For voluntary memorization, a person makes purposeful efforts. He is required to concentrate and repeat information. If the information is not interesting, it is unlikely to stay in long-term memory for long.
What is voluntary memorization
The work of voluntary memory is closely related to voluntary attention. If involuntary attention itself turns to interesting things and situations, voluntary attention must be directed by itself. The success of voluntary memorization largely depends on the ability to concentrate, and correct motivation is also important. For voluntary memorization, many mnemonic techniques have been invented to facilitate this process. For example, building a word from the first letters of a number of concepts that need to be remembered.
With voluntary memorization, a person should be clearly aware of what he needs information for, he needs to set an attitude for himself. Some scientists believe that with involuntary memorization there are also attitudes, only they are not realized. The settings for arbitrary memory can be given for full or partial, accurate or approximate, short-term or long-term memory. A person learns to give himself these attitudes, starting from elementary school age.
When an instruction is given on the accuracy of memorization, they generally read the material very superficially, without delving into the meaning. During reproduction, the desire to "see" the learned fragment in memory is characteristic, for this a person can close his eyes. Sometimes the material being memorized is saturated emotionally in order to facilitate its understanding and assimilation. If the installation is given for completeness of reproduction, attention is paid not to individual parts of the material, but to their relationship with each other. Regular repetition is important for long-term memorization.
Features of the operation of arbitrary memory
Voluntary memorization is influenced by the conditions in which the material is memorized and the individual qualities of the memorizer. The presence of an emotional attitude and interest, as well as the degree of complexity of the material. The motives for memorization, which motivate a person, are also different. For example, the motives might be praise or the opportunity to win a competition.
Voluntary memorization proceeds as follows. First, there is a comprehension of the material, an understanding of its main idea. You need to try to represent the read as vividly as possible in the form of images. This is necessary to establish a connection between the parts of the read. In parallel, new information is being compared with experience and existing knowledge. The previously unknown receives the most attention. After that, the sequence of the formed associations is memorized and fixed in memory with the help of multiple repetitions.
