Memory development in primary school age and its role in the acquisition of knowledge

Our entire knowledge originates from that luminary of the highest being, which illuminates so much that we no longer notice it, but in reality it is with its help that we know.

St. Augustine

A person cannot be indifferent to the world around him, and all human activity is built on the process of knowledge, that is, the reflection of real reality in the psyche of a person. The process of knowledge begins with sensations and observations, so that, having passed the stages of representations and memory, it turns into thinking and ends in the processes of making decisions and performing actions.

Already in ancient times, people drew their attention to the importance of memory. Aeschylus, using the lips of Prometheus, said: “Listen to what I have done to these mortals. I invented numbers, taught them to compose words and gave them memory.” The ancient Greeks considered the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, to be the mother of all muses.

The role of memory at different stages of human history is not the same. In ancient times, when people did not have writing, the requirements for the strength and clarity of memorization and preservation of experience were high. Modern man is not able to literally reproduce what he has perceived, because the volume of information is very large. In this regard, the requirements for learning have changed. If earlier in learning it was important to remember and reproduce information, now the tasks of the mental development of students come to the fore. According to psychological and pedagogical research of recent decades, the content and methods of learning in its initial stage have radically changed.

Back in the 60s, existing ideas about the age possibilities of learning knowledge in this period of life were revised. It turned out that first-graders are quite capable of learning not only specific knowledge and skills that make up the content of traditional primary education (arithmetic, writing, reading), but also elements of scientific knowledge in the field of mathematics and language. However, such knowledge cannot be given in a ready-made form, as is practiced. The new content requires the development of a new teaching method, a special organization of students' own subject actions with the disclosure of the essential properties of the studied subject material. Psychological studies have shown that such teaching changes the entire course of the child's psychological development and, first of all, contributes to the formation of productive thinking.

I. Every day we learn a lot of new things, our knowledge is enriched every day. Everything that a person learns can be stored for a long time in the "colors" of his brain. The brain not only stores our knowledge about the world around us, but also has the ability to reproduce this knowledge at our request.

The process of memorizing, preserving and subsequently recalling or recognizing what a person previously perceived, experienced or did is called memory. The importance of memory in human life is very great. Absolutely everything that we know, are able to do, is a consequence of the brain's ability to remember and retain images, thoughts, experienced feelings, movements and their systems.

Memory preserves knowledge for us, and without knowledge neither fruitful activity nor successful learning are unthinkable.

Memory, like all other mental processes, has the nature of activity. Whether a person remembers, whether he remembers, or whether he recalls something, reproduces or learns - he always performs a certain mental activity.

In school-age children, the influence of interest on the productivity of memorization is especially clearly manifested. It is known that many schoolchildren differently remember and master different educational subjects. These facts are explained not by the different memory of the student, but by different interest in the subjects being studied. Pedagogical practice shows that when a teacher cultivates children's interest in so-called unloved subjects, students' memorization and mastery of these subjects improves dramatically.

Thus, the nature of memory, its productivity are related to the characteristics of the individual. A person consciously regulates the processes of his memory and manages them, based on the goals and objectives that he sets in his activities.

It has been established that during the younger school age, cardinal changes occur in the motivational structure of the child's personality. They begin with the restructuring of the motives of educational activity on the basis of the intensive formation of children's cognitive interests. Educational and cognitive motives become leading not only in educational activity, but also in the entire life of a schoolchild.

1. Memory is a mental property of a person, which opens up opportunities for him to accumulate experience. Memory is manifested in memorizing, preserving, recognizing and reproducing phenomena, processes and mental states. Thanks to this mental property, we acquire various information, assimilate knowledge about the world and develop our skills and abilities. In the broadest sense of the word, memory is a property that creates conditions for the influence of previous events and experiences on the present. In a narrower sense, memory is the ability to recall individual experiences from the past. Being aware not only of the experience itself, but also of its immediacy in the history of our life with a conscious placement in time and space. Thanks to memory, we preserve, hide, and reproduce various elements of our experience, not only intellectual, but also emotional and motor-motor. The memory of feelings of elation and tension can sometimes persist longer than the intellectual memory of events related to them.

