Good visual memory is a useful property that allows you to remember and reproduce images. Visual memory is best developed among artists who remember what they see in detail. You, too, can develop this kind of memory through fun exercises.

Why do we need visual memory? After studying at school and college, most of us remember memory only when we forget something. “He has a girl’s memory, a leaky memory, a short memory,” they say about a person with a bad memory. But, complaining about it, no one particularly seeks to develop it. And in vain, because it is needed not only in order to look for glasses in old age or not to get lost in the subway.

4. Calling on synesthesia to help

The Greek word "synesthesia" means "mixed feeling". (Its antonym is the word "anesthesia", which means the absence of sensations.) In synesthetic people, in response to stimulation of one sense organ, for example, the organ of vision, additional sensations arise that correspond to other sense organs, and these sensations are mixed.

Synesthesia not only hears sounds, but also sees or feels them. They not only see the object, but also touch or hear it. For example, the number 10 may seem blue to some of them, and the name Zoya may be associated with an apple. A synesthetist might well tell someone that their name is purple and bitter-tasting. Moreover, each synesthetist has his own impressions: one sees the letter “y” green, another yellow, and the third brown.

By associating visual elements, for example, with sounds or smells, we enable the brain to better store them in memory, because through synesthesia, visual images are more deeply rooted in the brain.

5. Learning to memorize in parts

It is difficult to remember the whole picture, diagram or object completely, so we will break them into several parts and remember each separately. For example, you can quickly remember what a person is wearing if you first note the main parts of his wardrobe: trousers, shirt, jacket and shoes. And then in each of these parts, highlight the details: dark blue trousers slightly flared from the knee, a fitted single-breasted jacket of the same color, a blue scarf with white polka dots in the pocket of the jacket, a white shirt, black oxfords on the legs that need repair.

6. Exercise "25" letters

It takes several participants to complete it. You need to draw a table with 5 cells horizontally and 5 cells vertically. 5 words are written in the cells: tin, wind, arena, garbage, omega (total 25 letters). The facilitator gives the participants half a minute to memorize, then takes the table. Participants must make as many new words as possible from the letters to the right and left of each other, above or below. Exercise develops not only visual memory, but also quick thinking.

7. Aivazovsky's technique

The famous marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky had an excellent photographic memory. The billowing waves in his paintings look alive, not frozen. And he drew them from memory, which he trained while sitting on the seashore and watching how it “breathes”. He peered into the waves, closed his eyes and kept this "photo" in his memory, and later transferred the captured image to the canvas.

In the same way, we can train visual memory. We peer for 3–5 minutes into some object, for example, into a vase with a flower, then remove it and transfer the remembered image to paper. Let's test ourselves to see if we succeeded.

8. Playing with matches

We throw several matches on the table in random order - five will be enough for a start. We look for a few seconds, turn away and lay out new 5 matches in the order we remember on another surface. Compare.

Gradually, we increase the number of matches, and reduce the time for examining them and remembering the order in which they are located.

The brain is such a thing that loves to be lazy. The opportunity a little turned up, he “turns off” and begins to “toil with foolishness”.

In order to kick him a little and train his memory, I offer some interesting exercises from Angels Navarro's book "Memory does not change."

Exercise 1

Difficulty **

Memorize for a minute the location of the dots and lines in the first four lines. Then, without looking at them, add the missing lines on the bottom four lines.

Exercise 2

Difficulty *

Come up with associations for numbers and words in accordance with their external form. You can spend as much time on this as you need. Then close them and answer the suggested questions.

Answer the questions:
1. What number corresponds to a snowman?
2. What numbers correspond to the ravine and the candle?
3. What numbers correspond to the sailboat, egg and snake?
4. What numbers correspond to a balloon, a bird, a children's slide and a duck?

Exercise 3

Difficulty *

Look at the figure on the left for 20 seconds. Then, without looking at her, say which of the four figures on the right is identical to her.

Exercise 4

Difficulty *

Memorize the shopping list for the time you need. Then, without looking at him, say which of the lists below is correct. Please note that the order may have changed.

Exercise 5

Difficulty ***

Memorize the group of animals shown in the picture for one minute.

Then, without looking at the drawing, write down the names of the animals in alphabetical order on a piece of paper.

