The problem of productivity of involuntary memory. Involuntary memory. What will we do with the received material?

The original form of memorization is the so-called unintentional or involuntary memorization, that is, memorization without a predetermined goal, without using any techniques. It is a mere imprint of what has acted, the preservation of some trace of excitation in the cerebral cortex. Each process that occurs in the cerebral cortex leaves traces behind itself, although the degree of their strength is different.

Much of what a person encounters in life is involuntarily remembered: phenomena, surrounding objects, events of everyday life, people's actions, the content of films, books read without any educational purpose, and the like, although not all of them are remembered equally well. It is best to remember what is of vital importance for a person: everything that is connected with his needs and interests, with the goals and objectives of his activity.

involuntary memorization involuntary memory) -- process memorization, flowing against the background (in the context) of activities aimed at solving non-nemic problems. It is the product and condition of cognitive and practical action. This is not a random, but a natural process, interdependent on the characteristics of the activity. subject. The productivity of involuntary memorization depends on the goal of the object of human activity, on what means this goal is achieved and what motives she is encouraged. Based on the results of the study P . And . Zinchenko (1961), for the productivity of involuntary memorization, it is important that place occupied by this material in activity. If it is included in the content of the main goal of the activity, then it is remembered better than when it is included in the conditions, ways to achieve this goal. The material that takes the place of the main goal in the activity is remembered as much better as more meaningful connections are established in it. Finally, material is involuntarily remembered that is significant for the subject, causing emotions and interest. With a high degree of intellectual activity in the process of performing an activity, as a result of which involuntary memorization is carried out, it can provide a wider imprint of the material and more durable preservation. him in memory compared to voluntary memory. Involuntary memorization is an early genetic form of memory, in which the selectivity of memory is determined by the very course of activity, and not by the active use of the methods and means included in it, it precedes the formation of arbitrary memory.
The operational composition of involuntary memorization has not been sufficiently studied. G. K. Sereda's researches, performed on the material of the educational activities primary school students, made it possible to establish a system of operations, the implementation of which leads to the formation of an involuntary mnemonic effect. The author showed that it is necessary to form not separate, isolated actions, but to create a certain system of these actions. The main condition of such a system is the inclusion of the result of the previous action in the next as a way to achieve the goal of the latter.

We can also observe patterns of involuntary memorization, when our activity is unexpectedly interrupted for us. If a person is completely absorbed in the solution of a certain task, then when his activity is interrupted, there is a high probability that this activity will be involuntarily remembered, and better than the activity that was completed. Any action must be caused by a certain human need. The action of a person is caused by some tension, and the person strives to bring this action to completion. Such tension corresponds to the actualization of some need (quasi-need). When a person completes an action, the tension is discharged and the person stops striving to perform the action. However, if the action is not completed and the voltage is not discharged, then the tendency to perform the action remains. And if the trend persists, then the action must be stored in the person's memory. Obviously, the tendency in some sense is one of the mechanisms of memory. It is she who prevents forgetting the action. Thus, the demand voltage affects the operation of the memory. This phenomenon was studied by B. V. Zeigarnik and G. V. Birenbaum in the framework of the theoretical direction of the school of K. Levin.

The main methodological technique for studying involuntary memorization is that the subject is asked to perform some activity, and then, after a certain pause, he is asked about what has been preserved in his memory from the work done or the impressions received. (T. P. Zinchenko.)

Here is how the famous Soviet scientist P.I. Zinchenko: “In foreign psychology, such memorization was called “random” ... the big mistake of many foreign psychologists was that they tried to exhaust all involuntary memorization with such random memorization. In this regard, it received a predominantly negative response. But random memorization is only one, and not the main, form of involuntary memorization. Purposeful activity occupies the main place in the life ... of a person ... therefore, involuntary memorization, which is the product of such activity, is its main, most vital form.

imprinting(memorization) - the process of memory, which results in the consolidation of new material, experience through connections with previously acquired experience.

The main conditions for the productivity of memorization are related to whether it proceeds in the form of an involuntary or arbitrary process.

Involuntary memorization- this is a natural memorization without setting specific goals. In involuntary memorization, a close connection between attention and memory is manifested. What gets into the field of attention is involuntarily remembered.

Involuntary memory is affected by:

1. Singularity of objects

2. Effective attitude to memorized material

3. Level of motivation

Rosenweig: there are times when motivation affects the degree of memory strength; sometimes, if the activity is completed, then the material is remembered as firmly (or stronger) as in the case of an unfinished activity.

4. The level of emotional coloring that accompanies the work with the material.

Experiments do not unequivocally confirm what is more remembered: with a positive or negative potential. The dynamics of emotional coloring is important, not the positive or negative coloring of emotion

Arbitrary memorization- a specific activity where there is a goal. Memorization here loses its meaning without further reproduction.

Here there is arbitrary attention, there is a selection, sorting of information that is significant and significant.

Arbitrary memorization is one of the latest mental processes that form in a person, because remembering here already requires awareness of what is being remembered.

Arbitrary memory can be divided into 2 types:

* direct memorization- simple mechanical imprinting, the material is remembered through repetition. The main mechanism here is associations by adjacency; as a result of repetition, material is imprinted, awareness is not present here. Ebbinghaus: it's "pure memory"

* mediated memorization- here thinking is connected, recoding and decoding occurs during playback. In this case, a system of various, in particular semantic, connections is built. With mediated memorization, insignificant connections can be established, in contrast to thinking. Insignificant connections during memorization are instrumental in nature, they help to reproduce the material. For example, experiments with double stimulation (Vygotsky, Leontiev): pictures and words were presented; "Knot for memory"

Factors that determine productivity, the strength of arbitrary memorization:

The amount of material (the amount of information to memorize). If the number of memorized elements exceeds the volume of perception, then the number of trials required to memorize information increases.

Homogeneity of the material. The degree of similarity reduces the strength of memorization of the material and increases the number of trials required for memorization. This is where the Restorf effect comes into play: regardless of the nature of the material

MNEMOTECHNIQUES

mnemonics- these are specially organized actions that lead to stronger memorization. There are many mnemonics, they can be classified:

Material structuring(when, when working with a specific text, it is structured, divided into parts, blocks, etc.). It is possible to set the structure of the material purely perceptively.

Creation of reference signals, points(not only structuring takes place, but a specific symbol is introduced, and behind it is all the content, all the information): the keyword method, the method of reference notes, the curly diagram method (information is remembered through the introduction of curly symbols), the abbreviation method (memorizing colors: each the hunter wants to know...).

Working with links(manifestation, aggravation, increase in emotionality in the content within the framework of the connection between individual parts, elements, structures). For example, remembering faces, names, surnames through additional connections.

Binding to a subjective landmark(method of places or locus). There is a chain of landmarks to which the main content is attached.

5."Aristotle's method" or preliminary work with memorizing text. Involuntary and voluntary memorization is present in an adult in higher forms. In children, involuntary memorization dominates (they are more efficient, easier to memorize involuntarily).

Topic 2: Memory.

5. Preservation and Forgetting: Patterns and Mechanisms.

Preservation- one of the main processes of memory. To preserve material means to introduce it into various forms of processing. Storing information is mainly related to its organization and retention. The flip side of retention, which manifests itself in reproduction, is forgetting.

Forgetting- this is a loss of information, loss of clarity and a decrease in the amount of material fixed in memory, the inability to reproduce.

n Forms of information organization and its representation:

The conditional concept of "storage" is introduced, these are the forms in which the stored material is clothed. There are 2 options: episodic and semantic storage. Episodic storage - the preservation of specific casts (certain episodes). The main mechanism for the preservation of these episodes is an associative connection, and episodes are strung on a time axis (time is an organizing basis). Semantic storage - preservation of meanings, recoded information; this is the preservation of not a specific image (episode), but a phenomenon (event) in a recoded form, its meaning, meaning, essence. It is in the form of representations, ideas, concepts, categories that information exists in this repository. It is possible to single out 2 meanings of such forms of material preservation: firstly, the amount of information is sharply reduced (a generalization is made: insignificant - ignored, important - remains); secondly, we get constructions that are applicable for recognition. There are 5 ways to organize information in a repository:

1) spatial organization (connections are established through spatial characteristics, reference points in the physical world - “cognitive maps”);

2) temporary organization (establishment of temporary links: past, present and future. This allows you to organize information for storage);

3) linear organization (ordering information in a linear sequence. Example, alphabet);

4) associative organization (on the basis of connection according to certain properties, characteristics. Another concept is associatively attached to a certain concept. Category, etc.);

5) hierarchical organization (the material is built according to species, generic characteristics).

