Memory in Psychology

The main characteristic of memory in psychology is its reflection as a function of the brain, capable of absorbing, retaining and subsequently using information derived from all five basic senses of man: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. This is a kind of matrix, where a complete database of all available life experiences of the individual, linking its past and present, without which humanity could hardly survive and evolve as a biological species, is laid. Psychology, as a science, unlike medicine, works mainly with an intravital kind of memory, although its genetic variety is also taken into account, especially when determining the hereditary component in the organization of a person's mental states and assessing the degree of their deviations from the norm.

Forget or remember?

If we talk about the mechanisms of memory, then in psychology, they are divided into their main functions: the need to remember the information that has been received, save it, reproduce it if necessary, and forget it in case of its insignificance. By the way, forgetting does not mean completely erasing unnecessary files. They are simply laid in deeper "archives" and extracted from there by the impulse request of that part of our consciousness that is responsible for the current life experience and filtering it in terms of importance.

The key to success in any kind of human activity is the development of memory , and psychology offers a lot of techniques that can help to remember the most important information in the smallest details and keep for a long time. Naturally, the foundation of attention and memory development in human psychology is laid down in childhood and begins to build a solid foundation for the "library of accumulated knowledge of the external world" better in the first decade of the child's life, since children's memory is more flexible and tenacious, although at a later age , if you want and use of various techniques of memorization, it is possible to learn quickly enough to extract from the "storeroom of the thought process" all the information necessary at the moment.

Once a step, two steps ...

The structure of memory in human psychology is usually a three-level ladder, the steps of which are arranged according to the hierarchy of their temporal component.

1. Sensory memory . The shortest in duration is the sensory memory, the period of data retention which is, from strength, half a second. It processes the information coming from the senses, and if the "higher authorities" in the form of specific centers of the brain did not show due attention to it, then the sensory component of our memory safely removes unnecessary material from its "basket" and fills the cells with new information receipts.
2. Short-term memory . The next level in our ladder is short-term memory , which by the duration of its operation exceeds the sensory one, but nevertheless, it also has its limitations. For example, the volumes of the stored material are reduced to 5-7 information units. And 7 is the limit and if you need to learn more information, then the brain has to rearrange the symbols, in order to fit them into the 7 cells allocated to it by short-term memory.
3. Long-term memory . For a longer period of storage and subsequent replay of memories, there is a long-term memory, which also has its disadvantages, in particular, the time it takes to find the right information. However, the whole machine works quickly and smoothly, so the overwhelming majority of the requested data are "delivered to the table" on time and practically without distortion.

Thus, the presence of a clear memory architecture in human psychology and the use of all this ladder allows us to re-evaluate our life experience, both physiologically and emotionally, its aspects.

We also remember the mistakes that were made by parting with loved ones and that the fire is hot and can leave a burn on the skin. All the processes taking place in complex, structured mechanisms of memory are incredibly important for maintenance of a full-fledged vital activity, both of the entire human body as a whole, and of creating comfortable psychological conditions for life. In particular, events that are colored with a positive emotional component, we remember much longer than any painful sensations, for example, birth pains in a woman. If such memories were delayed for a long time in our minds, humanity would simply die out like a species, not wanting to constantly suffer from painful images of the transferred pain arising in memory.

Nature has thought it all over for us and it remains for us to be infinitely grateful to her for all the wonderful moments of our life, which we also remember for those negative memories on which we have the opportunity to learn, drawing lessons.