Interesting facts about memory...
1. Scientists proved back in 2001 that left-handers have better developed memory.
2. A person’s attention can only concentrate for 20 minutes, no matter how interesting the topic is.
3. Adults remember best the period of life from 15 to 25 years.
4. Temporary memory can contain 7 memory units at a time, but it is stored for no more than 20 seconds.
5. Hypothalamus, the main part that is used in memory processes. In the process of aging, its functionality decreases, so in a person who is 80 years old, 20% of cells are lost
6. A disease in which a person is unable to recognize human faces, called prosopamnesia.
7. If we equate the human brain with a hard drive, then the volume would be 2.5 million gigabytes!
8. Profession affects memory. It has been proven that it is preserved better than others in artists, announcers, teachers (thanks to constant training - memorizing texts, reproducing these passages), scientists (since all parts of the brain work hard, the cells and areas responsible for memorization are constantly active) and, surprisingly , beekeepers (though only if they consume beekeeping products, which are rich in microelements that help improve memory). Thus, in order to preserve memory as long as possible, it is necessary to constantly train it and consolidate the results with proper nutrition.
9. Scientists have found that monotonous, meager food with a menu repeated day after day slows down memory function.
10. It is believed that memory develops in an ascending manner until the age of 25. The peak of brain function and the process of memorization occurs at 19-20 years of age. Then comes a stable period. After 50 years, memory function begins to fade.
11. Memory possibilities are endless. It is believed that an adult can remember from twenty to one hundred thousand words. There are people who have phenomenal memories. Alexander the Great remembered the names of all his soldiers. Mozart only needed to hear a piece of music once to perform it and write it down on paper. Sergei Rachmaninov also had the same musical memory. Conductor Arturo Toscanini remembered every note from 400 scores. Winston Churchill knew almost all of Shakespeare by heart. Bill Gates remembers hundreds of codes of the software language he created.
12. It is impossible to remember everything. The ability to forget is of great importance in human survival. The brain must be freed from unnecessary burden of impressions and information. Memory, as it were, regulates the load itself, preparing to receive new information. At the same time, old information does not disappear without a trace, but passes from active memory to passive memory, from where it can sometimes be retrieved. This remarkable property saves many people in tragic situations.
13. If you want to remember something. Firstly, for this need to concentrate and get an impression using not only vision, but also hearing and smell.
The visual impression is the most lasting. After all, the nerves leading from the eye to the brain are twenty times thicker than the nerves leading from the ear to the brain. Mark Twain could not remember the sequence of his speech when he used notes, but when he gave up notes and began to use drawings to remember, all his difficulties disappeared.
Second Law of Memory- repetition .
And finally third law- associations. The only way to reliably remember a fact is to associate it with some other fact.
Memory training
1. 5-10 minutes after waking up, count down from 100 to 1 as quickly as possible.
2. Repeat the alphabet, making up a word for each letter. If you forget a letter or can't think of a word, don't stop. Pace is important here.
3. Name twenty male names and the same number of female ones.
4. Choose any letter of the alphabet and name twenty words starting with it.
5. Close your eyes and count to twenty.
6. You can learn poetry. The main thing is to do this gradually and regularly, constantly increasing the volume of memorized text. In addition, you should like the poems - if the process of memorizing goes through force, then a good result is unlikely to be achieved.
7. Remember your day. In the evening, lying in bed before going to bed, you need to mentally scroll through all the events of the past day, like a film, and in reverse order - from evening to morning. In this case, you need to try to remember as many details as possible.
8. Make associations. For example, in childhood we all remembered the rainbow using the phrase “Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits,” where the first letters of each word are associated with the colors of the rainbow itself (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). In the same way, you can try to remember events by giving them associations. For example, while reading, imagine that you are walking down the street. Each word is some part of it. Thus, by placing the data along the route you usually take to buy bread, you will then easily remember it. Each time you need to come up with new routes for new information.
Main– so that memory training brings joy, and also so that you realize its necessity. Then next time you won’t have to painfully remember the name of the actor who played in the film you just watched yesterday.
When do your earliest memories begin? Surely there will be people who will say that they remember themselves in infancy. If you are one of them, do not be deceived, and do not believe others: an adult is able to remember himself from the age of three or four, not earlier. Scientifically, this is called “infantile amnesia”: the memory of the very first years of life is erased.
Why? Some scientists attribute this to the child's lack of language skills and emotional development. And a recent study from the University of Toronto made it possible for the first time to trace the mechanism of “suppression” of memory, says Science Alert.