A person also owes his ability to adapt to diverse, changing life conditions to memory, which, in addition, is the foundation for creating new realities and is involved in transforming existing reality. Thanks to the memory of past events and experiences, we have a sense of continuity of our own development and our entire life, despite the fact that we live in an extremely changeable world.

Despite numerous studies by psychologists and neurophysiologists, the physiological mechanisms of memory still remain poorly understood. It is generally accepted that the physiological basis of long-term memory lies in the so-called trace temporal connections formed in the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres on conditioned reflex principles.

Memorization is possible due to the plasticity of the nervous system, the brain, that is, due to the inherent nervous system property to change under the influence of stimuli, to leave and retain traces of the action of stimuli. The brain of each person has the property of plasticity, but the degree of this plasticity in different people is different.

The quality of a person’s memory also depends on the degree of brain plasticity. Brain plasticity is not a once and for all given and unchanging property. An indicator of brain plasticity is the speed of formation of temporary neural connections in the cerebral cortex, the duration of their preservation, the liveliness and ease of their revival.

There are a number of studies that expand and deepen knowledge about the mechanisms of consolidation and preservation of traces of impressions. It is known that there are certain conditions for the fixation and preservation of a trace. Under some conditions, the resulting trace of excitation is short-term, persists for seconds or minutes, under others - it is preserved in detail. In order for a short-term trace of excitation to become long-term, some time is required during which the trace is consolidated, or, as psychologists say, consolidated. If after the emergence of a trace of excitation in a nerve cell or group of cells, another trace immediately arises from the action of a new stimulus, then the initial impression is inhibited and disappears, that is, it is not consolidated. Thus, the obtained experimental facts allow us to draw the following conclusions: 1) the impact or excitation causes changes in the ribonucleic acid in the nerve cell; 2) these changes create the possibility of responding specifically to repeated stimuli.

Temporary neural connections are a physiological mechanism for the formation of associations. Association is a connection between individual events, facts, or phenomena reflected in our consciousness and fixed in our memory. Without these connections, or associations, normal human mental activity is impossible, including the activity of memory. Memorizing any object always occurs in connection with other objects. Associative processes in the cerebral cortex ensure the memorization and reproduction of various phenomena of reality in a certain connection and sequence. Associations are of several types: associations by similarity and associations by contrast.

2. The classification of memory can be carried out based on the participation of the will in the process of memorization, the duration of information retention, the essence of the object and the method of memorization. It is also possible to distinguish different types of memory based on the type of stimuli that are most effectively used in shaping a person's experience.

Involuntary and voluntary memory.

When we remember certain information without a conscious decision to remember it and without directed efforts in this direction (sometimes even against our will), this is a manifestation of involuntary memory. When, as a result of our own decision, we make conscious efforts to remember something, this is voluntary memory. Both types are necessary for a full-fledged human life. Manifestations of voluntary memory appear even in preschool children, but its importance grows rapidly over the years.

Immediate and delayed memory.

Immediate, short-term memory allows a person to reproduce certain information immediately after familiarization with it. Its volume is limited and constant. Delayed memory is long-term. It manifests itself in the ability to reproduce the studied material after a significant amount of time has passed. It is characterized by an unlimited volume and time of storing material, which is extremely necessary in the learning process.

Mechanical and logical memory.

Mechanical memory is present when we remember some material as a result of repeated repetition - we memorize it without going into the content. When reproducing, a person can repeat in detail what he has remembered, but will not be able to explain its meaning or apply it in new circumstances. If, when memorizing, we first try to understand the information being learned (or the result of observing some phenomenon), find out all the terms, establish semantic connections in the text containing this information, and only then memorize this material, then this will be logical memory. Using logical memory, a person, even at the first acquaintance with the material, tries to:

reveal the main semantic links in it;

single out in the material the parts that are logical components of the whole;

to select information, accepting the essential and rejecting the secondary.

Logical memory gives better and more lasting results than mechanical. With its help, you can memorize a much wider volume of even very complex material and store it for a long time.

Figurative memory.

This type of memory is manifested in the memorization and reproduction of stimuli that affect the sense organs. It can be visual or auditory memory, or visual-auditory. There are people who more easily remember what they see, while others more effectively and more easily remember what they hear.

Verbal-logical memory.

