and not to slavishly memorize facts...
Such simple principles were formulated by a remarkable thinker of the 19th century.
Of course, the major transformations of the public “theater of memory” that occurred in our country twice during the last century could not pass without leaving a mark on the education system. But it's not only that. And the fact is that in most educational programs, facts and mechanical memorization prevail over the search for logic and connections between phenomena, over the opportunity to build your own “theater of memory,” a theater of everyday and moral guidelines.
To achieve a cherished goal, you must at least have it. What is this goal for our schoolchildren: to reassure their parents with a good grade, move on to the next grade, go to college? In V. A. Zhukovsky’s plan, the goal is completely different. “Teaching,” he writes, “forms for virtue.” A virtue that is so lacking in our society. Maybe because we don’t look for it, don’t teach it and don’t study it?!
HOME MEMORY THEATER
Try to use the principle of “memory theater” (essentially, the principle of orderly arrangement of memorized material) when arranging your workplace, compiling an archive, writing articles, teaching...
At school you had excellent grades in history, then all your life you read historical literature, you know a lot of facts, but they all remain “on their own.” You cannot connect dates, events, names together. Is this a familiar picture? Let your children learn history differently - easier and more effectively. Help them with this. Take a long strip of graph paper and put a time scale on it, for starters, at least for the last 300 years - from the era of Peter I. Now fill in the time intervals with the main events associated with them. Introduce into this “memory theater” landmarks and landmarks that are close to you. These could be the names of kings, battles, geographical discoveries, names of writers and scientists. Dreary memorization of dates will quickly turn into an interesting and useful game.
How much do you know about the life of your great-grandfather, grandfather, not to mention more distant ancestors? Would you like to know more? Then provide this opportunity to your descendants: write an autobiography for your children, and let them write for theirs. This is how the history of the family will arise, which for each of us is probably no less important than the history of the world. If you “don’t have the strength” to write an autobiography, write down at least the main events of your life by starting a special beautiful journal for this. Our family has preserved such a magazine, started by one of our ancestors in St. Petersburg in 1703. It contains the simplest information: first and last names, dates of birth, marriage and death, information about participation in battles and awards. Only dry facts, but holding this book in your hands is surprisingly interesting. Give such a gift to your descendants who will live 100-200 years after you. I know from personal experience that they will thank you.
Do you sometimes feel like a week or even a month has passed and you haven’t done anything? To avoid this, spend 10 minutes at the beginning of each week drawing up a plan for your main tasks, and at the end of the week, spend the same amount summing up the results. Very simple and, I assure you, effective.
In general, use the capabilities of “artificial memory” more widely. Don't overload your brain with information that can be written down or found in a reference book. True, according to Plato, Socrates said that notes “destroy memory.” Probably in the sense that by writing down rather than memorizing, we leave the memory without daily training. But times have changed: neither Socrates nor Plato could imagine how much information bombards a person in our days.
If you definitely want to train your memory, learn good poems, in addition to the direct result - exercises in memorization - they will introduce you to the world of high harmony, you will have in stock helper poems “for every day”, for every difficult moment, which is what this is about M. Yu. Lermontov said well:
In a difficult moment of life
Is there sadness in my heart:
One wonderful prayer
I repeat it by heart.
There is a power of grace
In the consonance of living words,
And an incomprehensible one breathes,
Holy beauty in them.
Like a burden will roll off your soul,
Doubt is far away -
And I believe and cry,
And so easy, easy...
The study of memory was one of the first branches of psychological science where the experimental method was applied. Back in the 80s. XIX century German psychologist G. Ebbinghaus proposed a technique with the help of which it was possible to study the laws of “pure” memory, independent of the activity of thinking. This technique is learning nonsense syllables. As a result, he derived the main curves for learning (memorizing) material and identified a number of features of the manifestation of association mechanisms. Thus, he found that relatively simple events that made a strong impression on a person can be remembered immediately, firmly and for a long time. At the same time, a person can experience more complex, but much more interesting events dozens of times, but they do not remain in memory for long. G. Ebbinghaus also found that with close attention to an event, experiencing it once is enough to accurately reproduce it in the future. Another conclusion was that when memorizing a long series, material at the ends is better reproduced (“edge effect”). One of the most important achievements of G. Ebbinghaus was the discovery of the law of forgetting. He derived this law based on experiments with memorizing meaningless three-letter syllables. During the experiments, it was found that after the first error-free repetition of a series of such syllables, forgetting proceeds very quickly at first. Already within the first hour up to 60% is forgotten information received, and after six days less than 20% of the total number of initially learned syllables remains in memory. Psychology of Memory./ Ed. Yu.B. Gippenreiter and V. Ya. Romanova. - M.: CheRo, 2009. With. 96.
Another famous German psychologist G. E. Müller carried out fundamental research into the basic laws of consolidation and reproduction of memory traces in humans. At first, the study of memory processes in humans was mainly limited to the study of special conscious mnemonic activity, and much less attention was paid to the analysis of the natural mechanisms of imprinting traces, which manifest themselves to the same extent in both humans and animals. This was due to the widespread use of the introspective method in psychology. However, with the development of objective research into animal behavior, the field of memory research has been significantly expanded. So, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Research by the American psychologist E. Thorndike appeared, who for the first time made the formation of skills in an animal the subject of study. Nemov R.S. Psychology vol.1: in 3 books. - M.: ed. VLADOS center, 2009 With. 47.
A special place in memory research is occupied by the problem of studying higher voluntary and conscious forms memory, allowing a person to consciously use methods of mnemonic activity and arbitrarily refer to any segments of his past.
For the first time, a systematic study of higher forms of memory in children was carried out by the outstanding psychologist L. S. Vygotsky, who at the end of the 1920s began researching the issue of the development of higher forms of memory and showed that higher forms of memory are a complex form of mental activity, social in origin . Within the framework of the theory of the origin of higher mental functions proposed by Vygotsky, the stages of phylo- and ontogenetic development of memory were identified, including voluntary and involuntary, as well as direct and indirect memory. Vygotsky’s works were a further development of the research of the French scientist P. Janet, who was one of the first to interpret memory as a system of actions focused on remembering, processing and storing material. It was the French psychological school that proved the social conditionality of all memory processes, its direct dependence on the practical activity of a person.
Research by L. L. Smirnov and P. I. Zinchenko, conducted from the perspective of the psychological theory of activity, made it possible to reveal the laws of memory as a meaningful human activity, established the dependence of memorization on the task at hand, and identified the basic techniques for memorizing complex material. For example, Smirnov found that actions are remembered better than thoughts, and among actions, in turn, those associated with overcoming obstacles are more firmly remembered.
There are several main approaches to memory classification. Currently, as the most general basis for distinguishing different types of memory, it is customary to consider the dependence of memory characteristics on the characteristics of memorization and reproduction activities.
The classification of types of memory according to the nature of mental activity was first proposed by P. P. Blonsky. Although all four types of memory he identified do not exist independently of each other, and moreover, are in close interaction, Blonsky was able to determine the differences between individual types of memory Teaching and raising children in a auxiliary school: A manual for teachers and students of a defectologist. f-tov ped. in-tov / Ed. V.V. Voronkova - M.: Shkola-Press, 2009. p. 128.
Basic information about the work
Template version 1.1 Branch Nizhny Novgorod Type of work Electronic written pre-defense Name of the discipline Psychology Topic Development of student's memory in the process of educational activities Last name of the graduate Lopygin Name of the graduate Oleg Patronymic of the graduate Grigorievich Contract No. 09200070701021 Content
memory students optimization mnemonic
Introduction
Theoretical review of the problem of memory in domestic and foreign literature
1 Representations of the main scientific schools about the specifics and mechanisms of formation of mnemonic processes
2 Types of memory and their features
Experimental study of the development of students' memory in the process of educational activities
1 Stages and procedure of experimental research
2 Results of the experimental study
Conclusion
Glossary
List of sources used
Introduction
The work is devoted to one of the most important problems of theoretical and practical psychology - the problem of developing a student's memory in the process of educational activity.
The relevance of this problem is justified by the fact that memory is one of the most important attributes of human life itself, ensuring the normal functioning of the individual and society. The development of memory as the highest mental function is the basis for the differentiation of humans and animals, and also seems to be one of the most important vectors of human progress, since it is a necessary condition for learning, acquiring knowledge, and developing skills.
