What is memory definition. Definition of memory. Remembering, a person uses various techniques

Memory in psychology is a neuropsychophysiological process that determines the continuity of all mental processes and consists in the preservation and reproduction of the experience gained. It is the basis of mental activity and is responsible for the ability to learn and develop. Without it, the individual will not be able to make a gradation between the present past and the future. The psychology of memory uses a wide range of experimental experiences to study various aspects and characteristics.

Types of memory

1. Mechanical
2. Associative or Boolean

Mechanical refers to the body's ability to maintain trace of multiple repetitions of reactions, produce appropriate changes in the nerve pathways. This is a process of accumulation of individual experience, which can be compared to breaking a road rut. The whole set of personal skills, habits, reactions and movements is the result of such travails. Repeated repetition of the movement seems to leave traces in the nervous system and causes the passage of new excitations along the same paths.

associative memory. Psychology defines this type as a connection of reactions, in which the onset of one of them leads to the immediate manifestation of the other. The doctrine of the associative gave rise to the study of conditioned reflexes, which are private case of associative memory.

Scientists have tried to identify which type of memory is more important or useful for a person. Empirically, it turned out that, for example, the process of memorizing any material is more productive in a logical way, in which logically built orders are established through the linking of previously studied and new material by 22 times than in a mechanical way - the usual one. « cramming ».

Composition of the memory process

Types of memory by way of perception

For quite a long time, the process of memorization was considered as the same neuropsychophysical process, passing in all people in a similar way. Subsequently, it was proved that the work of memory in each individual person is individual and depends on the most frequent forms of those reactions that he uses in life. As a result, types of memory began to be distinguished.

For example, the visual type, if a person most often uses visual reactions during playback. Similarly, with the reactions of auditory or motor. And they also identified mixed types: visual-auditory, motor-visual, etc.

For example, people, memorizing a poem, use different methods. It is easier for many to read a page with a verse silently, since the assimilation of this person occurs with the help of the eyes and further when played, represents on which of the pages what was written. Other people, in order to learn by heart, prefer to read aloud, and with further reproduction of what has been learned, it will seem to a person that he hears an inner voice that pronounces a verse. An interesting fact is that people with a visual dominant squint their eyes when reading, and with an auditory one, they seem to listen.

The motor type in psychology is characterized through memorization with the help of kinesthetic and muscular sensations. A person of this type, when memorizing a poem, will definitely try to write it down or say it on his own. When forgetting, he will apply speech-motor reactions, which can be easily seen when the lips of such a person move. Such people often use phrases « rolls on the tongue » or gesticulate with fingers when trying to remember a word.

Olfactory - figurative or modal memory, characterized by memorization with the help of olfactory analyzers. In animals, the olfactory system is much better developed than in humans.

The taste type is characterized by the work of taste analyzers and is responsible for our taste preferences.

The tactile type helps us identify an object without making eye contact with it. Such memory is especially developed in blind people.

Figurative memory is a holistic perception based on other types (visual, auditory, etc.) with our sensory system. Research scientists have shown that figurative memory is more developed in children and adolescents, as well as in people of creative professions.

The use of one type of memory is very rare, usually a person uses two types, one of which will be dominant. Conscious use of all types has a beneficial effect on memorization and reproduction.

Types of memory according to the method of storing information

• short-term
• long-term
• Instant
• Operational

Short-term memory has a relatively short time period of information storage, about 30 seconds. Then the information received is replaced by the newly received information. If an individual focuses his attention on the received information, then from the category of short-term stored, it passes into the contents of long-term memory.

The main role of short-term memory in psychology is generalization and schematization information received by the individual. She plays a major role in decision making. There is an identification of information received from outside or from the volume of long-term memory and then a decision is made in accordance with the knowledge and skills of the individual.

Long-term memory contains the entire amount of knowledge, skills and abilities of an individual acquired throughout life.

This view is like a huge book depository in which, without much effort, you can find any information that is relevant to a person. But, despite this, many fragments of long-term memory are lost over time, and in order to remember them, considerable volitional efforts are required. This is due to the fact that the information has not been in demand for a long time or is not of particular importance at this time.

All information contained in memory linked by associations. Based on this, the information that is most associated with what is already available is much better reproduced or remembered. Before getting into a long-term storage, a new concept activates the system of existing concepts close to it in meaning. The emerging associative links are determined by the frequency of coincidence, relevance and emotional significance.

Scientists have determined that a person with an average long-term memory capacity can remember the information contained in a million individual books. People with a phenomenal memory are able to remember much more and, after many years, accurately reproduce information with the smallest details and nuances.

Instantaneous or iconic memory view is the first stage in the perception of information received from outside without processing it. This is a passive process that helps to maintain an accurate picture of the surrounding reality for the moment. The volume of this type is quite large compared to short-term memory, since with the help of it all stimuli that affect the human sensory system are perceived (the position of objects in space and their movement, illumination, air temperature, etc.).

The working memory of a person according to the time of information storage is between short term and long term. The operational type of perception of information makes it possible to independently regulate the storage period of information depending on their goals and objectives (from a few seconds to several weeks or days).

What affects memory

This is a multifaceted psychophysiological process that changes under the influence of many factors:

Memory is a process that takes place in the human psyche, due to which the accumulation, saving and display of material is carried out. Memory in psychology is the definition of the ability of the brain to perform the functions of remembering, storing and recreating experience. Also, this mental process allows a person to recall the experiences and events of the past, consciously thinking about its value in one's own history and comprehending the feelings and emotions that are associated with it. This process contributes to the fact that a person can expand his cognitive abilities. Also, this property has a complex structure, consisting of some functions and processes that provide the perception of information from the surrounding reality and fixing it in past experience. Internal memory is a complex process in which information is perceived, accumulated, stored, systematized and reproduced very quickly.

Memory in psychology

Memory in psychology is the definition of a person's ability to remember, store, reproduce and forget information from their own experience. This property helps a person to move in space and time. There are various psychological theories that have their own view on this concept.

In association theory, the key concept is association. In memory, it combines parts of the perceived material. When a person remembers something, he begins to look for a connection between these materials and those that need to be reproduced. The formation of associations has patterns: similarity, adjacency and contrast. The similarity is manifested in the fact that the material that is remembered is then reproduced through a connection with similar material. Adjacency occurs when incoming material is remembered in relation to previous material. The contrast is expressed in the fact that the material that should be remembered is different from the one that is stored.

According to the behavioral theory, special exercises contribute to the memorization of material. Such exercises help to better and faster fix attention on objects, episodes. Several factors influence high-quality memorization: age, individual characteristics, the interval between exercises, the amount of material, and others.

In cognitive theory, this process is characterized as a set of blocks and processes of information material transformation. Some blocks provide recognition of the expressive features of the material, others create a cognitive orienting map of information, with the help of the third, information is retained, the fourth block transforms the material into a specific form.

The activity theory considers this process as an active component of the connection between man and the world. This happens through the processes of analysis, synthesis, grouping, repetition and selection of signs, with their help a mnemonic image is also created, a kind of material form that contains a person's personal attitude. Memory is also influenced by external stimulus signs, which later become internal and a person, guided by them, controls this process.

Types of memory

This process, multilevel and multifunctional, such complexity implies the distinction of several of its types.

Inner memory displays the biological processes of remembering information by a person.

External memory is fixed on external means (paper, voice recorder). Distinguishing other types is based on the nature of mental activity, the characteristics of representations, the nature of the connection with the target activity, the duration of storage of images and the goals of the study. The simplest division of this process into internal and external. Division into types according to the nature of mental activity: figurative, motor, verbal-logical and emotional.

Figurative memory is the process of remembering images that were formed on the basis of the material of sensory systems. As a result, in the figurative process there are also types of memory, depending on the main analyzer system: visual (fixation of images of objects or people with whom contact often occurred); auditory (the image of sounds that a person once heard); taste (tastes that a person once felt); olfactory (the image of smells with which a person can associate some kind of memory); tactile (images of touch sensations that remind of objects or people).

motor memory- this is a kind by which people learn to ride a bicycle, memorize a dance, play games, swim, and also do any work activity and various expedient movements.

emotional memory- this is the ability to remember feelings, experiences or, remember emotions and their relativity to a particular situation at that moment. If a person would not have this mental process, then he would be “emotionally stupid” - this is the definition of a person’s state in which he looks unattractive, uninteresting to others, such a robot-like object. The ability to express your emotions is the key to mental health.

Verbal-logical memory divided into words, judgments and thoughts. It is also divided into mechanistic and logical. Mechanistic, includes the memorization of material due to its constant repetition, when there is no awareness of the meaning of information. Logical - makes semantic connections in memorized objects. According to the level of awareness of the memorized material, memory is of two types: implicit and explicit.

Implicit - memory for information that is not realized by a person. Memorization occurs in a closed manner, independently of consciousness and inaccessible to direct observation. Such a process is carried out with the need to find a solution in some situation, but even then the knowledge that a person has is not comprehensible. An example of such a process is that a person in the process of his socialization perceives the norms of society, and is guided by them in his behavior, not realizing the basic theoretical principles.

Explicit memory occurs when the acquired knowledge is used absolutely consciously. They are retrieved, recalled when there is a need to solve some problem using this knowledge. This process can be: involuntary and arbitrary. In an involuntary process, there are traces of images that have arisen unconsciously, automatically. Such memorization is more developed in childhood, it weakens with age.

Arbitrary memory is purposeful memorization of the image.

According to the duration in time, memory is divided into instantaneous, short-term, operational, long-term.

instant memory, it is also called sensory, is displayed in the retention of information perceived by sensory analyzers. It, in turn, is divided into iconic and echoic.

Iconic is a kind of sensory registrar of visual stimuli. With its help, information is recorded in a holistic form. A person never distinguishes between iconic memory and environmental objects. When iconic information is replaced by other information, the visual sensation becomes more receptive. If visual material arrives too quickly, then there is a layering of one information over another, which is still held in memory, and has passed into long-term memory. This is called the reverse masking effect.

echoic memory- post-figurative, it stores images for no more than 2-3 seconds, when there was an influence of an auditory stimulus.

short term memory contributes to the memorization of images by a person after a single, short-term perception and instant reproduction. In such a process, the number of stimuli that are perceived, their physical nature matters, and their information load is not taken into account.

Short-term memory has a certain formula, which determines the number of memorized objects. It sounds like "seven plus or minus two." When a person is presented with stimulus material, which depicts a certain number of objects, he can remember 5 or 9 objects from them for up to 30 seconds.

RAM- saves a trace of the image, which is necessary to perform the current action.

long term memory can store traces of images for a very long time and allows them to be used later in future activities. Thanks to such memorization, a person is able to accumulate knowledge, which he can then extract either at his own request, or with external intervention in the brain (with the help of).

Depending on the target research activity, there are special types of this mental process: biological, episodic, associative, reproductive, reconstructive, autobiographical.

Biological, or it is also called genetic, is determined by the mechanism of heredity. It assumes that a person possesses such patterns of behavior that were characteristic of people in earlier periods of evolution, this is expressed in reflexes, instincts.

Episodic is a repository of fragments of material that are tied to a specific situation.

Reproductive consists in repeating the reproduction of information, recalling the original appearance of the saved object.

Reconstructive helps to restore the disturbed sequence of stimuli to the original form.

Associative memory forms functional links, that is, associations, between objects that are remembered.

Autobiographical memory helps a person to remember the events of his own life.

Memory training

Training happens when people don't even notice it. Memorizing the list of products needed in the store, the names of new acquaintances, dates of birth - all this is training for a person. But there are more specific exercises for development, they contribute to much better memorization, concentration on the specific development of these abilities. If memory develops, then other mental processes (thinking, attention) develop simultaneously.

There are exercises to develop this process, the most common will be briefly described below.

Memory development in adults exercises are very different. A very popular exercise is the Schulte tables. They contribute to the development of peripheral vision, attention, observation, speed reading and visual memory. Looking for consecutive numbers, vision fixes only a few cells, so the place of the desired cell and cells of other numbers is remembered.