This type of memory is characterized by a tendency to memorize and reproduce thoughts expressed verbally. it creates conditions for the perception of logical connections and relationships revealed in oral and written form, including the language of the exact sciences, in which mathematical and logical symbols are used.

Motor memory.

Motor (kinetic) memory serves to acquire motor skills. This memory is necessary for a small child when he learns to use everyday objects, and when learning to write, for an athlete who seeks to improve his achievements, as well as for anyone who learns to use various tools and devices in professional activities.

Emotional memory.

This type of memory is manifested in the memorization of those events that have a strong sensory coloring. Human memory tends to remember pleasant events more easily and retain them longer than unpleasant ones. Emotional memory plays an important role in motivating actions.

The most important features of memory are duration, speed of memorization, accuracy, speed of reproduction, capacity.

3. Duration of memory is the ability to retain perceived experience for a long time. Given this feature, different people have very large individual differences. Some are able to remember the faces and names of school friends even after many years, as well as many different circumstances from the years they spent together. Others, after a few hours, cannot remember the face of a person they met. The duration of memory is selective. This means that in those areas that we are specifically interested in, it will be much greater than in all others.

Speed of memorization.

Speed of memorization also belongs to the features of memory that can differ significantly in different people. In general, those who quickly memorize some material are also able to store this information in memory for a long time. However, this rule is not comprehensive. It is not uncommon for a person to need very little time to remember something, but just as quickly forget everything he has learned. The speed of memorization can be increased by special memory training.

Accuracy.

The accuracy of memory, or its detail, is manifested in the recall of facts and events that a person has encountered and the content of the information that he has acquired, in accordance with the real state of affairs. This feature is very important both in learning and in the practical application of acquired knowledge. It is obvious that certain deviations and errors may appear in the reflection of real facts in the mind, but in people who have an accurate and detailed memory, there are few of them. This feature of memory allows a person to use previously acquired experience.

Readiness to reproduce.

This feature consists in the ability to quickly reproduce in the mind the information that had to be remembered earlier. Readiness to reproduce can be considered an analogous feature to the flexibility and plasticity of thinking, especially since they are closely related. Thanks to the rapid reproduction of the corresponding images in memory, we can effectively use previously acquired experience.

Recognition consists in distinguishing the stimuli that are currently acting on our sense organs from those that have previously affected us.

Proper recollection is the reflection in the mind of stimuli that have previously acted on a person, although we do not perceive them at the moment. Recollection can concern not only certain ideas, but also concepts and judgments denoted by words. When this material consists of personal experiences, we mean memories. Recollection can be caused consciously or arise involuntarily. Most often, we simultaneously recall such events or experiences that really happened in the past at the same time or in the same place. It happens that spontaneous images arise in our consciousness and persist for a long time, regardless of our will. This state is called perseveration.

Reproduction consists in reproducing the material called from memory. It is usually more difficult than recognition and recall, since in recognition it is enough to establish the correspondence of what we observe at the moment with the image stored in memory, and in recalling - to restore it only in consciousness. In the case of reproduction, it is not enough to just realize what we once remembered, but we also need to recreate the image that we do not observe at the moment.

4. Forgetting. Not everything that we remember can be reproduced after a certain time. When comparing the original material with what we manage to reproduce, we sometimes notice even very significant errors. It has been established that the largest volume of material is forgotten in the first days after memorization.

Stories are stored in memory the longest, descriptions for less time, and scientific texts are forgotten the fastest.

The phenomenon of forgetting can be both useful and harmful. The positive function is that it frees a person from unnecessary information ballast, which after the necessary application becomes unnecessary. In this case, the protective mechanism of forgetting is activated, which does not allow memory overload. The negative effect of forgetting is manifested in the fact that it often eliminates or destructures previously acquired experience, when entire blocks of information necessary for orientation in the environment and planning actions are erased from memory.

II. Starting school, children are already able to memorize arbitrarily. However, this ability is still poorly developed in them. Junior school age is characterized by significant qualitative changes that develop in memory. Logical memory is formed. The verbatimness of memorization is determined not by age characteristics, but by a number of factors of their life experience. Not yet able to differentiate tasks, junior schoolchildren develop in themselves an orientation to verbatim memorization and reproduction. With proper pedagogical guidance, students meaningfully memorize the material available to them. Simple verbatim memorization also has a positive meaning. It is an important means of accumulating vocabulary and children's speech culture, developing voluntary memory, developing self-control, and the ability to notice mistakes.

