For many years, debates have continued in psychology about the importance of mechanical memory in human life. Some consider it to be too primitive a form, working within the framework of the first signaling system (which is also present in some animals). Others are inclined to consider it the basis without which it would be difficult to master certain types of material that is not subject to logic and comprehension. One way or another, without it, it really can be difficult at certain moments, and therefore its development should be given no less attention than all other types of memory.
Mechanical memory in psychology
The ability to remember and tell information, the meaning of which a person does not understand, is called mechanical memory. Students nicknamed this method “cramming,” since the material is imprinted into the head through repeated repetition, while the meaning of what has been memorized fades into the background. This type of memory is based on association by contiguity, that is, the sequence of information and the order of elements relative to each other are remembered. If suddenly one of them falls out, it will be very difficult to complete the chain.
A person with developed mechanical memory can have an average intellectual level. Words are remembered exactly in the form in which a person sees or hears them. If an error has crept into the text being memorized, it will remain during playback.
Features of mechanical memory
Human short-term memory - what it is, its volume and problems
In preschoolers and children in elementary school, mechanical memory may predominate, but when moving to high school, the child must master meaningful memorization.
Mechanical memory:
- Has limited volume. A high school student needs to absorb a huge amount of information on different subjects. Memorizing mechanically will lead to having to spend a lot of time on lessons and to chronic fatigue;
- Not plastic. As information is memorized and reproduced, it is quite difficult to correct errors;
- Short-term. Once the material is told, it is quickly forgotten. Whereas verbal logical memory often retains what is learned for life;
- With its help, not only words are remembered, but also movements, sounds, and smells. Animals also have such memory;
- It can be congenital (children with good mechanical memory are able to recite long poems by heart at 2 years old) or acquired;
- Requires volitional efforts and is reinforced through repeated repetitions.
Cramming
Logical memory
Phenomenal memory - what is it, methods for developing information memorization
It is impossible to talk about mechanical memory without mentioning another type and its opposite - logical memory. In this case, the information is analyzed, divided into important and unimportant, and the meaning is revealed, which is easily learned after preliminary work. This method of memorizing and reproducing information requires fewer repetitions. In the process of defining logical connections, drawings, lists and diagrams appear that were not in the original version.
Important! Information learned logically can be formulated in a new way each time. Only the meaning remains unchanged.
Key nutrition rules
When discussing the problem of how to lose weight at 45 years old, a woman first of all needs to reconsider her diet. It must be balanced. It's important to eat right. To do this, you should follow a number of tips:
- The morning should begin with a glass of clean warm water. Additionally, you can add a little lemon juice to it. Thus, the work of the gastrointestinal tract is stimulated and metabolic processes are launched.
- Every day you need to drink at least 2-2.5 liters of clean still water. It is advisable to do this in the first half of the day to avoid swelling after sleep. When calculating the amount of liquid consumed, soups, tea, coffee, etc. are not taken into account. We are talking exclusively about water.
- You should drink a glass of water 30 minutes before your meal. This will help reduce your appetite. Liquid takes up some of the free space in the stomach, causing a person to eat less.
- Meals should be fractional and portions small. It is recommended to eat food 4-5 times a day. The last dose should be no later than 3 hours before going to bed.
- It is advisable to eat at the same time every day.
- Regarding how much you should eat at a time, nutritionists say that the serving size should be 2 woman's fists folded together.
- To make the task of reducing portions easier, experts recommend putting food on a small plate. This way you can trick your brain.
- It is important to chew your food thoroughly. This way the body receives a significant amount of useful substances. At the same time, saturation occurs faster.
- The amount of fats and carbohydrates in the diet should be kept to a minimum. Carbohydrates can be consumed only in the first half of the day.
- The daily total amount of calories should not exceed 1200-1500. The second figure is designed for people whose bodies experience physical stress. How many calories a person receives, so much should he spend. The numbers should be as close as possible.
- The diet should contain as much iron and calcium as possible. To do this, you can take multivitamin complexes.
- To improve metabolism, your diet includes foods that help burn fat deposits.
- For snacks, you should use fresh vegetables, fruits, natural yogurt, and low-fat cottage cheese.