Memory ensures integrity human personality with its inherent certain picture of the world, the motivational-need sphere. Observations of people with impaired memory show that a person who has lost his memory ceases to be a person; he turns into an automaton, acting under the influence of primitive needs and momentary influences.
Memory is the most important resource for personal development, provides a connection between the past and the present and helps predict the future. As S.L. Rubinstein noted, “without memory we would be creatures of the moment... our past would be dead to the future... the present, as it passes, would irrevocably disappear into the past.”
Currently, in the context of developmental and educational psychology, much attention is paid to the study of the development of memory as a higher mental function in different stages ontogenesis, as well as the study of psychological and pedagogical conditions that contribute to the optimization of the mnemonic activity of children and adolescents.
The problem of memory development is of particular relevance during the period when study becomes the leading activity for the child.
Numerous studies show that the correct organization of primary school children’s mastery of educational activities is inextricably linked with the optimization of their memory and the formation of mnemonic techniques in them.
Currently, the amount of information required for memorization, preservation and reproduction by students is rapidly increasing.
In school practice, complaints from teachers and parents about poor memory are traditional and quite common. Thus, the problem is clearly revealed: insufficient development of basic mnemonic operations leads to low academic performance, which is one of the reasons for indiscipline, aggressiveness and other emotional and interpersonal problems in children of primary school age.
Due to the great actual problem development of memory, already starting from Aristotle, mnemonic processes were subjected to detailed study in a variety of branches of scientific knowledge: philosophy, physiology, chemistry, cybernetics, psychology.
Today, there are numerous scientific schools and directions focused on the study of memory in its various aspects and presented in the works of domestic psychologists L.S. Vygotsky (2007), A.N. Leontiev (2006), A.A. Smirnova (2007), P.I. Zinchenko (2003), A.R. Luria (2008), V.Ya. Lyaudis (2006), V.D. Shadrikov (2000) and others, as well as foreign ones - Norman D.A. (2005), Atkinson R. (2004), etc.
Based on the above, it is formulated purpose of the study:studying the specifics of student memory development in the process of learning activities.
Research objectives:
- Systematize scientific information regarding the definition, typology of memory and the mechanisms of its functioning.
- To identify the specifics of memory as a higher mental function in primary school age.
- To study the basic mnemonic techniques used in the practice of psychological and pedagogical support for primary school students.
- Conduct an experimental study of the development of students' memory in the process of educational activities.
An objectresearch: memory as the highest mental function in children
primary school age.
Itemresearch: psychological and pedagogical conditions for the development of memory in primary school students in the process of educational activities.
Hypothesisresearch: the development of students' memory in the process of educational activities is possible with the organization of psychological and pedagogical support aimed at diagnosing the main characteristics and developing mnemonic skills in children.
Research base:The study was conducted at MAOU Secondary School No. 81 in Nizhny Novgorod. It was attended by 1st grade students - 14 people (7 girls, 7 boys). The age of children is from 7 to 8 years.
Research methods: theoretical analysis of literature; empirical methods: testing, mathematical and statistical methods for assessing the reliability of the results obtained (G-sign test method) and qualitative analysis of the results obtained.
The survey was aimed at identifying the development of mnemonic techniques among students; The typology of voluntary memorization methods by V.Ya. Lyaudis was taken as criteria.
Testing was carried out using the following methods:
.Subtest “Repetition of numbers” from D. Wechsler’s test, aimed at diagnosing short-term memory
.“Grouping” technique by E.L. Yakovleva, aimed at diagnosing the ability to semantically process memorized material
.Methodology by K.P. Maltseva “Mnemonic supports”, aimed at diagnosing and correcting mnemonic activity.
Practical significance of the work:The results of the study will contribute to the organization of psychological and pedagogical support for children of primary school age to optimize mnemonic activity.
Structure of the work: introduction, three chapters, conclusion, list of sources used, glossary, appendices.
The first chapter presents the main foreign and domestic theories of memory, and also provides comparative characteristics of definitions of memory and typologies.
The second chapter presents the specifics of the memory of children of primary school age, and also examines the main mnemonic techniques that help optimize the memory of students.
The third chapter presents an experimental study of the development of students' memory in the process of learning activities.
1 Theoretical review of the problem of memory in domestic and foreign literature
1.1 Views of the main scientific schools about the specifics and mechanisms of formation of mnemonic processes
Memory occupies a special place in the structure of the psyche: it is one way or another integrated into all mental cognitive processes - and therefore received the status of a “general organic function”. Memory provides processes for storing individual experience, as well as genetically determined mechanisms for transmitting information.
Currently, memory as a mental cognitive process is represented in all studies in general psychology.
Let's consider the basic terminology on the topic “Memory”, identified by domestic researchers.
A.V. Petrovsky, R.S. Nemov, A.G. Maklakov define memory as a mental cognitive process. It should be noted that the definitions are almost identical: A.V. Petrovsky: “Memorization, preservation and subsequent reproduction by an individual of his experience.”
R.S. Nemov gives several definitions: “...the ability to receive, store and reproduce life experience"and the second, more precise and strict, from his point of view: "...psychophysiological and cultural processes, performing in life the functions of remembering, preserving and reproducing information.”
A.G. Maklakov: “By memory we mean the imprinting, preservation, subsequent recognition and reproduction of traces of past experience.”
Thus, we can conclude that all the definitions listed above rely on the basic processes of memory (all authors emphasize memorization and reproduction, with some discrepancy in the mention of “recognition”). R.S. Nemov simultaneously notes the psychophysiological and cultural specificity of memory processes (in this case it can be assumed that his definition is based on L.S. Vygotsky’s concept of the cultural and historical development of higher mental functions).
The above researchers pay attention to the role of memory processes in human life: memory “separates man from the animal kingdom and ... is a condition for successful adaptation” (R.S. Nemov); “ensures the unity and integrity of the individual” (A.V. Petrovsky); “represents a “end-to-end” process that ensures the continuity of mental processes and unites all cognitive processes into a single whole” (A.G. Maklakov).
Thus, the adapting and integrating functions of memory are emphasized.
In science, the first ideas about memory came down to understanding this mental phenomenon as a specific imprint (in other words, a trace) of objects (in other words, various types of stimuli) that were perceived by a person in the process of cognition of the surrounding world.
The mechanisms of mnemonic processes have been studied in the context of various sciences: physiology, biology, psychology.
From the point of view of biochemistry, mnemonic processes are associated with changes in the composition of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and other biochemical structures, which determines the memorization, preservation and reproduction of “traces” of neuro-brain processes. A.V. Petrovsky considers the significance of RNA as “the basis of individual memory,” and all structural and chemical changes in brain cells are “a product of previous activity,” which are “a necessary condition ... for more complex actions.”
From a physiological point of view, the functioning of memory and, above all, such a mnemonic process as the storage of information, is due to the formation of neural connections, or associations. The physiological nature of mnemonic processes is presented in different studies with some disagreement. However, almost everywhere memory is interpreted as an elementary process of imprinting, which has a biological origin.
Memorization is possible if electrical activity occurs. A reciprocal relationship has been discovered between chemical and structural changes in the brain and electrical activity. The process of reverberation is examined in detail, according to which a “simple chain” arises, in which the excitation makes a circle and begins a new one. The reverberation process can be stopped in the event of the appearance of new signals, chemical processes in neurons and synapses. The fact that received information is retained throughout life is explained by the presence of multiple electrical activity in neurons - “consolidation”.
A.V. Petrovsky and A.G. Maklakov associate the development of the physiological theory of memory, first of all, with such a discovery in the field of physiology as the teaching of I.P. Pavlov on the laws of higher nervous activity. A.V. Petrovsky, using the terms “stimulus” and “reinforcement,” argues that reinforcement is “nothing more than achieving the immediate goal of an individual’s action.” And this formulation of the question is fully consistent with the basic provisions of the domestic theory of activity.
Numerous studies have noted the fact that the physiological mechanisms of memory have not yet been fully studied.
Let's look at the main psychological theories memory.
A.V. Petrovsky, A.G. Maklakov note the presence of three theories of memory: psychological, physiological and biochemical, representing “different levels” of studying this problem.”
A.V. Petrovsky believes that all theories of memory should be classified depending on what role they assigned to the subject’s activity in the formation of memory processes and how they viewed the nature of this activity. A.V. Petrovsky notes that in most theories the focus of attention was either the object (“material” in itself, or the subject (“pure activity of consciousness”), regardless of the activity of the individual. Thus, this author comes to the conclusion about the “inevitable one-sidedness of all theories."