Exercise 6

Difficulty ***

Study two lists of words. The right column contains anagrams for words from the left. Link each word from the left column to the corresponding one from the right and memorize them.

Look at the columns below and say out loud the words that are missing.

Good afternoon, dear readers! Did you know that we perceive about 80% of the information about the world through the organs of vision. In this regard, it would seem that visual memory should be equally developed by nature. But in reality, everything turns out to be much more complicated: this type of memorization in adulthood is pretty “lame”.

Are you wondering how you can correct this situation and “shoe” in this area? I think that now you involuntarily nodded in the affirmative. And if so, then read on the article and get acquainted with interesting, and most importantly useful "recipes" that help develop visual memory.

Before moving on to the essence of the article, I want to show you what beautiful trees we have in powdered snow right outside the window. The weather for the holidays made us very happy: a little frost, snow. A real winter fairy tale. See for yourself.

But we have such cool snowmen in some stores in the city. If you notice they are made from plastic cups. Is it really cool and unusual? Such a snowman will definitely not melt 🙂

Well, now let's move on to the topic of the article itself. After all, you probably can’t wait to get acquainted with such curious information.

Eidetic memory in childhood and adulthood

Memory is a link that connects the past and the present, helping not to lose touch with the roots. Know how to train visual memory , is extremely important, since it is one of the levers of human development.

Otherwise, this type of memorization is called eidetic, but there are also other varieties:

• auditory;
• Motor;
• Olfactory;
• Tactile.

They can be short-term or long-term, mechanical or sensory. For each individual species, different development methods are provided, and there are also methods for improving eidetic memory.

It is known that in children it is quite sharp and strong, but over the years, the ability to imprint the surroundings in a person’s brain is lost. And in maturity, only a few who were lucky enough to receive such a gift from nature, from their parents, can boast of such skills.

What are the rest to do? Do not despair, remember a simple rule: any skills can be acquired by repeated exercises, training. And then we will be able not to strain too much, “driving into the head” some information, but to assimilate it “wholesale”, just by looking at the image or text.

What exactly works in the brain, only experts know, but in fact, subjectively, everything remembered is played back as a video, and effortlessly, of course. These plots are especially vivid when other types of memory are included in the process, then they work in a complex and give the maximum effect, complementing each other.

Associative series

Today, our children, and you and I, experience constant stress from an overabundance of information that is difficult to digest. The brain sometimes automatically blocks part of this flow, and not always superfluous. Therefore, the natural curiosity and innate talent for memorization may not work in the average modern child, so you have to work on it.

To begin with, it would be nice to test your child (and yourself too 🙂) and find out what he really knows and what you need to learn. For example, give him a close look at some drawing, new to him. Then close the image and give the child time to try to restore it. The more small details “float up”, the better the eidetic abilities.

Associations help both kids and adults remember. Many people were convinced in practice that, for example, a mobile phone number is easier to put aside "on the back" if its components are connected with something: for example, one group of numbers reminds us of the birthday of a loved one, the other is associated with some pleasant (or sad ) events in our lives. Unravel such logical chains a couple of times, and they will imprint firmly in the brain, then they will pop up automatically, and you will remember the number by heart for a long time.

By the way, did you know that there are two types of thinking? I recommend reading our article here and determining what type of thinking you or your child belongs to.

We train attention

The training process is quite exciting. It can and should be conducted in a playful way, then the brain also receives signals "easily" and quickly copies them, saving them like computer files.

Visual memory training techniques are quite simple. The main thing is constancy, regularity, gradual increase in load. If these rules are followed, the process will proceed quickly.

Training exercises for the development of visual memory (click to expand)