You can also designate the repository in the form of 3 zones (stored material according to the degree of proximity to awareness):

1. actual material that is often used (active vocabulary, actual facts that are needed here and now: names, motor forms, etc.) - such material is easy to represent;

2. the material that is rarely used, but we are able to reproduce it if necessary;

3. unconscious level (information is deposited here that is more related to the events of my life. Such material is very difficult to represent, but under certain conditions we can remember this information, for example, hypnosis).

n Forgetting (its dynamics and meaning):

Information is not lost immediately, but there is a certain, gradual change in the stored material. The first results were obtained by Ebbinghaus (memorization of meaningless words); he got the "forgetting curve". This curve characterizes the process of forgetting meaningless material (the maximum of information is lost during the first hour after memorization (60-70%)), and after 9 hours - almost no forgetting occurs.

Pierron tried to analyze forgetting already on meaningful material: the curve repeats its general dynamics, but in terms of volume, meaningful material is remembered more and the maximum loss of information also occurs during the first hour.

Forgetting is especially intense immediately after memorization. This pattern is common, although meaningful visual or verbal material is forgotten more slowly than, for example, consecutive numbers or meaningless syllables. The presence of interest in the memorized material leads to its longer preservation; material related to the needs, goals, actions of a person is forgotten more slowly (the Zeigarnik effect: completed and unfinished actions), and much of what is of particular importance for a given subject is not forgotten at all. The main content of the material is most fully and firmly preserved, minor details are forgotten faster. In this regard, the material stored in memory becomes more and more generalized, schematic in time.

Forgetting is of particular importance, because all the information that we receive in the course of our lives cannot fit in memory. Little significant, unimportant information should “make room” for new, more significant and important information. For an example of the practical absence of forgetting, one can recall a person named Sh. (A.R. Luria “A Little Book of Great Memory”), who memorized everything and who had difficulty forgetting unnecessary information. What is forgotten, as a rule, is something that has not acquired or lost vital importance for a person and does not play a role in his activities in the future.

n The phenomenon of reminiscence. Hypotheses for explaining reminiscence:

In the course of the study of preservation and forgetting, a very important fact was revealed. It turned out that in the next interval (2-3 days, or even more) after the initial reproduction of the material, a sharp decrease in reproduction is not always observed (as according to Ebbinghaus).

Reminiscence is a delayed reproduction of what was originally (during direct reproduction) temporarily forgotten (not reproduced). That is, over time, playback does not deteriorate, but improves.

There was a study of preschoolers: children are not able to reproduce the story immediately after listening, but over time, the content of the story was restored in their memory, and the children reproduced it. Consequently, the study, having established the fact of reminiscence, revealed a number of reasons that cause it:

1) reminiscence is especially pronounced in preschoolers, because the nature of the delayed reproduction is due to the action of emotional inhibition, immediately following the affectively experienced impression;

2) reminiscence is associated with internal work on understanding the material and mastering it.

But this required further clarification, so a special study of reminiscence was set up (D.I. Krasilshchikova). Results:

1. In the process of direct reproduction, the subject tries to restore the material, using external associative connections, and during delayed reproduction, semantic connections.

2. age dependence: in preschoolers, compared with older students and adults, reminiscence is the most striking and frequent manifestation. This is due to the different nature and level of primary reproduction of the material being memorized. Children more directly perceive the memorized material.

3 more explanations for delayed playback:

1) forgetting does not occur over time, because there is an unconscious repetition of information;

2) there is a consolidation of traces (structural changes in the brain substrate);

3) the fatigue that has arisen after the memorized material is removed.

n Forgetting mechanisms:

1) there is a trace fading and information is lost through this fading. Time is the main factor (the more time passes, the greater the fade). But experiments disprove this:

2 groups of subjects, you need to remember 10-20 words; 1 group memorizes in the evening, and reproduces in the morning; Group 2 remembers in the morning and reproduces in the morning. Conclusion: memorization efficiency is higher in the 1st group, so time is not a fundamental factor. Not time is the forgetting factor, but what happens at that time.

2) forgetting, as an exception to the overload of consciousness: the postulate of a limited ability to consciously reproduce information is introduced. Therefore, more relevant information crowds out less relevant information. Forgetting is an important mechanism that ensures the productive work of consciousness.

n The phenomenon of interference:

Interference is a mixture of one information with another, some memory schemes with others; it is a kind of overwriting of one information by another. Interference occurs with the greater probability, the higher the combined requirements of cognitive and executive processes to a limited amount of attention.

The negative role of interference in the reproduction of material: most often, interference occurs when the same memories are associated in memory with the same events and their appearance in consciousness gives rise to the simultaneous recall of competing (interfering) events. Interference often occurs when another material is learned instead of one, especially at the memorization stage, where the first material has not yet been forgotten, and the second is not well learned, for example, when words of a foreign language are memorized, some of which have not yet been deposited in long-term memory, while others are being explored at the same time.

n Factors Influencing Information Repression:

1) time (less than an hour it takes to forget half of the rote material)

Age (temporal characteristic): fundamentally new information is poorly remembered by an adult and an elderly person, and it is easier for children and young people;

2) the degree of use of information (the information that is actively and often used is less forgotten. What is forgotten is what there is no constant need and need);

3) interference (superposition of one information on another);

4) the work of the protective mechanisms of our psyche, which displace traumatic impressions from consciousness into the subconscious. Therefore, something that disturbs the psychological balance and causes constant negative tension is forgotten.

6. Recognition and reproduction:

n Recognition and its meaning:

Recognition is one of the types of reproduction, where information is restored during repeated perception. Recognition is based on the operation of comparing the present impression with the corresponding memory traces. These traces act in the process of comparison as standards of identification features of a perceived object or phenomenon. The significance of recognition lies in the fact that it performs the function of linking experience (memory traces) with a specific perceived object. The process of recognition lies on the border of 3 mental processes: perception, memory and thinking.

There are 2 forms of recognition: voluntary and involuntary. Most often, recognition is realized in an involuntary form, that is, natural recognition without setting specific goals (tasks).

n Theories explaining the mechanisms of recognition:

1) recognition by copies (standards are stored in the form of integral images (pictures), therefore, when we perceive an object, we compare it with this integral image);

2) the theory of prototypes (images are presented as standards that have a schematic representation and the main thing is captured in it. Example: 2 letters "A", but one is printed, and the second is capital - in principle, this is one letter, but it has 2 types);

3) the theory of signs (there is a division of the general image into separate elements and the combination of these elements gives us identification with specific images)

Model "Pandemonium" (a combination of demons), proposed by Selfridge. Demons are some mental functions that perform certain operations (but it is not clear how they do it). See model diagram in account. course "General Psychology: Memory".

n Arbitrary and involuntary reproduction:

Reproduction is one of the processes of memory, as a result of which the previously fixed experience, content is actualized: thoughts, images, feelings, movements.

In the process of reproduction, information is not only reproduced, but also formed, since the speech formulation of the semantic content forms this content itself. Distinguish between voluntary and involuntary reproduction. In the first case, past impressions are recalled without a special task of updating them. They pop up in memory usually by association with cash thoughts, images, experiences and actions.

Arbitrary reproduction occurs in connection with a conscious setting for the actualization of certain traces of memory. The impetus is a thought, an idea that takes the form of a task, a goal.

Reproduction differs from recognition in that there is no need for repeated perception for reproduction to occur - here a push is needed: a goal, a task to remember something.

n The nature of the deformation of the material during playback:

The reproduction of the material, as a rule, comes with certain changes (reconstruction): it is possible to generalize the material, move parts (the general organization changes), the loss of “insignificant” pieces of information, the addition of something, etc. Reconstruction of the reproduced material occurs as a result of its mental processing. Thought is included in the reproduction process, clarifying, generalizing, systematizing, processing and reconstructing the content. , it is associated with rethinking.

n Remembrance as reproduction with the participation of the will:

Recall is a prerequisite for reproduction and its result. This is reproduction with extra effort. It is an attempt to capture the essential feature, which is the key. Depending on the nature of the reference points (“key”), recollection can take place either as a transition from separate parts to the whole, or from the meaning of the whole to separate parts.

Recall is a boundary process between memory and thinking: memory reproduces the past, and thinking restores this past, indirectly, through inferences that are intertwined in this process in an inseparable unity. This reproduction is a conscious reconstruction of the past, in which the mental work of comparison, inference, and verification plays an essential role.

7. Memory development:

n Formation of memory by individual modalities:

As the individual socializes, changes occur in the development of memory. From early childhood, the process of developing a child's memory goes in several directions: firstly, mechanical memory is gradually supplemented and replaced by logical memory. Secondly, over time, direct memorization turns into indirect memorization, associated with the active and conscious use of various mnemonic tools and techniques for memorization and reproduction. Thirdly, involuntary memorization, which dominates in childhood, becomes voluntary in an adult. In general, 2 genetic lines can be distinguished in the development of memory: its improvement in all civilized people, without exception, as social progress progresses, and its gradual improvement in a single individual in the process of his socialization, familiarization with the material and cultural achievements of mankind.

n Hypothesis of P.P. Blonsky about the types of memory as phylogenetic steps:

Blonsky made a significant contribution to understanding the phylogenetic development of memory. He expressed and developed the idea that the different types of memory presented in an adult are also different stages of its historical development, and, accordingly, they can be considered phylogenetic stages of memory improvement. This refers to the following sequence of types of memory: motor, affective, figurative and logical. P.P. Blonsky expressed and substantiated the idea that in the history of the development of mankind these types of memory consistently appeared one after another. Based on the fact that in phylogenesis and ontogenesis all these types of memory appear one after the other in the above sequence, Blonsky erroneously considers them as different stages or levels of memory.