1. In the younger school age, the ability to memorize and reproduce increases significantly. The productivity of memorizing educational material increases. Compared with first-graders, in second-grade students, memorization of concrete material increases by 28%, abstract material - by 68%, emotional - by 35%. In grades I-III, special memorization techniques are more often used. The effectiveness of verbal memorization increases due to students mastering more advanced mnemonic techniques. The productivity of memorizing specific objects and their images increases relatively less at this age. In younger schoolchildren, the accuracy of memorizing text develops intensively. Third-grade students memorize text on average 2.4 times more accurately than first-grade students and 1.5 times more accurately than second-grade students.

With age, the accuracy and recognition of memorized objects increases in younger schoolchildren. The largest range of recognition is in first-graders, and in third-graders it decreases by 4-5 times. Girls recognize objects somewhat more accurately than boys.

The development of memory in younger schoolchildren consists in changing the ratio of involuntary and voluntary memorization, figurative and plot-logical memory.

In younger school age, there is an intensive development of voluntary memory, voluntary memorization and reproduction. But without special guidance in the development of memory, younger schoolchildren use only the simplest methods of voluntary memorization and reproduction. Thus, in second-graders, storytelling using a ready-made plan prevails, which gives lower results than simple repetition. According to A. Smirnov, younger schoolchildren often do not know such memorization techniques as semantic grouping of material, dividing the text into parts. For the development of logical memory, it is important to learn to understand (analyze, compare, correlate, group) educational material, and then memorize it.

If students are not taught to compare, find similarities and differences in the primary material, then errors in memorization associated with mixing similar ones are inevitable. A clear awareness of similar and different ones is a necessary condition for strong memorization of material by younger schoolchildren. An important condition for such memorization is also mastering the techniques of correlation, which consists in linking future knowledge with previously acquired ones. Students of the 3rd grade are already able to use such techniques independently.

Voluntary memorization is most productive when the memorized material becomes the content of their active activity, although this activity does not have a special mnemonic direction.

In connection with the further development of thinking, involuntary memorization becomes more and more systematic and more productive. Relying on the capabilities of involuntary memory and creating the necessary conditions for its functioning, it is possible to ensure that younger students acquire knowledge that is quite large in volume and complex in content (P. Zinchenko).

2. Under the influence of learning, all processes of adolescent memory, all its aspects, namely, memorization, memorization, reproduction, recall, recognition, undergo progressive changes. While some processes reach a higher degree of development in adolescents compared to younger schoolchildren, others can function in them at lower levels, which are still preserved for some time.

The development of memory, as well as perception, in middle school age occurs in close connection with the development of thinking and speech. The leading in the course of the processes of memorization and reproduction becomes mental activity carried out by speech means. Its role is manifested in the development of conscious purposefulness of memorization. In the growth of its productivity in relation to abstract knowledge, judgments and concepts expressed in verbal form. Based on experiments, it has been found that adolescents have an increased ability to memorize verbal material better than visual material.

Then, more and more place is occupied by conventional and symbolic designations (formulas, diagrams, graphs). The results of memorization are expressed in interconnected ideas about memorized objects. In adolescence, the use of various kinds of “supports” that play an indirect role in memorization and reproduction is significantly increased.

Teenagers have a need to use such methods of memorizing educational material as dividing the text into parts, repeating, recording. It is in adolescence that they become productive, for the first time consciously regulated memory techniques. In teenagers, internal techniques increasingly come to the fore, which is manifested in the attempt to first understand and then memorize the material. In students of grades VI-VII, the content side of the parts comes to the fore, their logically complete content, memorizing them does not occur in isolation, but in the process of their mental correlation.

The ability to make a plan and use it is an indicator of a higher level of memory functioning. The following contradiction is characteristic of the development of memory in adolescents: on the one hand, they more consciously use more advanced memorization techniques, and on the other hand, the formation of new connections slows down, they have to make more effort when memorizing material. In addition, newly formed connections are less stable in them than those that were developed earlier and therefore disappear faster (N. Osipova). Adolescents develop associations by contiguity more slowly, that is, the ability to memorize mechanically decreases.