1. Take any illustration. Look at it carefully, then close your eyes and mentally recreate it in all its details. Do this several times daily.
2. Throw a bunch of 4 - 5 matches on the table. Within 2 - 3 seconds, remember their location. Close your eyes and recreate the image. If not everything was remembered, look at them for another second and recreate the image more accurately. Increase the number of matches by one weekly. When their number is 12 - 14 pieces, start again with 4 - 5 matches, but also remember the location of the match heads. It is very good, after recreating the internal image, to sketch the location of the matches on a sheet of paper and compare the drawing with the original.
3. You are presented with a chessboard with pieces placed on it for 5 seconds. It is necessary to repeat this position of the pieces on another chessboard.
4. Arrange 7 dominoes on the table with “stones” down. Cover them with a cloth and under it turn them over with stones "up. Remove the fabric and try to memorize them as quickly as possible. Then cover again and try to remember the picture and the total number of points. Check result. Gradually increase the number of dominoes.
5. Quickly hold a playing card in front of your eyes and then name its suit and name. At first, do it slowly, increasing the speed gradually until a quick glance at the map is enough.
6. Shuffle the deck of cards and take 10 cards from it. Try to remember the exact order of these cards. Shuffle the deck again and after 5 minutes find the selected cards in it and put them in order.
7. Take the usual set of children's cubes for folding pictures from them. Usually it is 6 cubes. Put the cubes one picture up, in random order. Look at the pictures for one minute, memorize the pictures separately and the position of the cubes on the table. Close your eyes and try to put the picture together with your eyes closed. Open your eyes and check the result.
8. Try to draw the studied thing from memory. Then determine what you forgot to draw.
9. Choose any closed drawer of a desk or cabinet where a wide variety of items are stored. Open the box and examine the contents for 15 seconds. Close the drawer. Take a piece of paper and write down all the items in the box that you can remember.
10. Place five to seven different objects in different positions: put them on their sides, put them next to each other, place one on top of the other, etc. After presentation, within 20 seconds, you must say in what position the selected item is located.
11. Someone quickly reads some text backwards, and listeners must quickly write down the words of the text correctly. You can independently, closing your eyes, mentally read the words in reverse. For example, "AvksoM - Moscow". To do this, you need to visualize the word.
12. Take two "same" drawings with some differences. First, consider and remember the first drawing (30 - 50 seconds), then the second; then you need to find the differences from memory and write them out on a piece of paper.

Do you know what is the easiest workout that absolutely everyone can do?

First, answer the question: “What do you do most often?” You walk, go shopping, take a walk to the place of work. These are the routes that should be used first. Carefully observe, evaluate, note what has changed since the last walk. Those who succeed in this perfectly are not afraid to go for mushrooms: they certainly will not get lost, and if the owner of the forest leads them along his unknown paths, they will be able to get out.

Another of the most effective exercises is the game of chess. Not everyone is available, but you can pick up simplified options: checkers, lotto, puzzles.

I also really enjoy playing Star Hour (that's our family name for the game). The essence is as follows: from one long word to make as many small ones as possible. I used to play with my parents a lot when I was a kid and I still really like it. Sitting somewhere in line, I try to find some suitable word (from signs on the doors, posters, or somewhere else) and mentally begin to make shorter ones out of it. Thus, I solve two problems at once: both the time of waiting for my turn passes quickly, and my brain gets a portion of training that never hurts.

Regularly engaging in these family games, we will strengthen relationships and prepare ourselves thoroughly, even at the level of high professional requirements for such difficult specialties as a forensic specialist, detective, psychologist, journalist.

Photo scan

There are people-scanners for whom it is not difficult to remove information from an object, image, text, with a cursory glance at it. You can envy them, but it is better to try to awaken this quality in yourself, your loved ones. Moreover, this is not an impossible task.

For example, there is such a simple exercise how to develop this skill. Lay out several matches on the table, making up a certain figure or in random order, randomly. Let the subject look at this drawing, turn away, and then (after the desired "drawing" is already covered with a thick sheet of paper) try to reproduce the configuration.

Similar tasks can be given with color pictures: you will need to name the maximum number of the smallest details of the image. Or describe your toy, item of clothing, too, in the most detailed way. If possible, try to draw the subject of study.

Few people can boast of a photographic memory for faces. , this is truly a rare talent. Again, if nature has rested on you in this, catch up by training in memorization by scanning. Take any text, first grab a couple of words that catch your eye, try to assimilate them. Then expand the "search territory" more and more to a line, phrase, paragraph - and so on. In this way, one can learn to look at different objects with one's gaze.

Chain of Cicero

How did the heroes of antiquity manage to remember all the most necessary and a lot of optional things? After all, they didn’t have online tutorials, consultations, websites of useful tips. Even with printed guides it was not easy. But the algorithm for transferring experience and apprenticeship worked flawlessly.