The body must receive sufficient quantities of vitamins, minerals, fiber and other substances necessary for normal functioning. If there is a shortage, the brain gives the command to “stock up.” As a result, the body reduces energy expenditure. At the same time, the amount of subcutaneous fat deposits increases.
Comparison of mechanical and logical memory
Eidetic memory - what does it mean in psychology, examples
Mechanical - relies on 1 signal system, is based on repetition, only the external form is remembered, the wording cannot be changed. If the material is not repeated, it is quickly forgotten.
Logical memory is characterized by working within the framework of a second signal system, relying on the first. Memorization occurs by building logical connections, its goal is to preserve and reproduce the meaning. For this purpose, information analysis and search for the main and secondary are used. It remains in memory for a long time, sometimes for life.
Sample menu for seven days
To look fit and attractive in the photo, after 40 it is recommended to follow a diet. The diet for 7 days could be like this:
Day | Diet |
Monday |
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Tuesday |
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Wednesday |
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Thursday |
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Friday |
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Saturday |
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Sunday |
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The menu is quite varied. As a result, the diet is easily tolerated.
Training and development
From two to five years of age, a child has a fertile period for improving mechanical memory. During this period of time, it is necessary to read good children's poems to him and teach them together.
Important! You can improve your mechanical memory by mastering foreign languages and memorizing poetic texts. You need to memorize formulas and scientific terms, historical dates and statistical data, product lists, telephone numbers and addresses, geographical names, numbers, first names and patronymics.
Scientists have proven that a person forgets the most information in the first 2 hours after cramming. If you study before bed, much less material will be erased from memory, since during the night's rest it moves from short-term to long-term memory and is then easier to reproduce.
Mechanical memory, according to experts, is the basis for successful learning.
Interest in studying
Exercises for children
- Cascade. An adult reads a list of words. If the child repeats easily, the list increases by one more.
- The parent slowly sounds out 10 words. Children draw them with their fingers on the table, then remember them.
- The child carefully examines the surroundings, then turns away and lists the objects.
- An adult draws a simple composition of figures or a pattern on a sheet of paper. Children watch for one minute, then reproduce it from memory in their notebooks.
- Several different objects or pictures are placed on the table surface. The child looks carefully, then turns away. An adult changes something in the position or completely confuses it. The children's task is to put everything in its place.
- The teacher reads the words, inviting the children to illustrate them using poses, sounds or gestures, then the children try to remember the list.
Repeat text
For an adult, working with text memorization will help increase the volume of mechanical memory. To begin with, you can choose a short passage and try to retell it. Over time, you need to repeat the entire passage, then take 2 texts, increasing the number of characters.
Remembering names
The volume of a person's short-term memory is strongly related to mechanical capabilities. The name of the person just introduced is forgotten because the communication process replaces old information in short-term memory with new information. To remember the name of a friend, you need to pronounce it loudly and clearly, think about how it is similar to its owner.
You can develop mechanical memory more effectively if you follow simple rules:
- Do not take too much information at once, learn in parts;
- Repeat the material at regular intervals;
- Use mnemonics;
- After an hour of work, rest for 15 minutes;
- Diversify the material.
Important factors for losing weight
When figuring out how a woman can lose weight at 40, it is important to understand that with dietary restrictions alone, it will be difficult to achieve results. The process can take a long time. An integrated approach is needed.
This requires:
- Take walks. Walking speeds up your metabolism. Long walks in the fresh air are a great way to provide tissues and cells with oxygen, which has a positive effect on the weight loss process.
- Exercise. The body needs at least minimal physical activity. To do this, you can visit the pool 2 times a week, do yoga, gymnastics, dancing, etc. Training should be regular. Exercises can be done at any convenient time.
- Quality sleep. To lose extra pounds and improve your health, you need to get enough sleep. During sleep, the body recovers. Normal sleep for an adult is 7-8 hours a day. It is important that it be continuous. You can also relax during the daytime. However, it is not taken into account in the 7-8 hours indicated above. Thanks to this, the woman will look younger.
- Examination. Weight gain is often caused by health problems. To exclude pathology, you should undergo a medical examination 2 times a year. Visit an endocrinologist, therapist and other specialists.