Exercise for the development of photographic memory according to the method of Aivazovsky. Its essence is to look at the object for five minutes. After, close your eyes and restore the image of this object in your head, as clearly as possible. You can also draw these images, this will help improve the effectiveness of the exercise. It must be performed periodically so that visual memory develops well.

Match game exercise helps to train visual memory. To do this, you need to put five matches on the table and look at their location, then turn away, take five more matches and try on another surface to recreate the location of the matches that were remembered.

Roman room exercise contributes to the development of the ability to structure stored information, but it also trains visual memory. It is necessary to memorize the sequence of objects, their details, color, shapes. As a result, more information is remembered and visual memory is trained.

There are also exercises for training auditory memory.

The development of memory in adults exercises must obey certain rules. The first exercise is reading aloud. When a person voices memorized material, he develops his vocabulary, improves diction, intonation, improves the ability to give emotional coloring and brightness to his speech. The auditory components of what is read are also better remembered. You need to read easily, take your time, read as you speak. There are some rules: to clearly pronounce the words, with an appropriate spacing, expressively pronouncing each word, not to “eat up” the ending, to pronounce the text as if it were a speech of a diplomat or speaker, laying out his own thoughts on some serious issue. If you read for at least ten or fifteen minutes every day, adhering to all the rules, you can notice results in oratory and auditory memory in a month.

Studying poems regularly is a good and easy way to practice memorization. When studying a verse, it is necessary to understand its meaning, to highlight the techniques used by the author. Divide it into semantic components, highlight the main idea. It is important, when learning a verse, to repeat it all the time, saying it out loud, apply intonation, convey the mood of the author, thus developing more diction. You need to repeat many times, and over time, the number of repetitions will decrease. During the pronunciation of the verse in the mind or aloud, the articulatory apparatus is activated. The study of a poem is used for long-term memorization of abstract information. Such memorization occurs, for example, in the study of the multiplication table, or memorizing the number Pi.

Auditory memory develops through eavesdropping. Being among people, in transport or on the street, on a bench, you need to focus on the conversation of other people among themselves, comprehend the information, try to remember it. Then, having come home, speak the heard conversations with the appropriate intonation and remember the expression on people's faces at the time of the conversation. By practicing this very often, a person will be able to learn to fluently perceive the text by ear, will become much more attentive and sensitive to intonation and tone.

An effective method is the development of memory according to the methods of special services. This is a training program that is based on the methods used in the special services. The effectiveness of such a program has been tested by intelligence officers and counterintelligence officers. This method is presented in the book of the author Denis Bukin, which is called "Development of memory according to the methods of special services."

In the modern world, almost everyone is accustomed to the fact that they always have a phone, a tablet, an organizer at hand, which stores the necessary information and which you can always peep there. Routine work, overloading the memorization process with unnecessary information, inability to systematize this information leads to a weakening of mnemonic processes. The book describes a profession in which a well-developed memory is the key to success, more precisely, it is vital - this is a scout. He cannot save an operation plan, a map on his phone, he does not have time to scroll through a notebook. All important information should be stored only in the head, all the details in order to clearly reproduce them at the right time. Each chapter of the book describes each stage of a scout's career. Each stage contains methods, exercises and instructions for them.

Memory development

Developed memory is a very big plus of a person's personality, both in everyday life and at work. In most professions, a developed memory is highly valued, it is a great advantage that helps to achieve great achievements at work and take on great responsibility. There are certain ways to develop this process. To remember something, you need to focus on the process, on the material itself. You need to comprehend the information, look for parallels in it in relation to your experience. The more likely there is to establish such a connection, the better the memorization will be.

If you need to remember some element, for example, a name, phone number, you don’t need to immediately rush to a notebook or the Internet for an answer. Within a couple of minutes, you need to abstract from everything external, look into the depths of your brain and try to remember yourself.

If you need to remember something very important, you need to create in your head some kind of image, an association, very bright. The brain is much easier to remember something original, in connection with which it will be easier to remember the right thing. To easily memorize numbers, you need to break them into groups, or, as in the previous method, create associations.

A very effective method of developing memory is a simulator for the development of cognitive abilities, called the Wikium project.

In order to remember something well, you need to say it immediately after perceiving the information, then retell it to someone else, so it will be easier to remember and better understand the meaning of the material.

A very simple method that can be applied everywhere is to solve the simplest arithmetic problems in your head.

Also, the simplest way to develop memorization is to scroll through the events of the day in your head. It is better to do this at the end of each day before going to bed, recreating all the details and episodes, feelings, experiences, emotions that this day was filled with. You also need to evaluate your actions and actions committed on this day.

Reading books contributes to the development of memorization, the brain concentrates, the text is perceived, and the details are deposited in the memory.

Effective memorization involves understanding the meaning of the text. Memorizing material mechanically without retelling it in your own words is very unprofitable. Such a process will stop at the level of RAM and will not go into long-term memory.

In order to develop memory, you need to accustom yourself to repeat information, at first, multiple repetition will be required for memorization, after such frequent repetition, the brain will be developed enough to memorize information faster.

Mechanical movements of the hands help in the development of memory. When a person does some kind of long-term action with his hands, the structures of the brain are activated.

Learning foreign languages ​​is also a good way to improve memory.

A significant role will be played by the emotional state of a person. When a person is calm and happy, he will be able to quickly and easily remember information and reproduce it than a person in a state of anger or anxiety.

To develop memory, you need to work on it, focused and purposeful. Laziness will contribute to the degradation of the human psyche, and a good memory will obviously not be a characteristic feature of such a person. A developed memory opens up great prospects for a person; thanks to memory, high results can be achieved both at work and in communication.

With the help of neurobics, it is also possible to develop and maintain this mental process. There is relevant literature, which describes the mass of methods for the development of this process.

In the ways described above, you need to load your memory, without regular training it will weaken, fail and accelerate the aging of thinking.

There are a few more rules that must be observed for the effective development of this process. In order for the memory to be good, it is necessary that the brain be efficient, for this it must be saturated with oxygen, which enters the blood. To do this, you need to be in the air often, take breaks in mental work for a few minutes, do exercises, exercises, which contribute to the flow of blood to the brain.

If a person smokes and does not train his memory, he prescribes for himself a rapid deterioration of mental processes. If a person smokes and trains his memory, such processes begin a little later, but still faster than in completely non-smoking people.

Good sleep contributes to the development of this process, ensures brain activity. If a person does not get enough sleep, his memory at the biological level is not able to work properly. Because the brain depends on the biological rhythms of day and night, therefore only at night the brain cells are restored and the next morning, after sleeping for seven or eight hours, a person will be ready for a productive working day.

To maintain the flexibility of the mind, you need to give up alcohol. The more a person uses, the more he harms his brain. Some people have the experience of not remembering half of what happened after drinking alcohol. Especially when you need to learn some material, then before that you need to avoid even drinking wine and beer, not to mention stronger drinks. For a well-developed memory, you need to eat right, especially foods that contain phosphoric acid and calcium salts.

All of the above methods, rules, if applied in combination, guarantee the development and preservation of memory for many years.

Memory development in children

From early childhood, the development of memory is realized in several directions. The first path assumes that mechanical memory gradually begins to change, is supplemented, and then completely replaced by logical memory. The second direction involves the direct memorization of information, gradually turning into an indirect one, which is used in memorizing and reflecting various mnemonic means. The third way is involuntary memorization, which dominates in childhood but becomes voluntary with age.

The creation of internal ways of remembering depends on the development of speech. Memorization, which switches from externally mediated to internal, associated with the metamorphoses of speech from external to internal.

Memory development in preschool children, in particular, the process of direct memorization goes a little faster than the formation of mediated memorization. And along with this, the gap in the performance of these types of memorization in favor of the first becomes larger.

The development of memory in children of primary school age is expressed by the simultaneous development of direct memorization and indirect, but the rapid development of mediated memory. Developing at a fast pace, mediated memorization is catching up with direct memorization in terms of productivity.

The development of this process in preschool children is expressed by the gradual transition of involuntary memorization to arbitrary. In children of the middle preschool period, by about the age of four, memorization and reproduction, which have not yet been taught by mnemonic functions and under natural conditions of development, are involuntary.

Older preschoolers under the same conditions are characterized by a gradual transition from involuntary to voluntary memorization of material. At the same time, in the corresponding processes, an almost independent process of development of special perceptual actions begins, the development of mediating mnemonic processes aimed at improving the memorization and display of materials.

Not all these processes develop in the same way in all children with age, some tend to be ahead of others. Thus, voluntary reproduction develops faster than voluntary memorization and overtakes it in development. The development of memory depends on the interest and motivation of the child in the activities he performs.

The development of memory in preschool children is characterized by the predominance of involuntary, visual-emotional memory. In the younger - middle preschool period, well-developed mechanical memory and direct.

The development of memory in children of primary school age proceeds quite well, especially with regard to rote memorization and its progression over a period of three to four years of study, which is carried out very quickly. Logical and mediated memory lags behind a little in development, but this is a normal process. Children in their learning, work, play and communication have enough mechanical memory. But special training in mnemonic techniques for children from their first years of study significantly improves the productivity of logical memory. Failure to use these techniques, or their inept application in practice, may be the reason for the poor development of arbitrary memory in young children. The good development of this process of children is facilitated by the use of special mnemonic tasks, they are placed in front of the children in accordance with their activities.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Memory- this is a general designation for a complex of cognitive abilities and higher mental functions for the accumulation, preservation and reproduction of knowledge and skills. Memory in various forms and types is inherent in all higher animals. The most developed level of memory is characteristic of a person.

The pioneer in the study of human memory is Hermann Ebbinghaus, who experimented on himself (the main technique was to memorize meaningless lists of words or syllables).

Memory in neurophysiology

Memory is one of the properties of the nervous system, which consists in the ability to store information about the events of the external world and the body's reactions to these events for some time, as well as repeatedly reproduce and change this information.

Memory is characteristic of animals that have a sufficiently developed central nervous system (CNS). The amount of memory, the duration and reliability of information storage, as well as the ability to perceive complex environmental signals and develop adequate responses, are proportional to the number of nerve cells involved in these processes.

According to modern concepts, memory is an integral part of such processes as

Memory and learning

Memory and learning are sides of the same process. Learning usually means the mechanisms for acquiring and fixing information, and memory - the mechanisms for storing and retrieving this information.

Learning processes can be divided into non-associative and associative. Non-associative learning is seen as evolutionarily older and does not imply a connection between what is remembered and any other stimuli. Associative is based on the formation of a connection between several stimuli. For example, the classic version of the development of a conditioned reflex according to Pavlov: establishing a connection between a neutral conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus that causes an unconditioned reflex response.

Unconditioned reflexes are not included in this classification, since they are carried out on the basis of inherited patterns of connections between nerve cells.

Non-associative learning is divided into summation, habituation, long-term potentiation, and imprinting.

Summation

Summation is a gradual increase in the response to repeated presentations of a previously indifferent stimulus. The result of summation is to ensure the response of the organism to weak, but long-acting stimuli, which can potentially have some consequences for the life of the individual.

In a normal situation, the reaction develops as follows: a strong stimulus causes a whole bunch of action potentials in the sensitive neuron, which leads to a large release of the mediator from the synaptic ending of the axon of the sensitive neuron on the motor neuron, and this is enough to generate an suprathreshold postsynaptic potential and trigger the action potential in the motor neuron .

A different situation is observed in the development of summation.

One scenario for the development of summation is the rhythmic use of a series of weak stimuli, each of which is insufficient to release a neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft. At the same time, if the stimulation frequency is high enough, then calcium ions accumulate in the presynaptic ending, since ion pumps do not have time to pump them into the intercellular medium. As a result, the next action potential can cause the release of a mediator, which is enough to excite the postsynaptic motor neuron. If, at the same time, rhythmic stimulation with subthreshold stimuli is not interrupted earlier, then the incoming action potentials will continue to trigger the reflex, since the high content of Ca 2+ at the end of the sensitive neuron is preserved. If, however, a pause is made in stimulation, then Ca 2+ will be removed, and preliminary summation will again be required to trigger the reflex with weak stimuli.