From ancient times, we have left the legacy of one of the most iconic thinkers - Cicero. He used a rather effective memorization method based on building logical chains, a clear algorithm for the interaction of structured parts that make up the whole. In fact, this is reminiscent of sorting out on the shelves, in cells, in the cells of "storage rooms". Only the necessary data should be placed in coordinates that are familiar to us. For example, in your favorite room, on your desktop, in a cherished box, on the shelves of a closet or on a summer cottage veranda, etc. That is, where we are comfortable and where it is well known what is where.

Historians claim that Cicero did just that in preparation for his brilliant performances: he walked around the house and "hid" quotes, beautiful images, vivid metaphors in the cherished corners of the dwelling. Then, going out to the audience, he mentally returned to his chambers and "went" from image to image easily, as if the necessary words themselves appeared to him from the "back streets" of consciousness.

Nobody prevents us, following the example of this wise man, in the same way to “populate” our house with what we would like to keep in memory for a long time.

Schulte tables and other mnemonics techniques

Experts call mnemonics a complex of techniques aimed at "strong" memorization of the necessary information. For example:

• Decomposition of information into small details;
• Attracting associations;
• self-hypnosis;
• Speed ​​reading techniques, etc.

It seems unlikely, at first glance, to remember a long password to an account on social networks. But if it is “factored”, the problem becomes completely solvable. Especially when each of the fragments is tied to some kind of image, a chain of hints will be built. This technique is often used in teaching a foreign language, there are even talented manuals with comic rhymes full of associations.

Such connections can be encoded independently. For example, the term - Net (Network), is well known to experienced users, and beginners should recall the old Russian word "neta" - nets for catching birds and small animals.

Schulte tables are specially designed for teaching speed reading, developing peripheral and volumetric vision. Working with them helps to gradually expand the area that the eye is able to cover, and in parallel, the potential for visual memorization of text units also increases.

I want to invite you to take a colorful test from the video and then write how many words you remember. It will be interesting to read and compare with my result, which I will not tell you yet.

This is where our review comes to an end. We hope it was useful to you. It is important not to stop there, try to apply different techniques and methods in combination, and the result will definitely be!

Do not forget that competitions are held on our blog, which you can read about. By the way, soon one of the competitions will “play” and we will announce the winner.

And don't forget - there's a lot more to come!

How do you develop your visual memory? Waiting for answers in the comments 🙂

Ekaterina Kalmykova was with you

Visual memory is an important component of our perception. The visual analyzer, in relation to other sense organs, receives up to 90% of the information of the surrounding world. Just the developed part of this type of memory helps to memorize the text, make fewer mistakes when writing and navigate in space. So how important is visual memory training in childhood and adulthood?

Test visual memory possible with the help of special tests. This can be done with a specialist - a neurologist or online.

It is better to take specially designed tests with a doctor, because the true results are slightly cheated on the Internet. Only a few sites rate really believable. Yes, and a person likes to praise himself, so without outside help, checking visual memory will not be objective.

For check take special pictures with different images. A series of tests is usually carried out, which will help evaluate all areas of the visual analyzer. These tests are checking the reaction to attentiveness and quick orientation. That is, a certain number of numbers or letters are offered, which are scattered throughout the sheet. And you need to assemble a logical sequential chain in time.

Other tests are aimed at determination of the volume coverage of the visual analyzer. A complete picture, a lot of living or inanimate objects, abstract figures can be located on a sheet. The patient is asked to look on the sheet for a certain time and remember the details as much as possible. Then, recall what you saw from memory. The more accuracy is called, the better the visual analyzer is developed. The same pictures can later serve as a training tool for the development of visual memory.

Poorly developed visual memory is not necessarily the key to all troubles. It's not fundamentally important. But still, most information goes right through the eyes. And in order to capture the fullness of the world around us as much as possible, you need to have a developed visual analyzer. Well developed visual memory- the key to adequate learning and good memorability. The level of development of this type of memory affects the speed of learning and its quality.

Why visual memory can be poorly developed? The main factor serves all the same genetics and timely education of parents.

The absence or insufficient attention to the baby, the lack of educational games and activities will necessarily affect further learning and activity. But there are also acquired causes deterioration and decrease in the quality of the "work" of the visual analyzer. Before that, the memory was good, no one complained, but over time they became scattered, you remember poorly and pay little attention to details. What are the reasons?