The identification of types of memory with its genetic stages is based on an erroneous concept of the development of the psyche. It is assumed that at one stage, memory seems to be determined by emotions, at another - only by images, at the third - by speech and thinking, thus emotions belong to one stage of development, images - to another, to the third - speech and thinking, divorced from emotions and sensory content of images. The highest step is only superficially built on top of the preceding lower ones; the latter are not rebuilt and are not included in the higher one.

In fact, the development of the psyche consists in the development of all functions, and each of them is rebuilt in connection with the development of all aspects of the psyche (since all its manifestations interpenetrate each other). Emotions at a higher level are intellectualized and from primitive affects - phenomena of the "lower level" - pass into higher feelings; thoughts become emotionally charged. In the psyche of a particular living person, everything is in contact, movement, interpenetration. The same functions and the same types of memory function at different levels. Therefore, they cannot be identified with the levels of memory and assigned to the lower level at which they first appeared.

Blonsky's theory is based on an incorrect erroneous concept of development; it does not take into account the fact that the emergence of a new stage of development means not just its superstructure over the previous stages, but the restructuring of the latter.

n Features of children's memory (P.P. Blonsky):

In ontogenesis, all types of memory are formed in a child quite early and in a certain sequence. The very first in time is motor (motor) memory; it precedes all other types of memory in genetic terms. Affective memory begins to manifest itself about 6 months from birth. Figurative memory - in the 2nd year of life, but it reaches its highest point only by adolescence. Logical memory - in 3-4 years, but in relatively elementary forms; reaches a normal level of development only in adolescence and youth. Its improvement and further improvement is connected with teaching a person the basics of science.

Features of children's memory: 1) photographic (the child's memory works like a photo: it takes what is in the "picture", changes in perception are minimal)

2) great imagery (the development of fantasy and the dynamism of the imagination - contribute to the emergence of many images)

3) ease of memorization (dominance of mechanical, involuntary memory; the child does not make special efforts to memorize).

n Replacement of mechanical memory with semantic:

It is impossible to deny the presence of semantic memory in a child, but mechanical memory dominates until adolescence. The development of semantic memory is influenced by the social environment (an adult helps to transfer the material for comprehension).

Mechanical memory is well developed in children of primary and secondary preschool age: they easily memorize and effortlessly reproduce what they saw or heard, but only if it aroused their interest and the children themselves were interested in remembering or recalling something. . Thanks to such a memory, preschoolers quickly improve their speech, orient themselves well in the environment, recognize what they saw or heard. With the help of mechanical repetitions of information, older preschool children can memorize it well. They have the first signs of semantic memorization.

From 6 to 14 years old, mechanical memory for unrelated logical units of information actively develops. But logical memory lags behind in its development, since the child at this time completely manages with mechanical memory. Only in adolescence begins the replacement of mechanical memory with semantic one (in high school, new subjects appear, therefore, the amount of information that needs to be remembered increases, so mechanical memory is no longer an assistant here, it is necessary to connect thinking to memorization, comprehend, understand the essence of the material and then it will be easier to remember). During this period, the development of mechanical memory slows down.

n The ratio of voluntary and involuntary memorization in development. The theory of development of involuntary memorization L.S. Vygotsky:

Children under 5 do not have a memorization mindset. And only starting from the age of 5, arbitrary memory appears and forms. The development of memory in preschool age is characterized by a gradual transition from involuntary to voluntary memorization. In children 3-4 years old, memorization and reproduction in natural conditions are involuntary, that is, without special training in mnemonic operations. Children 5-6 years old are able to memorize or recall something consciously, but often these actions for remembering are simple repetition. By the end of preschool age (6-7 years), the process of arbitrary memorization can be considered formed. Its internal psychological sign is the child's desire to discover and use logical connections in the material for memorization. The transition from involuntary to voluntary memorization includes 2 stages:

1) the necessary motivation is formed (the desire to remember or recall something);

2) the mnemonic actions and operations necessary for this arise and are improved.

Improving voluntary memory in preschoolers is closely related to setting them special mnemonic tasks for memorizing, preserving and reproducing material. In adolescence, various types of memory are actively developing, including arbitrary.

But most of what we remember in life is remembered by us involuntarily, without special knowledge. intentions.

L.S. Vygotsky considered the historical development of memory and believed that the improvement of human memory in phylogeny proceeded mainly along the line of improving the means of memorization. Developing historically, man developed more and more perfect means of memorization, the most important of which is writing. Thanks to various forms of speech - oral, written, external and internal - a person turned out to be able to subordinate memory to his will, reasonably control the course of memorization, manage the process of storing and reproducing information. Therefore, the memorization, preservation and reproduction of material is explained by what a person does with this material in the process of its mnemonic processing. L.S. Vygotsky also emphasizes the role of adults who influence the child through speech, and the child, in turn, receives the means by which he then masters his own mental process.

n Development of mediated memory:

A.N. Leontiev experimentally showed how direct memorization is gradually replaced by indirect memorization with age. This happens due to the child's assimilation of more perfect stimuli-means of memorizing and reproducing material. The development of stimuli-means for memorization occurs as follows: at first they act as external (tying knots for memory, using various objects for memorization, etc.), then they become internal (feeling, association, representation, image, thought). Speech plays a central role in the formation of internal means of memorization. Consequently, the transition from externally mediated to internally mediated memorization is closely connected with the transformation of speech from an external function into an internal one. Based on the experiments, Leontiev deduced a curve for the development of direct and indirect memorization - a “parallelogram of memory development”:

In preschool children, direct memorization improves with age and its development is faster than the development of mediated memorization; the gap in the productivity of memorization data in favor of the direct one is also widening. Starting from school age, there is a process of simultaneous development of direct and indirect memorization, and then a more rapid improvement of mediated memory. In an adult, mainly mediated memorization. For the development of memory, it is important to develop a set of tools (the more tools, the better the material is remembered).

Speech plays a significant role in the development of memory, so the process of improving a person’s memory goes hand in hand with the development of his speech.

n Patterns of memory changes in old age:

Most mental functions in old age change, degrade, their “sharpness” decreases. . And memory is no exception. Memory processes are deteriorating: new information is remembered very poorly, there is practically no storage of material in memory, as for the process of reproducing information, there is a paradox here: older people easily and in detail recall long-past events, childhood impressions, etc., but and it is also easy to forget what they have just heard or seen. The amount of memory decreases, the number of memorized units of information becomes smaller. In old age, senile sclerosis occurs (relevant information is lost, it cannot be remembered for a long time).

8. Psychophysiology of memory and learning:

n Structural and functional foundations of memory:

All types of memory are provided by the cortex and subcortical structures. Memory is regulated by 2 brain systems: specific (different areas of the cortex) and nonspecific (reticular formation, associative nuclei of the thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, frontal lobes of the cortex).

Memorization occurs in several stages:

1) the formation of an engram (memory traces) in sensory systems (this is the appearance of signals in receptors, their conduction along pathways, entry into the cortical region, formation of sensations). At this stage, sensory memory functions.

2) the work of short-term memory simultaneously with the receipt of information in the cortical department, there is a release of information new to the body. This is done through the limbic system of the hippocampus. The hippocampus plays an important role at this stage, since information is classified and encoded in it, in addition, it is involved in the extraction of memory traces during excitation.

3) fixation of information that is important for the individual, that is, it goes into intermediate (operational) and long-term memory. This process occurs in the cortex on the basis of conditioned reflex mechanisms.

The engram is written in the cortex; when areas of the cortex are removed or damaged, traces of memory disappear, visual, auditory and other types of amnesia occur. On the contrary, with electrical stimulation of certain areas of the cortex, figurative memories arise. The reticular formation, by exciting the cortex, improves the emergence of interneuronal temporary connections and stimulates the extraction of information from it.

n The phenomenon of a wide distribution of the trace in the brain:

Lashley conducted experiments with animals (he removed certain parts of the cerebral cortex and looked at what skills remained). Conclusion: no specific zones were found, the entire space of the brain was responsible for the preservation of traces (that is, the absence of a single center, it is “smeared” over the entire surface).

Other studies suggest that there are separate structures that are responsible for the preservation of traces - the hippocampus. With its defeat, a person ceases to assimilate new things, while a violation of other structures does not give this.

Another point of view: the temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex are responsible for the preservation of memory traces, since when the temporal lobes were damaged, the subjects experienced long-forgotten events; images that were difficult to remember surfaced, some images replaced others.