Another scenario for the development of summation is observed with a single but strong stimulation, as a result of which a highly sensitive series of impulses arrives at the presynaptic ending on the motor neuron, leading to the entry of a large amount of Ca2+ ions into the ending, which is enough to excite the next neuron in the circuit with an earlier subthreshold stimulus. The duration of this effect can be seconds.

The ability to summation appears to underlie short-term neurological memory. Receiving any information through the system of analyzers (looking closely, listening, sniffing, carefully trying a new food seasoning for us), we provide rhythmic stimulation of the synapses through which the sensory signal passes. These synapses maintain an increased excitability for several minutes, facilitating the conduction of impulses, and thus retain a trace of the transmitted information. However, summation, being an evolutionarily early learning mechanism, quickly disappears and cannot withstand any strong external influences on the organism.

addictive

With repeated irritation of medium strength, the reaction to it is weakened or disappears altogether. This phenomenon is called "addiction" (or "habituation").

The reasons for addiction are varied and the first of them is the adaptation of receptors. The second reason is the accumulation of Ca2+ in presynaptic endings on inhibitory neurons. In this case, repeated signals, initially insignificant for inhibitory neurons, are gradually summed up, and then trigger inhibitory neurons, the activity of which blocks the passage of signals along the reflex arc. Habituation can be seen as the summation of inhibitory signals. It must be emphasized that summation and habituation, like other forms of synaptic plasticity, are simply a consequence of the structure of synapses and the organization of neurons.

Long term potentiation

Long-term potentiation occurs when an animal is presented with a stimulus that it recognizes but is too weak to elicit a response. After a long pause (1 - 2 hours), the animal is presented with a strong stimulus that causes the reaction under study. The next stimulation is carried out after another 1-2 hours with the help of a weak signal that did not previously lead to the triggering of the reflex. In animals in which the nervous system is capable of long-term potentiation, a reflex response occurs. In the future, the interval between strong and weak stimulation can be increased to 5 or even 10 hours, and the excitability of the nervous system will always remain elevated.

Long-term potentiation can be considered as a variant of "long" short-term memory, extending to the daytime period of a person's wakefulness - from morning to evening.

Imprinting

This phenomenon is defined as a stable individual selectivity in relation to external stimuli in certain periods of ontogeny. The following variants of imprinting are best known: memorization of the parent by the cub; memorization of the cub by the parent; imprinting of the future sexual partner.

Unlike a conditioned reflex, this connection, firstly, is formed only in a strictly defined period of the animal's life; secondly, it is formed without reinforcement; thirdly, in the future it turns out to be very stable, practically not subject to extinction and can persist throughout the life of the individual. Imprintin was shown to be accompanied by activation of neurons in the intermediate region of the medioventral hyperstriatum. Damage to this area disrupted both imprinting and other types of memory in chickens.

In the process of memorization/learning by the type of imprinting, contacts are established between groups of neurons of one nucleus with strictly defined groups of another nucleus. As learning progresses, the size of neurons, their number within the corresponding structures, the number of spines and synaptic contacts can either increase - or the number of neurons, synaptic connections and NMDA receptors in synapses can even decrease, but the affinity of the remaining receptors for a specific mediator will increase.

We can propose the following model for the development of imprinting.

Glutamic acid released from the end of the neuron acts on metabotropic receptors on the surface of the postsynaptic neuron and triggers the production of a secondary (intracellular) messenger (for example, cAMP). The second messenger through a cascade of regulatory reactions enhances the synthesis of proteins that form new synapses to glutamate, which are integrated into the neuron membrane in such a way as to capture signals from the most active presynaptic ending, which transmits information about the characteristics of the imprinting object. Embedding new receptors in the membrane increases the efficiency of synaptic transmission, and the sum of evoked postsynaptic potentials from incoming signals reaches a threshold level. Then PD will arise and the behavioral response will be triggered.

It should be emphasized that neurochemical and synaptic changes do not occur instantly, but take time. For successful imprinting, it is important to have a stable sensory "pressure" on the learning neuron, for example, the constant presence of the mother. If this condition is not met, then imprinting does not occur at all.

The trained neurons are able to maintain the concentration of receptors on the postsynaptic membrane of the "imprinted" synapse at a constant high level, which ensures the stability of imprinting, which makes it possible to consider it as a specific variant of long-term memory.

Associative learning

Associative learning is based on the formation of a connection (association) between two stimuli. As an example, we can consider the formation of a conditioned reflex, when a signal is simultaneously applied to one neuron both from some insignificant stimulus and from the center of positive reinforcement from the hypothalamus. At the same time, it is likely that different second messengers are generated at different postsynaptic sites, and a change in the expression of receptor genes for neurotransmitters acting on a given neuron will be due to the total effect of these second messengers.

memory and sleep

Work on the study of sleep deprivation (deprivation) on memory processes shows that sleep-deprived people reproduce many times less material compared to people who were not deprived of sleep. With a 36-hour deprivation, a deterioration in the ability to reproduce material by 40% is observed. An interesting pattern is revealed if we analyze separately the effect of sleep on the ability to reproduce material of different emotional coloring. First, the results indicate that emotionally charged material is remembered better than emotionally neutral material, regardless of the amount of sleep. This is consistent with the notion that memory consolidation occurs with significant involvement of emotion-forming reinforcement systems. In addition, it turns out that although the deterioration of memorization during sleep deprivation is observed in all cases, the intensity of this effect depends significantly on the emotional coloring of the material. Most difficult is the reproduction of emotionally neutral and especially emotionally positive material. While changes in the reproduction of emotionally negative material are few and statistically unreliable.

Research into the role of daytime naps in the formation of procedural memory shows that with instrumental learning, people show improvement in skills only after sleeping for at least a few hours, regardless of whether they slept during the day or at night.

There is no unambiguous answer to the question about all the mechanisms of connection between the processes of sleep and memory, just as there is no answer to the question about possible compensatory mechanisms that develop after some impact on the brain structures usually involved in the processes of sleep and memory. Some researchers criticize the assumptions about the relationship between sleep mechanisms and memory mechanisms, arguing either that sleep generally plays only a passive (albeit positive) role in memorization, reducing the negative interference of memory traces, or that REM sleep is not involved in memory processes. In favor of the latter position, the following groups of arguments are given:

• Behavioral: all experiments on the study of deprivation of REM sleep by the “islet method” (an experimental animal is placed in conditions where, when losing a posture - which is inevitable in the stage of REM sleep, it falls into the water and wakes up) cannot be considered convincing, due to the inadequacy of the technique.
• Pharmacological: All three main classes of antidepressants (MAO inhibitors, tricyclics, and serotonin reuptake inhibitors) completely or almost completely suppress REM sleep, but do not cause learning and memory impairment in either patients or experimental animals.
• Clinical: there are several reports of patients with bilateral destruction in the region of the bridge - in such patients, REM sleep completely and, apparently, forever disappeared, but no complaints of learning and memory impairment have been reported from such patients.

memory and stress

memory and morality

People tend to repeat immoral acts, as the brain suppresses memories of its own such behavior. However, the serious consequences of "bad" deeds limit the possibilities of immoral amnesia.

Memory and physical activity

Scientists from the University of California (USA) have proven the link between exercise and memory. Regular exercise contributes to an increase in the level of glutamic and gamma-aminobutyric acids in the brain, which are necessary for many processes of mental activity and mood. Exercising for 20 minutes is enough to increase the concentration of these compounds and improve memory processes.

The genetics of memory

Memory processes

• Memorization is a memory process through which traces are imprinted, new elements of sensations, perception, thinking or experience are introduced into the system of associative links. Memorization can be arbitrary and involuntary, the basis of arbitrary memorization is the establishment of semantic connections - the result of the work of thinking on the content of the memorized material.
• Storage - the process of accumulation of material in the structure of memory, including its processing and assimilation. The preservation of experience makes it possible for a person to learn, develop his perceptual (internal assessments, perception of the world) processes, thinking and speech.
• Reproduction and recognition is the process of updating the elements of past experience (images, thoughts, feelings, movements). A simple form of reproduction is recognition - the recognition of a perceived object or phenomenon as already known from past experience, the establishment of similarities between the object and its image in memory. Reproduction is voluntary and involuntary. With an involuntary image pops up in the mind without the efforts of a person.

If in the process of reproduction there are difficulties, then there is a process of recall. Selection of elements necessary in terms of the required task. The reproduced information is not an exact copy of what is imprinted in memory. Information is always being transformed, rearranged.

• Forgetting is the loss of the ability to reproduce, and sometimes even recognize, previously memorized. What is forgotten most often is that which is insignificant. Forgetting can be partial (reproduction is incomplete or with an error) and complete (impossibility of reproduction and recognition). Distinguish between temporary and long-term forgetting.

Theoretical models of memory in psychology

The sensory processes that form the visual-spatial sketch, as well as the phonological loop in the Baddley memory model, are considered within the processing levels model of Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart as processing processes.

Classification of types of memory

There are different types of memory:

At the junction between episodic and semantic memory, autobiographical memory is distinguished, which includes features of both.

You can build another classification according to the content of memory:

procedural (memory for actions) and declarative (memory for names). Within the framework of the latter, episodic (memory for events and phenomena of a person's individual life) and semantic (knowledge of things that do not depend on a person's individual life) are distinguished.

sensory memory

Sensory memory stores stimulus information that occurs when stimuli are applied to the senses. Sensory memory retains sensory information after the stimulus has ceased.

iconic memory

Iconic memory is a type of sensory memory. Iconic memory is a discrete sensory recorder of visual stimuli. A feature of iconic memory is the fixation of information in a holistic, portrait form.

The experiments of George Spurling are connected with the study of iconic sensory memory, its volume. In his experiments, Sperling used both the Whole Report Procedure and his own development, the Partial Report Procedure. Due to the transience of iconic memory, the general reporting procedure did not allow an objective assessment of the amount of information recorded in the sensory memory, since during the reporting process itself, the portrait information was “forgotten”, it was erased from the sensory iconic memory. The partial reporting procedure showed that 75% of the visual field is registered in iconic memory. Sperling's experiments showed that information fades away in iconic memory quickly (within tenths of a second). It has also been found that the processes associated with iconic memory are not mentally controlled. Even when the subjects could not observe the symbols, they still reported that they continued to see them. Thus, the subject of the memorization process does not distinguish between the content of iconic memory and objects that are in the environment.

Erasing the information in the iconic memory with other information coming from the senses allows the visual sensation to be more receptive. This property of iconic memory - erasure - ensures the memorization of information in iconic memory, given its limited volume, even if the speed of sensory information incoming exceeds the rate of attenuation of sensory information in iconic memory. Studies have shown that if visual information arrives quickly enough (up to 100 milliseconds), then new information is superimposed on the previous one, which is still in memory, without having time to fade in it and move to another memory level - more long-term. This feature of iconic memory is called reverse masking effect . So, if you show a letter, and then for 100 milliseconds at the same position of the visual field - a ring, then the subject will perceive the letter in the ring.

echoic memory

Echoic memory stores stimulus information received through the organs of hearing.

Tactile memory

Tactile memory registers stimulus information coming through the somatosensory system.

Long-term and short-term memory

short term memory

a person will be able to remember much more letters because he is able to group (combine into chains) information about the semantic groups of letters (in the English original: FBIPHDTWAIBM and FBI PHD TWA IBM). Herbert Simon also showed that the ideal size for sequences of letters and numbers, whether meaningful or not, is three units. Perhaps in some countries this is reflected in the tendency to present a telephone number as several groups of 3 digits and a final group of 4 digits divided into 2 groups of two.

There are hypotheses that short-term memory relies mainly on an acoustic (verbal) code for storing information and, to a lesser extent, on a visual code. In his study (), Konrad showed that it is more difficult for subjects to recall sets of words that are acoustically similar.