• Traumatic brain injury, past neuroinfections and cerebrovascular accidents - these pathological conditions will necessarily entail the destruction of a large number of nerve synapses and the nerve cells themselves. Trauma can damage just the department that is responsible for visual analysis.
• Age changes Everyone develops encephalopathy to some extent. This is due to the gradual desolation of blood vessels, the formation of small blood clots in the lumen and malnutrition of glial cells and the neurons themselves. Brain cells gradually die off, and the number of actively working ones is sharply reduced. The remaining nerve cells cannot cope with the previous flow of information and direct all their forces to more important matters - vital functions. And visual memory remains in the background for those cells that are not involved in important processes to ensure the normal functioning of the body.
• Intoxication and bad habits- any manifestation of euphoria without drug intervention of the corresponding group of drugs entails the death of a huge number of nerve fibers. Tissue replacement occurs and the brain is tuned to provide more important functions. Therefore, visual memory suffers.
• Lack of nutrients in food- nerve cells need more than just oxygen. But also the nutrients that come with food. For example, insufficient intake of fatty acids and vitamins, glycine lead to deterioration of the brain.
• Emotional and mental overload- nerve cells are on the verge of exhaustion, so we decided to take care of ourselves. They turned on the lite mode, in which they take care of themselves and do not work at full strength. In this case, a good rest will return everything to its place.

If visual memory is poorly developed in children, this can lead to problems with memorization, learning, against this background - a violation of behavior in general. Sometimes a poorly developed visual memory can cause poor adaptation in the environment and society.

A sharp deterioration in memory in an adult leads to distraction, a decrease in memorization, difficulty in temporal adaptation, and psychological problems.

First of all, to improve your visual memory, it is necessary to normalize the mode of work and rest, eliminate overloads, remove bad habits. Then take on the "pumping" of your visual analyzer.

Constant practice will surely bear fruit. Here are some effective exercises on how to develop visual memory. They can be used at any free time.

How to develop visual memory in children

Entire methods have been developed for children. After all, this period of development is very significant for the future life of the baby.

1. Cards - you need to have a set of pictures on which objects familiar to the child are located. Show pictures for a few minutes. Then ask them to reproduce what they saw. Those pictures that the child did not name are shown again. And so on until the complete list is reproduced.
2. Toys - for this method of developing visual memory, you need to take several toys of the child, put them in one row. Ask the child to memorize the composition. When the baby turns away, remove or add a new toy, swap places. Then ask to reproduce all changes.
3. Drawing - develops not only visual memory, but also fine motor skills of the hands. You need paper and a pencil. Mom shows simple patterns that the baby draws from memory on his leaf.
4. visual photography- you need to ask to carefully examine your toys or room and ask to reproduce everything that he managed to notice. Over time, you can ask the features of the subject - color and shape.

If the exercises do not help, and the reason lies in an organic disorder, you should immediately consult a doctor and solve the problem with medication.

Sources

1. Matyugin I. Yu. et al. School of eidetics. The development of memory, figurative thinking, imagination: In 2 vols. M .: Eidos, 1994;
2. MP Kononova. Eidetic phenomena and their relation to psychopathology;
3. Feiman G. Eidetism and school age;
4. Andreev O. A., Khromov L. N. "Learn to read quickly";
5. Health Behaviors From Early to Late Midlife as Predictors of Cognitive Function. American Journal of Epidemiology 2009.
6. Belikov, V. G. Pharmaceutical chemistry / V. G. Belikov. M. : Higher school, 1985. - 668 p.
7. West, R. L., Welch, D. C., & Thorn, R. M. (2001). Effects of goal-setting and feedback on memory performance and beliefs among older and younger adults. Psychology and Aging,16,240–250.doi:10.1037/0882-7974.16.2.240
8. Eric Richard Kandel. In search of memory [The emergence of a new science of the human psyche] 12819K, 482 p. 2012 edition
9. Dixon, R. A., & Hultsch, D. F. (1983). Structure and development of metamemory in adulthood. Journal of Gerontology, 38, 682-688.

We receive a huge amount of information from the world. As you know, more than 80% is acquired by us through the eyes. Something passes without a trace, something leaves a trace in our soul and returns to our head after a while.