It turns out that the earliest memories are destroyed by new brain cells that are forming. This process, known as neurogenesis, happens all the time, but in infancy it really happens rapidly, so that new neurons “push out” existing “memory cells.”
Human memory is still far from being studied, but the established facts can surprise. Here are some of them.
1. The hypothalamus is the part of the brain responsible for memory and cognition, located in both hemispheres of the brain. If one part of it is damaged or destroyed, the memory will work as before as long as the second part of the hypothalamus remains intact.
2. Amnesia, which characters in movies often suffer from, in most cases has nothing to do with reality. (By the way, as scientists say, the films “Memento” with Guy Pearce and the cartoon “Finding Nemo” are closest to the truth). In life, of course, such a thing does not happen that a person hits his head and forgets everything, and then remembers everything after the second blow to the head. And cases of complete amnesia are extremely rare. Memory loss caused by physical or mental trauma usually concerns the traumatic event itself.
3. A child’s memory begins to work in the mother’s womb – 20 weeks after conception.
4. The “memory capacity” of the human brain is practically limitless. And our forgetfulness does not mean loss of memory, but an inability to “get” information from storage.
5. It is believed that an adult can remember up to 100 thousand words.
6. There is such a thing as “false memory”. Our consciousness can create, exaggerate, distort or reshape memories after traumatic events and severe shocks.
7. When we sleep, long-term memory turns off and only short-term memory works. This is why we often dream about something related to recent events, and dreams are difficult to remember.
8. TV is a memory killer. You shouldn't watch it for more than 2 hours at a time. For a person between the ages of 40 and 60, each additional hour spent watching television each day increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease symptoms by 1.3%.
9. The brain “grows” until at least 25 years of age. What we do in early youth determines how the head will work in the future. It's simple: if at this age the head is not occupied with anything, later the main companions will be emptiness and memory lapses.
10. Why does time seem to fly faster as you get older? Because the novelty of impressions and emotions disappears. Remember your first date? The birth of your first child? First “dream vacation”? When something happens for the first time, we experience strong emotions that last longer, and the events remain in our memory for a long time. And when everything starts to repeat itself, it seems fleeting. Here's a simple example: the first two days of vacation seem long and leisurely, but the rest fly by in a flash. It's the same with relationships. At first it seems like an eternity passes from call to call, from meeting to meeting. And then before you know it, you are already celebrating 20 years of marriage.
So try to get as many new, unique experiences as possible and don’t let your brain “float with fat” - and then it won’t seem like life is quickly flying by.
Some people believe that human capabilities are limitless, while others are sure that everything has a limit. This also applies to memory. We still don’t fully know how everything actually happens, but science is already sure of something. We selected interesting facts about human memory from the bestseller “Memory Does Not Change.”
1. Clutter is bad for your memory.
Discipline is the key to success in everything, and memorization is no exception. Stay organized: Always put things you use frequently in the same place. - this is also internal order. To retrieve memories at the right time, memory needs organized storage. If you organize your life, you will organize your memory.
Being organized creates structure and reduces stress, which is known to be the main enemy of memory.
2. Memories “live” everywhere
The memory process involves different parts of the brain, but recent research notes that, for example, memories are not stored in any one or more of them, but are scattered throughout a system of neural connections.
For example, knowledge about what we eat, what food smells and looks like and what we do with it, how we buy it, is stored in a separate area of the brain: shape - in the visual cortex, tactile sensations- in the premotor and sensory areas, smell - in the frontal lobes, and so on. These zones are called recognition areas.
3. Memory is not a bookcase
Everything that is stored in our brain is not like an ordinary closet where books just sit. It’s more like a library: “librarians” constantly approach books (in our case, memories), take books from the shelves, read them, and give them to someone. Working memory plays the role of such “librarians”: in addition to storing information, it operates on the data stored in it.
For example, working memory not only allows you to remember a phone number, but also repeat it in reverse order.
4. Forgetting is not bad
It turns out that forgetting is just as important as remembering. It can be very difficult for a person to remember all the information received daily and then search for it in the storage of our brain. This is why there are special mechanisms in the brain (for example, protein phosphatase) that are designed specifically for forgetting.
5. Neurons need oxygen
Neurons are very sensitive to the decrease in oxygen levels in the body that occurs over the years, and their energy levels decrease. And the less energy, the lower the level of arousal necessary for, for example, reproducing memories. As a result, he suffers.
6. It's never too late
Don’t think that you are late and it’s too late to take care of yourself. . For example, forty years is a great time to start leading healthy image life. By doing useful mental and social activities, you can avoid many memory disorders later in life.