On the whole, we can draw the following conclusion: the traces are stored in the part of the brain that is currently involved in the formation of a complex of conditioned reflexes. The more extensive the damage to the brain, the more severe its effects on memory. There were doubts about the existence of a localized memory center, a number of psychologists unequivocally argued that the entire brain should be considered an organ of memory.

n Cellular and molecular mechanisms of memory:

The formation of memory traces is based on several processes:

1) reverberation - continuous circulation of nerve impulses through closed circuits of neurons.

2) synoptic potentiation is the amplification of signals in the synapse when a series of successive nerve impulses passes through it.

It has now been established that in the process of memory and learning, not only the property of synapses changes, but also the membrane of neurons of their intracellular structure. It has been established that with prolonged stimulation of neuron membranes, their excitability increases. Another way of forming an engram may lie through the coding of individual experience in RNA, DNA and proteins of neurons. It was found that the main role in fixing the membrane belongs to DNA, and RNA serves only to transfer encoded information to DNA.

It is believed that changes in the properties of synapses, neuronal membranes, enzyme systems, and the genetic apparatus play a major role in the mechanisms of memory and learning.

In the formation of memory traces, a large role belongs to the hippocampus, which is located in the limbic system of the brain. The hippocampus classifies and encodes all signals that must be registered in long-term memory; it also provides the extraction and reproduction of the necessary information.

n Footprint Consolidation Hypothesis:

At the beginning of the century, there was a dual hypothesis regarding the mechanisms of preservation of memory traces. The psychological and physiological aspects of the preservation of traces were connected - the hypothesis of trace consolidation: remembering, storing information are structural changes in the brain substrate and consolidation are separate changes over time (that is, it takes time for these changes to occur). The more consolidation there is, the more durable the material is retained. Facts to support this:

1) experiments related to the action of electric shock: if you develop a skill in an animal, and after its development (after 1 hour), give an email. shock - the skill was lost (the consolidation was interrupted by electric shock). If more time passed, there was more room for saving.

2) the use of various drugs (chemicals) to improve memorization.

3) clinical studies: head injuries (post-traumatic amnesias) lead to forgetting of previous events, therefore, trauma is a factor that destroys consolidation.

n Hypothesis of closed neural circuits:

This hypothesis answers the question, what physiological units are involved in the consolidation? She says that certain circuits arise from neurons that retain a certain activity (reverb) and each circuit is responsible for a certain trace. Consolidation is the formation of such chains. But if the impact of e. shock - the trace is not saved.

n Hypotheses of the mechanism of storing information in long-term memory:

A feature of long-term memory is the practically unlimited storage time of the material and the unlimited amount of information retained. The main mechanism for entering and consolidating information in long-term memory is repetition. Semantic coding of incoming messages is carried out in long-term memory. Through associative links, the elements of long-term memory form a certain structural organization. Recovery from long-term memory is carried out through associative search.

Hypothesis D.O. Hebb: long-term storage is based on stable morphofunctional changes

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Ed. prof. A. V. Petrovsky.

Textbook
M., 1996.

PART II. PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES AND STATES

CHAPTER 6. MEMORY

4. REMEMBER

memorization can be defined as the process of memory, as a result of which the new is consolidated by linking it with the previously acquired. This is a necessary condition for enriching the experience of the individual with new knowledge and forms of behavior. Memorization is always selective: far from everything that affects our senses is stored in memory. What determines choice?

memory and action. It has been experimentally proved that any memorization, including involuntary, is a natural product. actions subject with an object.

In their experiment, the subjects were asked to classify the objects depicted on the cards. On each card, except for the subject, a number was depicted. After the experiment, the subjects were asked to recall what they saw on the cards. It turned out that in this case the subjects were well remembered. As for the numbers, some subjects claimed that they did not see them at all. In another experiment, it was necessary to arrange the cards in the order of the numbers depicted on them. In this case, everything was the opposite: the numbers were well remembered and the pictures were almost not noticed.

Thus, what a person is remembered with is valid. This pattern was also found in experiments with practical, labor actions.

The described facts convincingly prove that the simple adjacency events (pictures and numbers) by itself does not provide unambiguous memorization results. The whole point is that does man with material. Of course, the same external conditions of activity do not lead to absolutely identical results of memorization in different people, since these conditions are always refracted through a person's past experience, his individual characteristics. But this only means that, speaking about the dependence of memorization on activity, it is necessary to consider any human action in a personal context, i.e. in connection with the peculiarities of motives, goals and ways to achieve them.

Thus, we can say that the characteristics of memorization of a particular material are determined by motives, goals and methods of activity of the individual. From these positions, one should consider the characteristics of the memorization process in all its forms and at all stages of formation, including at the very initial level, i.e. at the level short term memory.

Short-term and long-term memory. What is short term memory? If we were dictated to a few random numbers, letters or words and offered to repeat them immediately, we would easily do it. Even the reproduction of a series of meaningless syllables would not cause us great difficulties (provided that there are no more than five or seven elements in the series). For example, we could repeat the series "de-bo-da-ti-tse-lo", but only immediately after it was spoken. After some time, we would no longer be able to do this. This is a short term memory. In order to memorize this series for a long time, we would need several repetitions, and perhaps the use of some special (mnemonic) memorization techniques (for example, combining syllables into words and linking them into an artificial sentence like “Grandfather Bogdan is a birder "). And that would be a long-term memory.

Research into short-term memorization, prompted primarily by the needs of engineering psychology, has today acquired great general theoretical significance. It can be said that all modern problems of the psychology of memory are in one way or another connected with the study of the patterns of its short-term processes. Here, a solution to the key problem in the study of memory - the problem of its mechanisms - should be obtained on the basis of a synthesis of all levels of research: psychological, neurophysiological, biochemical.

The very name "short-term memorization" shows that the basis of the corresponding classification from the very beginning was a temporal attribute. However, the time parameter, for all its importance for understanding the phenomena of memory, does not in itself allow one to exhaustively characterize short-term memorization. When considering memory processes, the dependence of its on the nature of human activity in various time conditions of information processing. It has been established that memorization is regulated by a program specified from above, i.e. determined the nature of the activity person with memorized material.

Currently, research is underway aimed at studying the dependence of short-term memorization on the nature of the activity carried out by a person, on the characteristics of the task performed by him. Until now, studies of short-term memory have mainly varied between two factors: exposure time and the material presented. The task of the activity performed by the subject remained unchanged, since it was always a mnemonic task. Therefore, naturally, the amount of memorization in a given time mode of presentation of the material remained constant. Evidence has now been obtained that indicates that various cognitive and mnemonic tasks affect the productivity of short-term memorization in different ways. These data show that short-term memorization, at least within the time limits in which it has usually been studied, is not directly imprinted.

It was found that under the conditions of short-term memorization, only such tasks are productive, for the solution of which automated ways of doing things. Tasks that require the use of extended methods of processing the material reduce the productivity of its memorization under conditions of short-term presentation. Based on this, short-term memorization could be defined as memorization, which is carried out in such a time frame of human activity with the material, in which it is possible to use only automated methods of its processing.

Long-term memory receives information that acquires tactical rather than strategic to achieve the vital goals of the individual's activity. Long-term memorization, being a natural product of human activity, is not just a concomitant "trace" effect of actions, but is formed primarily as an internally necessary condition for its course. In other words, the memorization of any material is a product of the previous action and, at the same time, a condition, a means of carrying out the next one.

Involuntary and voluntary memory. In accordance with the goals of the activity, which includes the processes of memorization, there are two main types of memorization: involuntary and arbitrary.

Involuntary memorization is a product and condition for the implementation of cognitive and practical actions. Since memorization itself is not our goal, then about everything that is remembered involuntarily, we usually say:

"I remember it myself." In fact, this is a strictly natural process, determined by the peculiarities of our activity. Studies show that for the productivity of involuntary memorization, the place that this material occupies in the activity is important. If the material is included in the content of the main goal of the activity, it is remembered better than when it is included in the conditions, ways to achieve this goal.

In the experiments, schoolchildren of the 1st grade and students were given to solve five simple arithmetic problems, after which, unexpectedly for the subjects, they were asked to recall the conditions and numbers of the problems. Schoolchildren of the 1st grade memorized numbers almost three times more than students. This is due to the fact that the first-grader's ability to add and subtract has not yet become a skill. It is a meaningful purposeful action for students of the 1st grade.

For first-graders, operating with numbers was the content of the goal of this action, while for students it was part of the content of the method, and not the goal of the action.

Material that occupies a different place in the activity acquires a different meaning. Therefore, it requires a different orientation and is reinforced in different ways. The content of the main goal requires a more active orientation and receives effective reinforcement as an achieved result of the activity and therefore is better remembered than what concerns the conditions for achieving the goal.

The facts of special studies show that The material that takes the place of the main goal in the activity is remembered the better, the more meaningful connections are established in it.

In a study that studied the involuntary memory of text that was required to be understood by schoolchildren, they found that a very easy text was remembered worse than a medium-difficulty text. A difficult text was remembered better with such a more active way of working with it as drawing up a plan than when using a ready-made plan of the same text.

Consequently, involuntarily the material that causes active mental work on it is remembered better.