Visual memory fills our memories with vivid pictures of the past, a large number of details, elements that are very difficult and very long to describe in words. We remember our life bright and full thanks to the well-coordinated work of our eyes and our brain.

What is visual memory? How does it work, how is it combined with memory from other senses? How to improve visual memory and why is it needed? This article is about this and much more.

Visual memory, what is it?

Visual memory… It is not so difficult to explain what it is. For example, you are going somewhere by bus, to another country, let's say. Together with you - about forty people whom you first saw while boarding the vehicle. And so, before crossing the border, the bus stops and all passengers, including you, get out of it and mix with passengers from other buses. 20 minutes pass. A person with a well-developed visual memory (in this case, a memory for faces) can easily pick out from the crowd not only the man who has been sitting next to him for the past two hours, but also most of the travelers from his bus. A person with a poor visual memory will remember two or three who were sitting in his field of vision.

Or here's another example. Suppose you visited Serbia 10 years ago. And now, at the mere mention of it on TV, or in conversations with friends, you imagine a vivid and distinct picture: hilly mountains in greenery, and among them - a small beautiful house.

Now it's time to define visual memory. What is it, after all, is it?

Visual memory is a type of memory that is associated with the work of the visual analyzer. Responsible for the preservation, and then for the reproduction of visual images.

There are several types.

Iconic. Its duration is less than a second. Information that has not been used at this time is lost.

Short-term. Lasts up to 30 seconds.

Long-term. Particularly long-term visual memory.

Eidetic memory, what is it?

Also, eidetic memory is allocated to a separate group. This is an ability that not all people have, most often children, teenagers, artists. It is the ability to keep in the head bright and clear images of the objects seen for a long period of time. Eidetics see the picture well even after it has disappeared from their field of vision.

Eidetism is a well-developed photographic memory. Some use this concept as a synonym for visual memory, but we consider photographic memory as part of visual memory.

Remember, you must have heard stories that some person reproduces with amazing accuracy the details of a picture he saw some time ago. Or about people who are ready to recite various verses without stopping. These are all individuals with a well-developed eidetic or photographic memory.

There are unique cases of eidetism. For example, the Italian bibliophile Antonio Magliabechi, who lived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, at the end of his life could recite each of the books he read by heart. And there were more than 40,000 of them ... Or the 40th US President Ronald Reagan memorized texts just by looking at them.

Visual memory is an important information carrier

Interestingly, the use of visual images allows a person to encode a lot of memories.

It is enough for us to simply remember, for example, what a handsome man looks like, whom we see in the dining room at lunchtime. When we remember it, we see a picture. Now let's imagine that we need to describe his girlfriend, who has never had the honor of meeting this handsome man. How many words will be needed? Hundreds. He is tall and broad-shouldered, and his hair is long, but not very long, to the shoulders, like that of such and such an actor from such and such a film, and his beard is the same as that of someone ...

It turns out that the picture carries the information of hundreds of words, which, you see, are much more difficult to remember. It is unlikely that a friend will be able to repeat everything she heard. Rather, she will now remember the image that she formed on the basis of the descriptions she heard.

And further. It seems that we remember only the picture. Actually, it is not. The visual image is supplemented by a large amount of information received from other senses.

For example, five years ago you visited a famous restaurant abroad. And then, walking down the street, out of the corner of your ear you hear that someone else mentions the name of this institution in a conversation. A picture immediately arises in front of you: you are sitting, and in front of you is a chic table with a tablecloth hanging to the floor, collected in several places, twilight, there is a glass of wine on the table, and many, many flowers around.

Is this all? Not! Surely, you almost felt a barely perceptible smell, which probably came from the kitchen then. And they also felt a slight coolness, because. when you were in the restaurant, the air conditioner worked well, and you got a little chilly. Also, of course, the sounds of live music, calm and unobtrusive, that you heard then, flashed through your head. In addition, the heard name for some reason immediately improved your mood. After all, then, 5 years ago, in this overseas restaurant, your current husband proposed to you.

All this happens because visual memory does not work alone. To it is added also auditory, olfactory, tactile, emotional. The picture is supplemented by the results of the work of the senses, due to which a more complete, complete image is formed, filled with a large amount of information.

Who has the best visual memory?

