Patterns of memory (conditions for successful memorization and reproduction) are associated with the forms of memory.

Involuntary memorization

The conditions for successful involuntary memorization are:

• strong and significant physical stimuli (the sound of a shot, bright spotlight);
• what causes increased orienting activity(cessation or resumption of an action, process, unusual phenomenon, its contrast with the background, etc.);
• stimuli that are most significant for a given individual (for example, professionally significant items);
• stimuli that have a special emotional coloring;
• what is most connected with the needs of this person;
• that which is the object of activity.

Thus, the conditions of a problem that we solve for a long time are remembered involuntarily and firmly.

Arbitrary memorization

But in human activity more often there is a need to specifically remember something and reproduce it under appropriate conditions. This is an arbitrary memorization, in which the task of remembering is always set, that is, a special mnemonic activity is carried out.

In the process of human development, voluntary memorization is formed relatively late (mainly by the period schooling). This type of memorization is intensively developed in the teachings and.

Conditions for successful voluntary memorization are:

• awareness of the significance and meaning of the memorized material;
• identification of its structure, logical relationship of parts and elements, semantic and spatial grouping of material;
• identification of a plan in a verbal-textual material, key words in the content of each of its parts, presentation of the material in the form of a diagram, table, diagram, drawing, visual visual image;
• content and accessibility of the memorized material, its correlation with the experience and orientation of the subject of memorization;
• emotional and aesthetic saturation of the material;
• possibility of using this material in professional activity subject;
• installation on the need to reproduce this material in certain conditions;
• material, which acts as a means of achieving significant goals, plays an essential role in solving life problems, acts as an object of active mental activity.

When memorizing material, it is essential to rationally distribute it in time, and actively reproduce the material being memorized.

mnemonics

If it is impossible to establish semantic connections in a heterogeneous material, artificial methods of facilitating memorization - mnemonics(the art of memorization): the creation of auxiliary artificial associations, the mental placement of the memorized material in a well-known space, a familiar pattern, an easy-to-remember rhythmic tempo. So, from school years everyone knows the mnemonic method of memorizing the sequence of colors of the light spectrum: "Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits."

Arbitrary memory is purposefully organized. Studies show that a person easily retains and reproduces only three or four isolated objects (with their simultaneous perception). The limited volume of simultaneous retention and reproduction of material is due to retroactive and proactive inhibition (inhibition arising, respectively, from subsequent and previous influences).

edge factor

If the subject is given a series of 10 syllables, then the first and last syllables are easier to remember, and the middle ones are worse. What explains this fact? The first elements are not inhibited by previous impressions, and the last members of the series are not inhibited by subsequent elements. The middle members of the series, on the other hand, experience inhibition both from the side of the preceding (proactive inhibition) and from the side of subsequent elements (retroactive, reverse-acting inhibition). The specified pattern of memory (better memorization of extreme elements) is called edge factor.

If the memorized row consists of four elements, then the first, second and fourth are remembered first of all, worse - the third. Therefore, in quatrains, attention should be paid to the third line - “ Achilles heel» designs. It is characteristic that it is in the third lines of quatrains that poets often allow violations of the size in order to arouse increased attention to it. Here is how, for example, the first quatrain of N. M. Yazykov's poem "Muse" sounds:

The goddess of the strings survived

Gods and thunder and damask steel.

She did not give beautiful hands into chains

Ages of tyranny and depravity.

It is difficult to remember a list of 18 different items. But listing the purchases of the hero of "Dead Souls" Nozdrev is not too difficult to remember. In this we are assisted by the author himself, who carries out the necessary contrast organization of the list. “If he [Nozdryov] was lucky enough to attack a simpleton at the fair and beat him, he would buy a bunch of everything that had previously caught his eye in the shops: collars, smoking tar, chintz, candles, kerchiefs for the nanny, a stallion, raisins, a silver washstand, Dutch canvas, grain flour, tobacco, pistols, herrings, paintings, grinding tools, pots, boots, faience utensils - as far as there was enough money.

When moving from memorizing one complex material to memorizing another, it is necessary to take breaks (for at least 15 minutes), which prevent retroactive inhibition.