7. The brain heals itself
Despite the fact that old age is programmed into the genetic code of every person and that some neurons reduce their cellular activity or die, the brain is still the only organ in our body that is able to develop and recover. Neuroscientists call the phenomenon of brain self-healing neuroplasticity.
The changes that occur in our brain and body largely depend on how we took care of our bodies before aging.
To reach the end of life with an effectively functioning brain, you need to deal with stress, exercise physical exercise, get enough sleep, eat right and train your mind.
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Memory is one of the mental functions and types of mental activity designed to store, accumulate and reproduce information. Thanks to memory, we use Everyday life other people's experiences and your own. Is it possible to somehow improve it? What does it depend on?
Short-term and long-term memory
There are two types of memory - short-term, or operational, and long-term. During the exam, students manage to “push” a huge amount of information into their memory overnight, which disappears immediately after the exam. With the so-called senile forgetfulness, they remember in the smallest detail events that happened in early childhood or many years ago, but are unable to keep in their heads what happened half an hour ago.
Bill Gates remembers hundreds of codes of the programming language he created
The memory possibilities are limitless. It is believed that an adult can remember from twenty to one hundred thousand words. There are people who have phenomenal memory. Alexander the Great remembered the names of all his soldiers. Academician Abram Ioffe knew the entire table of logarithms by heart. It was enough for Mozart to hear a piece of music once to perform it and write it down on paper. After listening to Allegri's "Miserere" (in 9 parts), he was able to write down from memory the entire score of this work, which was kept secret by the Vatican. On the second listen, Mozart found only a few incorrect notes in his recording. Sergei Rachmaninov also had the same musical memory. Conductor Arturo Toscanini remembered every note from 400 scores. Winston Churchill knew almost all of Shakespeare by heart. Dominic O'Brien from the UK managed to remember the location of the shuffled cards of one deck in 38 seconds. Bill Gates remembers hundreds of codes of the programming language he created.
Memory is individual
Memory is influenced by many factors. Some people remember better what they saw, others better what they heard. In such cases they talk about visual or auditory memory. An object of interest is better remembered. The persistence of the memory of feelings is well known. In a state of emotional upsurge, things that seem to have been long forgotten are sometimes recalled from memory. Motivation is very important. A person who considers himself absolutely incapable of languages, finding himself in a tense situation in a foreign country, easily learns the language. In many ways, the ability to memorize also depends on training.
Absent-mindedness is not a sign of poor memory
Absent-mindedness is often confused with poor memory. But absent-minded people are actually simply immersed in their thoughts, their attention is concentrated, but on something else, and everyday information is not interesting to them. Often, inattention caused, for example, by overwork, that is, by some state in which a person is currently located, is mistaken for memory impairment. Smells prevent memory loss. This is explained by the proximity of the center of smell to the “memory” zone of the brain. The acute reaction of memory to smells is apparently programmed: the role of smells in the survival of ancient man was very great.
Memory does not always deteriorate with age
Complaints about poor memory become more frequent after 40 years of age and even more so in old age. In fact, this is not entirely true. Simply, at the end of active study, there is no need to memorize anything, the skill of straining the memory disappears, and it “detrains.” Actors who have to learn new roles all their lives, even in old age, cope with very long texts. Now in some countries, for example, in Germany and the USA, more and more often people, having retired, enter universities (usually humanities faculties), study quite successfully and pass exams along with their young classmates.
The ability to forget
It is impossible to remember everything. The ability to forget is of great importance in human survival. The brain must be freed from unnecessary burden of impressions and information. Memory, as it were, regulates the load itself, preparing to receive new information. At the same time, old information does not disappear without a trace, but moves from active memory to passive memory, from where it can sometimes be retrieved. This remarkable property saves many people in difficult situations.
Memory can be improved
In most cases, memory can be improved. Previously, it was believed that in an adult, brain cells - neurons - do not divide and gradually die. But it turned out that this is not so. The results of recent studies indicate that neurons are dividing even at 70 years of age. Moreover, multiplying cells are found in the most “thinking” parts of the brain. Scientists now believe that age-related weakening of memory is associated not so much with the physical death of neurons, but with disruption of contacts between them. Substances that help establish such contacts are known. These are primarily vitamins C, E, B6, B12, beta-carotene, fatty acids contained in salmon, tuna, sardines, herring, extract from the ginkgo biloba plant.
Impression, repetition and association
The average person uses no more than ten percent of the innate capabilities of his memory. The remaining ninety percent is lost because we do not know how to use the natural laws of memorization. And these laws are very simple. There are three of them - impression, repetition and association.