Modern studies of ant communication have proven that ants are able to remember and transmit information up to 7 bits. Moreover, the influence of possible grouping of objects on the message length and transmission efficiency is shown. In this sense, the law "Magic number 7 ± 2" is also fulfilled for ants.

long term memory

Long-term memory is supported by more stable and unchanging changes in neural connections widely distributed throughout the brain. The hippocampus is important in consolidating information from short-term to long-term memory, although it does not appear to store information itself. Rather, the hippocampus is involved in changing neural connections after 3 months of initial training.

Description of memory in mnemonics

Memory properties

• Accuracy
• Volume
• The speed of memorization processes
• The speed of forgetting processes

Patterns of memory revealed in mnemonics

Memory has a volume limited by the number of stable processes that are basic when creating associations (connections, relationships)

The success of recall depends on the ability to switch attention to the basic processes, to restore them. The main technique: a sufficient number and frequency of repetitions.

There is such a pattern as the forgetting curve.

Mnemotechnical "laws" of memory

Law of memory	Implementation Practices
Law of Interest	Interesting things are easier to remember.
Law of comprehension	The deeper you become aware of the memorized information, the better it will be remembered.
Installation Law	If a person gave himself the installation to remember information, then memorization will happen easier.
Law of Action	The information involved in the activity (i.e., if knowledge is applied in practice) is remembered better.
Law of context	With the associative linking of information with already familiar concepts, the new is absorbed better.
Law of inhibition	When studying similar concepts, the effect of "overlapping" the old information with the new one is observed.
The Law of Optimal Row Length	The length of the memorized row for better memorization should not be much greater than the amount of short-term memory.
edge law	It is best to remember the information presented at the beginning and at the end.
Law of repetition	Information that is repeated several times is best remembered (see the forgetting curve).
Law of incompleteness (Zeigarnik effect)	Incomplete actions, tasks, unsaid phrases, etc. are best remembered.

Mnemonic memorization techniques

Mythology, religion, philosophy about memory

• In ancient Greek mythology, there is a myth about the river Lethe. Lethe means "oblivion" and is an integral part of the realm of the dead. The dead are those who have lost their memory. And on the contrary, some who were awarded preference - among them Tiresias or Amphiaraus - retained their memory even after their death.
• The opposite of the Lethe River is the Goddess Mnemosyne, personified Memory, sister of Kronos and Okeanos - the mother of all muses. She has Omniscience: according to Hesiod (Theogony, 32 38), she knows "everything that was, everything that is, and everything that will be." When the Muses take possession of the poet, he drinks from the source of knowledge of Mnemosyne, which means, first of all, that he touches the knowledge of the “origins”, “beginnings”.
• According to Plato's philosophy, Anamnesis is recollection, recollection is a concept that describes the basic procedure of the process of cognition.

see also

• Kim Peak, a man with a phenomenal memory, remembered up to 98% of the information he read
• Jill Price, a woman with a rare memory property - hyperthymesia

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Notes

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Literature

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• Konorski Yu., Integrative activity of the brain, trans. from English, M., 1970;
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• Assman Ya. Cultural memory. Writing, memory of the past and political identity in the high cultures of antiquity. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic culture, 2004
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Links

• Mechanisms of memory and forgetting. Transfer from the cycle "Night air". and .

An excerpt characterizing memory

After talking for some time in a general circle, Speransky got up and, going up to Prince Andrei, took him with him to the other end of the room. It was evident that he considered it necessary to deal with Bolkonsky.
“I didn’t have time to talk to you, prince, in the midst of that animated conversation in which this venerable old man was involved,” he said, smiling meekly contemptuously and with this smile, as if acknowledging that he, together with Prince Andrei, understands the insignificance of those people with whom he just spoke. This appeal flattered Prince Andrei. - I have known you for a long time: firstly, in your case about your peasants, this is our first example, to which it would be so desirable to have more followers; and secondly, because you are one of those chamberlains who did not consider themselves offended by the new decree on court ranks, causing such rumors and gossip.
- Yes, - said Prince Andrei, - my father did not want me to use this right; I started my service from the lower ranks.
- Your father, a man of the old age, obviously stands above our contemporaries, who so condemn this measure, which restores only natural justice.
“I think, however, that there is a basis in these condemnations ...” said Prince Andrei, trying to fight the influence of Speransky, which he began to feel. It was unpleasant for him to agree with him in everything: he wanted to contradict. Prince Andrei, who usually spoke easily and well, now felt difficulty in expressing himself when speaking with Speransky. He was too busy observing the personality of a famous person.
“There may be grounds for personal ambition,” Speransky quietly put in his word.
“Partly for the state,” said Prince Andrei.
- How do you understand? ... - Speransky said, quietly lowering his eyes.
“I am an admirer of Montesquieu,” said Prince Andrew. - And his idea that le principe des monarchies est l "honneur, me parait incontestable. Certains droits et privileges de la noblesse me paraissent etre des moyens de soutenir ce sentiment. [the basis of monarchies is honor, it seems to me undoubted. Some rights and the privileges of the nobility seem to me to be the means of sustaining this feeling.]
The smile disappeared from Speransky's white face, and his countenance benefited greatly from this. Probably the thought of Prince Andrei seemed entertaining to him.
“Si vous envisagez la question sous ce point de vue, [If you look at the subject like that],” he began, speaking French with obvious difficulty and speaking even more slowly than Russian, but perfectly calm. He said that honor, l "honneur, cannot be supported by advantages harmful to the course of service, that honor, l" honneur, is either: a negative concept of not doing reprehensible acts, or a well-known source of competition for obtaining approval and awards expressing it.
His arguments were concise, simple and clear.
The institution that maintains this honor, the source of competition, is an institution similar to the Legion d "honneur [Order of the Legion of Honor] of the great emperor Napoleon, which does not harm, but contributes to the success of the service, and not class or court advantage.
“I do not argue, but it cannot be denied that the advantage of the court achieved the same goal,” said Prince Andrei: “every courtier considers himself obliged to adequately bear his position.
“But you didn’t want to take advantage of it, prince,” said Speransky, showing with a smile that he, an awkward argument for his interlocutor, wants to end with courtesy. “If you do me the honor of welcoming me on Wednesday,” he added, “then I, after talking with Magnitsky, will tell you what may interest you, and besides, I will have the pleasure of talking with you in more detail. - He, closing his eyes, bowed, and a la francaise, [in the French manner,] without saying goodbye, trying to be unnoticed, left the hall.

During the first time of his stay in St. Petersburg, Prince Andrei felt his entire frame of mind, developed in his solitary life, completely obscured by those petty worries that seized him in St. Petersburg.
In the evening, returning home, he wrote down in his memory book 4 or 5 necessary visits or rendez vous [dates] at the appointed hours. The mechanism of life, the order of the day is such as to be in time everywhere, took away a large share of the very energy of life. He did nothing, did not even think about anything and did not have time to think, but only spoke and successfully said what he had managed to think over in the village before.
He sometimes noticed with displeasure that it happened to him on the same day, in different societies, to repeat the same thing. But he was so busy all day long that he did not have time to think that he did not think anything.
Speransky, both on the first meeting with him at Kochubey's, and then in the middle of the house, where Speransky, having received Bolkonsky, spoke with him privately and trustingly, made a strong impression on Prince Andrei.
Prince Andrei considered such a huge number of people to be contemptible and insignificant creatures, he so wanted to find in another a living ideal of that perfection to which he aspired, that he easily believed that in Speransky he found this ideal of a completely reasonable and virtuous person. If Speransky had been from the same society from which Prince Andrei was, of the same upbringing and moral habits, then Bolkonsky would soon have found his weak, human, non-heroic sides, but now this logical mindset, strange to him, inspired him all the more respect that he did not quite understand it. In addition, Speransky, whether because he appreciated the abilities of Prince Andrei, or because he found it necessary to acquire him for himself, Speransky flirted with Prince Andrei with his impartial, calm mind and flattered Prince Andrei with that subtle flattery, combined with arrogance, which consists in tacit recognition his interlocutor with himself, together with the only person capable of understanding all the stupidity of everyone else, and the rationality and depth of his thoughts.
During their long conversation on Wednesday evening, Speransky said more than once: “We look at everything that comes out of the general level of an inveterate habit ...” or with a smile: “But we want the wolves to be fed and the sheep safe ...” or : "They cannot understand this ..." and everything with such an expression that said: "We: you and I, we understand what they are and who we are."
This first, long conversation with Speransky only strengthened in Prince Andrei the feeling with which he saw Speransky for the first time. He saw in him a reasonable, strict-thinking, huge mind of a man who had achieved power with energy and perseverance and was using it only for the good of Russia. Speransky, in the eyes of Prince Andrei, was precisely that person who rationally explains all the phenomena of life, recognizes as valid only that which is reasonable, and knows how to apply the measure of rationality to everything, which he himself so wanted to be. Everything seemed so simple, clear in Speransky's presentation that Prince Andrei involuntarily agreed with him in everything. If he objected and argued, it was only because he wanted on purpose to be independent and not completely obey the opinions of Speransky. Everything was like that, everything was fine, but one thing confused Prince Andrei: it was Speransky’s cold, mirror-like look, not letting in his soul, and his white, tender hand, which Prince Andrei involuntarily looked at, as they usually look at people’s hands, having power. For some reason, this mirror look and this gentle hand irritated Prince Andrei. Unpleasantly, Prince Andrei was also struck by the too great contempt for people that he noticed in Speransky, and the variety of methods in the evidence that he cited in support of his opinions. He used all possible tools of thought, excluding comparisons, and too boldly, as it seemed to Prince Andrei, he moved from one to another. Now he took to the ground of a practical figure and condemned the dreamers, then to the ground of a satirist and ironically laughed at his opponents, then he became strictly logical, then he suddenly rose into the realm of metaphysics. (He used this last instrument of proof with particular frequency.) He carried the question to metaphysical heights, passed into the definitions of space, time, thought, and, bringing refutations from there, again descended to the ground of the dispute.
In general, the main feature of Speransky's mind, which struck Prince Andrei, was an undoubted, unshakable faith in the strength and legitimacy of the mind. It was evident that Speransky had never been able to come into the head of that ordinary thought for Prince Andrei that it is impossible to express everything that you think, and there never came a doubt that everything that I think and everything that I think is not nonsense. What do I believe? And this particular mindset of Speransky most of all attracted Prince Andrei.
At the first time of his acquaintance with Speransky, Prince Andrei had a passionate feeling of admiration for him, similar to the one he once felt for Bonaparte. The fact that Speransky was the son of a priest, whom stupid people could, as many did, began to be despised as a goofball and priest, forced Prince Andrei to be especially careful with his feeling for Speransky, and unconsciously strengthen it in himself.
On that first evening that Bolkonsky spent with him, talking about the commission for drafting laws, Speransky ironically told Prince Andrei that the commission of laws had existed for 150 years, cost millions and had done nothing, that Rosenkampf had pasted labels on all articles of comparative legislation. - And that's all for which the state paid millions! - he said.
“We want to give a new judicial power to the Senate, and we don't have laws. Therefore, it is a sin not to serve people like you, prince, now.
Prince Andrei said that this required a legal education, which he did not have.
- Yes, no one has it, so what do you want? This is the circulus viciosus, [the vicious circle] from which one must get out of the effort.

A week later, Prince Andrei was a member of the commission for drafting the military regulations, and, which he did not expect, the head of the department of the commission for compiling wagons. At the request of Speransky, he took the first part of the civil code being compiled and, with the help of the Code Napoleon and Justiniani, [the Code of Napoleon and Justinian,] worked on compiling the department: Rights of persons.