The assumption that traces do not disappear at all, but are only inhibited under the influence of other influences, is confirmed by the phenomenon of reminiscence (Latin reminiscentia - recollection). Often, when playing material immediately after it has been perceived, the number of elements retained in memory is less than the amount that a person can reproduce after a pause. This is due to the fact that during the rest period, the effect of inhibition is removed.

To expand the amount of arbitrary memory, it is necessary to give the memorized material a certain structure, to group his. It is unlikely, for example, that anyone can quickly remember a series of 16 isolated numbers: 1001110101110011. If you group this series in the form of two-digit numbers: 10 01 11 01 01 11 00 11, then they are easier to remember. In the form of four-digit numbers, this series is even easier to remember, since it no longer consists of 16 elements, but of four enlarged groups: 1001 1101 0111 0011. Combining elements into groups reduces the number of those elements that experience proactive and retroactive inhibition, allows you to compare these elements, i.e., include intellectual activity in the memorization process.

Rice. 1. Techniques for organizing an arbitrary mnemonic action

The productivity of semantic memory is 25 times higher than mechanical memory. Establishing connections, structure, principle, patterns of building an object is the main condition for its successful memorization. It is difficult to mechanically remember the numbers 248163264128256, but it is very easy to remember the same numbers if you establish a certain pattern in a number of numbers (doubling each subsequent number). The number 123-456-789 is easy to remember by finding the principle of its construction (Fig. 1).

Arbitrary memorization of figurative material is also facilitated by the identification of the principle of its organization (Fig. 2).

In experimental studies, it is found that the subjects "remember" more information than what they were presented with for memorization. If, for example, the sentence “Ivanov chopped sugar” is given for memorization, then when it is reproduced, the subjects often reconstruct this material as follows: “Ivanov chopped sugar with tongs.” This phenomenon is explained by the involuntary connection to the memorization of the judgments and conclusions of the individual.

So, memory is not a store of static information. It is organized by systematizing processes of perception and thinking.

Rice. 2. Remember and reproduce in the same sequence this series of figures (the task can be completed only when the principle of the arrangement of the figures is established)

At playback material as a support should be used those objects that structurally organized the field of perception, regulated the activity of the subject of memorization.

Memories are a special kind of reproduction. Memory- the assignment by the individual of figurative representations to a certain place and moment of his life. The localization of memories is facilitated by reproducing integral behavioral events, their sequence.

Reproduction associated with overcoming difficulties is called recollection. Overcoming the difficulties of recall is facilitated by the establishment of various associations.

Reproducible images of objects or phenomena are called representations. They are divided into types corresponding to the types of perceptions (visual, auditory, etc.).

The peculiarity of representations is their generality and fragmentation. Representations do not convey with the same brightness all the features and signs of objects. If certain representations are connected with our activity, then those aspects of the object that are most essential for this activity come to the fore.

Representations are generalized images of reality. They are stored permanent signs things and random ones are discarded. Views - more high step knowledge than sensation and perception. They are a transitional stage from sensations to thought. But representations are always paler, less complete than perceptions. When presenting an image of a well-known object, for example, the facade of your house, you can find that this image is fragmentary and somewhat reconstructed.

The past is restored with the participation of thinking - in a generalized and indirect way. Consciousness of reproduction inevitably leads to a categorical, conceptual coverage of the past. And only specially organized control activity - comparison, critical evaluation - brings the reconstructed picture closer to the real events.

The material of reproduction is a product not only of memory, but of the entire mental originality of a given individual.

The material is remembered in the context of human activity. First of all, what was most relevant, significant in human activity, how this activity began and ended, what obstacles arose on the way to its implementation are stored in memory. At the same time, some people better remember the facilitators, while others - the hindering factors of activity.

In interpersonal interactions, things that affect the most significant personality traits individual.

There are also personal tendencies to reconstruct the material stored in the memory. A person remembers events in the form in which he comprehends them in the process of perception. Already an elementary act of synthesis of perception and memory - recognition is distinguished by a number of individual features. Poor memory for faces can be combined with good memory for other objects.

The accuracy and completeness of reproduction depend on the suggestibility and conformity of the individual, his tendency to fantasize. Significant deformations of cognitive processes occur in emotionally stressed states.