It is known that we involuntarily remember completely and firmly, sometimes for the rest of our lives, what has special meaning for us. vital importance, what arouses interest and emotion in us. Involuntary memory will the more productive, the more interested we are in the content of the task being performed. So, if the student is interested in the lesson, he remembers its content better than when the student listens only “for order”. A special study of the conditions for high productivity of involuntary memorization of knowledge in learning has shown that one of these most important conditions is the creation of internal, proper cognitive motivation for learning activity. This is achieved through a special organization systems of learning tasks, at which each result obtained becomes necessary means for each subsequent one.

Arbitrary memorization is a product of special mnemonic actions, those. such actions, the main purpose of which will be memorization itself. The productivity of such an action is also related to the characteristics of its goals, motives and methods of implementation. At the same time, as special studies have shown, one of the main conditions for arbitrary memorization is a clear statement of the problem of remembering the material accurately, completely and consistently. Various mnemonic goals affect the nature of the memorization process itself, the choice of its various methods, and, in connection with this, its result.

In one study, students were asked to memorize two stories. The test of the first one was scheduled for the next day, with regard to the second, it was said that it should be remembered for a long time. The memory test for both stories was actually done four weeks later. It turned out that the second story was remembered much better than the first. It is known how quickly material is memorized that is memorized only for exams, without setting for a strong, long-term consolidation.

Thus, the role of the mnemonic task cannot be reduced to the action of the memorization intention itself. Different mnemonic tasks cause a different orientation in the material, in its content, structure, in its linguistic form, etc., causing the choice of appropriate methods of memorization. Therefore, in educational work it is important to give students differentiated tasks: what and how to remember.

An important role in voluntary memorization is played by motives that encourage memorization. The reported information can be understood and memorized, but, without acquiring sustainable significance for the student, it can be quickly forgotten. People who have not been sufficiently brought up with a sense of duty and responsibility often forget much of what they need to remember.

Among the conditions for the productivity of arbitrary memorization, the central place is occupied by using rational memory techniques. Knowledge is made up of a certain system of facts, concepts, judgments. To memorize them, it is necessary to isolate certain semantic units, to establish connections between them, to apply logical techniques associated with more or less developed processes of thinking. Understanding is a necessary condition for logical, meaningful memorization. The concept is remembered faster and stronger because it is meaningfully associated with the knowledge already acquired earlier, with the past experience of a person. On the contrary, what is misunderstood or poorly understood always appears in the mind of a person as something separate, meaningfully not connected with past experience. Incomprehensible material usually does not arouse interest in itself.

One of the most important methods of logical memorization is drawing up a plan for the material to be learned. It includes three points: 1) breakdown of the material into its component parts; 2) inventing titles for them or highlighting some strong point with which the entire content of this part of the material is easily associated; 3) linking parts by their titles or selected strong points into a single chain of associations. Combining individual thoughts, sentences into semantic parts reduces the number of units that need to be remembered without reducing the amount of memorized material. Memorization is also facilitated because, as a result of drawing up a plan, the material acquires a clear, dissected and ordered form. Thanks to this, it is easier to grasp mentally in the process of reading itself.

Of great importance comparison as a method of logical memorization. Emphasizing differences in objects is especially important. This ensures the specialization of links during memorization and directs the reproduction of object images along a certain path. Establishing only general, and even more so very broad connections between objects can make it difficult to remember them. This largely explains the difficulty in remembering (for example, the names of Ovsov in Chekhov's story "Horse Name").

Memorization of objects is carried out the faster and stronger, the sharper the differences between them are. Therefore, the comparison of objects must begin with clearly identified differences and only after that move on to less noticeable differences. As a result of experiments I.P. Pavlov came to the conclusion that the neural connection to a certain stimulus is carried out faster and is more durable not when the stimulus itself is repeatedly reinforced, but when its reinforcement is interspersed, opposed to an unreinforced other stimulus similar to the first.

Association by similarity and contrast is also the basis for such more complex methods of arbitrary memorization as classification, systematization of the material.

When logical work on material relies extensively on figurative connections, this increases the meaningfulness and strength of memorization. Therefore, where possible, it is necessary to evoke appropriate images in ourselves, to associate them with the content of the material that we remember.

One of the most important means of remembering playback, acting in the form of retelling to oneself the memorized content. However, it is useful to use this method only after preliminary understanding, awareness of the material, especially in cases where the material is complex, difficult to understand. Reproduction, especially in your own words, improves understanding of the material. Poorly understood material is usually associated with a "foreign" language form, while well-understood material is easily "translated" into "one's own language".

Reproduction speeds up, rationalizes memorization, especially when memorizing, since when retelling, we identify weaknesses and exercise self-control. It is important that reproduction is not replaced by recognition. Knowing is easier than remembering. But only the possibility of reproduction, recall creates the necessary confidence in knowledge.

Educational material that requires multiple repetitions in its volume can be remembered in three ways: either in parts - partial way, or all at once holistic way, or all and in parts - combined method. The most rational is the combined method, and the name rational is partial. With a partial method, there is no orientation towards the general content of the whole, therefore, individual parts are memorized in isolation from one another. This leads to a quick forgetting of the memorized. More productive is the holistic way, which uses the general content of the material, making it easier to understand and remember the individual parts in their relationship. But parts can vary in difficulty, besides, the middle of the material is always remembered worse than the beginning and end, especially with a large volume. Here, a combined method of memorization can be applied, when at first the whole material is comprehended, realized as a whole, in the process of which its individual parts are also distinguished, then individual parts are memorized, especially the more difficult ones, and finally, the material is repeated again as a whole.

This way of learning is best suited features of the structure of the mnemonic action, which includes the following operations: orientation in the entire material, the selection of groups of its elements, the establishment of intra-group relations, the establishment of inter-group connections.

The ability to reproduce is not necessarily an indicator of the strength of memorization. Therefore, the teacher should always worry about how, through repetition, to achieve a more solid consolidation of knowledge by students. According to K.D. Ushinekogo, a teacher who does not care about repetition, about the strength of knowledge, can be likened to a drunk driver with poorly tied luggage: he drives everything forward without looking back, and brings an empty cart, boasting only that he has come a long way.

However, repetition is productive only when it is conscious, meaningful and active. Otherwise, it leads to rote memorization. Therefore, the best type of repetition is the inclusion of learned material in subsequent activities. The experience of experimental teaching has shown that when the program material is organized into a special strict system of tasks (so that each previous step is necessary for the assimilation of the next), then in the corresponding activity of the student, essential material is necessarily repeated each time at a new level and in new connections. Under these conditions, the necessary knowledge is firmly remembered even without memorization, i.e. involuntarily. Previously acquired knowledge, being included in the context of new knowledge, is not only updated, but also qualitatively changed, rethought.

The place of involuntary and arbitrary memorization in the assimilation of knowledge. In training, it is necessary to focus not only on arbitrary, but also on involuntary memorization. A comparative study of them revealed important conditions under which each of them is most effective. The results of this study make it possible to determine the place of involuntary and voluntary memorization in the assimilation of knowledge by students.

Involuntary memorization of objects (depicted on the cards of objects), which was carried out in the process of their classification, i.e. active mental activity, gave better results than arbitrary, which relied only on the perception of the material. Similarly, when students mapped out a relatively complex text in order to understand its content, they remembered it better than when they voluntarily memorized it, which relied only on a simple reading of the text. Consequently, when involuntary memorization is based on meaningful and active ways of working with the material, it is more productive than arbitrary, if the latter does not use similar methods.

Under conditions of the same methods of working with material (for example, classifying objects), involuntary memorization, while remaining more productive in children of school and primary school age, gradually loses its advantage in middle school students and adults, giving way to voluntary memorization. These changes in the ratio of the productivity of involuntary and voluntary memorization are explained by complex relationships between cognitive and mnemonic actions in the process of their formation. The mnemonic action, being formed on the basis of the cognitive one, lags behind it. Classification can act as a way of remembering when it has reached a certain level of formation as a cognitive action. Only having learned to classify, one can use this mental action as a way of arbitrary memorization. This regularity also appeared in experiments on involuntary and arbitrary memorization of a text with such methods of work as using a ready-made plan or drawing up a plan on your own.

Involuntary memorization reaches maximum productivity when students perform cognitive task, when the material requires active understanding. In these cases, involuntary memorization is more productive than voluntary, because the process of understanding is difficult or impossible to combine with the performance of a mnemonic task. Arbitrary memorization reaches its maximum productivity in conditions where the understanding of the material can be entirely subordinated to the performance of a mnemonic task. Involuntary memorization should be guided by when studying new material, and the mnemonic task should be set at the stage of its consolidation. Thus, an important point in the management of knowledge memorization is selection and differentiation of cognitive and mnemonic tasks.

imprinting(memorization) - the process of memory, which results in the consolidation of new material, experience through connections with previously acquired experience.

The main conditions for the productivity of memorization are related to whether it proceeds in the form of an involuntary or arbitrary process.