The body should receive positive emotions. Stress leads to weight gain and poor overall health.
Examples of the use of mechanical memory
Scientists talk about the enormous importance of verbal logical memory - this is the ability to accurately reproduce the meaning of what you read in your own words. It is so significant because, by choosing the main thing, it does not overload the brain with unimportant details, allows you to learn faster and ensures long-term storage. However, it is impossible to do without mechanical memory in a number of cases.
Rote memory helps you learn languages
- When learning foreign languages, you need to know how a new word is spelled and how it sounds. Mechanical memory helps to cope with this successfully until a relationship arises between auditory and visual perception.
- With its help, you can remember simple physical exercises.
- It allows you to master scientific terms and geographical names.
- Participates in memorizing poems. If poems are left with only meaning, they will lose rhyme and form. Mechanical memory allows you to remember the order of words.
- Helps memorize numbers (learn the multiplication table for a schoolchild) or material that an individual does not want or cannot understand with all his might, for example, a rule in the Russian language, vocabulary words or a complex formula.
The importance of mechanical memory for humans
Promotes language acquisition
When a child is born, mechanical memory helps him learn to understand his parents’ speech. From two months old, you can teach your baby by showing him objects and clearly indicating the name. After just a few weeks, some children are able to search for what is named with their eyes. Thanks to mechanical memory, a person uses his native language and masters new ones, learns to communicate. It plays a huge role in the learning and teaching process.
Important! When mechanical memory replaces verbal logical memory, it hinders the improvement of intelligence, but if they develop in parallel, this will only improve the effectiveness of learning.
Violations lead to a decrease in quality of life
This is a primitive form of memory, since it relies on 1 signaling system, and a base, without which it is difficult to master a certain type of information. There is such a thing as hypomnesia - a violation of mechanical memory, when a person cannot remember basic things. The life of an individual becomes difficult, although his logical memory works well.
Participates in skill development
Any human activity requires the development of new skills and abilities, in the formation of which mechanical memory plays an important role. Anyone who knits does it automatically, since this skill has been repeated a huge number of times; An agitated instrumentalist on stage is often saved by his fingers, which have learned the sequence of keystrokes during rehearsals. There were cases when a person who had completely lost his memory, seeing a computer, was able to do his work on it.
Memory disorders
Prevention of Alzheimer's disease
This disease is called the plague of the 21st century. A person gradually loses his memory, eventually stops recognizing loved ones and forgets how to take care of himself. Treatment for it is ineffective, but as a preventative measure, doctors advise developing verbal and mechanical memory. Verbal memory is understood in psychology as the ability to remember information received in verbal form (text or speech).
Mechanical memory is the basis for the development of thinking and intelligence, the foundation for the formation of skills. Without it, learning and a full-fledged life of an individual are unthinkable.
Interesting facts about memory
Thanks to memory, a person uses experience every day: his own and his ancestors. However, logical and mechanical memory are complex mechanisms that have their own nuances.
- A person begins to use memory already in the womb; it begins to work 20 weeks after conception. The embryo even reacts to the noise of the ultrasound test. Scientists are of the opinion that a person can remember everything that happened to him not only in childhood, but even in the womb.
- Memory is individual, as it is influenced by many factors. For example, some have better developed visual memory, others have better auditory memory. Information that is interesting to a person is remembered best. But the ability to remember can always be trained.
- Age does not always mean memory decline. You can often hear complaints about poor memory from older people. But this is not entirely true, the whole point is that by adulthood a person stops learning, the skill of straining his memory disappears, and it does not train at all. For example, actors who have spent their entire lives learning new roles can cope with voluminous texts in their old age without any problems. This once again proves that memory development depends only on training, and not on age.
- The habit of forgetting is also present in humans. After all, it is impossible to remember everything, and the ability to forget is a real salvation for the human brain. Memory itself regulates the load, freeing the head from unnecessary information or impressions. But this does not mean at all that old information is completely erased; the data simply moves from the active stage to the passive stage, from where, if desired, it can be retrieved.
Memory can always be improved by training, taking vitamins and eating right.