In psychology, it is often said about human memory and even several of its types are distinguished. Visual, auditory and tactile, sensory, short-term, long-term and many other types of memory that have the most different classifications. Each of them has its own characteristics, characteristics, importance for humans, as well as ways of effective development. However, this article will focus only on one form, which is figurative memory. This is a very interesting species that may surprise many, as it is quite atypical. Each person has a figurative memory, and it plays a very important role. If you want to know what this role is, as well as what features this memory has, how it appears and how it can be developed, then this article is for you. Shaped memory is a very interesting topic to study, which will allow you to better understand how your brain works.
What it is?
First you need to figure out what this type of memory is. Figurative 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 are displayed in your head not with words using your inner voice, but with an image. That is why this type of memory is very interesting, because images cannot be measured like words, respectively, this type of memory is much more unusual than the standard memory that every person uses every day. Well, now you understand that figurative memory is a type of memory in which remembering occurs with the help of images, that is, some images that remain in your brain.
What does she give you?
Many people immediately begin to think about what imaginative memory gives, because it seems to them 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 remembering verbal information, which is considered by many people to be the only important one, and the right hemisphere is for remembering the images that these words describe. But why do we need these images in memory if everyone can describe only words in quite detail? Everything is not as simple as it may seem, and the brightest example is the many children of the current generation. The fact is that the present century is called the information age for a reason: people receive incredible amounts of information from a huge number of sources. 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 corresponding 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 attention defects and distraction, which are most often manifested in young children, are becoming more frequent. To avoid this, it is necessary to develop the right hemisphere, and for this there is far from one technique. Shaped memory is very important, and that is why this article will talk about how it can be developed.
How to develop figurative memory?
As mentioned earlier, there is far from one technique. Figurative memory develops quite easily and without much effort, because the process of remembering images is natural for humans. Images and textual information as a whole make up an excellent memory that every person should have, but if your brain is full of data without images attached to them, then you can easily get confused in these data, so all your memory will be virtually useless. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop figurative memory, and the sooner you understand this, the better. Figurative memory develops best in children, as it is in them that it is initially very well developed. It’s just that over time, people begin to rely more on textual rather than figurative information, and therefore gradually lose the power of this type of memory.
Figurative thinking, figurative memory is something that every person needs to develop, and this should be done by involving all sensory organs and, accordingly, information sources in obtaining information. So, the average person simply reads a text or listens to it, it settles in his head and, quite possibly, is forgotten very quickly, even if this is important information. Why? The thing is that he does not have an anchor that would allow him to gain a foothold. Memorizing purely textual information at school and university is called cramming - you simply memorize words in a specific order to reproduce them in the same order. But do you remember at least one of the things you crammed at school? Unlikely.
But if you use images that are obtained by attaching certain data to text information, such as images, sounds, smells, and so on, then you will be much easier to remember. Accordingly, all you need to do is constantly use all the senses and try to control the process of memorization so that you remember not only the text, but also the images associated with it.
Features of figurative memory
Shaped memory has some features that you should be aware of. The fact is that in most cases it is temporary and the images are stored for about a day. Naturally, if you need specific information, you can save it in your own brain for a long time, however, so that your brain does not overflow with images, it itself cleans itself of what requests are not sent 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 type of memory is a visual figurative memory. But in fairness it is worth noting that the images are sound, and tactile, and olfactory, although they are much less common.
If we return to the duration of storage of information in figurative memory, one more characteristic is revealed here: the more the image is stored in your brain, the paler it becomes and, accordingly, the more difficult it is for you to recall it in detail.