Involuntary memory is affected by:

1. Singularity of objects

2. Effective attitude to memorized material

3. Level of motivation

4. The level of emotional coloring that accompanies the work with the material.

Arbitrary memorization- a specific activity where there is a goal. Memorization here loses its meaning without further reproduction.

Here there is arbitrary attention, there is a selection, sorting of information that is significant and significant.

Arbitrary memorization is one of the latest mental processes that form in a person, because remembering here already requires awareness of what is being remembered.

Arbitrary memory can be divided into 2 types:

Factors that determine productivity, the strength of arbitrary memorization:

The dependence of involuntary memorization on the motives of activity came out clearly in our study (1939), presented in the first chapter. Preschool children memorized the content of the pictures well when, while playing, they laid out the pictures on the table in places that conditionally designated the kitchen, garden, children's room and yard. When we challenged them to memorize pictures, the results were much worse. The decrease in memorization is explained not only by the fact that the task in the latter case was different, but apparently also by the fact that the activity of preschool children was stimulated by other motives.

This dependence appeared in the studies of Istomina (1948). Such experiments were carried out with children from 3 to 7 years old. In one case, under normal laboratory conditions, a child was asked to memorize five words. Another experiment was carried out in a game situation: in the course of the game, the child had to go to the "shop" to buy and bring five items named by the experimenter, necessary for playing in the "kindergarten". In the third case (1953), the experiment was carried out in the course of the children performing a practical task: arranging an exhibition of children's drawings. In the course of this work, the child was instructed to go to the head of the kindergarten and ask for five objects named by the experimenter, necessary for organizing the exhibition.

We will not touch on the whole system of very interesting facts obtained in this study, but will present only those that are directly related to the question of

dependence of memorization (in this case, arbitrary) on the motives of activity.

The experiments revealed three different levels of behavior during memorization and reproduction. In children assigned to the first level, the goal to remember-remember did not arise; they usually only accepted the outside of the assignment. The second level included children who had a goal to remember-remember, but they did nothing to achieve this goal. Finally, the children assigned to the third level not only had the goal of remembering to remember, but they tried to remember the content of the instruction by repetition or tried to recall when it was transmitted. Below, in Table. 12, data are presented on how, depending on the three situations of the experiment (in the conditions of the laboratory experiment, in the game, and when performing instructions), children of different ages were distributed according to the three described levels of behavior.

Table 12. Distribution of children of different ages according to three levels of behavior depending on three situations of experiments: laboratory experiment, game, execution of instructions. (From the research of Istomina.)

It follows from this table that the children's abilities in voluntary memorization are used unequally in different situations: the activity of the subjects in the conditions of the laboratory experiment turned out to be the least favorable, and the most favorable was the practical activity associated with the fulfillment of certain instructions.

This indicates that content motivation qualitatively restructures children's activities and creates greater opportunities for them to memorize. This restructuring is associated with changes in the productivity of memorization in children in different situations of experience (see Fig.

Rice. 11. Curves of arbitrary memorization of words by preschoolers under different conditions of motivation for their activities (from Istomina's research)

It turned out to be the least effective under laboratory conditions: the task of memorizing words in this situation was the least motivated for the children.

The most effective memorization turned out to be in the conditions of practical activities related to the fulfillment of instructions by children: in this situation, the motivation for the task of remembering turned out to be the most meaningful and effective for them.

Life also at every step proves to us the dependence of memorization on the motives of activity. It is known that what is more important, more significant, more interesting for a person is involuntarily remembered better. This is the basis for many facts about the selectivity of memory, its professional characteristics, and other individual differences, which sometimes acquire a rather stable character.

But on the other hand, the same everyday practice shows other, sometimes directly opposite facts: what is important, significant, interesting is not always remembered well. Sometimes what is remembered is what seems less significant, less interesting. These seemingly contradictory facts testify to the fact that the motives of activity do not by themselves, always and under any circumstances, determine the results of memorization, but, apparently, only under certain conditions.

Apparently, this explains the conflicting data on the influence of motives on memorization obtained in many studies of foreign psychology. Some authors argue that motives do not play a significant role in memorization, that repetition is the main thing. Others note the influence of some motives and the absence of such influence from others.

The question to be studied is not so much to find out which motives influence more or less, but how the motives of activity affect the productivity of memorization, what are

psychological patterns of this influence. It is in this formulation that the question of the influence of activity motives in involuntary memorization is poorly understood.

We have seen that in foreign, especially American, psychology, the problem of motives in memory (in learning) occupies one of the central places. Much research has been devoted to it, conducted in most cases in experiments with animals. However, the main disadvantage of studying this problem is that the motives, as well as the various conditions in which their influence is manifested, are considered as separate factors in isolation from the content of the activity.

AT In our study of the role of motives in involuntary memorization, we proceeded from the fact that their influence should be considered in close connection with the content of the task performed by a person, with the goals of the activity and the methods of achieving it.

AT In the fourth chapter, we associated the high productivity of involuntary memorization of material with the implementation of a purposeful action, since under these conditions it is most reinforced by the very fact of achieving the goal. We have necessarily abstracted from the fact that the goal of any action is always prompted by a certain motive or their system. Therefore, the reinforcement associated with the achievement of the goal will necessarily be strengthened or weakened depending on the characteristics of the acting motive.

However, the influence of the motive can be different not only

in connection with its features, but also with the features of the goal of the action and the ways to achieve it, because the content of the goal itself depends on how a certain need is satisfied or any interest in

as a motive. Depending on the characteristics of the goal and motive, a certain dynamics of nervous processes will develop, more or less favorable for the formation and consolidation of neural connections in the brain. Therefore, in our study, we tried to create such an experimental situation in which it would be possible to trace not only the influence of different motives on the performance of the same task, but also the results of the influence of the same motive when performing different tasks. A specially developed research methodology was also subordinated to these goals: we took three different tasks of a cognitive nature, and their performance was motivated by two different motives.

The experimental problems we are now discussing are described by us in the fifth chapter (see pp. 209–210). The data on the performance of these tasks were used by us to elucidate the role of modes of activity in involuntary memorization. Let us briefly recall their content.

In all three tasks, we gave the subjects 15 words and asked them to come up with a new word for each given word. In the first task, the invented words had to be in some specific semantic connection with the given words (for example, “hammer - nail”). In the second task, the invented words had to denote some property, state, or action of the objects indicated in the given words (for example, “a wooden house”). Finally, in the third task, the invented words had to begin with the same letter as the given ones (for example, “pear-dove”). We called the first task inventing the words "by connections", the second - "by properties" and the third - "by the initial letter".

We included the performance of these three tasks by the subjects in variously motivated activities.

AT In one case, the subjects were told: you will invent words, and I will see if you know how to do it correctly, without mistakes. The motive for the activity of the subjects in this case was to test their ability to solve similar problems. The experiments were carried out immediately with two subjects, which created a certain situation of competition between them. Each of the participants in the experiment tried to demonstrate to the experimenter their skills in performing this task.

AT In another case, the performance of the same tasks was included in the game situation. The experiment was also carried out with two subjects. The subjects were told: now we will play an interesting game, I will call you 15 words one by one, and you will come up with your own word for each of my words. Whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins.

in inventing words.

Thus, six series of experiments were carried out in the study: three series consisted of three tasks for inventing words, performed in a situation of testing the ability of the subjects to think correctly, and three series, constituting the same three tasks for inventing words, were performed in a game situation.

In the following presentation, the motive of the activity of our subjects in a situation of testing the ability to think correctly, we will conditionally call the learning motive. The students called our experiments "classes." They treated them with great interest and usually after the experiments they asked for more "work out" with them. Moreover, many schoolchildren at the end of the experiments asked us what mark we would give them. Our experiments, especially with students of the second grade, were perceived as a kind of educational task of a testing nature.

The motive for the activity of our subjects in a game situation will be called the game motive in what follows.

All series of experiments were experiments on involuntary memorization. Both in the game and with the educational motive, our subjects invented, and did not memorize, words. Therefore, in all cases, our suggestion to recall the words was perceived by them as unexpected.

All three tasks were carried out with schoolchildren of grades II and V, and the first two with preschoolers.

The results are shown in table. 13.

In the above table, in addition to age differences, two kinds of differences in memorization are found.

Table 13

First, different tasks give different memorization results within each motive. These differences are due to the peculiarities of our tasks6. Secondly, different motives also give unequal

results within each task. These differences are due to the peculiarities of our motives.

This means that involuntary memorization is determined by the characteristics of both tasks and motives.

However, these facts also testify to the fact that the task and the motive exert their influence on involuntary memorization not in isolation from each other, but by entering into certain connections and relationships with each other. Thus, the same task is differently productive with different motives, and, conversely, the same motive is differently productive in different tasks (see Table 13).

This means that the influence of task and motive on memorization can only be understood by revealing the nature of the relationships that develop between them in a certain human activity.

From this point of view, we will analyze the activities of our subjects.