Unlike younger schoolchildren, the organization of the process of memorizing material changes in adolescents. They are not inclined to simply repeat the read text, but break it into parts.

At this age, the methods of remembering also change, namely, drawing up a plan that helps to think over what is being reproduced, analyze it, revive and systematize the necessary associations.

The ratio between involuntary and voluntary memorization also changes. Involuntarily, a teenager remembers bright, colorful things that are associated with emotions. Teenagers develop to a certain extent the ability to alternate memorization and reproduction, using reproduction as a means of control and increasing the efficiency of memorization. Not all teenagers can organize such a productive alternation, mastering the techniques of memorization by a teenager brings qualitative changes to the process of reproduction, because the teenager begins to consciously manage this process.

The development of memory in adolescence is also manifested in a change in the ratio of its main types, namely: motor, figurative, emotional and verbal-logical. The importance of verbal-logical memory is especially growing.

3. The main trend in the development of memory in high school students is characterized by the further growth and strengthening of its arbitrariness. Voluntary memorization becomes much more effective than involuntary during this period. Significant changes are also taking place in the course of logical memorization processes. The productivity of memory for thoughts and abstract material is noticeably increasing. Specialization of memory is being outlined. Methods of memorization are also being improved by the method of conscious application of its rational techniques.

High school students themselves highly appreciate such assimilation of material, in which an understanding of concepts, an original interpretation or formulation of what is stated in the textbook is revealed. An important role in the processes of memorization is played by the instruction for assimilation of material, which at the same time includes instruction for its awareness.

Logical memorization is successfully formed in students during schooling.

Involuntary memory acquires a specific character in senior school age. Its productivity also depends on the organization of students' mental work with educational material. Material is remembered by senior schoolchildren better if it is included in the goal of their mental activity and when this activity is active. From their own experience, senior schoolchildren are convinced that memorization is not reduced to understanding that special techniques of memorization and reproduction are needed, preservation of consciously learned information. In early adolescence, students develop a desire to master their memory, manage it, and increase its productivity.

III. Students' memory should be trained. Rational methods of developing memory:

- an important condition for productive memorization and long-term storage is the correct distribution of repetitions in time;

- concentrated repetition gives a much smaller effect than distributed in time;

- feverish preparation for exams does not lead to deep knowledge. It can be the final link in the general chain of systematic repetition of educational material;

- the best type of repetition is the inclusion of the learned material in further cognitive activity each time in new connections;

- the beginning and end of the information are remembered better, the middle is learned worse. Take into account the “edge effect”;

- visual material is remembered better, which is placed in the upper left corner;

- the features of memory are associated with the emotional state of the student and how comfortable he feels in the lesson. It is important that the child experiences positive emotions. Use a technique based on the integration of experiences;

- some children become attached to the “support” and are unable to move to independent work for a long time. So after 2-3 lessons, it is necessary to move the “support” to the right side of the board. This helps the child realize that the “support” is temporary;

- the second technique is when students with poor memory for the teacher’s task, relying on the scheme, comment on the course of the solution aloud;

- students should be given special mnemonic tasks that help them use the rule that is currently necessary.

You can use various kinds of “memoranda”.

Memo

Start preparing lessons by working on the poem.

Read the poem aloud quietly. Remember that you are reading the poem to remember. Do not skip unfamiliar words.

Read the poem aloud. Catch the rhythm and melody of the poem.

Read the poem a third time.

After 2 minutes, repeat the poem aloud. Imagine the events that are written in the poem.

After 3 hours, repeat 2-3 times, without looking at the book.

Repeat again before going to bed.

In the morning, read from the book and recite it by heart.

Memo

Day 1. Read the poem about yourself. Clarify any unclear words. Read it again about yourself.

Day 2. Agree to practice with a friend. Let him read it aloud, and you memorize it by ear.

Day 3. Read the poem and say it in a whisper. Read it clearly and loudly. Recite it by heart.

Methods for diagnosing the memory of a younger schoolchild.

