Visual memory - what is it and how does it work? Development of figurative memory

In psychology, it is often said of human memory and even several of its types are singled out. Visual, auditory and tactile, sensory, short-term, long-term and many other types of memory, which have a variety of classifications. Each of them has its own characteristics, characteristics, importance for a person, as well as ways of effective development. However, in this article we will only talk about one form, which is a figurative memory. This is a very interesting sight, which can surprise many, since it is quite untypical. Each person has a figurative memory, and it plays a very important role. If you want to know what kind of role it is, and also what memory this has features, how it appears and how it can be developed, then this article is for you. Image memory is a very interesting topic to learn, which will allow you to better understand how your brain works.

What it is?

First we need to understand what this type of memory is. Image memory is a type of memory, as a result of which a person remembers information not in text form, but in the form of images. Most often these are any pictures, images and other similar memories that you have in your head are displayed not by words with the help of your inner voice, but by an image. That's why this kind of memory is very interesting, because images can not be measured like words, accordingly this kind of memory is much more unusual than the standard memory that every person uses daily. Well, now you understand that figurative memory is a kind of memory in which remembering is done through images, that is, some images that remain in your brain.

What does it give you?

Many people immediately begin to think about what gives figurative memory, because they think that verbal information is much more important. However, this is far from the case, and now you will understand why. The fact is that the human brain has two hemispheres, each of which is responsible for its own type of perception. The left hemisphere is responsible for processing and memorizing verbal information, which many people consider to be the only important one, and the right one for remembering the images that these words describe. But why do we need these images in memory, if in detail all can describe only words? Everything is not as simple as it might seem, and the brightest example is many children of the current generation. The fact is that the present age is called informational for a reason: from a huge number of sources people get incredible amounts of information. Sites on the Internet, advertising in public transport, everywhere you get information that saturates the left hemisphere of your brain, but the right hemisphere does not receive the relevant data, that is images that it could process and use in conjunction with the data of the left hemisphere. The result is a serious imbalance, due to which the defects of attention and absent-mindedness, which are most often manifested in young children, become more frequent. To avoid this, it is necessary to develop the right hemisphere, and for this there is far more than one technique. Image memory is very important, and that's why this article will tell you how it can be developed.

How to develop imaginative memory?

As it was said before, there is far more than one method. Image memory develops quite easily and without much effort, because the process of remembering images is natural for a person. Images and text information make up a generally excellent memory that everyone should have, but if your brain is full of data without images attached to it, then you can easily get confused with this data, so all your memory is actually useless. Accordingly, to develop imaginative memory is necessary, and the earlier you understand it, the better. The best way to develop imaginative memory in children, because it is they who have developed very well from the very beginning. Simply over time, people start to rely more on text, rather than on figurative information, so gradually lose the power of this type of memory.

Visual thinking, figurative memory is something that every person needs to develop, and this should be done by using information from all sensory organs and, accordingly, information sources. So, the average person simply reads the text or listens to it, it settles in his head and, quite possibly, is forgotten very quickly, even if it is important information. Why? The thing is that he does not have an anchor that would allow him to gain a foothold. Remembering purely textual information in school and university is called cramming - you simply memorize words in a certain order to reproduce them in the same way. But do you remember anything that you crammed at school? Hardly.

But if you use images that are obtained by attaching certain data to text information, such as images, sounds, smells and so on, you can memorize much easier. Accordingly, all you have to do is constantly use all the senses and try to control the memorization process so that you not only memorize the text, but also the images associated with it.

Features of imaginative memory

Image memory has some features that you should know about. The fact is that in most cases it is temporary and the images persist for about a day. Naturally, if you need specific information, then you can keep it in your own brain for a long time, however, so that your brain does not become overflowed with images, it clears itself from what no requests are sent to for more than 24 hours. It also turns out that this memory acts on an unconscious level, that is, most of the images are recorded in your brain when it enters your field of vision. That is why many people believe that this kind of memory is visual imaginative memory. But it is fair to say that images are sound, and tactile, and olfactory, although they are much less common.

If we return to the storage time of the information of the image memory, then another characteristic is revealed: the more the image is stored in your brain, the paler it becomes and, correspondingly, the more difficult it is for you to recall it in detail.