Let us first find out the reasons for the differences in the memorization of words by students of grades II and V in the first and second tasks with educational and game motives.

Rice. 12. Curves of involuntary memorization of words by preschoolers and schoolchildren under different conditions of motivation

Why, with a learning motive, the fulfillment of the first and second tasks by schoolchildren gives better results in memorization than with a game motive (see Tables 13 and

Observations of the nature of the course of activity in various conditions of motivation allow us to answer this question.

The activity of schoolchildren in grades II and V when performing the first and second tasks under the conditions of educational motivation proceeded outwardly more calmly than in the situation of the game. It was characterized by greater composure, greater focus and concentration. In the game, however, it proceeded more excitedly, with greater exertion of forces, but not smoothly, with distractions. The subjects showed increased interest in the number of words invented faster than the partner, in the partner's mistakes, in their own successes and failures. The activity of schoolchildren often shifted, as it were, from inventing words to achieving a win. These features were manifested in the majority of schoolchildren, although they were expressed differently. Apparently, this explains the fact that in some cases the subjects also gave high memorization indices in the game.

These features of external behavior are associated with certain features of the psychological structure of the subjects' activities. In both cases, the students performed the same intellectual task - they came up with words in a certain way. But the “for the sake of what” they had to do it was different in one and the other situation. With an educational motive, inventing words, schoolchildren, as it were, practiced thinking, tested their ability to think. This kind of motive encouraged schoolchildren to direct their activity towards

the process of inventing words, on its content side. The inventing of words acquired for the subjects a meaning that was internally connected with the motive, as if flowing directly from it. The activity of schoolchildren in this situation was motivated by the desire to show their ability to think before the experimenter, i.e. the activity of schoolchildren increased in the same direction.

Thus, we have the right to characterize the relationship between the learning motive and the first two tasks that developed in the activities of our schoolchildren in such words as “close”, “meaningful”, “internally necessary”. By this we want to emphasize the main feature of this kind of relationship: each task has an objective content, which is determined by the peculiarity of its goal and the ways to achieve it. We speak of the relationship between motive and task as “close”, “meaningful”, “internally necessary”, when the motive gives a particularly significant meaning to the objective content of the tasks. The objective content of the task appears in the activity not as a means to achieve some other secondary goal, but is in itself significant, psychologically relevant, interesting. Such an attitude usually develops in activity with the so-called direct interest in something. This explains the fact that schoolchildren performed the first and second tasks with great interest in learning motivation. There was not a single student who did not try his best to invent words. Related to this are the features of the course of activity: the absence of distractions, greater composure and focus on the fulfillment of the task assigned to them.

It can be assumed that with such a correlation of motive and task, the most favorable dynamics of nervous processes for the formation and consolidation of connections developed in the activity of the subjects. The optimal focus in the cerebral cortex, associated with the experience of this motive, seemed to enhance the effect of reinforcement caused by the achievement of the goal. In these cases, favorable conditions were created for the awareness of the words included in the content of the task being performed, and thus for their more productive memorization.

A different relationship developed in the activities of schoolchildren between the game motive and the first two tasks. The game motive aroused in schoolchildren the desire to win. In order to win, they had to come up with words just as correctly as with the educational motive. Therefore, here, too, the consciousness of the subjects was directed to inventing words, otherwise the game could not be carried out. But inventing words in this situation occupied a slightly different place in the minds of schoolchildren. It acted for them primarily as a means to achieve a win. Therefore, the inner content side of the very process of inventing words did not have the meaning that it acquired for them with an educational motive. The task in the game, as it were, lost its own, inner content for schoolchildren, and thereby its independent meaning. Indeed, the connection between the content of the goal - inventing words and testing your ability to think is more obvious, closer and more meaningful than between inventing words and striving to win. Additional motivation, which also took place in the game situation, is the desire to show one's skill

in front of the experimenter, acted differently than with educational motivation.

If in the first situation the schoolchildren wanted to show their ability to think, then in the game the emphasis fell more on winning and thus showing themselves more skillful than their partner.

Thus, the emerging relationship between the game motive and the task can be characterized as a relationship that is less close, less meaningful than with the learning motive. Increased interest in the results of the game distracted the students from the content side of the process of inventing words, gave rise to imbalance, excessive excitement.

Under these conditions, less favorable conditions for the formation and consolidation of nerve connections also developed. The absence of a meaningful connection between the motive and the task led to the fact that the motive acted as the main goal, and the act of inventing words itself turned into an intermediate goal or a means to achieve the goal. In this case, the neural connections formed were also reinforced, but they also experienced an inhibitory effect from the stronger excitation caused by the desire to win. With such a relation of the motive to the task, less favorable conditions were created for the awareness of the words included in the content of the task being performed, which led to a decrease in the productivity of memorization.

So, when students perform the first and second tasks, we find different relationships between the motive and the content of the task. In one case, the motive entered into closer and meaningful connections with the task, in the other

- these connections turned out to be more distant and less meaningful. The same task got

therefore, for our subjects, the meaning is different. Thus different conditions were created for understanding the content of the task. Higher memorization rates with a learning motive are the result of more favorable conditions for the formation of neural connections and awareness of words.

Let us turn to the differences in memorization among preschoolers.

Preschoolers memorized less than schoolchildren, both with the educational motive and with the game. However, the ratio of memorization results in these two situations changed to the opposite in comparison with what we had with schoolchildren. In the first two tasks, preschoolers gave higher memorization rates with a game motive, and not with a learning motive (see Tables 13 and

How did the activities of preschoolers proceed in both situations?

Despite the fact that we gave the preschoolers 10 words instead of 15 in the experiments, their activity was often disturbed in the presence of a learning motive. At first, they willingly got down to business, but at about the 5th or 6th word, their interest dried up and their activity began to disintegrate. The motivating force of this motive turned out to be insufficient for preschool children to perform such intellectual tasks as the first and second tasks in our experiments. We did not observe this in any case among schoolchildren. The facts of the disintegration of activity cannot be explained by the difficulty of the tasks themselves. First, inventing words did not cause them insurmountable difficulties. Secondly, the performance of the same tasks in a game situation did not lead to the disintegration of activity.

The activities of preschoolers in play differed significantly from their activities with a learning motive. The game motive created an acceptable meaning for them. Therefore, their activities not only did not collapse, as was the case in the first case, but proceeded with sufficient interest. This distinguished it from the activity of schoolchildren in the same game situation. The consciousness of preschool children was directed to the process of inventing words, which now acquired meaning for them in the game, and to a lesser extent to the final result of the game. This could also be observed in the outward behavior of preschoolers: they showed much less interest in the successes and failures of both their own and their partner. The activity of preschool children in a game situation, by the nature of its course, rather resembled the activity of schoolchildren with an educational motive, and not a game one; she was more calm, collected and focused. The characteristic distractions that we observed among schoolchildren in play were less frequent here. The distractions that manifested themselves in preschool children during the educational motive and led to the disintegration of activity did not occur during the play motive. This similarity in outward behavior testified to the fact that inventing words acquired the same meaning in the play of preschoolers as it did in schoolchildren in their educational activities. It was not a side means to achieve a certain result, but the main goal of their activities.

Thus, the activities of preschoolers in a game situation and the activities of schoolchildren with a learning motive were similar not only in external manifestations, but also in their psychological characteristics. And here we had the closest and meaningful connections between the task and the motive. These features of activity in preschoolers in

the game situation led to higher memorization rates in the game than with the educational motive.

So, the productivity of involuntary memorization is directly related to the relationship between the motive and the task in a particular activity: the closer and more meaningful these relationships are, the more productive involuntary memorization.

In experiments, we observed a similar course of activity caused by motives different in content with the same task. Inventing words for preschoolers in a game situation, and for schoolchildren with an educational motive, takes approximately the same place in their activities, although the meaning of this invention is different. It is obvious that the same relationship between the motive and the purpose of the action, which we discovered, can develop with the same motive, but with different goals and tasks.

However, not all three tasks in schoolchildren give a sharp increase in the productivity of memorization with educational motivation compared with the game: for example, in schoolchildren of the second grade, the first task gives an increase in memorization by 3.1 words, the second by 1.4, and the third only 0.1 the words; in schoolchildren of the 5th grade by 2.5, 2.0 and 0.1, respectively (see Fig.

Why, then, when schoolchildren perform the third task, the educational motive does not at all reveal its advantage over the game motive? Why is it that in the second task the advantage of the educational motive over the game motive is revealed to a somewhat lesser extent than in the first task?

The third task differed sharply from the first two in the way it was carried out. The connection of invented and given words "by the initial letter" did not require any active and meaningful thought processes from the schoolchildren. In this regard, the goal in this problem was also impoverished. It was too light and not very meaningful for the subjects. Such an impoverished task did not correspond to the content of the educational motive. Indeed, it is impossible to test one's ability to think or demonstrate this ability to the experimenter by performing this task.