So, memory is not a warehouse of finished goods. Her material is subject to personal reconstruction. The personal reconstruction of the reproduced material can manifest itself in the distortion of the semantic content of the source material, the illusory detailing of the reproduced event, the unification of disparate elements, the separation of related elements, the replacement of content with other similar content, the spatial and temporal mixing of events or their fragments, exaggeration, emphasizing personally significant aspects of the event, confusion functionally identical objects.

In the memory of a person, not only the actual side of events is preserved, but also their corresponding interpretation. Meaningful memorization is characterized by the inclusion of the material in the semantic (categorial-conceptual) field of the individual. Reproduction, restoration of past influences is not a "slump" of these influences. The degree of divergence of representations and real events at different people is not the same. It depends on the type of higher nervous activity of the individual, the structure of individual consciousness, value attitudes, motives and goals of activity.

It also functions intensively beyond the threshold of consciousness. At present, it is modeled with the help of electronic computers. However, these machines provide only information storage, while human memory is a constantly self-organizing process, a mental mechanism integrating the results of all mental processes, a mechanism for storing directly perceived and logically processed information.

Some people may have full, vivid representations after a single and involuntary perception of an object. Such representations are called eidetic(from Greek eidos - image). Sometimes there is an involuntary, obsessive, cyclical emergence of images - perseveration(lat. perseveratio - perseverance).

Memory is based on those mental processes that occur during the initial meeting with the memorized material. Accordingly, during reproduction, the main role is played by the actualization of the material in terms of the functional connections of its elements, their semantic context, and the structural relationship of its parts. And for this, the material in the process of imprinting must be clearly analyzed (divided into structural and semantic units) and synthesized (conceptually combined). The reserves of human memory are inexhaustible.

According to the calculations of the famous cyberneticist J. Neumann, the human brain can accommodate the entire amount of information stored in the largest libraries in the world. Alexander the Great knew by sight and by name all the soldiers of his army of many thousands. A. A. Alekhin could play from memory (blindly) with 40 partners at the same time.

Someone E. Gaon knew by heart all 2.5 thousand books he had read in his life, and could reproduce any passage from them. Numerous cases of outstanding figurative memory of people of artistic type are known. W. A. ​​Mozart could record a great piece of music after listening to it only once. Composers L. K. Glazunov and S. V. Rakhmaninov had the same musical memory. The artist N. N. Ge could accurately depict from memory what he had seen only once.

A person involuntarily remembers everything that attracts his attention: the captivating colors of spring evenings, the graceful outlines of ancient cathedrals, the joyful faces of people close to him, the smells of the sea and pine forest. All these numerous images constitute the figurative-intellectual fund of his psyche.

Everyone has the ability to significantly expand the amount of memory. At the same time, it is necessary to discipline the intellect - to single out the essential against the background of the secondary, actively reproduce the necessary material, widely use mnemonic techniques. The habit of remembering the right things is fixed, like any other skill. School folklore about " Pythagorean pants"and about" every hunter who wants to know where the pheasant sits" testifies to the indestructible desire of our mind to find a scheme, an association, even where it is impossible to establish logical connections.

Each person has features of his memory: some people have a strong verbal-logical memory, others have a figurative one; some remember quickly, others need more careful processing of the memorized material. But in all cases it is necessary to avoid that which causes proactive and retroactive inhibition. And at the first difficulties of reproduction, the phenomenon of reminiscence should be used.

a special action, a specific task and the intention of which - to remember accurately, for the maximum period, with the aim of subsequent reproduction or simply recognition - determines the choice of methods and means of memorization, and therefore affects its results. Special means may be used to better retain the material in memory. Such memorization usually has a complex mediated structure. Common ways to memorize an arbitrary include:

1) drawing up a preliminary plan;

2) highlighting semantic strongholds;

3) semantic and spatial grouping of material;

4) presentation of the material in the form of a visual image;

5) correlation of the material with existing knowledge. Ceteris paribus, voluntary memorization is more productive than involuntary, provides greater systematicity, consciousness of assimilation of new knowledge and controllability of this process (-> learning). Depending on the mnemonic goals and mnemonic techniques used, the efficiency of arbitrary memorization varies. When formulating mnemonic tasks, when it is determined how completely, accurately and for a long time it is necessary to remember, there is an orientation towards the selection of various features of the source material and certain methods and strategies of memorization are updated. An important role is played by the repetition of memorized material. As practice shows, the following methods are quite effective:

1) semantic grouping and highlighting key elements of the structure of memorized information;

2) linking new material with previously learned.