A child's memory should be assessed in a differentiated manner, according to individual indicators and independent conclusions. General mnemonic processes in a schoolchild have a rather conditional meaning.

Methodology. Determining the volume of short-term visual memory.

Methodology. Assessment of operational visual memory.

Methodology. Assessment of the volume of short-term auditory memory.

Methodology. Assessment of operational auditory memory.

Diagnostics of mediated memory.

Methodology “Verbal fantasy” (linguistic representation).

Interesting tasks for intelligence: there are no numbers, and there is an unknown in the task, or even several. The method of sequential extraction helps here. It is very convenient to use tables.

Task. For the New Year's masquerade, Galina, Lyudmila, Philip and Platon put on costumes of a bear, a clown, a fox and a stranger. One of the girls was in the stranger costume, but not Lyuda. Pylypko is not a clown and not a fox. Platon is not a clown either. What costume does Galina have? Lyudmila's? Philip's? Platon's?

	Galina	Lyudmila	Philip	Platon
bear	н	н	+	н
clown	н	+	н	н
fox	н	н	н	+
stranger	+	н	н	н

Problem. Three boys – Bogdan, Hrytsko and Panas – ate an orange, a pear and a tangerine. When they were asked “Who ate what?”, they joked. Bogdan “Hrytsko ate an orange. Panas – a pear”. Hrytsko “Bogdan ate an orange. Panas – an orange”. Then Panas added that in the first and second answers one part is correct, and the second is not.

Think and say what each of the boys ate.

Will we get an even or odd number?

- If we add two even numbers? Three even numbers? Two odd numbers? Three odd numbers?

- If we subtract an even number from an even number? If we subtract an odd number from an odd number?

- If we multiply an odd number by 2?

- If we add two adjacent natural numbers? 3 adjacent numbers? 4 adjacent numbers?

Mathematical games

There are 10 pencils on the table. Two players take turns taking one, two, or three pencils. The one who has to take the last pencil loses.

How should the first player play to win?

The boys were picking mushrooms in the forest. Yurko picked the most. He said about the number of mushrooms, “If this number is reduced by 6 and the resulting number is reduced by 6, we get 6.” How many mushrooms did Yurko pick?

Move only two cards, but so that the sum of the numbers in both columns is the same.

Puzzles. Questions

Write the number 100 with five threes.

Using four fives, signs, arithmetic operations and brackets, write the number 100 in different ways.

There are three numbers: 30, 20, 5. Find all possible products of two numbers by a third.

How much will it be if two tens are multiplied by three tens?

What numbers can be written if you use operation signs, brackets and the number 33 three times?

Will the product of three or more numbers change if any two of them are taken into brackets?

Ten telegraph poles stand in a row. The distance between two neighboring ones is 50 m. What is the distance between the extreme poles?

Taras has 2 times more stamps than Yurko. Taras gave Yurko a quarter of his stamps. Who has more?

Like other mental abilities and skills, memory is characterized by significant individual differences. In some types of mnemonic activity, their range reaches a ratio of 1:15. This means: if the indicators of the weakest (in terms of memory) student are taken as one, then the mnemonic power of the strongest should be estimated at 15 units.

The main reason for the inability to improve memory is the lack of information about the means to achieve this goal. And some believe that memory is an innate ability and, therefore, cannot be improved.

Mnemonic abilities have an organic basis, favorable organic predispositions directly affect the development of only elementary processes - the direct preservation and reproduction of received information. And in educational and professional activities, the processes of semantic memorization mediated by thinking play a decisive role. And here special techniques of memorization and reproduction are decisive. And they, of course, can be improved all the time through appropriate training exercises. And the organic basis of memory is to a certain extent amenable to training.

However, no matter how persistently the teacher carries out measures of compensation and correction of individual shortcomings that occur in the mnemonic activity of individual students, his efforts inevitably turn out to be unproductive if he does not enlist the help of the consciousness of the children themselves. Only after they begin to realize that the mental activity of each is a whole world that must be known just like the world around them, and known not just for the sake of curiosity, but in order to master it, to make one's mind perfect and effective - only under this condition can the teacher count on the fact that his psychophysical work will bear generous and stable fruits. Therefore, only the pedagogy of cooperation can bring results.