About two years ago, in 1808, returning to St. Petersburg from his trip to the estates, Pierre involuntarily became the head of St. Petersburg Freemasonry. He set up dining and funeral lodges, recruited new members, took care of uniting various lodges and acquiring genuine acts. He gave his money for the construction of temples and replenished, as far as he could, almsgiving, for which most of the members were stingy and sloppy. He almost alone at his own expense supported the house of the poor, arranged by the order in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, his life went on as before, with the same hobbies and licentiousness. He liked to dine and drink well, and although he considered it immoral and humiliating, he could not refrain from the amusements of bachelor societies in which he participated.
In the wake of his studies and hobbies, Pierre, however, after a year, began to feel how the soil of Freemasonry on which he stood, the more he left from under his feet, the more firmly he tried to become on it. At the same time, he felt that the deeper the soil on which he stood went under his feet, the more involuntarily he was connected with it. When he began Freemasonry, he experienced the feeling of a man trustingly placing his foot on the flat surface of a swamp. Putting his foot down, he fell. In order to fully assure himself of the firmness of the ground on which he stood, he put his other foot on and sank even more, got stuck and already involuntarily walked knee-deep in the swamp.
Iosif Alekseevich was not in Petersburg. (He has recently retired from the affairs of St. Petersburg lodges and lived without a break in Moscow.) All the brothers, members of the lodges, were people familiar to Pierre in life, and it was difficult for him to see in them only brothers in stoneworking, and not Prince B., not Ivan Vasilyevich D., whom he knew in life for the most part as weak and insignificant people. From under the Masonic aprons and signs, he saw on them uniforms and crosses, which they had achieved in life. Often, collecting alms and counting 20-30 rubles written down for the parish, and mostly in debt from ten members, of whom half were as rich as he was, Pierre recalled the Masonic oath that each brother promises to give everything property for a neighbor; and doubts arose in his soul, on which he tried not to dwell.
He divided all the brothers he knew into four categories. In the first category, he ranked brothers who do not take an active part either in the affairs of lodges or in human affairs, but are exclusively occupied with the sacraments of the science of the order, occupied with questions about the triple name of God, or about the three principles of things, sulfur, mercury and salt, or about the meaning square and all the figures of Solomon's temple. Pierre respected this category of Masonic brothers, to which the old brothers mostly belonged, and Joseph Alekseevich himself, according to Pierre, did not share their interests. His heart did not lie to the mystical side of Freemasonry.
In the second category, Pierre included himself and brothers like himself, who are searching, hesitating, who have not yet found a direct and understandable path in Freemasonry, but hoping to find it.
In the third category, he ranked the brothers (there were the largest number of them), who did not see anything in Freemasonry except for the external form and rituals and valued the strict execution of this external form, not caring about its content and meaning. Such were Vilarsky and even the great master of the main lodge.
Finally, a large number of brothers were included in the fourth category, especially those who had recently joined the brotherhood. These were people, according to Pierre's observations, who did not believe in anything, who did not want anything, and who entered Freemasonry only to get closer to young rich and strong brothers in connections and nobility, of whom there were very many in the lodge.
Pierre began to feel dissatisfied with his activities. Freemasonry, at least the Freemasonry he knew here, sometimes seemed to him to be based on appearance alone. He did not even think of doubting Freemasonry itself, but he suspected that Russian Freemasonry had taken the wrong path and deviated from its source. And therefore, at the end of the year, Pierre went abroad to initiate himself into the highest secrets of the order.

In the summer back in 1809, Pierre returned to St. Petersburg. According to the correspondence of our Freemasons with foreign ones, it was known that Bezuhiy managed to gain the trust of many high-ranking officials abroad, penetrated many secrets, was elevated to the highest degree, and was carrying with him a lot for the common good of the masonry business in Russia. Petersburg Freemasons all came to him, currying favor with him, and it seemed to everyone that he was hiding something and preparing something.
A solemn meeting of the lodge of the 2nd degree was appointed, in which Pierre promised to inform what he had to convey to the St. Petersburg brothers from the highest leaders of the order. The meeting was full. After the usual rituals, Pierre got up and began his speech.
“Dear brothers,” he began, blushing and stammering, and holding a written speech in his hand. – It is not enough to observe our sacraments in the quiet of the lodge – you need to act… act. We are in stupor, and we need to act. Pierre took his notebook and began to read.
“In order to spread pure truth and bring the triumph of virtue,” he read, we must cleanse people of prejudices, spread rules that are consistent with the spirit of the times, take upon ourselves the education of youth, unite with inseparable ties with the most intelligent people, boldly and together prudently overcome superstition, unbelief and stupidity, to form from people devoted to us, connected with each other by a unity of purpose and having power and strength.
“To achieve this goal, virtue must be given a preponderance over vice, one must strive so that an honest person gains an eternal reward for his virtues in this world. But in these great intentions we are hindered by quite a lot - the current political institutions. What to do in such a state of affairs? Shall we favor revolutions, overthrow everything, expel force by force?... No, we are very far from that. Every violent reform is reprehensible, because it will do nothing to correct evil as long as people remain as they are, and because wisdom has no need for violence.
“The entire plan of the order should be based on educating people who are firm, virtuous and bound by the unity of conviction, a conviction consisting in pursuing vice and stupidity everywhere and with all your might and patronizing talents and virtue: to extract worthy people from the dust, joining them to our brotherhood. Then only our order will have the power to insensitively bind the hands of the patrons of disorder and control them so that they do not notice it. In a word, it is necessary to establish a universal dominating form of government, which would extend over the whole world without destroying civil bonds, and under which all other governments could continue in their usual order and do everything except that only that hinders the great goal of our order, then is the delivery of virtue triumph over vice. Christianity itself presupposed this goal. It taught people to be wise and kind, and for their own benefit to follow the example and instructions of the best and wisest people.
“Then, when everything was immersed in darkness, of course, one sermon was enough: the news of the truth gave it special power, but now much stronger means are needed for us. Now it is necessary that a person, guided by his feelings, find sensual charms in virtue. It is impossible to eradicate passions; we must only try to direct them to a noble goal, and therefore it is necessary that everyone should be able to satisfy his passions within the limits of virtue, and that our order should provide means for this.
“As soon as we have a certain number of worthy people in each state, each of them again forms two others, and they all closely unite with each other - then everything will be possible for the order, which has already secretly managed to do a lot for the good of mankind.”
This speech made not only a strong impression, but also excitement in the box. The majority of the brothers, who saw in this speech the dangerous plans of the Illuminati, accepted his speech with coldness that surprised Pierre. The great master began to object to Pierre. Pierre began to develop his thoughts with great and great fervor. There hasn't been such a stormy meeting for a long time. Parties were formed: some accused Pierre, condemning him for the Illuminati; others supported him. For the first time at this meeting, Pierre was struck by the infinite diversity of human minds, which makes it so that no truth is equally presented to two people. Even those of the members who seemed to be on his side understood him in their own way, with limitations, changes that he could not agree to, since Pierre's main need was precisely to convey his thought to another exactly as he himself understood her.
At the end of the meeting, the great master, with hostility and irony, made a remark to Bezukhoi about his ardor and that not only love for virtue, but also the enthusiasm for the struggle led him in the dispute. Pierre did not answer him and briefly asked if his proposal would be accepted. He was told that no, and Pierre, without waiting for the usual formalities, left the box and went home.

Pierre again found that longing that he was so afraid of. For three days after delivering his speech in the box, he lay at home on the sofa, receiving no one and not leaving anywhere.
At this time, he received a letter from his wife, who begged him for a date, wrote about her sadness for him and about her desire to devote her whole life to him.
At the end of the letter, she informed him that one of these days she would come to St. Petersburg from abroad.
Following the letter, one of the Masonic brothers, less respected by him, burst into Pierre’s solitude and, having brought the conversation to Pierre’s marital relations, in the form of fraternal advice, expressed to him the idea that his strictness towards his wife was unfair, and that Pierre deviates from the first rules of the Mason. not forgiving the penitent.
At the same time, his mother-in-law, the wife of Prince Vasily, sent for him, begging him to visit her at least for a few minutes to negotiate a very important matter. Pierre saw that there was a conspiracy against him, that they wanted to unite him with his wife, and this was not even unpleasant for him in the state in which he was. He did not care: Pierre did not consider anything in life a matter of great importance, and under the influence of the anguish that now took possession of him, he did not value either his freedom or his persistence in punishing his wife.
"No one is right, no one is to blame, so she is not to blame either," he thought. - If Pierre did not immediately express his consent to union with his wife, it was only because in the state of anguish in which he was, he was not able to do anything. If his wife came to him, he would not drive her away now. Was it not all the same, in comparison with what occupied Pierre, to live or not to live with his wife?
Without answering anything to his wife or mother-in-law, Pierre once got ready for the road late in the evening and left for Moscow to see Iosif Alekseevich. Here is what Pierre wrote in his diary.
Moscow, November 17th.
I have just arrived from a benefactor, and I hasten to write down everything that I experienced at the same time. Iosif Alekseevich lives in poverty and suffers for the third year from a painful bladder disease. No one ever heard from him a groan, or a word of grumbling. From morning until late at night, with the exception of the hours in which he eats the simplest food, he works on science. He received me graciously and sat me down on the bed on which he was lying; I made him the sign of the knights of the East and Jerusalem, he answered me the same, and with a meek smile asked me about what I had learned and acquired in the Prussian and Scottish lodges. I told him everything as well as I could, conveying the grounds that I offered in our St. Petersburg box and reported on the bad reception that had been given to me, and about the rupture that had occurred between me and the brothers. Iosif Alekseevich, after a considerable pause and thought, presented to me his view of all this, which instantly illuminated for me everything that had passed and the whole future path that lay before me. He surprised me by asking me if I remember what the threefold purpose of the order is: 1) to keep and know the sacrament; 2) in the purification and correction of oneself for the perception of it, and 3) in the correction of the human race through the desire for such purification. What is the main and first goal of these three? Certainly own correction and purification. Only towards this goal can we always strive, regardless of all circumstances. But at the same time, this goal requires the most labor from us, and therefore, deluded by pride, we, missing this goal, either take on the sacrament that we are unworthy to receive because of our impurity, or take on the correction of the human race, when we ourselves are an example of abomination and depravity. Illuminism is not a pure doctrine precisely because it is carried away by social activities and is full of pride. On this basis, Iosif Alekseevich condemned my speech and all my activities. I agreed with him in the depths of my soul. On the occasion of our conversation about my family affairs, he said to me: - The main duty of a true Mason, as I told you, is to perfect himself. But often we think that by removing all the difficulties of our life from ourselves, we will more quickly achieve this goal; on the contrary, my lord, he told me, only in the midst of secular unrest can we achieve three main goals: 1) self-knowledge, for a person can know himself only through comparison, 2) improvement, only by struggle is it achieved, and 3) achieve the main virtue - love for death. Only the vicissitudes of life can show us the futility of it and can contribute to our innate love for death or rebirth to a new life. These words are all the more remarkable because Iosif Alekseevich, despite his severe physical suffering, is never burdened by life, but loves death, for which, despite all the purity and loftiness of his inner man, he still does not feel himself sufficiently prepared. Then the benefactor fully explained to me the meaning of the great square of the universe and pointed out that the triple and the seventh number are the foundation of everything. He advised me not to distance myself from communication with the St. Petersburg brothers and, occupying only positions of the 2nd degree in the lodge, to try, distracting the brothers from the hobbies of pride, to turn them to the true path of self-knowledge and improvement. In addition, for himself personally, he advised me first of all to take care of myself, and for this purpose he gave me a notebook, the same one in which I write and will continue to enter all my actions.
Petersburg, November 23rd.
“I live with my wife again. My mother-in-law came to me in tears and said that Helen was here and that she begged me to listen to her, that she was innocent, that she was unhappy at my abandonment, and much more. I knew that if I only allowed myself to see her, I would no longer be able to refuse her desire. In my doubt, I did not know whose help and advice to resort to. If the benefactor were here, he would tell me. I retired to my room, reread the letters of Joseph Alekseevich, remembered my conversations with him, and from everything I deduced that I should not refuse the one who asks and should give a helping hand to anyone, especially a person so connected with me, and should bear my cross. But if I forgave her for the sake of virtue, then let my union with her have one spiritual goal. So I decided and so I wrote to Joseph Alekseevich. I told my wife that I ask her to forget everything old, I ask her to forgive me what I could be guilty of before her, and that I have nothing to forgive her. I was glad to tell her this. Let her not know how hard it was for me to see her again. Settled in a large house in the upper chambers and experiencing a happy feeling of renewal.