Therefore, between the learning motive in our experiments and the third task, the same meaningful connections could not develop as in the performance of the first and second tasks. Usually schoolchildren started the third task with the same interest as the first two. However, after a few words invented by them, their interest in the task began to decline, their activity began to fall. In terms of their external features, their activity was in many respects similar to the activity of preschool children with a learning motive. True, we did not observe the disintegration of activity among schoolchildren, as was the case with preschool children. The experiments were carried out to the end, but with a clearly reduced interest.

Several schoolchildren and I carried out the first and third tasks at once with a learning motive, without subsequent reproduction of words, and then asked the subjects in which case they liked to invent words more - in the first or second. Most of the children said that in the first case (the first task) they liked to invent words more: “Here you had to think, but there you just need to find a word that begins with the same letter as you said” (V grade). “I liked to come up with words at the beginning, and how then we

came up with (the third task) I liked it less, so anyone can come up with ”(Grade II).

Also, without reproducing words, we conducted several experiments on the first and third tasks with a game motive with the same schoolchildren. A subsequent conversation with the subjects about in which case they liked the game more showed us that in the game situation there were no differences in tasks for them, they liked the game "both there and there."

Thus, the third task for learning motivation was accepted by schoolchildren differently than the first and second ones. However, the reason for this attitude lies not in the peculiarities of the motive, but in the peculiarities of the task itself. The motive of an educational nature could be realized only when performing a meaningful intellectual task. The third task did not meet these requirements.

An analysis of the relation of the learning motive to the third task leads us to another very important proposition:

the nature of the relationship between motive and task depends not only on the content of the motive, but also on the content of the task.

This means that the productivity of tasks may vary depending on the nature of the motive, but the possibilities of a positive influence of the motive on increasing the productivity of involuntary memorization may either be limited or expanded depending on the content of the task itself. This means that not at the expense of any task it is possible to increase the productivity of involuntary memorization even with favorable changes in the motives of activity, but only at the expense of a meaningful task. And the more meaningful the task, the greater the opportunities open up in raising

memory productivity with favorable changes in motivation.

An analysis of differences in memorization productivity when performing different tasks with the same motive and differences in memorization when performing the same task, but under conditions of differently motivated activity, leads to the main conclusion for our study: productivity of involuntary memory is not uniquely determined by the task or motive, it is determined the relation of motive to the task, which develops in a particular activity.

Analyzing the peculiarities of the activity of schoolchildren and preschoolers with learning and play motives, we found a twofold relationship between the motive and the task.

In the activities of schoolchildren with a learning motive, and among preschoolers with a play motive, close and meaningful relationships of the motive to the task developed. The essence of this kind of meaningful relationship, as we have seen, was that the objective content of the tasks acquired a particularly significant meaning for our subjects. The content of the task acted in the activity of the subjects not as a side goal or a means to achieve some other goal, but was in itself significant, psychologically relevant, and acted as the main subject of activity.

For schoolchildren, with a game motive, inventing words was not the main content of their activity, it acted rather as a means of achieving a win. The task in the game, as it were, lost its own content for schoolchildren, and thereby

its own meaning. Therefore, we characterized the relationship of the motive to the task in the game among schoolchildren as a relationship less close and less meaningful than with the learning motive.

The same lack of content developed between the learning motive and the first two tasks in experiments with preschoolers and the third task in experiments with schoolchildren, although for different reasons: among preschoolers because the learning motive did not have sufficient stimulating power, among schoolchildren because the low content of the third task did not correspond to the nature of the educational motive.

The productivity of involuntary memorization turned out to be directly dependent on the nature of the relationship between the motive and the task. The data of our study allow us to formulate the following statement: the closer and more meaningful relationships exist between the motive and the task, the greater is the productivity of involuntary memorization.

These studies allow us to approach the characteristics of the conditions on which the relationship between motive and task depends. These conditions lie in the features of both the motive and the task.

The motive must first of all have sufficient motive force, since without this the activity cannot be carried out or it will be carried out at the expense of some other motive. But the presence of the motive power of motive is only the initial condition. To assess the nature of the relationship of the motive to the task, the main thing is the content of the motive itself, since it depends on what meaning the content of the task being performed can acquire. The same content of the task acquired a different meaning for our subjects.

with educational and play motives, because of this, the relationship of the motive to the task developed either more or less meaningfully.

On the other hand, the nature of the relationship between the motive and the task is also influenced by the characteristics of the task. To evaluate these relations, the main thing here is the content of the problem. Its objective content may not correspond to the nature of the motive. This discrepancy may be due to the characteristics of either the goal, or the method of achieving it, or both. In our experiments with schoolchildren, the content of the third task did not correspond to the nature of the educational motive, not in terms of its goal, but in terms of the way it was achieved. That this was indeed the case is evident from the fact that the same goal (inventing a word) in the first two problems was accepted by the schoolchildren with interest, because the methods were more in line with the nature of the goal. There are also cases when the task will not correspond to the motive. This means that the content of the task can be correlated in different ways with the nature of the motive, and therefore the relationship of the motive to the task will be either more or less meaningful.

Our position that the productivity of involuntary memorization is determined by the nature of the relationship of the motive to the task allows us to approach the disclosure of the psychological nature of the influence of the motive on memorization. The motive, giving a certain meaning to the content of the task being performed, leads to certain changes in the structure of the activity. Depending on what meaning the objective content of the task acquires, this content can occupy a different place in the structure of activity. In the presence of a meaningful relationship between the motive and the task, the motive and purpose of the activity coincide in their meaning for the subject; in

In this case, the most favorable conditions for memorization are formed, since the objective content of the task takes the place of the goal of the activity. In the presence of low-content relations of motive to the task, especially purely external connections between them, the motive and goal of the activity acquire different meanings for the subject; in this case, less favorable conditions for memorization arise, since the objective content of the task acts only as a means to achieve the goal. It is one thing when a student, preparing for an exam, is interested in the content of the subject, and quite another thing when he is only interested in getting a good mark.

Changes in the structure of activity, caused by the nature of the relationship between motive and task, create different conditions for the formation and consolidation of neural connections in the brain. In cases where the relation of the motive to the task develops in such a way that the objective content of the task acquires primary significance for the subject, the most favorable conditions arise for the formation of the corresponding neural connections. In those cases when the content of the task acquires in the activity the meaning of something additional, not the main one, such content is less well understood and less remembered.

Of course, we could not give any exhaustive characterization of the relationship between motive and task. Such a task goes far beyond the scope of this study. It is clear that these relations will be different depending on the content of the motive itself, on what place it will occupy in the motivational sphere of the personality, depending on how the motive of the personality will be realized, etc. All these features of the motive will inevitably affect the nature of the relationship motive for

task. On the other hand, the task itself does not determine the results of memorization, but depending on what meaning the content of the task acquires, who performs it, i.e. depending on the nature of the relationship between the motive and the task.

AT In the fourth chapter, we put forward the position that the material included in the content of the main goal of the action is remembered most productively. The conclusion that we arrived at in this study about the dependence of the productivity of involuntary memorization on a certain relationship between motive and task is directly related to this provision, complements and largely reveals it.

AT in fact: the place that certain material can take in human activity (the place of the main goal or the place of the method of achieving it) will be largely determined by the relationship between the motive and the goal of the task being performed in this activity. One might think that in the context of meaningful relationships between the motive and the task, the immediate object of activity can take the place of its main goal. And vice versa, in the presence of external, meaningless connections between the motive and the task, the object of activity will act either as a means to achieve the goal or in the role any intermediate goal in relation to the main one.

Thus, the positive or negative value of motives in involuntary memorization in each individual case will be determined by how they contribute to such a restructuring of activity in which its object can take the place of the main goal of this activity. Hence, the positive role of motives is determined by the extent to which they contribute to the creation

such conditions for the formation of neural connections under which the subject of activity finds the greatest

reinforcement.

The main results of the first part of our work can be briefly formulated as follows.

AT The experiments described in the third chapter showed the general dependence of involuntary memorization on the activity of the subject. It is not a passive impression of objects that act on the senses. The most general and necessary condition for involuntary memorization any objects is the interaction of the subject with them.

AT The next three chapters outlined research aimed at studying the dependence of involuntary memorization on various aspects of the subject content of the activity, its goals, methods

and motives.

Experiments have shown that involuntary memorization is most productive when certain material is included in the content of the main goal of the activity.

This pattern, as revealed in further studies, turned out to be the main one. Other patterns are also associated with it, characterizing the dependence of involuntary memorization on the methods and motives of activity.

The most productive were such methods that provide an active and meaningful orientation in the material. In these cases, the methods themselves, by the nature of the flow, approach targeted ones.

actions and thereby help a certain material to take the place of their goal.

The influence of motives on involuntary memorization turned out to be the more effective, the more meaningful they are related to the task performed by a person. In these cases, the most effective reinforcement of the material included in the content of the purpose of the activity is provided.

Further analysis of the features of involuntary memorization will be carried out in comparison with voluntary memorization.

The presentation of the results of a comparative study of these two types of memorization will form the content of the third part of the work.