Let us pay attention to associative theories that were first presented by Aristotle: associations by contiguity, associations by similarity, associations by contrast. Then these ideas were experimentally proven by a number of foreign and domestic researchers.
D. Hume, W. James, G. Spencer created the concept of associative psychology, according to which almost all mental phenomena were interpreted primarily from a mechanistic point of view. The authors of this concept believed that there is a certain connection between all mental processes, which in the process of reflecting the realities of the external world does not depend on a person’s awareness of their most important internal connections.
A.V. Petrovsky conducted a critical analysis of the “associative theory”, which, from his point of view, despite some positive aspects, does not answer the question of what determines the selectivity of memory, and in a number of other areas, memory processes are not associated with the activity of the subject and are applied only to the higher stages of memory development. The most correct theory that can consider memory in the necessary scientific context, from the point of view of A.V. Petrovsky, is the theory of activity, since it allows us to highlight activity as the main determinant of the formation of memory as one of the mental processes.
Nevertheless, some ideas of the theory of associative connections were experimentally confirmed by domestic psychophysiologists I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlov. I.P. Pavlov examined the basic patterns of associative connections, which, in his opinion, consist in the existence of temporary connections that arise as a result of simultaneous or sequential exposure to two or more stimuli.
In the context of the processes of association formation, memory processes were also considered by the famous German psychologist L.G. Ebbinghaus. In connection with this methodological basis, the researcher studied mechanical memory by memorizing unrelated units (syllables). Classic today are his experimental studies, which made it possible to establish a number of important patterns of memorization, preservation and forgetting of information.
In modern psychology, the associative theory is presented as one of the many explanatory models of mnemonic processes.
In the context of this work, the Gestalt concept regarding the problem of memory mechanisms deserves special attention. In their understanding of the nature of mnemonic processes, representatives of this theory relied on the idea of “gestalt,” which presupposes the original, holistic organization of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world. Thus, it was emphasized that memory processes are determined by the formation of a gestalt (“whole”, “structure”, “system”). That is, it is the presence of a systemic organization of the whole that influences the features and mechanisms of functioning of its parts.
Experimental studies of memory, carried out in the context of Gestalt psychology, were based on the postulate of the holistic structure of the material that a person remembers and reproduces. Thus, this assumption acted as an alternative to the associative theory, according to which random sets of elements are perceived, imprinted and reproduced
From the point of view of representatives of Gestalt psychology, the reproduction of certain information was due to the fact that a person had a certain attitude toward memorization or reproduction, which contributed to the formation of certain integral structures in the human mind, control of the process of memorization and reproduction, and selection of the necessary information.
In the context of Gestal psychology, a number of experiments were carried out in Russian psychology, for example, under the leadership of B.V. Zeigarnik. Thus, the concept of “the effect of unfinished action” entered into Russian psychology, which is consistent with the “quasi-need” discovered by K. Levin. The main content of the memory phenomena identified by psychologists is that subjects remember best those tasks that remained unfinished at the end of the experiment. That is, the need to complete the task remained unfulfilled. Conclusions were drawn about the influence of motivation caused by the fact of unfinished tasks on the selectivity of memory.
In the semantic theory of memory, A. Binet and K. Bühler considered the dependence of mnemonic processes on the presence of certain semantic connections, which make it possible to combine the memorized material into “semantic structures”. That is, representatives of this direction considered the semantic content of the memorized material to be the main determinant of the processes of memorization and reproduction.
In the psychoanalytic direction, various memory phenomena have been studied quite widely, starting with S. Freud (for example, the phenomenon of “infantile amnesia”). An important contribution to the development of the theory of memory is traditional psychoanalytic ideas about the influence of such personal characteristics as emotions, motives, needs on the functioning of a number of mnemonic processes. The concept of psychological defense mechanisms by S. Freud and A. Freud illuminated in sufficient detail the problem of “motivated forgetting,” which is represented at the basis of “repressing” traumatic events from the conscious level of the psyche. There is mixed evidence regarding how negative and positive events are retained in memory. For example, some representatives of modern psychoanalysis believe that negative events are reproduced more often by individuals with a strong “I”.
In the behavioral direction, attempts were also made to study mnemonic processes, which in some way resonated with the ideas of associative theory. From the point of view of representatives of behavioral psychology, successful memorization is facilitated by the reinforcement of mnemonic activity with some stimulus.
Despite the numerous experimental facts obtained, it remained practically open question about the origin of memory. However, within the framework of the French psychological school (for example, in the works of P. Janet), such mnemonic processes as memorization, processing and preservation were first identified; and also - the idea of the social determination of mnemonic processes and their conditionality by human practical activity is substantiated.
The problem of developing students' memory in the process of educational activities, considered in this work, has led to special attention to the study of memory in the context of higher mental functions.
Research on the formation and development of higher mental functions is presented in most detail in the concept of cultural-historical development of the Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky, and then experimentally substantiated by A.A. Smirnov and P.I. Zinchenko.
So, in the concept of L.S. Vygotsky, special attention was paid to the problem of higher voluntary and conscious forms of memory, which first exist in the form of interpsychic functions, as a product of interaction between a child and an adult, and then, through gradual internalization, acquire the status of intrapsychic functions, that is, they become the basis for arbitrary reference to one’s experience and independent use of various methods of mnemonic activity
Highlighting the natural and cultural levels of development of the human psyche, L.S. Vygotsky experimentally confirmed the existence of higher forms of memory, which are social in origin. He also studied the development of memory in phylogenesis and ontogenesis. The ontogenetic aspect of memory development included the stages of voluntary and involuntary, direct and indirect functioning of mnemonic processes.
As R.M. Granovskaya notes, the merit of L.S. Vygotsky is that he “threw a bridge” between involuntary and mediated voluntary memory. From his point of view, the development of voluntary memory from involuntary memory in a child is possible in the case of interaction with an adult using the mediating function of speech. The first stages of the formation of voluntary memory are presented in the form of external actions using objects. Then the actions are internalized and self-regulated - at this stage, memory acquires the characteristics of indirect and logical.
A.N. Leontiev associated historically early forms of voluntary memory with the process of memorizing some objects through others. For example, a pebble, put by a person in his pocket under certain circumstances, subsequently falling into his hand, served as a “reminder”, that is, it was used as a specific means of remembering.
In the literature there are numerous descriptions of “folk” mnemonic means and actions: notches, slicing, memory knots, etc. Thus, memorization and reproduction with the help of all these aids can be considered “indirect”.
Traditionally, there are two directions in the development of indirect memorization in phylogenesis. The first direction is usually associated with the use of external object intermediaries (amulets, pebbles, etc.), which help optimize memory. The result of this “path” was the construction of monuments, the development of writing, the emergence of photography, cinema, etc. The second direction in the development of mediated memorization involved the inclusion of special actions (tying a “knot for memory”, notching) in the organization of the process of memorization and reproduction.
Gradually, in the process of phylogenetic development, independence of information reproduction from external intermediaries was formed. External stimuli specific to involuntary memory began to be replaced by internal stimuli as voluntary memory was formed.
L.S. Vygotsky noted that speech was the main instrument for the development of voluntary memory. The process of a person mastering inner speech contributed to the use of words as an internal stimulus, a kind of intermediary with the help of which the processes of self-regulation of memorization and reproduction can be organized.
P. Janet, studying memorization as an activity that compensates for absence, identified the following stages of memory formation in a child: “waiting”, “delayed action”, “preserving instructions” (first with the help of objects, then with the help of signs). Voluntary memory reaches its highest level if the child is ready to reproduce the memorized material. The more common retelling involves the child's ability to differentiate the time perspective of events and awareness of relationships.
Thus, the ontogenetic context of the formation of individual memory largely corresponds to phylogenesis: recall is first carried out through objects, then through words, and finally through the structure of words.
In the studies of A.A. Smirnov and P.I. Zinchenko, experimental searches for arbitrary forms of mnemonic activity were deepened, and the connection between memory processes and thinking processes was examined. Following the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky and A.N. Leontiev, these psychologists revealed the laws of memory as a meaningful human activity, identified the dependence of memorization on the structural and content characteristics of goal setting, and identified a number of mnemonic techniques.
Modern domestic psychological science adheres to the point of view that memory is, first of all, determined by the nature of a person’s activity and the direction of his personality.