As always, even then, high society, uniting together at court and at big balls, was divided into several circles, each with its own shade. Among them, the most extensive was the French circle, the Napoleonic Union - Count Rumyantsev and Caulaincourt "a. In this circle, Helen occupied one of the most prominent places as soon as she and her husband settled in St. Petersburg. She visited the gentlemen of the French embassy and a large number of people, known for their intelligence and courtesy, who belonged to this direction.
Helen was in Erfurt during the famous meeting of the emperors, and from there she brought these connections with all the Napoleonic sights of Europe. In Erfurt, she had a brilliant success. Napoleon himself, noticing her in the theater, said about her: "C" est un superbe animal. "[This is a beautiful animal.] Her success as a beautiful and elegant woman did not surprise Pierre, because over the years she became even more beautiful than before But what surprised him was that in these two years his wife managed to acquire a reputation for herself
"d" une femme charmante, aussi spirituelle, que belle. "[A charming woman, as smart as beautiful.] The famous Prince de Ligne [Prince de Ligne] wrote letters to her on eight pages. Bilibin saved his mots [words], to say them for the first time in the presence of Countess Bezukhova.To be received in the salon of Countess Bezukhova was considered a diploma of the mind; young people read books before Helen's evening, so that there was something to talk about in her salon, and the secretaries of the embassy, ​​and even envoys, confided diplomatic secrets to her, so that Helene was a force in some way. Pierre, who knew that she was very stupid, with a strange feeling of bewilderment and fear, sometimes attended her parties and dinners, where politics, poetry and philosophy were discussed. At these evenings he experienced a similar feeling which the conjurer must experience, expecting every time that his deceit is about to be revealed.But whether because stupidity was needed to run such a salon, or because the deceived themselves not in this deceit, the deceit was not revealed, and the reputation of d "une femme charmante et spirituelle was so unshakably established for Elena Vasilyevna Bezukhova that she could speak the biggest vulgarities and stupidities, and yet everyone admired her every word and looked for deep meaning in it which she herself did not suspect.
Pierre was exactly the husband that was needed for this brilliant, secular woman. He was that absent-minded eccentric, the husband of a grand seigneur [great gentleman], who does not interfere with anyone and not only does not spoil the general impression of the high tone of the living room, but, by his opposite to the grace and tact of his wife, serves as an advantageous background for her. Pierre, in these two years, as a result of his constant concentrated occupation with immaterial interests and sincere contempt for everything else, learned in his wife’s company that did not interest him that tone of indifference, carelessness and favor to everyone, which is not acquired artificially and which therefore inspires involuntary respect . He entered his wife's drawing room as if into a theatre, knew everyone, was equally happy with everyone, and was equally indifferent to everyone. Sometimes he entered into a conversation that interested him, and then, without thinking about whether or not there were les messieurs de l "ambassade [employees at the embassy], mumbled his opinions, which were sometimes completely out of tune with the present moment. But the opinion about the eccentric husband de la femme la plus distinguee de Petersbourg [the most remarkable woman in Petersburg] was already so established that no one took au serux [seriously] his antics.
Among the many young people who daily visited Helen's house, Boris Drubetskoy, who had already been very successful in the service, was, after Helen's return from Erfurt, the closest person in the Bezukhovs' house. Helen called him mon page [my page] and treated him like a child. Her smile towards him was the same as towards everyone, but sometimes it was unpleasant for Pierre to see this smile. Boris treated Pierre with special, dignified and sad respect. This shade of deference also bothered Pierre. Pierre suffered so painfully three years ago from the insult inflicted on him by his wife that now he saved himself from the possibility of such an insult, firstly by the fact that he was not the husband of his wife, and secondly by the fact that he did not allow himself to suspect.
“No, now having become a bas bleu [blue stocking], she forever abandoned her former hobbies,” he said to himself. “There was no example of bas bleu having passions of the heart,” he repeated to himself, from no one knew where, a rule he had undeniably believed. But, strange to say, the presence of Boris in his wife's living room (and he was almost constantly) had a physical effect on Pierre: it bound all his members, destroyed his unconsciousness and freedom of movement.
“Such a strange antipathy,” thought Pierre, “and before that I even liked him very much.
In the eyes of the world, Pierre was a great gentleman, a somewhat blind and ridiculous husband of a famous wife, an intelligent eccentric, doing nothing, but not harming anyone, a glorious and kind fellow. In the soul of Pierre, during all this time, a complex and difficult work of inner development took place, which revealed a lot to him and led him to many spiritual doubts and joys.

He continued his diary, and this is what he wrote in it during this time:
“November 24th.
“I got up at eight o’clock, read Holy Scripture, then went to the office (Pierre, on the advice of a benefactor, entered the service of one of the committees), returned to dinner, dined alone (the countess has many guests, unpleasant to me), ate and drank moderately and after dinner he copied plays for the brothers. In the evening he went down to the countess and told a funny story about B., and only then remembered that he should not have done this, when everyone was already laughing out loud.
“I go to bed with a happy and peaceful spirit. Great Lord, help me to walk in Your paths, 1) overcome the part of the wrath - quietness, slowness, 2) lust - abstinence and disgust, 3) move away from the hustle and bustle, but not excommunicate myself from a) state affairs of service, b) from family worries , c) from friendly relations and d) economic pursuits.
“November 27th.
“I got up late and woke up for a long time lying on the bed, indulging in laziness. My God! help me and strengthen me so that I may walk in Your ways. I read Holy Scripture, but without the proper feeling. Brother Urusov came and talked about the vanities of the world. He spoke about the new plans of the sovereign. I began to condemn, but I remembered my rules and the words of our benefactor that a true Freemason should be an assiduous worker in the state when his participation is required, and a calm contemplator of what he is not called to. My tongue is my enemy. Brothers G. V. and O. visited me, there was a preparatory conversation for the acceptance of a new brother. They make me the speaker. I feel weak and unworthy. Then the discussion turned to the explanation of the seven pillars and steps of the temple. 7 sciences, 7 virtues, 7 vices, 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit. Brother O. was very eloquent. In the evening, the acceptance took place. The new arrangement of the premises greatly contributed to the splendor of the spectacle. Boris Drubetskoy was accepted. I proposed it, I was the rhetorician. A strange feeling agitated me throughout my stay with him in the dark temple. I found in myself a feeling of hatred for him, which I vainly strive to overcome. And therefore I would have wished to truly save him from evil and lead him on the path of truth, but bad thoughts about him did not leave me. It seemed to me that his purpose in joining the fraternity was only a desire to get close to people, to be in favor with those in our lodge. Apart from the fact that he asked several times if N. and S. were in our box (to which I could not answer him), except that, according to my observations, he was not able to feel respect for our holy Order and was too busy and pleased with the outward man, in order to desire spiritual improvement, I had no reason to doubt him; but he seemed insincere to me, and all the time when I stood with him eye to eye in the dark temple, it seemed to me that he smiled contemptuously at my words, and I really wanted to prick his bare chest with the sword that I held, put to it . I could not be eloquent and could not sincerely convey my doubt to the brothers and the great master. Great Architect of nature, help me to find the true paths leading out of the labyrinth of lies.
After that, three sheets were omitted from the diary, and then the following was written:
“I had an instructive and long conversation alone with brother B., who advised me to stick to brother A. Much, although unworthy, was revealed to me. Adonai is the name of the creator of the world. Elohim is the name of the ruler of all. The third name, the name of the utterance, having the meaning of the All. Conversations with Brother V. reinforce, refresh, and establish me on the path of virtue. With him there is no room for doubt. It is clear to me the difference between the poor teaching of the social sciences and our holy, all-embracing teaching. Human sciences subdivide everything - in order to understand, they kill everything - in order to consider. In the holy science of the Order, everything is one, everything is known in its totality and life. Trinity - the three principles of things - sulfur, mercury and salt. Sulfur of unctuous and fiery properties; in conjunction with salt, its fieryness arouses hunger in it, by means of which it attracts mercury, seizes it, holds it, and collectively produces individual bodies. Mercury is a liquid and volatile spiritual essence - Christ, the Holy Spirit, He.
“December 3rd.
“Woke up late, read the Holy Scriptures, but was insensible. Then he got out and walked around the room. I wanted to think, but instead my imagination presented an incident that happened four years ago. Mr. Dolokhov, meeting me in Moscow after my duel, told me that he hoped that I now enjoyed complete peace of mind, despite the absence of my wife. I didn't answer then. Now I recalled all the details of this meeting, and in my soul spoke to him the most spiteful words and sharp replies. He came to his senses and gave up this thought only when he saw himself inflamed with anger; but did not repent of it enough. After that, Boris Drubetskoy came and began to tell various adventures; but from the very moment of his arrival I became dissatisfied with his visit and told him something nasty. He objected. I flared up and said a lot of unpleasant and even rude things to him. He fell silent and I caught myself only when it was already too late. My God, I can't deal with him at all. This is due to my ego. I put myself above him and therefore become much worse than him, for he is indulgent towards my rudeness, and on the contrary, I have contempt for him. My God, grant me in his presence to see more of my abomination and act in such a way that it would be useful to him. After dinner I fell asleep, and while I was falling asleep, I distinctly heard a voice saying in my left ear: “Your day.”
“I saw in a dream that I was walking in the dark, and suddenly surrounded by dogs, but I was walking without fear; suddenly one small one grabbed me by the left stegono with her teeth and did not let go. I started pushing her with my hands. And as soon as I tore it off, another, even larger one, began to gnaw at me. I began to lift it and the more I lifted it, the bigger and heavier it became. And suddenly brother A. came and, taking me by the arm, led me with him and led me to the building, to enter which I had to go along a narrow plank. I stepped on it and the board buckled and fell, and I began to climb the fence, which I could hardly reach with my hands. After a lot of effort, I dragged my body so that my legs hung on one side and my torso on the other side. I looked around and saw that Brother A. was standing on the fence and was pointing me to a large avenue and a garden, and a large and beautiful building in the garden. I woke up. Lord, Great Architecton of nature! help me tear off the dogs from me - my passions and the last of them, integrating the strength of all the former ones, and help me enter that temple of virtue, which I have achieved in a dream.
“December 7th.
“I had a dream that Iosif Alekseevich was sitting in my house, I am very happy, and I want to treat him. It’s as if I’m chatting with strangers incessantly and suddenly remembered that he can’t like it, and I want to get closer to him and hug him. But as soon as I approached, I see that his face has changed, it has become young, and he quietly says something to me from the teachings of the Order, so quietly that I cannot hear. Then, as if, we all left the room, and something strange happened here. We sat or lay on the floor. He told me something. And it was as if I wanted to show him my sensitivity, and without listening to his speech, I began to imagine the state of my inner man and the grace of God that overshadowed me. And there were tears in my eyes, and I was pleased that he noticed it. But he looked at me with annoyance and jumped up, cutting off his conversation. I became embittered and asked if what had been said referred to me; but he did not answer, showed me an affectionate look, and after that we suddenly found ourselves in my bedroom, where there is a double bed. He lay down on her on the edge, and I seemed to burn with a desire to caress him and lie down right there. And he seemed to ask me: “Tell me, what is your main passion? Did you recognize him? I think you already know him." I, embarrassed by this question, answered that laziness was my main addiction. He shook his head in disbelief. And I answered him, even more embarrassed, that although I live with my wife, according to his advice, but not as the husband of my wife. To this he objected that he should not deprive his wife of his affection, he made me feel that this was my duty. But I answered that I was ashamed of it, and suddenly everything disappeared. And I woke up and found in my thoughts the text of the Holy Scriptures: The belly was the light of a man, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not embrace it. Iosif Alekseevich's face was youthful and bright. On this day I received a letter from a benefactor in which he writes about the obligations of marriage.
“December 9th.
“I had a dream from which I woke up with a trembling heart. He saw that I was in Moscow, in my house, in a large sofa room, and Iosif Alekseevich was coming out of the living room. It was as if I immediately knew that the process of rebirth had already taken place with him, and I rushed to meet him. It’s like I’m kissing him, and his hands, and he says: “Have you noticed that my face is different?” I looked at him, continuing to hold him in my arms, and as if I see that his face is young, but the hair on his head no, and the features are completely different. And it’s as if I’m saying to him: “I would recognize you if I met you by chance,” and meanwhile I think: “Did I tell the truth?” And suddenly I see that he lies like a dead corpse; then, little by little, he came to his senses and entered with me into a large study, holding a large book, written in Alexandrian leaf. And it’s like I’m saying: “I wrote this.” And he answered me with a nod of his head. I opened the book, and in this book all the pages are beautifully drawn. And I seem to know that these pictures represent the love affairs of the soul with her lover. And on the pages, as if I see a beautiful image of a girl in transparent clothes and with a transparent body, flying up to the clouds. And as if I know that this girl is nothing but the image of the Song of Songs. And it’s as if I, looking at these drawings, feel that I’m doing badly, and I can’t tear myself away from them. God help me! My God, if this abandonment of me by You is Your action, then may Your will be done; but if I myself caused this, then teach me what to do. I will perish from my depravity if You leave me altogether.”