Fading images

What it is, can not be demonstrated clearly. Image memory is an abstract concept, and all processes occur in your brain, but it is possible to describe what it is. So, imagine that you are going by public transport during the day. Returning home, you remember that you saw a woman in a blue coat, she was sitting next to you. At this point, you can recall other details, such as the color of her hair, the features of her face, the accessories she wore, and so on. But if you do not think about it at least a day, then the next day you will hardly remember the details that you yesterday seemed obvious. What can we say about what will happen in a week or a month. Image memory is different in that the images that are stored in the brain, eventually become pale, indistinct. They are unstable and can be fragmentary. For example, in a month you will forget what was worn on the girl in principle, but in your brain imprinted earrings, which she wore then. And of course, it is worth noting that each image can deceive change over time and in a month you may think that the girl was in a green coat, although in fact she was in blue. This is explained by the fact that it is easier for human consciousness to create something new in place of the lost element of the image than to spend energy on remembering this element.

When does figurative perception appear?

The development of figurative memory is something that every person should think about. And as it was said before, it's worth it as soon as possible. However, when exactly does a person have a figurative perception and, accordingly, a figurative memory? You may be surprised, but a person's figurative memory appears only in one and a half to two years, that is, rather late. It is then that the child's brain begins to perceive the phenomena of the surrounding world, not just as phenomena, but as information that can be written down. It is then that he begins to accumulate concepts in the brain with great speed, accompanied by images, as a result of which memory is formed. At the same time, the child has the opportunity to construct logical chains on his own, linking the concept with the image.

Why should one develop imaginative memory from early childhood? Many parents believe that this is an unnecessary process and the child needs to concentrate on specific concepts, rather than on abstract images. However, this is a big mistake, because imaginative memory is often called the foundation of all memorization processes. Without it, the process of memorization will not be complete, and if it is poorly developed, then the memory of a person will be very poor. Accordingly, the development of figurative thinking is one of the important steps towards the formation of a full-fledged personality that will be able to function in the modern world.

Types of imaginative memory

Psychologists often allocate certain types of memory, which you should also read. Naturally, as you probably guessed, the most famous is visual memory, because it is the visual images that occupy the largest amount of memory, they are the most detailed, and it is on them that you most often rely on when you try to remember something. But there are also other species that are no less important, although they are used a little less often. The types of imagery include auditory, tactile, tasteful and olfactory, that is, those that correspond to a particular sense organ. Accordingly, all the sound images that are in your head, that is, the song you heard on the subway, or the slogan that came to your ears from the loudspeaker, refers to the auditory image memory. The same applies to other types of memory, which were mentioned above.

Photographic memory

As you have already learned, any memory associated with the sense organs refers to the image memory, since all such information does not come in the form of concrete data, but in the form of abstract images. But at the same time I would like to single out the photographic memory, about which I heard, most likely, every person.

Photographic memory is a subspecies of visual memory, but differs in its incredible and unusual for most people detail and complete lack of pallor and the presence of clarity. What does it mean? Imagine how figurative memory works, it was described above. You look at the object and your brain takes a "snapshot" of this object, recording it in the brain. But this picture is initially fuzzy, and you can hardly look at it all the details in order to reproduce them. If you have photographic memory, your brain can take ideal pictures that you can store for a long time without loss of quality. Naturally, every person would like to have a photographic memory, but given that many parents do not seek to develop imaginative memory among children, and also do not develop their own memory, this concept is now perceived rather as a phenomenon than as something to What you can strive for and what you can achieve. But in reality it is not so, and you can change the order of existing things on your own.

Training

You can independently influence how developed your imaginative memory is, even if your parents did not pay much attention to it in childhood. To do this, you need to conduct daily workouts that will allow you to better remember the images. How to do it? You need to remember the various images, and then play them. Exercises can be very diverse. For example, it can be a series of pictures, for which you need to look and remember images, and not try to come up with verbal associations. Then you need to reproduce the order of these images. Also you can memorize the picture, and then try to reproduce as much detail as possible. There are a lot of different games including memory of images, so this can also help you, and photographic memory may soon seem to you not at all an unattainable phenomenon.

An interesting feature

Now that you know everything about imaginative memory, you can start training. And at last for you one interesting fact is prepared. Just as sensory organs exacerbate their effect when one of them lost functionality (blind people hear and smell much better), imaginative memory compensates for the lack of information, replacing it with other images.