Many are not left alone with the question, who has a better visual memory? To better accept the answer to this question, let's take a slightly abstract example. Anyone who is interested knows that Americans generally have higher IQs than Europeans. And despite the fact that the tests with which it is checked among US residents are more difficult.

Scientists attribute this to the fact that Americans are constantly, day after day, forced to use in their daily lives those skills and abilities that are tested in IQ tests. It turns out that without their active participation, the abilities of their brain are improved.

The same is true for visual memory. It is well developed in those who use it constantly.

Take the Eskimos for example. They live where it is almost impossible to live - in the expanses of the Arctic. All around are monotonous white landscapes, someone would even say - depressive. There is nothing for the eye to stop at.

And the locals here have a super-acute visual memory. It captures the smallest details that we, who have grown up in a large variety of images, would not have caught close. The eyes of the Eskimos notice among the monotonous pictures - ice and snowy mountains - various identification marks. That is why, even in the most difficult conditions, the Eskimo is not afraid to get lost. In winter, he will easily and quickly find his hiding place, in which he hid the game he caught in the summer. A large amount of visual information is stored in his memory, which helps him survive in difficult conditions.

You can also hear the point of view that visual memory in women is better developed than in men. Allegedly, these differences are associated with the structural features of the brain in people of different sexes. We, on the other hand, adhere to the point of view that if there are differences, then they are connected, first of all, with different conditions in which boys and girls grow and live.

For example, girls, it is likely, have been dominated by hobbies since childhood, games where visual memory is actively involved, there are a large number of visual images. Boys have a slightly different experience. Therefore, at some period of life, differences in the quality of visual memory can be recorded. But if there were no differences in the experience of girls and boys in their childhood, there would be no differences in memory.

And a little more about animals. Scientists are all trying to figure out what kind of visual memory they have? It is quite difficult to do this. They resort to experiments during which they hide food from animals right in front of them in one of several shelters and wait for how long the animal will be able to remember exactly where the food was placed, in which shelter.

So they found out that the dog runs unmistakably to the shelter with food after 17 minutes of waiting, and the cat after 6. It seems not very long. At the same time, it is difficult to imagine a complete picture of what is going on in the head of an animal. After all, their olfactory, auditory memory is much stronger than ours. Therefore, they are well versed in their life situations, remember what they need, instantly, do not suffer, in general.

How to improve visual memory?

Visual memory training can significantly improve the capabilities of a person as a whole. Study, work, everyday life… In each of the areas there will be only pluses. A person gets the opportunity to more deeply perceive objects around, due to which he becomes more attentive, concentrated.

How to develop visual memory? There are many ways. For example, you can find special games on the Internet - simulators. Most of them have the same idea. For a certain period of time, various objects are shown to you - pictures, facial features, etc., after which the images disappear and you are asked to remember what was shown and in what sequence.

Also, visual memory is trained by the following classes.

Drawing. Portraits, landscapes, still lifes… The bottom line is that we first isolate some detail, then remember it, and only then transfer it to the canvas. This is good for developing visual memory.

Games. Remember the children's games like "Find 10 Differences"? Just they are aimed at the active development of visual memory. Find more sophisticated options for adults, and go!

Memories. This is the best way to train not only visual, but also memory in general. It consists in the fact that before going to bed, lying in bed, a person remembers everything that happened to him during the day. The main thing is that in the process of memories, appropriate visual images constantly arise in the head.

Memory of images. It consists in the fact that you are trying to remember as accurately as possible some image that was before your eyes not so long ago. For example, the face of a man who was seen several times in the subway.

How to improve photographic memory?

There are also good exercises for training photographic memory specifically.

Exercise number 1.

Observe any object, for example, at your desk at a distance of two meters, 2 minutes. Try to remember as many details as possible. Do not take your eyes off the picture for all 2 minutes. Now close your eyes and try to imagine the color of objects, proportions, shapes ... Everything that is possible. If you forgot something, then open your eyes for a few seconds. This will allow you to remember the missing details.

After it becomes easy for you to train with objects, start using texts, complex pictures.

Exercise number 2.

It can be done while you are walking home or driving to work. Quickly look at any object that you have come across on the road. For example, a small shop. Look away and try to remember what you saw, draw a picture in your head. After a while, such entertainment - training will become your habit. You will not even notice how the improvement of visual memory turns into pleasure.