The Rostovs' money affairs did not improve during the two years they spent in the countryside.
Despite the fact that Nikolai Rostov, firmly holding on to his intention, continued to serve darkly in a remote regiment, spending relatively little money, the course of life in Otradnoye was such, and especially Mitenka did business in such a way that debts grew irresistibly every year. The only help that the old count obviously had was the service, and he came to Petersburg to look for places; look for places and at the same time, as he said, amuse the girls for the last time.
Shortly after the Rostovs' arrival in Petersburg, Berg proposed to Vera, and his proposal was accepted.
Despite the fact that in Moscow the Rostovs belonged to high society, without knowing it themselves and without thinking about what society they belonged to, in St. Petersburg their society was mixed and indefinite. In St. Petersburg they were provincials, to whom the very people who, without asking what society they belonged to, were fed by the Rostovs in Moscow did not descend.
The Rostovs in St. Petersburg lived as hospitably as in Moscow, and the most diverse people converged at their dinners: neighbors in Otradnoye, old, poor landowners with their daughters and the maid of honor Peronskaya, Pierre Bezukhov and the son of the county postmaster, who served in St. Petersburg. Of the men, Boris, Pierre, who, having met on the street, was dragged to his place by the old count, and Berg, who spent whole days with the Rostovs and showed the elder Countess Vera such attention that a young man can intending to propose.
It was not for nothing that Berg showed everyone his right hand, wounded in the battle of Austerlitz, and held a completely unnecessary sword in his left. He told everyone this event so stubbornly and with such significance that everyone believed in the expediency and dignity of this act, and Berg received two awards for Austerlitz.
In the Finnish War, he also managed to distinguish himself. He picked up a fragment of a grenade, which killed the adjutant near the commander-in-chief, and brought this fragment to the commander. Just like after Austerlitz, he told everyone about this event for so long and stubbornly that everyone also believed that it had to be done, and Berg received two awards for the Finnish War. In 1919, he was a captain of the guard with orders and occupied some special advantageous places in St. Petersburg.
Although some freethinkers smiled when they were told about Berg's merits, one could not but agree that Berg was a serviceable, brave officer, in excellent standing with his superiors, and a moral young man with a brilliant career ahead and even a strong position in society.
Four years ago, having met in the stalls of the Moscow theater with a German comrade, Berg pointed out Vera Rostova to him and said in German: “Das soll mein Weib werden”, [She must be my wife,] and from that moment decided to marry her. Now, in Petersburg, realizing the position of the Rostovs and his own, he decided that the time had come, and made an offer.
Berg's proposal was accepted at first with unflattering bewilderment for him. At first it seemed strange that the son of a dark, Livonian nobleman would propose to Countess Rostova; but the main feature of Berg's character was such a naive and good-natured egoism that the Rostovs involuntarily thought that it would be good if he himself was so firmly convinced that it was good and even very good. Moreover, the affairs of the Rostovs were very upset, which the groom could not help but know, and most importantly, Vera was 24 years old, she went everywhere, and, despite the fact that she was undoubtedly good and reasonable, so far no one has ever made her an offer . Consent was given.
“You see,” Berg said to his comrade, whom he called a friend only because he knew that all people have friends. “You see, I figured it all out, and I wouldn’t get married if I didn’t think it all over, and for some reason it would be inconvenient. And now, on the contrary, my papa and mama are now provided for, I arranged this lease for them in the Ostsee region, and I can live in Petersburg with my salary, with her condition and with my accuracy. You can live well. I don’t marry for money, I think it’s ignoble, but it’s necessary that the wife bring her own, and the husband his. I have a service - it has connections and small means. That means something to us these days, doesn't it? And most importantly, she is a beautiful, respectable girl and loves me ...
Berg blushed and smiled.
“And I love her because she has a sensible personality—very good. Here is her other sister - of the same surname, but completely different, and an unpleasant character, and there is no mind, and such, you know? ... Unpleasant ... And my bride ... You will come to us ... - continued Berg, he wanted to say dine, but changed his mind and said: “drink tea”, and, quickly piercing it with his tongue, he released a round, small ring of tobacco smoke, which fully personified his dreams of happiness.
Next to the first feeling of bewilderment aroused in the parents by Berg's proposal, the usual festivity and joy settled in the family, but the joy was not sincere, but external. In the feelings of relatives regarding this wedding, confusion and shame were noticeable. As if they were ashamed now for the fact that they had little love for Vera, and now they were so willing to sell her off their hands. Most embarrassed was the old count. He probably would not have been able to name what was the cause of his embarrassment, and this reason was his money matters. He absolutely did not know what he had, how much debt he had, and what he would be able to give as a dowry to Vera. When the daughters were born, each was assigned 300 souls as a dowry; but one of these villages had already been sold, the other was mortgaged and so overdue that it had to be sold, so it was impossible to give the estate. There was no money either.
Berg had been the bridegroom for more than a month and only a week remained before the wedding, and the count had not yet decided with himself the question of dowry and did not talk about it with his wife. The count either wanted to separate Vera from the Ryazan estate, then he wanted to sell the forest, then he wanted to borrow money against a bill. A few days before the wedding, Berg entered the count's office early in the morning and, with a pleasant smile, respectfully asked the future father-in-law to tell him what would be given for Countess Vera. The count was so embarrassed at this long-anticipated question that he said without thinking the first thing that came into his head.
- I love that I took care, I love you, you will be satisfied ...
And he patted Berg on the shoulder and stood up, wanting to end the conversation. But Berg, smiling pleasantly, explained that if he did not know correctly what would be given for Vera, and did not receive in advance at least a part of what was assigned to her, then he would be forced to refuse.
“Because judge, Count, if I now allowed myself to marry, without having certain means to support my wife, I would act vilely ...
The conversation ended with the count, wishing to be generous and not be subjected to new requests, said that he was issuing a bill of 80 thousand. Berg smiled meekly, kissed the count on the shoulder and said that he was very grateful, but now he could not get settled in his new life without receiving 30 thousand in clean money. “At least 20 thousand, Count,” he added; - And then the bill was only 60 thousand.
- Yes, yes, good, - the count spoke quickly, - just excuse me, my friend, I will give 20 thousand, and the bill is also for 80 thousand ladies. So, kiss me.

Natasha was 16 years old, and it was 1809, the same year until which, four years ago, she counted on her fingers with Boris after she kissed him. Since then, she has never seen Boris. In front of Sonya and with her mother, when the conversation turned to Boris, she spoke quite freely, as if it were a settled matter, that everything that had happened before was childish, about which it was not worth even talking about, and which had long been forgotten. But in the most secret depths of her soul, the question of whether the commitment to Boris was a joke or an important, binding promise tormented her.
Ever since Boris left Moscow for the army in 1805, he had not seen the Rostovs. Several times he visited Moscow, passing not far from Otradnoye, but he never visited the Rostovs.
It sometimes occurred to Natasha that he did not want to see her, and her guesses were confirmed by the sad tone in which the elders used to say about him:
“In this century, old friends are not remembered,” the countess said after the mention of Boris.
Anna Mikhailovna, who had lately visited the Rostovs less frequently, also behaved herself in a particularly dignified manner, and each time spoke enthusiastically and gratefully about the merits of her son and about the brilliant career in which he was. When the Rostovs arrived in St. Petersburg, Boris came to visit them.
He rode towards them not without emotion. The memory of Natasha was the most poetic memory of Boris. But at the same time, he rode with the firm intention of making it clear to her and her family that the childish relationship between him and Natasha could not be an obligation either for her or for him. He had a brilliant position in society, thanks to intimacy with Countess Bezukhova, a brilliant position in the service, thanks to the patronage of an important person, whose trust he fully enjoyed, and he had nascent plans for marrying one of the richest brides in St. Petersburg, which could very easily come true. . When Boris entered the Rostovs' living room, Natasha was in her room. Upon learning of his arrival, she flushed almost ran into the living room, beaming with more than an affectionate smile.
Boris remembered that Natasha in a short dress, with black eyes shining from under her curls and with a desperate, childish laugh, whom he knew 4 years ago, and therefore, when a completely different Natasha entered, he was embarrassed, and his face expressed enthusiastic surprise. This expression on his face delighted Natasha.
“What, do you recognize your little friend as a minx?” said the Countess. Boris kissed Natasha's hand and said that he was surprised at the change that had taken place in her.
- How you have improved!
“Sure!” answered Natasha's laughing eyes.
- Is your father old? she asked. Natasha sat down and, without entering into a conversation between Boris and the countess, silently examined her children's fiancé to the smallest detail. He felt the weight of that stubborn, affectionate look on himself, and from time to time glanced at her.
Uniform, spurs, tie, Boris's hairstyle, all this was the most fashionable and comme il faut [quite decently]. Natasha noticed this now. He was sitting a little sideways on an armchair near the countess, adjusting with his right hand the cleanest, drenched glove on his left, he spoke with a special, refined pursing of his lips about the amusements of the highest Petersburg society and with gentle mockery recalled the old Moscow times and Moscow acquaintances. Not accidentally, as Natasha felt it, he mentioned, naming the highest aristocracy, about the ball of the envoy, which he was at, about invitations to NN and to SS.
Natasha sat all the time in silence, looking at him from under her brows. This look more and more disturbed and embarrassed Boris. He often looked back at Natasha and interrupted his stories. He sat for no more than 10 minutes and stood up, bowing. All the same curious, defiant and somewhat mocking eyes looked at him. After his first visit, Boris told himself that Natasha was just as attractive to him as before, but that he should not give in to this feeling, because marrying her - a girl with almost no fortune - would be the death of his career, and resuming the old relationship without the purpose of marriage would be an ignoble act. Boris decided on his own to avoid meeting Natasha, but, despite this decision, he arrived a few days later and began to travel often and spend whole days with the Rostovs. It seemed to him that he needed to explain himself to Natasha, to tell her that everything old should be forgotten, that, despite everything ... she cannot be his wife, that he has no fortune, and she will never be given for him. But he did not succeed in everything and it was embarrassing to start this explanation. Every day he became more and more confused. Natasha, according to the remark of her mother and Sonya, seemed to be in love with Boris in the old way. She sang his favorite songs to him, showed him her album, forced him to write in it, did not allow him to remember the old, letting him know how wonderful the new was; and every day he left in a fog, without saying what he intended to say, not knowing himself what he was doing and why he came, and how it would end. Boris stopped visiting Helen, received daily reproachful notes from her, and yet spent whole days with the Rostovs.

Definition of memory

Memory- this is a mental property of a person, the ability to accumulate, (remember) store, and reproduce experience and information. Another definition, says: memory is the ability to recall individual experiences from the past, realizing not only the experience itself, but its place in the history of our life, its placement in time and space. Memory is difficult to reduce to one concept. But we emphasize that memory is a set of processes and functions that expand the cognitive capabilities of a person. Memory covers all impressions about the world that a person has. Memory is a complex structure of several functions or processes that ensure the fixation of a person's past experience. Memory can be defined as a psychological process that performs the functions of storing, storing and reproducing material. These three functions are fundamental to memory.