Today, a point of view has been established according to which memory processes cannot be considered separately from the characteristics and properties of the individual. It has been experimentally proven that certain manifestations of memory are primarily determined by the orientation and motivational sphere of the individual.
As is known, the orientation of a person is diverse in its content: it incorporates a large number of goals and motives of activity, inclinations, and interests that differ in their degree of stability. Thus, the uniqueness of the course of mnemonic processes is determined. A large amount of experimental data has been obtained in favor of the fact that objects of the surrounding world that are within the sphere of interests of the individual are remembered much more effectively and are preserved for a long time. It influences the characteristics of mnemonic activity and the professional orientation of the individual.
Memory depends on various personal characteristics: age, development of volitional, emotional and intellectual spheres.
In Russian psychology, some psychoanalytic ideas regarding mnemonic processes have also been experimentally confirmed. For example, P.P. Blonsky conducted research in which he found that emotionally charged information is remembered more effectively than emotionally neutral information. He experimentally proved that more than 90.0% of information that has a negative emotional connotation is remembered. P.P. Blonsky asked the subjects to reproduce early childhood memories in writing. It should be noted that in terms of frequency of occurrence, the first three places were represented by: thematic groups: “mysterious and new”, “death”, “severe frights and fears”. The last places were occupied by: “happy moments”, “other”, “emotionally indifferent events”.
S.L. Rubinstein agrees that an emotionally rich event will be captured better than an emotionally neutral one. However, he emphasizes, the capture of a pleasant or unpleasant event will depend on the degree of its relevance for the person’s personality, on its place in the history of its development. So, for example, a pleasant event, which was the completion of an action that was once relevant to the individual, will most likely be forgotten. But if a pleasant memory is associated with currently unresolved problems that determine new prospects for personal development, then it will most likely be retained in memory. The same logic applies to unpleasant events.
S.L. Rubinstein also notes that the content of the memorized material depends on the characterological characteristics of the individual.
Modern studies in the history of psychology repeatedly note the role of L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev, A.A. Smirnov and P.I. Zinchenko in memory research within the framework of the theory of development of higher mental functions and activity theory.
For example, R.S. Nemov emphasizes that in the context of activity theory, “memory acts as special kind psychological activity, including a system of theoretical and practical actions subordinated to the solution of a mnemonic task - memorizing, preserving and reproducing various information...; carefully examines...the dependence of memory products on the place in the structure of the purpose and means of memorization,...the comparative productivity of voluntary and involuntary memorization depending on the organization of mnemonic activity...".
1.2 Types of memory and their features
Manifestations of memory are distinguished by a wide variety of forms, which is due to the fact that memory, one way or another, accompanies all types of diverse human activities.
Classifications are based on a variety of criteria, so today there are a large number of typologies of mnemonic processes that are enriched with new information.
A.V. Petrovsky notes that consideration of the characteristics of memory should be determined by the characteristics of the activity itself in which memorization and reproduction are carried out.
A.V. Petrovsky distinguishes types of memory in accordance with three main criteria:
By the nature of mental activity: motor memory; emotional memory; figurative memory; verbal-logical memory.
By the nature of the goals of the activity: involuntary memory; arbitrary memory.
According to the duration of material retention: long-term memory; short-term memory; RAM .
A.G. Maklakov, when considering the main types of memory depending on the characteristics of mental activity, draws attention to the first manifestations in the process of ontogenesis; he notes that in the early stages, some types of memory are predominantly conditioned reflex in nature.
A.V. Petrovsky pays more attention to the individual differences of carriers of a certain type of memory and introduces another type of memory - “eidetic memory”, which “works” with the help of so-called “eidetic images, or visual images of memory”, is the result of irritation of the senses external stimuli and is characterized by such detailed clarity, completely inaccessible to ordinary representation.
From the point of view of R.S. Nemov, there are two grounds for classification: the first is the division of memory according to the time the material is stored, the second is the analyzer that predominates in the processes of memorizing, storing and reproducing the material. So, the typology presented by R.S. Nemov looks like this:
According to the time of storage of the material: instantaneous (or iconic) memory; short-term memory; RAM; long-term memory; genetic memory.
According to the analyzer that predominates in the processes of memorizing, storing and reproducing material: motor; visual; auditory; olfactory; tactile; emotional, etc.
It should be noted that almost all modern ideas of memory theory consider the problem of the relationship between different types of memory, but different authors use different types of memory as comparable objects.
Thus, A.V. Petrovsky considers the relationship of all types of memory in accordance with the classification he adopted. He once again emphasizes that this relationship is due to the fact that “the division of memory into types, which he accepted as the basis, is associated with various aspects of human activity, acting in organic unity.” For example, verbal-logical memory can be either involuntary or voluntary, and also either short-term or long-term. He notes the existence of a connection between different types of memory, for example, motor, figurative and verbal-logical. However, the connection between short-term and long-term memory is considered as two stages of a single process and emphasizes that short-term memory is a kind of “passport” of all memory processes.
Considering the relationship between memory processes, R.S. Nemov focuses on the analysis of the characteristics and relationship of the “two main types of memory,” from his point of view, which a person uses in everyday life: short-term and long-term. R. Nemov, as well as A.V. Petrovsky, notes the large role of short-term memory in human life, in particular for the normal functioning of long-term memory and compares short-term memory with “an obligatory intermediate storage and filter that passes the necessary, already selected information into the long-term memory".
Particular attention should be paid to the concept of R. Atkinson and R. Shifrin, according to which there is an interconnected work of short-term and long-term memory, including repression, repetition and encoding as private processes that make up the work of memory.
Let's consider descriptive models of the most common types of memory today.
According to P.P. Blonsky, different types of memory are formed in humans at different stages of ontogenesis. Therefore, they can be considered in ontogenetic sequence.
Motor memory - this is memory for movements. It is the basis for the formation of various motor skills: labor, sports, practical, etc. A.A. Smirnov’s experiments show that memorization will be more productive if it occurs at the level of actions (not thoughts), moreover, accompanied by overcoming obstacles. Already at preschool age, the level of development of motor memory allows children to clearly coordinate actions related to the acquisition of written language.
Affective memory is memory for feelings. It plays an important regulatory role in human life, especially in the system of interpersonal relationships. The feelings that a person has experienced can act as unique stimuli that encourage action or hinder its implementation.
Figurative memory is the memory of ideas and images that in the past affected the senses. There are visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory and eidetic memory. The latter presupposes the preservation in consciousness of bright and distinct images of previous perception.
Verbal-logical memory is a memory for thoughts, determined by the activity of the second signaling system, which is specific only to human memory. This type of memory contributes to the formation of abstract thinking and successful learning in general.
In the context of the problems of this work, the classification of memory according to the nature of the goals of the activity into voluntary and involuntary memory is of particular importance.
Involuntary memory is the unintentional imprinting of external stimuli in the absence of deliberate memorization. This type of memory is characterized by special selectivity, namely: what is involuntarily remembered better is that which has a direct connection with the vital necessity and actual needs of a person, with the goals and objectives of his activity.
From the point of view of P.I. Zinchenko and A.A. Smirnov showed that involuntary memorization is determined by the degree of activity and the content of a person’s motivational sphere.
Voluntary memory involves purposeful memorization associated with the use of volitional efforts and special means for its implementation. This type of memory is directly related to the thinking process.
According to the criterion of time of retention of material, sensory, short-term and long-term memory are distinguished.
Sensory memory is a primitive, receptor process. The reticular formation plays a direct role in the formation and preservation of images.
Short-term memory helps process and sort large amounts of information, which protects the brain from overload. The duration of short-term memory is approximately 20 seconds. Therefore, to retain information at this level, activity aimed at memorization and concentration on one type of activity is necessary. Short-term memory is necessary for understanding the sequence of words, instructions, and solving problems. Therefore, in learning, poorly developed short-term memory prevents 6-7 year old children from solving complex problems and building behavioral strategies. Without productive short-term memory, long-term memory will also be problematic. Transition from the level of short-term memory to the level of long-term memory. seems possible with the help of volitional processes.
Long-term memory is characterized by the fact that its duration and volume are practically unlimited and depend on the importance of the information being remembered, on the method of encoding, systematization, as well as the features of reproduction. The successful functioning of long-term memory depends on the degree of its semantic organization and on the level of speech development. The learning process involves focusing on long-term memory. Therefore, it is important to have a well-structured system of lessons and ways of presenting educational material.