RANDOM MEMORY

memorization, in which there is a deliberate use of special means for better retention of material in memory. Depending on the mnemonic goals and used mnemonic techniques, the efficiency of arbitrary memorization is different. When formulating certain mnemonic tasks, when it is determined how completely, accurately and for a long time it is necessary to remember, there is an orientation towards the selection of various features of the source material and certain methods and strategies of memorization are updated. As practice shows, the following techniques are quite effective: semantic grouping and highlighting key elements of the structure of memorized information; linking new material with previously learned.

Arbitrary memorization

Specificity. To better preserve the material in memory, special means are deliberately used. Depending on the mnemonic goals and the mnemonic techniques used, the efficiency of arbitrary memorization is different. When formulating certain mnemonic tasks, when it is determined how completely, accurately and for a long time it is necessary to remember, there is an orientation towards the selection of various features of the source material and certain methods and strategies of memorization are updated. As practice shows, the following techniques are quite effective: semantic grouping and highlighting key elements of the structure of memorized information; linking new material with previously learned.

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 new 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 five simple arithmetic problems to solve. In both cases, unexpectedly for the subjects, they were asked to recall the conditions and number of tasks. Schoolchildren of the 1st grade memorized numbers almost three times more than students. This is explained by the fact that the ability of first-graders to add and subtract has not yet become a skill. It is a meaningful goal-directed action for students of Grade I.

Numerical manipulation constituted the content goals this action, while for students it was part of the content way, not the purpose 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 material that takes the place of the main goal in activity is remembered the better, the more meaningful connections are established in it.

In a study that looked at the involuntary memory of text that students needed to understand, they found that very easy text was remembered worse than text of average difficulty. A difficult text was remembered better with such a more active way of working with it as drawing up a plan than with using a ready-made plan of the same text.

Consequently, the material that causes active mental work on it is involuntarily 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 makes us interest and emotion. 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”. Special study conditions for high productivity of involuntary memorization of knowledge in learning showed that one of these most important conditions is the creation of internal, proper cognitive motivation learning activities. This is achieved through special organization systems of learning tasks, at which each result obtained becomes necessary means for each subsequent one.

Arbitrary memorization - it is a product of special mnemonic actions, i.e., 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. At the same time, it turned out that the second story was remembered much better than the first. It is known how quickly material is forgotten that is remembered 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 academic work 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 raised a sense of duty and responsibility often forget much of what needs to be remembered.

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.

Unlike plan for understanding material in terms of memory more and more fractional units are singled out, and the titles only indicate, remind of what should be reproduced, and therefore in their form they are often incomplete, fragmentary.

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 material.

When the logical work on the 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 reproduction, 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 weak spots we 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 memorized in three ways: either in parts— partial way, or all at once - holistic way, or all and in parts - combined method. The most rational combined method, and the least rational - 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 method of memorization is most suited to the characteristics 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-Ushinsky, 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. That's why best view 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, that is, involuntarily. Previously acquired knowledge, being included in the context of new knowledge, is not only updated, but also qualitatively changed, rethought.

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.

On the involuntary memorization affect:

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.

Present here voluntary attention, there is a selection, sorting of information essential and meaningful.

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. AT 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

Not only involuntary, but also random memorization has its reserves. Studies show that for successful memorization it is necessary that in the mind of the student there is a kind of internal setting for compulsory memorization. At the time of working with the material, he must give himself the order: "Comprehend and remember!".

The process of such arbitrary memorization consists of two interrelated stages.

The first stage of arbitrary memorization

At the first stage, the student performs the first part of the self-order, that is, comprehends the material. To do this, he slowly reads the given text, trying to understand its general idea.