Another important fact: memory stores and restores very different elements of our experience: intellectual, emotional, and motor-motor. The memory of feelings and emotions can last even longer than the intellectual memory of specific events.

Basic features of memory

The most important features, integral characteristics of memory are: duration, speed, accuracy, readiness, volume (memorization and reproduction). These characteristics determine how productive a person's memory is. These memory traits will be mentioned later in this work, but for now - a brief description of the memory productivity traits:

1. Volume - the ability to simultaneously store a significant amount of information. The average amount of memory is 7 elements (units) of information.

2. Speed ​​of memorization- differs from person to person. The speed of memorization can be increased with the help of a special memory training.

3. Accuracy - accuracy is manifested in the recall of facts and events that a person has encountered, as well as in the recall of the content of information. This trait is very important in learning.

4. Duration- the ability to retain the experience for a long time. A very individual quality: some people can remember the faces and names of school friends many years later (long-term memory is developed), some forget them after only a few years. The duration of memory is selective.

5. Ready to play - the ability to quickly reproduce information in the mind of a person. It is thanks to this ability that we can effectively use the experience gained earlier.

Types and forms of memory

There are different classifications of types of human memory:

1. By the participation of the will in the process of memorization;

2. According to the mental activity that prevails in the activity.

3. By the duration of information storage;

4. In essence, the subject and method of memorization.

By the nature of the participation of the will.

According to the nature of the target activity, memory is divided into involuntary and arbitrary.

1) involuntary memory means memorization and reproduction automatically, without any effort.

2) Arbitrary memory implies cases where a specific task is present, and volitional efforts are used for memorization.

It has been proven that material that is interesting to a person, that is important, is of great importance, is involuntarily remembered.

By the nature of mental activity.

According to the nature of mental activity, with the help of which a person remembers information, memory is divided into motor, emotional (affective), figurative and verbal-logical.

1) Motor (kinetic) memory there is memorization and preservation, and, if necessary, reproduction of diverse, complex movements. This memory is actively involved in the development of motor (labor, sports) skills and abilities. All manual movements of a person are associated with this type of memory. This memory manifests itself in a person first of all, and is essential for the normal development of the child.

2) Emotional memory- memory for experiences. Especially this kind of memory is manifested in human relationships. As a rule, what causes emotional experiences in a person is remembered by him without much difficulty and for a long time. It has been proven that there is a connection between the pleasantness of an experience and how it is retained in memory. Pleasant experiences are retained much better than unpleasant ones. Human memory is generally optimistic by nature. It is human nature to forget the unpleasant; memories of terrible tragedies, over time, lose their sharpness.

This type of memory plays an important role in human motivation, and this memory manifests itself very early: in infancy (about 6 months).

3) Figurative memory - associated with the memorization and reproduction of sensory images of objects and phenomena, their properties, relationships between them. This memory begins to manifest itself by the age of 2 years, and reaches its highest point by adolescence. Images can be different: a person remembers both images of various objects and a general idea of ​​them, with some kind of abstract content. In turn, figurative memory is divided according to the type of analyzers that are involved in memorizing impressions by a person. Figurative memory can be visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile and gustatory.

Different people have more active different analyzers, but as it was said at the beginning of the work, most people have better developed visual memory.

· Visual memory- associated with the preservation and reproduction of visual images. People with a developed visual memory usually have a well-developed imagination and are able to "see" information even when it no longer affects the senses. Visual memory is very important for people of certain professions: artists, engineers, designers. Mentioned before eidetic vision, or phenomenal memory b, is also characterized by a rich imagination, an abundance of images.

· Auditory memory - this is a good memorization and accurate reproduction of various sounds: speech, music. Such a memory is especially necessary when studying foreign languages, musicians, composers.

· Tactile, olfactory and gustatory memory- these are examples of memory (there are other types that will not be mentioned) that do not play a significant role in human life, because. the possibilities of such memory are very limited and its role is to satisfy the biological needs of the organism. These types of memory develop especially acutely in people of certain professions, as well as in special life circumstances. (Classic examples: blind-born and deaf-blind-mute).

4) Verbal-logical memory - this is a kind of memorization, when a word, thought, logic plays an important role in the memorization process. In this case, a person tries to understand the information being assimilated, clarify the terminology, establish all the semantic connections in the text, and only after that remember the material. It is easier for people with a developed verbal-logical memory to memorize verbal, abstract material, concepts, formulas. This type of memory, in combination with auditory, is possessed by scientists, as well as experienced lecturers, university professors, etc. logical memory when trained gives very good results, and is more effective than mere rote memorization. Some researchers believe that this memory is formed and begins to "work" later than other species. P.P. Blonsky called it "memory-story". A child already has it at the age of 3-4, when the very foundations of logic begin to develop. The development of logical memory occurs with the teaching of the child the basics of science.

By the duration of information storage:

1) Instant or iconic memory

This memory retains material that has just been received by the senses without any processing of information. The duration of this memory is from 0.1 to 0.5 s. Often, in this case, a person remembers information without conscious effort, even against his will. This is a memory image.

An individual perceives electromagnetic oscillations, changes in air pressure, changes in the position of an object in space, giving them a certain value. The stimulus always carries certain information specific only to it. The physical parameters of the stimulus affecting the receptor in the sensory system are converted into certain states of the central nervous system (CNS). Establishing a correspondence between the physical parameters of the stimulus and the state of the central nervous system is impossible without the work of memory. This memory is manifested in children as early as preschool age, but over the years its importance for a person increases.

2) short term memory

Saving information for a short period of time: on average, about 20 s. This kind of memory can occur after a single or very brief perception. This memory works without a conscious effort to remember, but with an attitude towards future reproduction. The most essential elements of the perceived image are stored in memory. Short-term memory "turns on" when the so-called actual consciousness of a person operates (that is, what is realized by a person and somehow correlates with his actual interests and needs).

Information is entered into short-term memory by paying attention to it. For example: a person who has seen his watch hundreds of times may not answer the question: “Which numeral - Roman or Arabic - is the number six shown on the watch?”. He never purposefully perceived this fact, and thus the information was not deposited in short-term memory.

The amount of short-term memory is very individual, and there are developed formulas and methods for measuring it. In this regard, it is necessary to mention such features as substitution property. When an individual memory space becomes full, new information partially replaces what is already stored there, and the old information often disappears forever. A good example would be the difficulty in remembering the abundance of first and last names of people we have just met. A person is able to retain no more names in short-term memory than his individual memory capacity allows.

By making a conscious effort, you can keep information in memory longer, which will ensure its transfer to working memory. This is the basis of memorization by repetition.

In fact, short-term memory plays a critical role. Thanks to short-term memory, a huge amount of information is processed. The unnecessary is immediately eliminated and what is potentially useful remains. As a result, there is no overload of long-term memory with unnecessary information. Short-term memory organizes a person’s thinking, since thinking “draws” information and facts from short-term and operative memory.

3) Working memory is memory, designed to store information for a certain, predetermined period. The storage period of information ranges from a few seconds to several days.

After solving the task, the information may disappear from the RAM. A good example would be the information that a student is trying to put in during an exam: the time frame and the task are clearly set. After passing the exam, there is again a complete "amnesia" on this issue. This type of memory is, as it were, transitional from short-term to long-term, as it includes elements of both memory.

4) long-term memory - memory capable of storing information indefinitely.

This memory does not begin to function immediately after the material has been memorized, but after some time. A person must switch from one process to another: from memorization to reproduction. These two processes are incompatible and their mechanisms are completely different.

Interestingly, the more often information is reproduced, the more firmly it is fixed in memory. In other words, a person can recall information at any necessary moment with the help of an effort of will. It is interesting to note that mental ability is not always an indicator of the quality of memory. For example, in weak-minded people, phenomenal long-term memory is sometimes found.

Why is the ability to store information necessary for the perception of information? This is due to two main reasons. First, a person deals at each moment of time with only relatively small fragments of the external environment. In order to integrate these time-separated influences into a coherent picture of the surrounding world, the effects of previous events in the perception of subsequent events must be, so to speak, “at hand”. The second reason has to do with the purposefulness of our behavior. The acquired experience should be remembered in such a way that it can be successfully used for the subsequent regulation of forms of behavior aimed at achieving similar goals. The information stored in the memory of a person is evaluated by him in terms of its significance for controlling behavior and, in accordance with this assessment, is kept in varying degrees of readiness.

Human memory is not in the least a passive store of information - it is an active activity.



Memory is a universal cognitive process.

Memory is a combination of three processes: 1) memorization, 2) preservation, 3) recall.

Memorization is the process of acquiring knowledge or the process of forming a skill. It is indicated in two forms: 1) imprinting (does not involve any effort on the part of the subject, everything happens at once, the extreme option is imprinting); 2) memorization (a person makes some efforts, the process is deployed in time).

Recall is the process of updating knowledge or skill (sometimes called the process of extracting knowledge). In what form can the following occur: 1) the process of implicit recall - the process of recall, in which the task of remembering something is not set at all (the process of generating associations); 2) explicit recall - the task of recall is set. Possible options: 1. recognition (test); 2. reproduction (without answer options, retrieval from memory).

Modern psychology is more interested in conservation processes. They are not well studied. Preservation - the retention of knowledge or the preservation of skills for some time (gradual completion, changes).

Types of memory.

Subject classification. Blonsky. 4 types of memory: 1) motor (motor); 2) affective; 3) figurative; 4) verbal-logical.

Motor memory - motor skills. It was first studied in behaviorism (Watson, Thorndike, Skinner).

Affective memory is memory for emotions, they tend to accumulate. First pointed out by Ribot. Freud studied in detail.

Image memory. G. Ebbinghaus. Memory is the connection of two representations, one gives rise to the other. Representation is an image.

Verbal-logical memory. First described in the works of Jean, who denied all other types of memory. Memory is a story.

Functional classification.

By processes (memorization, preservation, recall). Forgetting is a kind of remembering.

By connections (objective connections of memory (Ebbinghaus) and semantic (memory as recovery)).

By the presence of a conscious intention (whether or not there is a goal to remember): involuntary and arbitrary memory. Relevant for classical psychology. We investigated Zinchenko and Smirnov. They concluded that what is remembered (involuntarily) is material that corresponds to the mainstream of activity.

By the presence of a means of memorization (Vygotsky: knots for memory, write down, keep a diary): direct and indirect memory. Here we recall the parallelogram of development

According to the duration of information storage (Atkinson and Shifrin): ultra-short-term or instantaneous memory (sensory register; 1 second, maybe 3), short-term (up to a minute) and long-term (indefinitely long time).

Types of long-term memory: autobiographical (memory associated with a person's personality, for the events of one's own life); semantic memory (general knowledge; for example, knowledge of the meaning of words). This division was first introduced by Henri Bergson. Terms proposed by Endel Tulving (1972). Bergson used his own terms: memory of the body (semantic) and memory of the spirit (autobiographical). The memory of the spirit is immediately and for a long time, the memory of the body is a training, gradually.

Genetic classification(according to antiquity). Blonsky puts forward arguments in favor of considering the 4 types of memory that he identified as stages of its development. Ontogenetic and phylogenetic arguments: 1. The most ancient type of memory is motor memory. In the ontogenetic argument, this memory occurs earlier than others (in the first few days, the baby in the feeding position demonstrates sucking movements). Phylogeny - Protozoa have the simplest forms of motor memory. 2. Affective memory occurs after motor memory (in the first few months). Ontogenesis: Watson, showed the children a rabbit and pulled out a rug - fears arise. In phylogenesis - experiments with worms in labyrinths. 3. Figurative memory (develops until late childhood). In ontogeny, researchers disagree about when images appear in a child: at 6 months or at 2 years. In phylogenesis, one zoopsychologist claimed that his dog was dreaming. The people we call savages have images. Perhaps even more developed than the Europeans. 4. Verbal-logical memory. Does not exist in phylogeny. In ontogeny, it occurs at the age of 6-7, develops to adolescence and beyond. The destruction of memory goes from the highest to the lowest (from the verbal-logical and further).