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This article throws light upon the five types of memories. The types are: 1. Personal and Impersonal Memory 2. Role and Logical Memory 3. Habit and Pure Memory 4. Immediate and Permanent Memory 5. Immediate and Permanent Memory.
Type # 1.
Personal and Impersonal Memory:
In personal memory we remember not only the fact learned in the past but various other personal experiences connected with them. When you recall your first experience of college life and your contact with eminent professors, you remember many details of your personal life.
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This is personal memory. But in impersonal memory a fact alone is remembered but not along with other personal details. When you remember the fifth theorem of Euclid, you do not recall the particular incidents connected with the process of acquiring the knowledge of it. So it is impersonal memory.
Type # 2.
Role and Logical Memory:
Mechanical repetition of and experience without intelligent apprehension is called rote memory. It is cramming. It does not involve understanding or assimilation. A boy mechanically recites a poem again and again, and commits it to memory. This is rote memory.
Logical memory depends upon intelligent understanding or assimilation. It does not depend upon mere repetition. A boy thoroughly understands a theorem of geometry and reads it a number of times. He can easily retain and reproduce it on proper occasions. This is logical memory. Role memory is word for word memory of the learned material. Logical memory is memory for the meaning of the learned material.
Type # 3.
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Habit and Pure Memory:
Bergson’s distinction between ‘habit memory and pure memory’ is similar to the distinction between rote memory and logical memory. He holds that habit is a function of the body, but that memory is a function of the mind. When we learn some material (e.g., a poem) by mechanical repetition, we merely form a habit of reciting certain groups of words.
In reproducing the poem we do not recall the past experience but we merely recite it in a mechanical way. Bergson assigns ‘habit memory’ to the body, and ‘pure memory’ to the mind. Habit memory is the result of verbal repetitions. It consists in mechanical habit formation.
True memory depends on association and interest. Habit memory is rote memory. True memory is logical memory. Old pedagogy emphasized habit memory. Modern pedagogy lays stress on true memory.
True memory cannot be reduced to neural habit, because it does not depend upon repetition of the same matter, and because it depends upon its meaning and relation to the subject’s purpose. An intensely interesting scene or a charming song can be remembered, even if it was perceived on a single occasion.
When we memorize a poem, true memory predominates over neural habit, which is formed by neural associations. But true memory depends upon mental associations.
Type # 4.
Immediate and Permanent Memory:
The material learned may be recalled just after learning it. Or, it may be recalled after a lapse of time. Memory just after learning is called immediate, memory. Memory after a certain amount of time has elapsed and learning is called permanent memory. The element of forgetting during the period may eliminate much of the learned material.
The longer is the time allowed to elapse, the greater is the forgetting. Immediate memory increases with age. The child never attains the level of the adult. Immediate memory progresses at a slow rate up to the adolescent period, i.e., up to 14 years. It progresses very rapidly during adolescence, i.e., between 14 and 18 years.
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The individual attains his maximum limit of immediate memory by the age of 25 years. Immediate memory depends upon the law of perseveration. Owing to the operation of this law, an experience tends to reproduce itself or bob into consciousness automatically.
Perseveration is the tendency of the subconscious traces produced by learning a material to rise to the level of consciousness. Or, it is the spontaneous reactivation of a neural pattern or neurogram. Norman traces perseveration to neural facilitation.
The mystery of perseveration is not yet solved. Perseveration is a tendency of a subconscious trace produced by learning a material to rise to the level of consciousness. Or, it is the spontaneous reactivation of a neural pattern of neurogram. Probably it is due to neural facilitation.
The mystery of perseveration is not yet solved. The adult pays close attention to the learned matter. So perseveration becomes stronger, and he acquires greater immediate, memory. Permanent memory depends upon the laws of association. The more the learned material is associated with other ideas in the mind and wrought into the system of knowledge, the greater is the permanency of memory.
Type # 5.
Active and Passive Memory:
When past experiences flash into our memory without an effort of the will, our memory is passive or spontaneous. The sight of a ripe mango reminds us of its sweet taste. The sight of a delicious dish reminds us of its flavour. These are instances of passive memory.
But when we remember a past experience by an effort of the will, our memory is active. Active memory is called recollection. We try to recollect a forgotten name be an effort of the will and succeed at last in recollecting it. This is active memory.
Recollection is aided by fixation of ideas and control of suggestive forces. Fixation of ideas means concentration of attention on the partly revived images for their complete revival. If you fix your attention on the idea of Akbar, most of your knowledge about him will be revived.
And you ought to control the suggestive forces by attending to the ideas associated with the ideas to be revived. You ought to think of Akbar as a military commander, as a political administrator, and as a pro-pounder of religion. Then you will recollect all relevant ideas about him.