Fading images
What it is, it is impossible to demonstrate clearly. Figurative memory is an abstract concept, and all processes occur in your brain, but it is quite possible to describe what it is. So, imagine that you travel by public transport in the afternoon. Upon returning home, you recall 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 that she wore, and so on. But if you don’t think about it even for a day, then the next day you will hardly remember the details that seemed obvious to you yesterday. What can we say about what will happen in a week or a month. Shaped memory is different in that the images that are stored in the brain become pale and fuzzy over time. They are unstable and can be fragmented. For example, in a month you will forget what was put on the girl in principle, but the earrings that she wore then were printed in your brain. And of course, it is worth noting that each image can deceptively change over time and after a month you may think that the girl was in a green coat, although in fact she was in blue. This is because it is easier for the human mind to create something new in return for the lost element of the image than to spend energy on remembering this element.
When does imaginative perception appear?
The development of figurative memory is something that everyone should think about. And as mentioned earlier, this is done as soon as possible. However, when exactly does a person have a figurative perception and, accordingly, a figurative memory? You may be surprised, but the figurative memory of a person appears only in one and a half to two years, that is, quite 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 recorded. It was then that in his brain, with enormous speed, concepts began to accumulate, which were accompanied by images, as a result of which memory forms. Then the child gets the opportunity to independently build logical chains, linking the concept with the image.
Why is it necessary to develop figurative memory from early childhood? Many parents believe that this is an unnecessary process and the child needs to concentrate on specific concepts, and not on abstract images. However, this is a big mistake, because figurative memory is often called the foundation of all memorization processes. Without it, the process of memorization would not be complete, and if it is poorly developed, then the person’s memory will be very poor. Accordingly, the development of imaginative thinking is one of the important steps towards becoming a full-fledged personality that can function in the modern world.
Types of figurative memory
Psychologists often distinguish certain types of this memory, which you should also familiarize yourself with. Naturally, as you most likely guessed, visual memory is the most famous, because it is visual images that occupy the largest amount of memory, they are the most detailed, and it is on them that you most often rely when trying to remember something. But there are also other types that are no less important, although they are used a little less often. Types of figurative memory include auditory, tactile, taste and olfactory, that is, those that correspond to a particular sense organ. Accordingly, all the sound images that you have in your head, that is, the song that you heard on the subway, or the slogan that reached your ears from the loudspeaker, refers to the auditory figurative memory. The same applies to other types of memory, which were mentioned above.
Photographic memory
As you have already learned, imaginative memory refers to any memory associated with the sensory organs, since all such information comes not in the form of specific data, but in the form of abstract images. But at the same time, I would like to separately highlight the photographic memory, which most likely everyone has heard about.
Photographic memory is a subspecies of visual figurative memory, but differs in its incredible and unusual for most people detail and a complete lack of pallor and the presence of clarity. What does it mean? Imagine how figurative memory works, as described above. You look at an object, and your brain takes a “snapshot” of that object, recording it in the brain. But this picture is initially fuzzy, and you are unlikely to be able to consider all the details on it to reproduce them. If you have photographic memory, then your brain can take perfect pictures that you can store for a long time with absolutely no loss in quality. Naturally, each person would like to have a photographic memory, however, given the fact that many parents do not seek to develop figurative memory in children, and also do not develop their own memory, this concept is now perceived more as a phenomenon than as something, to what you can strive for and what you can achieve. But in reality this is not so, and you can independently change the order of things that have developed.
Training
You can independently influence how developed your figurative memory is, even if your parents did not pay much attention to this in childhood. To do this, you need to conduct daily workouts that will allow you to better remember images. How to do it? You need to memorize various images, and then play them. Exercises can be very diverse. For example, this may be a series of pictures that you need to look at and remember exactly the images, and not try to come up with verbal associations. Then you need to reproduce the order of these images. You can also memorize the picture, and then try to reproduce as many details as possible. There are a wide variety of games that include memorizing images, so this can also help you, and photographic memory may soon seem to you to be no longer an unattainable phenomenon.
Interesting feature
Now that you know everything about figurative memory, you can start training. And finally, one interesting fact has been prepared for you. Like sensory organs, they exacerbate their action when one of them loses functionality (blind people hear and smell better), imaginative memory compensates for the lack of information, replacing it with other images.