Working memory manifests itself during the performance of a certain activity and “serves” this activity. The volume of “operational memory units” directly determines the successful implementation of a particular activity. Therefore, for memorizing material, the formation of optimal operational memory units is of great importance.
Thus, from the first chapter you can do the following: conclusions:
Human memory is, on the one hand, a complex activity, the result of which is determined by such factors as motivation, the formation and retention of intentions, the choice of an adequate plan and the composition of operations necessary for its implementation. On the other hand, these higher or second order factors, as their necessary prerequisite, require the preservation of the trace-forming function in the form of the primary biological ability of the brain to receive and record current impressions.
Memory is one of the broadest psychological concepts. Thanks to memory, a connection of the present, past and future occurs. It is memory that ensures the stability of the individual and facilitates the process of learning and development. All knowledge, abilities, skills without memory are not needed by a person, since he would not be able to use them.
There are several bases for classifying types of memory. One of them is the division of memory according to the time of storage of the material, the other - according to the analyzer that predominates in the processes of memorizing, storing and reproducing the material.
Memory manifests itself in the processes of remembering and preserving what was previously perceived, in reproducing and recognizing what happened before, as well as forgetting what is not necessary at some moments in our life. Memorization, recollection, reproduction, recognition are built on the basis of the elementary ability to imprint. These are specific processes in which thinking is essentially included in a complex and contradictory unity with speech, attention, interests, emotions, etc. are included.
Research by V.D. Shadrikov and L.V. Cheremoshkina showed that the specificity of the mnemonic abilities of primary school students lies in the severity of the “perceptual-representational level of mnemonic actions”: that is, children remember, first of all, through repetition, as well as such techniques as groupings, recoding, strongholds, associations.
About 20.0% of students failed to complete the task: they showed an inability to correctly retain the task, involuntary reproduction was fragmentary, and unconscious solution to the problem.
2. Experimental study of the development of students' memory in the process of educational activities
.1 Test procedure
The study consisted of three stages.
At the first stage of the study, a semi-standardized conversation was conducted with primary school teachers and first grade teachers to obtain an expert assessment regarding the development of basic mnemonic techniques among primary school students that allow optimizing educational activities.
Teachers were asked to determine, based on the experience of educational cooperation with children, the level of formation of certain mnemonic techniques.
At the second stagestudents were asked to complete the “Repetition of Digits” subtest from D. Wexler’s test, aimed at diagnosing short-term memory; the “Grouping” technique by E.L. Yakovleva, aimed at diagnosing the ability to semantically process memorized material.
At the third stagestudents were asked to perform K.P. Maltseva’s “Mnemonic Supports” method, aimed at diagnosing and correcting mnemonic activity.
Introducing short description diagnostic tools.
The questionnaire for teachers in order to obtain an expert assessment regarding the formation of mnemonic techniques in students was based on the typology of methods of voluntary memorization by V.Ya. Lyaudis: 1) classification of educational material according to certain essential characteristics; 2) highlighting the supporting “points” that carry the main semantic load (title, abstract, questions, etc.); 2) drawing up a plan as a generalization of the supporting “points”; 3) structuring - awareness of the relative position of the structural components of the material required for memorization; 3) schematization - presentation of the memorized material in the form of diagrams; 4) analogy - identifying similarities in certain characteristics of any facts, objects, etc.; 5) recoding - verbalization or pronunciation, presentation of information in figurative form; 6) supplementing the memorized material with new information, integration with it; 7) serial organization of material - establishment of intergroup relations, connections, etc.
The teacher was asked, using conventionally identified three levels (high, medium, low), to determine the level of development of basic mnemonic techniques among students in 1st grade.
The subtest “Repetition of numbers” is borrowed from the test by D. Wexleraimed at diagnosing short-term memory. To determine the volume of short-term memory, material that carried a minimum of meaning was taken. That's why numbers were used. This technique was included by Wechsler in his scale for measuring intelligence. The technique consists of two parts: the first is aimed at determining the amount of memory and consists of digital series of different lengths. The length of each subsequent row increases by one. There are seven rows in total. The second part offers a test of concentration, also consisting of number series.
Stimulus material and instructions are presented in Appendices B and C.
Students were first presented with the first row of numbers from the first series. If the student correctly reproduced the first row, he was offered the next one. If any row of the first series was incorrectly reproduced, the student was given a row of the second series of similar size. If it was reproduced correctly, the student was again offered the next row from the first series. If a student incorrectly reproduced two rows of the same size from the first and second series, the test was stopped and they moved on to the second part, “Counting Down.”
During the implementation, the following were observed: rules:
1.The numbers were pronounced extremely clearly at intervals of 1 second.
2.During the period from the end of the counting by the experimenter to the beginning of its reproduction by the students, all sounds were excluded.
.The same row was not repeated twice.
.The experiment began with direct counting. Then we moved on to counting in reverse order.
When analyzing the first part - “direct counting”, emphasis was placed on determining the volume of short-term memory. When analyzing “counting back” - to determine the concentration of attention. This selection of tasks is explained by the fact that memory is directly related to attention: poor concentration can significantly reduce memory productivity.
The number of digits in the last correctly reproduced row during direct counting was considered as an indicator of the capacity of short-term memory. The number of numbers correctly named when counting backwards is an indicator of concentration.
Age standards: short-term memory capacity: 3-6 units (average value - 4); attention: 2-5 units (average value - 3).
“Grouping” technique by E.L. Yakovlevais aimed at diagnosing the ability to semantically process memorized material.
Stimulus material and instructions are presented in the Appendix.
During the test, the following rules were observed: words were read with a pause of 1 second between the pronunciation of the elements of the series. Upon completion of reading the entire series, the student was asked to reproduce it. Reproduction was free: conditions were created for the student to make an independent conclusion about the possibility of combining words into groups. All words reproduced by the student were recorded in the protocol. Then the student was read again a series of words with a task for memorization and reproduction in a free order. The words reproduced by the student were recorded in the protocol. Then a third reading and reproduction of words was carried out, followed by their fixation.
When processing the results obtained, we relied on the standards for the flow of mnemonic activity stated by the author of the methodology, E.L. Yakovleva. At first playback, the volume of short-term memory of children 7-8 years old is 3-5 words. There are practically no grouped words. In the second presentation, grouped words appear. Groups consist of two words. The total volume of reproduced words increases by 2-4 words. On the third playback, groups of 3 words appear and one or two groups of all 4 words may appear.
K.P. Maltseva’s teaching methodology “Meaning Units” consists of two parts: “Teaching the creation of mnemonic supports” and “Drawing up a plan.”
The method consists in the fact that the student is given the task of highlighting the main thing in the text (creating mnemonic supports) and indicating the path to analyze the text. To isolate the main thing, the student must consistently answer two questions: “Who (or what) is this part talking about?” and “What is said (reported) about this?”
The answer to the first question allows you to highlight the main thing in the part to which it relates, and the second question confirms the correctness of this selection. This technique consists of two parts. The first part is aimed at highlighting semantic supports, the second - at drawing up and using a plan as a semantic support for the student’s mnemonic activity.
The first part of the methodology is aimed at diagnosing and teaching the creation of mnemonic supports.
Instructions are provided in the attachment.
For reading and subsequent work, the story by K. Paustovsky “Hare's Paws” was offered.
After reading the story, questions are asked. Depending on the child’s capabilities, questions can be asked by the experimenter or directly by the student himself.
The appendix provides a list of sample questions.
K.P. Maltseva gives “general rules for identifying mnemonic supports”:
The text is not pre-divided into parts.
The main ideas are highlighted as you read the material.
The parts form themselves around the main ideas.
The main ideas of the text must have a single semantic connection - flow from one another like a “stream”.
Correctly highlighted main ideas should form short story.
If some written sentence does not correspond to the others, it means that the main idea is not highlighted and you need to return to this place in the text.
Mnemonic support points (main thoughts) should be expanded sentences, independently composed or taken from the text.
After 3-4 lessons, both questions “Who (or what) are they talking about?” and “What does it say about this?” most students were not required to specify each semantic part. Based on this fact, we can conclude that the students internalized this mnemonic device and transferred it from the external plan of action to the internal one.
The training methodology for creating mnemonic supports was carried out over 5 lessons with a frequency of 2 lessons per week for 30 minutes.
Then, in order to increase the effectiveness of students’ mnemonic activity, the second part of the methodology was used.
