The main types of human memory

Human memory is an important element of his activity. Throughout a person's life, all of his impressions and knowledge are memorized. Its types help to better understand information of a certain nature. Memory manifestations are extremely multifaceted and can be divided into several main categories. Different types of human memory are characterized by different features.

Types of memory for mental activity

By the nature of mental activity, the following types of memory are distinguished.

The motor memory provides a person remembering his movements. It underlies the formation of many practical and work skills. In particular, they include walking, the ability to write, and use various tools at work. In some cases, this kind of memory should be developed especially well for successful professional activities, for example, athletes or ballet dancers.

Emotional memory is a memory of emotions and feelings experienced before. The experiences saved in memory become the reason for the emergence of associations and actions on their basis in the event that a similar or similar situation arises again.

Image memory is characterized by the ability of a person to remember images. It can be pictures of nature, sounds, smells. As a rule, visual and auditory memory play a leading role in human life and is best developed. The rest of this memory is much worse for many people, but there are exceptions, most often related to professional activities. The olfactory memory of the creators of spirits or the taste of the tasters far exceeds the usual level. Good tactile memory often happens in the blind. Also there are people who have eidetic memory - the ability for some time to remember the smallest details of the objects seen.

Verbal-logical memory in its content is a human thought based on language. There are two types of such memory. In the first case, the basic meaning is better remembered without an emphasis on detail, whereas in the second case, memorization is more literally.

Types of memory according to the objectives of the activity

There are also types of memory by the nature of the goals of the activity.

The involuntary memory differs in that, in this case, the very purpose of memorization is missing. It is established that this type of memory is more developed in children, and with age, it is noticeably weakening. An interesting feature is that in this case, information is very often remembered reliably, although such a goal is absent.

Arbitrary memory improves with age, which in no small measure facilitates the use of special methods of memorization and purposeful training.

The memory is divided into the types and the duration of the preservation of the material.

Sensory memory is characterized by the fact that all processes take place at the receptor level, and information in the general case is stored for no more than half a second. If the information is of interest to the brain, then there is a delay. Otherwise, it is completely and completely erased.

Short-term memory comes into operation when the information is delayed for more than one second. For about 20 seconds, it is processed to determine the degree of its importance. If the brain recognizes that it deserves attention, then the elements of information (figures, words, names of objects, images) are transmitted further. The volume of short-term memory is very small, at the same time it can contain no more than five or nine elements. It is from this quantity that selection occurs, and the rest is irretrievably lost.

Long-term memory is something like an archive storage of unlimited capacity, where information received from short-term memory is classified, coded and stored for long-term storage.

Memory, types of memory - this is the most important function of the body, allowing a person to navigate in the ocean of information surrounding him.