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

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

In psychology, people often talk about human memory and even distinguish several types of it. Visual, auditory and tactile, sensory, short-term, long-term and many other types of memory that 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 focus on only one type, which is figurative memory. This is a very interesting species that may surprise many, as it is rather 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. Image memory is a very interesting topic to study and will allow you to better understand how your brain works.

What is this?

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 arepictures, 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 image memory is a type of memory in which recall 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 figurative 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 many people consider to be the only important one, and the right hemisphere is responsible for remembering the images that these words describe. But why do we need these images in memory, if only words can describe everything in full detail? Everything is not as simple as it might seem, and the clearest example is many children of the current generation. The fact is that the present age is called the information age for a reason: people receive incredible amounts of information from a huge number of sources. Websites on the Internet, advertising in the publictransport, everywhere you receive information that the left hemisphere of your brain is saturated with, 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 that increases the attention deficits and absent-mindedness that are most common in young children. To avoid this, it is necessary to develop the right hemisphere, and for this there is far from one technique. Figurative memory is very important, and that is why this article will talk about exactly how it can be developed.

How to develop figurative memory?

As mentioned earlier, there is far more than one technique. Figurative memory develops quite easily and without much effort, because the process of memorizing images is natural for a person. Images and textual information make up an overall great memory that everyone should have, but if your brain is overwhelmed with data without images attached to it, then you can easily get confused in this data, so all your memory capacity will be effectively useless. Accordingly, it is imperative to develop figurative memory, and the sooner you understand this, the better. Figurative memory develops best in children, since it is in them that it is initially developed very well. It's just that over time, people begin to rely more on textual rather than figurative information, so they gradually lose the power of this type of memory.

Figurative thinking, figurative memory - this is what every person needs to develop, and this should be done by involving all sense organs and, accordingly, sources of information in obtaining information. So, the average person just 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. Memorizing purely textual information at school and university is called cramming - you just memorize words in a certain order in order to reproduce them in the same order. But do you remember anything you learned in school? Hardly.

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

Features of figurative memory

Image 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, then you can store it in your own brain for a long time, however, so that your brain does not overflow with images, it clears itselfyourself from something to which no requests are sent for more than 24 hours. It also turns out that this memory operates at 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 visual figurative memory. But in fairness, it should be noted that images can be both sound, and tactile, and olfactory, although they are much less common.

If we return to the duration of storage of information in figurative memory, then another 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 remember it in detail.

Fade images

What it is, it is impossible to demonstrate visually. Figurative memory is an abstract concept, and all processes take place in your brain, but it is quite possible to describe what it is. So, imagine that you are riding 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 remember other details as well, such as the color of her hair, her facial features, the accessories she wore, and so on. But if you do not think about it for at least a day, then the next day you will hardly remember those details that seemed obvious to you yesterday. What can we say about what will happen in a week or a month. Figurative memory is different in that the images that are stored in the brain eventually becomepale, indistinct. They are unstable and may be fragmented. For example, in a month you will forget what the girl was wearing in principle, but the earrings that she wore then will be imprinted in your brain. And of course, it is worth noting that each image can deceptively change over time and after a month it may seem to you 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 the human mind to create something new to replace the lost element of the image than to waste 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 mentioned earlier, this should be done as soon as possible. However, when exactly does a person have figurative perception and, accordingly, figurative memory? You may be surprised, but the figurative memory of a person appears only at 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 concepts began to accumulate in his brain with great speed, which were accompanied by images, as a result of which memory was formed. 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 needsfocus on concrete concepts rather than abstract images. However, this is a big mistake, because figurative memory is often called the foundation of all memorization processes. Without it, the memorization process will not be complete, and if it is poorly developed, then a 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 point out 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. The types of figurative memory include auditory, tactile, gustatory 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 came to your ears from the loudspeaker, belong to auditory image memory. The same applies to other types of memory, which were mentioned above.

Photographic memory

As you have already learned, figurative memory refers to any memory associated with the senses, sinceall such information comes not 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, which, most likely, every person has heard of.

Photographic memory is a subspecies of visual figurative memory, but it is distinguished by its incredible and unusual for most people detail and the complete absence of pallor and the presence of clarity. What does it mean? Imagine how figurative memory works, it was described above. You look at an object and your brain takes a "picture" of that object, writing it down in your brain. But this shot is initially fuzzy, and you can hardly see all the details in it to reproduce them. If you have a photographic memory, then your brain can take perfect pictures that you can store for a long time with absolutely no loss in quality. Naturally, every person would like to have a photographic memory, but given the fact that many parents do not strive 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 what can be achieved and what can be achieved. But in reality, this is not the case, and you can change the order of things yourself.

Workouts

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 toyou better remember the images. How to do it? You need to memorize various images and then reproduce them. Exercises can be very diverse. For example, it may be a series of pictures that you need to look at and remember exactly the images, and not try to come up with word 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 involve image memory, so this can help you as well, and photographic memory may soon seem to you no longer an unattainable phenomenon.

An interesting feature

Now that you know everything about figurative memory, you can start training. And finally, one interesting fact has been prepared for you. Just as the sense organs sharpen their action when one of them loses its functionality (blind people hear and smell much better), figurative memory compensates for the lack of information by replacing it with other images.