Many scientific works and monographs have been devoted to the study of memory, but despite this, it still remains in many ways a “thing in itself” for both specialists and ordinary people. By and large, we still do not know how our “storage system” works. Until recently, the theory prevailed that the laws of memory and brain functioning are unchanged. It was believed that the brain is capable of development only in childhood, and then changes only towards deterioration. This belief was based on three factors:

the extremely rare recovery of patients with brain damage in the past;
no study of brain activity at the neural level;
the brain as a mechanism, and mechanisms are not known to change or grow.
It is clear that in different people and at different ages the brain and, consequently, the memory can work worse and better. It is possible to estimate it only one way, to calculate a ratio of “input” and “output” information. But it’s hard to do. It is even more difficult to calculate the effectiveness of various methods and programs to influence memory and brain activity. First, there are different ways of training people. And secondly, the test will not be clean, as each next software product will accumulate the impact left by the previous ones.

However, most specialists now agree that memory is capable of developing when it is systematically trained. This is logical and does not contradict the main laws according to which the human body exists. One study published in Norman Doyge’s book, “Brain Plasticity. There are amazing facts about how thoughts can change the structure and function of our brain.

It is well known that in elderly people brain activity is decreasing and memory is worsening. One of the experiments was that a group of people aged 60-87 years participated in 10 weeks of 5 hours a week of hearing memory enhancement program. After completing the course, the tests showed a significant improvement in this type of memory – the results corresponded to the tests in the age group 40-60 years. A repeat test three months later confirmed these results.

How memory works
Bad memory does not exist in people “by definition”. The amount of information our brain can store is enormous. It’s just that there are people who know how to use their memory, even if on an unconscious level, and there are those who are not capable of it. At the first in this storage all is classified, shelved and presented on demand. And the second one, it looks more like a warehouse of random things, though filled “to the brim”, but containing much less useful data.

But despite this difference in organization we all have several different kinds of memory which differ in storage time:

It’s long-term;
for a short time;
instantaneous.
In the long term, we only store what we constantly think about and use regularly. And we’ve kept it for decades. Short-term is used to store current information, it is held there sometimes for several weeks, but then, if not used, disappears. The brain, like a human being, does not like to work when it is not motivated, too much energy is spent in this process. Instantaneous memory is designed to last for moments and seconds. It works, for example, in assessing the road situation, tracking a moving object. But if we take a look or focus on something else, all the information in it is “reset”.

The process of transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory is an active process in the brain that requires significant energy. If the short-term memory is overloaded without giving the brain time to translate important information from it into long-term memory, the efficiency of memory is reduced. Therefore, with active learning small periods of rest and relaxation are necessary.

The development of the short-term and instantaneous component of our memory is a direct way to increase long-term effectiveness, which ultimately has an impact on our cognitive abilities (our intellect). And you can develop them only by training and constantly applying them in everyday life.

But that’s not all. Practice shows that the best thing to remember is that which is interesting, understandable and accompanied by emotions. Nibbling “whatever” is a waste of time. And since everyone’s interests are different, so the material for training should be different. That’s why the advice, which is common and repeated from handbook to handbook, to improve memory by memorizing poems does not help everyone. What should those who are indifferent to poetry do?

Actually, these two principles are the basis for the training of short-term memory using a variety of information and the work of numerous computer programs. Such memory training differs from the usual training only in that it uses images of objects, rather than the objects themselves, which greatly facilitates the organization of the process itself. You can simulate anything on your computer.

Instant (working) memory training
We have already said that the development of short-term and instant memory is the key to the entire memory process. This memory is also valuable because it processes not only external information, but also long-term and short-term memory. In fact, many researchers believe that her work is the process of thinking.

It makes no sense to enumerate existing computer programs for memory development. Suffice it to say two things:

anyone can find a program that’s useful to him among this multitude;
all of them, with a few exceptions, have one characteristic drawback – the limited set and uniformity of tests makes complex memory training impossible.
The personal website of A.Yu. Pigarev is allocated from the total number of resources dedicated to memory development. (Novosibirsk) – http://working-memory.ru. It has everything on it, and the concept written in understandable language, and the method of memory evaluation, and a whole complex of simulators to develop it. Perhaps the only drawback of the resource is the inability to pass tests without registering. But it’s surmountable – just write a letter to the owner.