Part 2: Making a plan
This part of the methodology is aimed at teaching how to draw up a plan as a semantic support for memorization.
The highlighted main ideas are considered not just an abbreviated story, but an outline of the text. At this stage, when the support points begin to act as points of the plan, requirements are imposed on them, which students immediately become familiar with:
A) the points of the plan must express the main ideas so that it is clear who (or what) is about and what is said in each part of the story.
B) They must be related to each other in meaning;
C) The points of the plan must be clearly expressed.
The clarity of the plan points within the framework of this teaching methodology means that they must be formulated in the form of sentences in which there is a subject, predicate and other members of the sentence. Such an extended sentence really expresses main idea. And, besides, a plan is only a tool, and everyone can choose the tool that he likes best and allows him to achieve his goal: remember.
After the plan is drawn up, you need to read the text and note what is said on the first point, on the second, etc. Then close the textbook and try to retell out loud everything you remember, looking at the outline (but not at the textbook). Next, read the text again, noting what was forgotten during the retelling and what is remembered, and retell it out loud again.
A qualitative analysis of the data obtained showed that after working with the text according to the proposed scheme, not only the main ideas are remembered, but also other material.
Research results
A semi-standardized conversation with primary school teachers showed: teachers repeatedly note that mnemonic abilities have a positive effect on the formation in students of such universal educational actions as regulatory (“reflect the ability to build educational and cognitive activity, taking into account all its components: goal, motive, forecast, means , control, evaluation”), as well as cognitive (“reflect systems of ways of knowing the world around us, constructing an independent search process, research and a set of operations for processing, systematizing, generalizing and using the information received”).
Figure 1. Expression of a high level of proficiency in mnemonic techniques among students of 1st grade
Legend:
.Classification of educational material. 2. Identification of support “points”. 3. Making a plan. 4. Structuring. 5. Recoding. 6. Addition of memorized material. 7. Serial organization of material. 8. Repetition
A quantitative analysis of the results of expert assessments of teachers based on the questionnaire we compiled showed that the highest level is present in such categories as: “repetition” - 57.1% (8 people); “adding to memorized material” - 42.9% (6 people); “drawing up a plan” - 28.6% (4 people) and “identifying strong points” - 28.6% (4 people).
Teachers also note that the most common “technique” among students is repetition of studied material, which is aimed at complete reproduction without seeing the structure and connections between components.
Empirical data were obtained regarding the indicator of short-term memory capacity and concentration of attention among students in 1st grade.
We provide a sample protocol for a psychological examination of short-term memory using the “Repetition of Numbers” technique.
Playback.
Direct count.
3-8-6
3-4-1-7
3.8-4-2-9-3 - the order of numbers during reproduction is distorted, so the child was asked to memorize the same row from the second series.
.8-5-6-2 - when playing, the child incorrectly showed the order of the numbers and replaced the last number with another. Therefore, the study was stopped.
Conclusion: The last correctly reproduced row is equal to four digits.
Countdown.
.4-7-6 - during reproduction, the student replaced the last digit, so he was offered the same row from the second series.
3.2-5-… - when playing back, the student stopped at the third number. The research is stopped.
Conclusion: The last correctly reproduced row is equal to three digits.
Conclusion: Maxim P-ov showed a low level of short-term memory and an average (with a tendency to low) level of concentration. The obtained indicators may cause the child to not successfully master educational activities.
We present the average indicators of short-term memory capacity and concentration of attention in the studied class.
Figure 2. Average indicators of short-term memory capacity in 1st grade.
As can be seen from the figure, 28.6% of students (4 people) show a high level of short-term memory capacity, 57.1% (8 people) - an average level and, finally, 14.3% (2 people) - a low level .
Figure 3. Average indicators of concentration in 1st grade.
As can be seen from the figure, 21.4% of students (4 people) show a high level of concentration, 64.3% (9 people) - an average level, and, finally, 14.3% (1 person) - a low level.
The data obtained suggest that students in this class may experience certain difficulties in memorizing and reproducing educational material.
We present the results of diagnostics of the ability to semantically process memorized material using the “Grouping” method.
When carrying out this technique, special attention was paid to the fact that compensation for limitations in the capacity of short-term memory can be carried out using the technique of “enlargement” of units of memorized information. Such “enlargement” is possible only with semantic processing of the material, which makes it possible to find commonality in elements of information and combine them on this basis. To diagnose the possibilities of semantic processing of the material, the “Grouping” technique was used.
In the process of repeated perception and reproduction of a verbal series, the first perception of the material had, as it were, an “indicative goal.” Students identified its features, understood that some words can be combined, and gave a designation to one group or another. The names obtained in the process of generalizing groups of words (“Clothes”, “Animals”, “Dishes”, “Trees”) played an organizing, regulating role - and determined the direction of the memorization process. Thus, the students themselves formulated “reference” words, which they then relied on when reproducing the material.
We present a protocol for a psychological examination of mnemonic activity using the “Grouping” technique
Date: 03/05/12. Last name: P-ov Maxim. Age: 7 years 8 months
Playback.
1. Christmas tree, dress, poplar, cup, hare. 2. jacket, Christmas tree, squirrel, mug, pine, hare.
Jacket, mug, squirrel, hare, cup, pine, skirt, Christmas tree, bear.
Conclusion: In the first presentation, 5 words were reproduced. There is no group formation. In the second presentation, 6 words were reproduced. There is no group formation. In the third presentation, 9 words were reproduced. There is the formation of groups of 2 words (“squirrel, hare”).
Conclusion: Maxim P-ov did not show skills in semantic processing of material due to targeted productive memorization. The process of mnemonic activity is normal: the number of words reproduced and the dynamics correspond to the age norm.
General conclusion based on the results of a psychological examination of class 1 “G” student Maxim P-ov, 7 years 8 months, dated 03/05/12.
A diagnostic examination of memory, carried out using the “Repetition of Digits” and “Grouping” techniques, showed: 1) the volume of short-term memory corresponds to a low level of the age norm; 2) the student has not developed semantic processing skills when memorizing material; 3) the process of mnemonic activity corresponds to the age norm.
We present the average number of words reproduced.
Figure 4. Average indicators of the number of words reproduced using the “Grouping” method in 1st “G” class
We present the average indicators of the number of reproduced semantic groups in the class under study.
As can be seen from the figure, students experience positive dynamics in the process of repeated memorization and reproduction of material: the number of words reproduced almost doubles (from 3.93 to 7.71). The data obtained allow us to state that repetition is one of the effective mnemonic techniques.
Figure 5. Average indicators of the number of semantic groups reproduced using the “Grouping” method in 1st “G” class
As can be seen from the figure, in the process of repeated reproduction of words, students independently come to the conclusion about the possibility of composing semantic groups as an effective mnemonic tool. This skill contributes to the positive dynamics of memorization productivity.
We present the results of diagnostics according to part 1 of K.P. Maltseva’s method “Meaning Units” - Creation of mnemonic supports.
We present a protocol for a psychological examination of mnemonic activity using the “Meaning Units” technique (Creating semantic supports) .
Date: 03/05/12. Last name: P-ov Maxim. Age: 7 years 8 months
P: Who is mentioned at the beginning of the text?
M.: The story talks about grandfather.
P: What does it say about grandfather?
M.: That he went hunting in the forest, saw a bunny, shot at it, but missed.
M.: Grandfather in the forest realized that a fire had started and the fire was moving quickly.
P: Then who are they talking about?
M.: About grandfather.
P: What is said about him?
M.: Grandfather cured a hare that was badly burned in a forest fire.
P: This is stated at the end of the story. What is said before this?
M.: About grandfather.
P: What is said about him?
M.: Silent.
Conclusion: out of the eight questions proposed, the student answered 5 correctly, that is, he showed 62.5% reproduction accuracy. He left two questions unanswered. He answered one question incorrectly, violating the sequence of presentation.
Conclusion: The student experiences significant difficulties with the organization of mnemonic activity associated with the correct reproduction of basic semantic units, as well as with their sequence. It should be noted that this student uses repetition - reproduction that is almost identical to the text. This fact may indicate the student’s insufficient vocabulary and low ability to generalize. The degree of development of formulated answers is normative for a given age.
Figure 6. Dynamics of the number of reproduced mnemonic supports in 1st “G” class
As can be seen from the figure, in the first test, when students were asked to independently identify the semantic units of the story, the average accuracy rate was 57.1% (range from 25.0% to 100.0%). After training in the technique of creating semantic supports, the average accuracy of execution was 83.9% (range from 50.0% to 100.0%).