Three points play a decisive role here, which must be taught to students. Usually they reach this when they become adults, and not everyone uses it. It's a pity, the "train" of the school has already left.

1. The continuous presence in the mind of the student of an arbitrary setting for the maximum activation of the imagination so that the described objects, phenomena, events are reflected in his images as brightly as possible. Imagination helps the student to memorize not mechanically, but by understanding the semantic connections between words. "In order to remember better, I read and at the same time imagine what I read" - unfortunately, In a similar way very few do.
2. Continuous comparison of the perceived information with the knowledge that the student already has in this area, with his life experience. On this basis, individual elements, parts of the material are classified according to the degree of novelty for the student. Here it is necessary to proceed as follows. While reading, the student notes to himself along the way: "I already know this"; "This fact is partly already familiar, I met him there and there..."; "And this is completely unfamiliar material, it will need to be read on purpose, more thoughtfully." You can read with a pencil in your hands, making appropriate notes. Thus, the material is perceived as partially familiar, which greatly facilitates arbitrary memorization.
3. Continuous comparison of the content of individual sentences and thus highlighting the main and secondary (auxiliary) in the text; definition of the main idea of ​​the memorized material.

Only one implementation in this way of setting the mind to comprehend the text gives such a significant effect in terms of memorization that some students (especially high school students) stop working on mastering the given material at this point. You can understand them: after all, the execution of the second part of the self-order (that is, the actual memorization of the material) is associated with multiple monotonous repetitions, which, of course, cannot cause much interest. One of the tenth-graders wrote in the questionnaire about this: “I read and try to understand. If I don’t understand, I re-read it a second time, a third, until I understand.

The second stage of arbitrary memorization

And yet, if it is necessary to achieve deep and lasting memorization, it is necessary to carry out the second - "mnemonic" stage, in which a vital role belongs volitional qualities student.

At the "mnemonic" stage of arbitrary memorization, the material is actually worked out on separate sentences. After reading the next sentence, the student reproduces it at the level of inner speech ("to himself"), while performing self-control over the text.

Self-confidence and voluntary memorization

An important condition for successful voluntary memorization is the student's confidence that he will cope with the task. Psychologists have proven this in such an experiment.

Adolescents and high school students were given a text for arbitrary memorization. Then, regardless of the results, they were randomly divided into two groups.

1. One group was told that those who were gathered here had a very good memory, allowing them to solve the most difficult memory problems.
2. Students of the second group - on the contrary: that each of them has a memory of one or another weak link.

Then, the same control test was performed in both groups. In the second group, where the students' confidence in the ability to successfully cope with memory tasks was undermined to a certain extent, the results were 10% lower than in the first.

Hence the important conclusion for teachers and parents

All students, and especially those who have a weak memory, must be convinced in every possible way of the reality of achieving good results, subject to a diligent attitude towards completing memory tasks.

"Repetition is the mother of learning"

Considerable attention should be paid to the organization of repetitions. It must be remembered that the term "repetition" can mean:

1. repetition immediately after reading at the level of inner speech "to oneself",
2. reproduction of what is perceived in terms of loud speech (active repetition),
3. association (alternation of the first and second types).

According to research, the best results are obtained by such a ratio, when approximately 40% of the time spent on the overall assimilation of this material is devoted to active repetition.

It is important that the transition from repeated perceptions to active repetition is not premature, otherwise the student will be forced to constantly look into the text. Of course, in principle, this can and should be done, but only to make sure that the process being carried out is accurate (and therefore prepared). The signal for such a transition should be the appearance of a "sense of knowledge" in the student. The very first attempt at reproduction will show how accurate this feeling is. Most often, it fails those children whose mental activity is characterized by increased impulsivity (choleric and melancholic temperaments).

In order to instill in students self-confidence and improve the "sense of knowledge", they should be encouraged to use a variety of technical means more widely - from such elementary ones as cards for memorizing words foreign language(one side - foreign word, on the other hand, the equivalent on mother tongue), and up to more complex, say, audio recordings. “When memorizing poetry and prose passages,” one of the seventh-graders reports, “I record my recitations on audio and immediately scroll through the recorded one.” And again, reports about the use of this technique are extremely rare in the questionnaires.