So, you want to remember something. Firstly, to do this you need to concentrate and get an impression, using not only vision, but also hearing and smell.
The visual impression is the most lasting. After all, the nerves leading from the eye to the brain are twenty times thicker than the nerves leading from the ear to the brain. Mark Twain could not remember the sequence of his speech when he used notes, but when he gave up notes and began to use drawings to remember, all his difficulties disappeared.
The second law of memory is repetition. Thousands of students know the textbook by heart, memorizing it mainly through repetition.
And finally, the third law is associations. The only way to reliably remember a certain fact is to connect it with some other one.
Memory training
1. 5-10 minutes after waking up, count down from 100 to 1 as quickly as possible.
2. Repeat the alphabet, making up a word for each letter. If you forget a letter or can't think of a word, don't stop. Pace is important here.
3. Name twenty male names and the same number of female ones.
4. Choose any letter of the alphabet and name twenty words starting with it.
5. Close your eyes and count to twenty.
6. You can learn poetry. The main thing is to do this gradually and regularly, constantly increasing the volume of the text being memorized. In addition, you should like the poems - if the process of memorizing goes through force, then it is unlikely that you will be able to achieve a good result.
7. Remember every day. In the evening, lying in bed before going to bed, you need to mentally scroll through all the events of the past day, like a film, and in reverse order - from evening to morning. At the same time, you need to try to remember as many details as possible. The main rule of this exercise is that you cannot concentrate on the negative. You need to remember events from a distance, as if observing them from the outside.
8. Make associations. For example, many in childhood remembered the rainbow using the phrase “Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits,” where the first letters of each word are associated with the colors of the rainbow itself (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). In the same way, you can try to remember events by giving them associations. For example, while reading, imagine that you are walking down the street. Each word is some part of it. Thus, having placed the data along the route you usually go to buy bread, you will then easily remember them. Every time you need to come up with new routes for new information.
The main thing is that memory training brings joy, and also that you realize its necessity. Then next time you won’t have to painfully long remember the name of the actor who played in the film you just watched yesterday.
Does a newborn have memory? A question long years alarmed doctors and scientists around the world. After all, many mistakenly believed that a person is born with a pure memory. But numerous studies have shown that at 20 weeks of pregnancy, the embryo begins to remember certain events.
Memory and its properties directly depend on a person’s profession. It really is better among announcers, teachers, scientists, and actors. After all, these people have to remember a large number of text, constantly repeat it and learn something new.
“Déjà vu” is the feeling that a certain situation has already happened in our lives, associated with genetic memory. According to scientific research, certain events could actually have taken place in our past life or passed down from the experiences of our ancestors.
Memory develops in a person up to 25 years of age. The peak of her capabilities falls at the age of 19-20. Not surprising: during this period we receive education. But memory begins to fade at the age of 50.
If you compare the human brain to a computer, it could store up to 7 million megabytes of information.
Hyperthymesia is the name given to the very rare ability to remember absolutely all events of one’s life. US resident Jill Price has this phenomenon. She can tell in detail everything that happened to her in such and such a year at such and such a time.
Kim Peek, the prototype of the main character of "Rain Man" had unique memory. He remembered 98% of all information he read. In addition, he could simultaneously read the right page with his right eye and the left page of a book spread with his left eye.
Napoleon read at a speed of 2 thousand words per minute. For comparison: the majority of educated modern inhabitants of the planet are only 180-220. At the same time, the level of memorization and understanding of the text when fast reading higher.
To improve long-term memory, you need to enjoy the aroma of rosemary from time to time.
Scientists have found that monotonous, meager food with a menu repeated day after day slows down memory function.
For early risers, memory productivity is maximum from 8 to 12 am, and for owls - from 8 to 12 pm.
Winston Churchill knew almost all of Shakespeare by heart.
Passing through doorways provokes memory lapses:
In this case, it does not matter whether a person leaves the room or enters it - the very fact of passing through the opening is important, as evidenced by the results of a study conducted by specialists. This behavioral act is perceived by the brain as an “event boundary,” separating what happened to a person in one room from what will happen to him in another.
The students participating in the study performed various tasks, for example, exchanging objects they took from one table for objects from another, and the actions were performed by three different ways- in one case everything took place in one room, in another the participants were asked to make an exchange after passing through a doorway, and in the third they had to go through several openings leading back to the first room. When moving from room to room, participants forgot what they needed to do much more often than during an exchange that did not require leaving the room.