We present the results of diagnostics according to part 1 of K.P. Maltseva’s method “Meaning Units” - Drawing up a plan.
Figure 7. Dynamics of the expression of the skill “connectedness in meaning”
As can be seen from the figure, after the training experiment (in the 2nd test), there was a positive dynamics in the students’ plan-making skills according to the “connectedness in meaning” criterion. The number of students who showed a high level of this skill increased from 35.7% to 71.4%.
Figure 8. Dynamics of the expression of the skill “degree of expansion and clarity”
As can be seen from the figure, after the training experiment (in the 2nd test), there was a positive dynamics in the students’ plan-making skills according to the “connectedness in meaning” criterion. The number of students who showed a high level of this skill increased from 42.9% to 64.3%.
The assessment of shifts in the values of the studied characteristics was carried out using the G-criterion, designed specifically for assessing the results between two measurements on the same sample of subjects. It allows us to identify differences between small samples when psychological influence is carried out over a short period of time.
Conclusions.According to the methods used, G-sign criteria made it possible to identify the dynamics of changes in the characteristics of the subjects and calculate differences in the level of quantitatively measured characteristics.
Analysis of empirical data showed that significant shifts were found (at p ? 0.01) on the scales: “Number of words reproduced”, “Number of semantic groups reproduced” (E.L. Yakovleva’s “Grouping” Methodology). Significant shifts were also found (at p ? 0.01) on the scales: “Number of reproduced semantic supports”, “Level of connectedness of semantic supports in meaning”, “Level of degree of expansion and clarity of semantic supports” (Methodology of K.P. Maltseva “Semantic units ").
No significant differences were found.
A.A. Rean notes that the very process of a child’s education at school, his mastery of all the structural and content components of educational activity is a factor that contributes to the optimization of all cognitive and personal characteristics, including memory. Game is being replaced as the leading type of activity by study - purposeful cognitive activity, during which the student is forced to accept, process and store with further reproduction a large amount of a wide variety of information.
In preschool age, memorization is predominantly involuntary, which is associated with an insufficiently developed ability to process information semantically, less ability to form associative series, and little experience in using mnemonic techniques.
Also, involuntary memorization and reproduction in preschool age is directly related to his interests. But already at school age, the child is required to remember what the content of the curriculum in a particular academic subject provides and requires. The learning process contributes to the student’s development of skills in setting differentiated tasks for memorizing educational material, in different ways, ways of memorizing and reproducing information, depending on the level of its complexity.
In such a situation, the most in demand is voluntary memory, which is a mental cognitive process that presupposes high activity of the student, based on a special memorization setting, presupposing mastery of certain mnemonic techniques and the presence of volitional efforts.
From the point of view of V.S. Mukhina, voluntary memory becomes a fundamental function for educational activity: “the child comes to understand the need to make his memory work for himself.”
Memorizing and reproducing various educational material creates conditions for the rapid development of student reflection regarding his personal mental formations in the process of mastering educational activities; and also creates conditions for the formation of the skill of “teaching oneself,” which involves changing oneself in knowledge and becoming “the ability to perform voluntary actions.”
Currently, there is conflicting information regarding the severity of mechanical and logical memorization in children of preschool and primary school age.
So, for example, from the point of view of the Russian psychologist A.A. Smirnov, primary school age is characterized by the rapid development of mechanical memorization relating to logically incomparable information units. The researcher refutes the widespread opinion that age-related development contributes to the development of logical memorization. When analyzing the results of his experiments, A.A. Smirnov states that with age, the potential for logical memorization decreases significantly.
This scientific fact is explained by the fact that training students’ memory in the process of learning aimed at memorization contributes to the comprehensive optimization of all mnemonic processes, including such relatively primitive ones as mechanical memorization. With the correct organization of explanation of educational material, psychological and pedagogical conditions are created for the formation of successful memorization by students of simple, meaningful material.
Experimental data have been obtained, according to which during training in primary school The student’s mechanical memory develops significantly, while the development of logical mediated memory is characterized by a slower pace.
Despite the fact that a child of primary school age can easily make do with the resources of mechanical memorization, it is necessary to create conditions for the development of logical memory. To do this, at the very beginning stages of learning, mnemonic techniques should be formed in children, which will have a positive effect on the productivity of logical memorization.
From the point of view of A.A. Rean, the formation of arbitrary logical memory will be facilitated by “rationalization of mental and practical work schoolchild", teaching mnemonic techniques, consisting of two stages. The first stage involves the creation of psychological and pedagogical conditions for students to master the mental operations necessary for memorizing and reproducing material. The second stage involves learning to use mental operations as a means of memorizing various information.
Research by V.D. Shadrikov and L.V. Cheremoshkina showed that the specificity of the mnemonic abilities of primary school students lies in the severity of the “perceptual-representational level of mnemonic actions”: that is, children remember, first of all, through repetition, as well as such techniques as groupings, recoding, strongholds, associations. Techniques that require operating with the content of the material (structuring, systematization, analogies, classifications, etc.) remain in the zone of proximal development of students.
According to the “parallelogram” of A.N. Leontyev, the process of human development is accompanied by the development of increasing mediation of his mental processes.
N.V. Repkina, studying memory and the peculiarities of goal setting in the educational activities of junior schoolchildren, came to the conclusion that the desire itself, the focus on memorizing certain educational material, does not completely determine the structural and content components of the mnemonic task that the student needs to accept.
To successfully accept mnemonic tasks, it is required that the student identifies a specific memorization item in the object (text).
The experimental study allowed N.V. Repkina to state that approximately 20.0% of students identify the cognitive content of the text as the goal of memorization, approximately 20.0% of students highlight plot aspects, while the remaining students find it difficult to identify a specific goal for memorization. Based on the empirical results obtained, it can be argued that in the process of educational activity, the educational task is transformed into different goals of mnemonic activity. Such differences are explained by the different content of educational motivation and the level of formation of goal-setting mechanisms.
Voluntary mnemonic activity of students is possible if the student independently determines the content of the mnemonic task, searches for identical means of text transformation and consciously controls their use. Practice shows that approximately 10.0% of students reach the described level by the fourth grade. Also, 10.0% are able to independently determine a mnemonic task, but have difficulty applying a method for solving it. Most students are not able to understand the mnemonic task or its awareness is completely mediated by the content of the material.
N.V. Repkina comes to the conclusion that the development of successful mnemonic activity of primary school students can only be achieved by optimizing the processes of self-regulation, and above all, goal setting in the context of the systematic development of all components of educational activity.
Thus, one of the main tasks of psychological and pedagogical support for the educational activities of primary school students is to create conditions for the formation of certain mnemonic techniques
Conclusion
The theoretical and experimental research conducted on the problem of developing students' memory in the process of learning activities allowed us to draw the following conclusions.
It can be concluded that such theoretical concepts as associative theory, Gesttel theory, behaviorism and some others, despite their certain contribution to the development of the study of the problem of memory, could not explain the reasons for the selectivity of memory, the genesis of memory. Physiological and biochemical theories of memory have also been presented full picture physiological and chemical bases of memory processes.
The main changes that occur with human memory during development are analyzed in the context of two directions: phylogenetic and ontogenetic. Summarizing the most well-known concept of memory development by P.P. Blonsky and the theory of cultural-historical development of memory by L.S. Vygotsky, it can be argued that the main line of improving human memory is active activity aimed at improving the means of memorization and changing the connections of the mnemonic function with other mental processes and human conditions.
Currently there is no complete theory of memory. It seems important when studying memory processes to focus on the activity approach, where the issue of determining memory processes is resolved in the context of activity theory, and the ideas of a number of previous theories about the “disunity” of the subject and object of action are overcome.
Thus, at present, theoretical and practical research in the field of studying memory processes is based on a solid theoretical foundation: the theory of higher mental functions of L.S. Vygotsky and the theory of activity of A.N. Leontiev.
The experimental study was structured in accordance with the hypothesis put forward, suggesting that the development of students' memory in the process of educational activities is possible with the organization of psychological and pedagogical support aimed at diagnosing the basic characteristics of memory and developing mnemonic skills in children.
It should be noted that most of the methods used were both diagnostic and developmental, corrective in nature. The choice of methods for the experimental study corresponded to the traditional understanding in Russian psychology of the main goal of diagnostic research into the mental cognitive processes of children of primary school age (L.S. Vygotsky).
The methods used were built in accordance with the basic idea of Russian psychology that semantic memory is directly related to thinking and the highest form of its manifestation - speech. A word is not only a symbol of a specific object, but is also a concept, i.e. reflects the system of connections into which an object enters. The student’s awareness of the presence of a large number of semantic connections behind a word allows him to carry out the so-called “recoding” and include it in a whole semantic system.
The connections that the student uses to memorize serve as a means to help remember the necessary information.
It was assumed that semantic memorization contributes to the formation of so-called “mnemonic supports” - large structural units of recall that allow one to overcome the limitations of short-term memorization. The most effective for memorization and reproduction are considered to be those mnemonic supports that reflect the main ideas of any material.
Therefore, the main direction in optimizing memory for first-grade students was the formation of semantic memory skills: the ability to generalize material, highlight the main thoughts in it.
As a result of the experimental study, which included the stages of ascertainment, formation and control diagnostics of the memory of children of primary school age, positive dynamics were identified in terms of the following indicators: “Number of words reproduced”, “Number of semantic groups reproduced”, “Number of semantic supports reproduced”, “Level of connectedness of semantic supports in meaning”, “The level of the degree of development and clarity of semantic supports”.
Using the G-sign criterion, significant differences were identified, which allows us to speak about the correctness of the chosen methods of psychological influence aimed at optimizing mnemonic techniques in children of primary school age.
Prospects this study can be considered the construction of a comprehensive program aimed at supporting the development of mental cognitive processes in primary school students, which will create favorable psychological and pedagogical conditions for their successful mastery of educational activities.
Techniques that require operating with the content of the material (structuring, systematization, analogies, classifications, etc.) remain in the zone of proximal development of students.
At primary school age, there is a high sensitivity for the development of such a higher mental function as thinking. It is thinking that determines the successful development of all other cognitive processes and personal characteristics of a first-grader, their awareness and voluntariness.
According to the “parallelogram” of A.N. Leontiev, the process of human development accompanied by the development of increasing mediation of his mental processes. It is at primary school age that voluntary and intentional memorization arises, and the task of voluntary reproduction is set. Students become capable of using memory aids. Therefore, the development of memory is directly related to the development of intelligence.
L.F. Obukhova identifies the main psychological neoplasms of primary school age, in the context of which it would be correct to consider the process of memory development:
“arbitrariness and awareness of all mental processes and their intellectualization, their internal mediation, which occurs through the assimilation of a system of scientific concepts...”;
“awareness of one’s own changes as a result of the development of educational activities.”
However, memory is also essential for the development of a child's personality, especially in the context of educational activities.
B.I. Dodonov identifies two types of mnemonic abilities that influence the success of the learning process at school. These abilities have different physiological explanations: the ability to imprint and the ability to process information semantically. Highest value for successful learning activities, has the ability to process information, which is the integration of memory and thinking processes.
I.Yu. Kulagina and V.N. Kolyutsky believe that the main vectors of development of mnemonic processes at this stage of ontogenesis are arbitrariness and meaningfulness.
Research has shown that primary schoolchildren are capable of involuntary memorization of educational material if it arouses their interest, is presented in the context of their usual play activities, is accompanied by the demonstration of visual aids, or the teacher creates special conditions for the formation of a wide associative series with the child’s existing knowledge. experience, vivid images, etc.
N.V. Repkina experimentally studied the forms of involuntary memory of third-grade students when they performed tasks aimed at analyzing new concepts. It was found that about 20.0% of junior schoolchildren showed the skills to correctly accept a task, hold it, and fulfill the goal of the action. They also turned out to be capable of involuntary memorization and reproduction of the theory presented to them.
About 60.0% of students showed various types of transformation of the task posed by the teacher, depending on the degree of their cognitive interest. These schoolchildren turned out to be capable of involuntary imprinting and reproducing only the actual content of the educational task and showed an insufficiently conscious decision.
About 20.0% of students failed to complete the task: they showed an inability to correctly retain the task, involuntary reproduction was fragmentary in nature, and an unconscious solution to the problem.
The experimental data obtained made it possible to assume that by the age of 9-10 years three qualitatively different forms of involuntary memory are formed. Only one fifth of students develop memory that contributes to conscious and stable memorization of educational material. The rest of the students develop types of involuntary memory that have a mobile mnemonic effect, mediated not by the context of educational activity, but by the characteristics of the material or stereotypical methods of action.
However, at primary school age, physiological and personal prerequisites are created for the formation of voluntary memory. Therefore, the learning process creates conditions for optimizing this higher mental function.
It is known that even in preschool age, children develop a high level of mechanical memory. Practice shows that using this type of memory and ignoring the conditions for the formation of logical voluntary memorization significantly deforms the course of normal mental development of a first-grader child. In addition, if by the end of primary school a student has not mastered the skills of logical memorization, then in the middle grades, when the amount of information required for memorizing and reproducing will significantly increase and become more complex, he will experience significant difficulties in mastering school curriculum. The level of mechanical memorization ability, which allows the child to reproduce verbatim insufficiently meaningful structured educational material, will decrease, logical memorization skills will not be formed, and therefore the child will lack resources for further development.
Comprehension and structuring of educational material also contributes to successful memorization. Thus, it can be argued that there is an inextricable connection between mnemonic activity, thinking and semantic memory.
In the process of teaching a child in primary school, psychological and pedagogical conditions must be created to optimize semantic memory by mastering a variety of mnemonic techniques, that is, rational methods of memorization. Control should be organized not so much over the result of completing a learning task, an educational task, but over the memorization process itself, the methods of mnemonic activity used by the student.
In the context of this work, considering the problem of creating conditions for the development of students’ memory in the process of learning activities, special attention should be paid to organizing the process of accepting a mnemonic task.
N.V. Repkina, studying memory and the peculiarities of goal setting in the educational activities of junior schoolchildren, came to the conclusion that the desire itself, the focus on memorizing certain educational material does not completely determine the structural and content components of the mnemonic task that the student needs to accept .
The experimental study was aimed at testing the main hypothesis, suggesting that the development of students' memory in the process of educational activities is possible with the organization of psychological and pedagogical support aimed at diagnosing the main characteristics of memory and developing mnemonic skills in children.
The study was conducted at MAOU Secondary School No. 81 in Nizhny Novgorod from March 1 to April 27, 2012. 14 students (7 girls, 7 boys) took part in the study. The average age of children is from 7.6 years.
Empirical methods were used during the research: conversation, testing, mathematical and statistical methods for assessing the reliability of the results obtained (G-sign test method) and qualitative analysis of the results obtained
Glossary
No. ConceptDefinition1 Associationestablishing connections by similarity, contiguity or opposition 2Analogyestablishing similarities, similarities in certain relationships of objects, phenomena, concepts 3Playbackreconstruction of material stored in memory, occurring at several levels, recognition based on perception 4Groupingdividing the material into groups for some reason (meaning, associations, etc.) 5Motor (motor) memoryMemorization and reproduction of movements and their systems 6Long-term memoryMemorizing for a long time information that is significant for a person 7Memorizationmemory process indicating the introduction into memory of newly received information 8Forgettingmemory process, expressed in the inability to remember or in erroneous recognition and reproduction 9Short-term memoryretains a generalized image of perceived information for a short period of time 10Classificationdistribution of objects, phenomena, concepts into groups, based on certain common characteristics 11Mnemotechnical techniquesa set of ready-made, known methods of memorization 12Involuntary memorizationretention of repeatedly perceived material in memory 13Memory capacityquantitative indicator of the productivity of mnemonic processes 14RAMstoring information for a certain, predetermined period of time necessary to perform some action or operation 15Memorya form of mental reflection consisting in consolidation, preservation and subsequent reproduction of past experience, making it possible to reuse it in activity or return to the sphere of consciousness 16Recodingverbalization, pronunciation, naming, presentation of information in one form, transformation of formations based on semantic, phonemic and other features 17Repetitionconsciously controlled and uncontrolled processes of information circulation 18Semantic groupinghighlighting semantic parts in the text, their formation, drawing up a plan; search for semantic reference points, drawing up a plan, classification, systematization, etc. 19Savemore or less long-term retention in memory of certain information that has two sides 20Structuringestablishing relative position hour those that make up the whole 21Schematizationa depiction or description of something in basic outline or a simplified representation of memorized information mation 22Recognitionassigning a perceived object to already known categories List of sources used
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