The GMS® model of memory strongly differs from memory models you might have read about in psychological literature. 

Process - "memory"

«Memory» process - one of the mental processes of the brain, responsible for formation and preservation of connection between nerve cells.

It is difficult to get used to the idea that memory is a connection

Example - A doctor taps on a leg nerve and that leg’s muscle is contracted reflectively. The unconditioned reflex works just as well as the connection genetically incorporated in the brain. This connection is memory.

Correctly organized experience facilitates understanding.

Example - You come home and see a guitar on a hanger, which instantly tells you who came over to visit. The stimulus "guitar" causes a complete image of the person whom you repeatedly saw with this guitar. The connection between the image of a guitar and the image of this person amounts to your memory. GMS® allocates and uses two kinds of memory.

Reaction to stimulus arises in imagination. The brain completes the picture-stimulus until a complete image is formed.

Memorization

Memorization is a complex process of building a system of connections in the brain, based on interaction of several mental processes, such as memory, attention, thinking, sensation, and representation.

GMS® divides "memory" and "memorization." Efficiency of memorization depends not only on memory. If one of the mental processes (thinking, attention, representation) is disturbed, then memorization becomes impossible even if the «memory» process is operable.

There are three kinds of memorization:

Unintentional memorization

When you walk down the street, your brain automatically records connections between images. You do not need to do anything for memorization as eyes observe previously connected images. The perception of images with the same or similar contour is a signal for engaging the «memory» process. Something that is called a "cognitive map" in psychology is created in the brain automatically, during natural, unintentionalmemorization.

Intentional memorization

There is information which cannot be remembered spontaneously. If we look at any page in a book, we cannot reproduce its content word for word. We need to read it through. When you purposely pay attention to information, it is called intentional memorization.

When we read, images appear in our head (mental motion pictures). Images arise and combine spontaneously in our imagination. When that happens, just like in the case of unintentionalmemorization, our brain remembers the connections between images. When we want to retell the story from the pages we have read, we recollect pictures and describe them using words. Therefore, recounting the text we have read is always approximate.

If words of the text did not evoke visual patterns in our imagination, we could neither understand nor memorize the text. The process of transforming words into images is – understanding.

Over-Intentional Memorization (Meta-memory)

Texts are measured by their complexity. There are texts which contain a lot of exact information i.e. numbers, last names, titles, terms, formulations, formulas, etc. When we read such a text, our imagination "stumbles" on the exact information because the exact information is not transformed into images. Compare: there is a pencil on the table. Or: to insert suppositories through rectum. The information that the brain could not transform into images automatically is "cut out" from the memory.

When memorizing such texts, it is necessary to use over-intentional memorization. This is a kind of memorization where the process of memorizing is completely controlled. When reading a complex text, one has to pause at the parts which contain exact information, and purposely remember the sequence of paragraphs in the text and exact data in each paragraph, with the help of GMS® methods. A figurative abstract of the text will be created in the brain; this allows us to reproduce the text, not word for word but very exactly, without losing any names, titles, terms, or numerical data.

It is not the methods of memorizing that are artificial but, rather, that memorized information which has not been adapted by the brain. GMS® allows one to efficiently code information that cannot be memorized by normal brain language.

The information storing abilities of an ordinary person lie somewhere in the middle - between intentional and over-intentional memorization. Why in the middle? The reason is because each person tries to invent his or her own memorization techniques when faced with the necessity of remembering something that the brain is not able to remember naturally.

Inertness of analyzer systems

Let's take visual and auditory analyzers as an example. Analyzer systems of the brain possess inertness. Very often, inertness of analyzer systems is mistaken for a memory. Psychologists tend to call it "iconic" or a "short-term" memory which is misleading. In fact, the «memory» process is a formation of connections, while in analyzer systems no connections are made.

If we look at a telephone number written on a piece of paper, we will continue to see these numbers in our imagination for some time. However, they are not kept in our brain permanently and will be forgotten in a matter of minutes.

If we look at a picture where some images have the same common contour, that picture will remain in our memory. In this case, not only does the inertness of the systems of analyzers work, it also engages the memory process with respect to the connected images.

Inertness of the visual analyzer is easily observed in a dark room. When your eyes get used to the dark, bring your palm to your face and, for an instant, light the spark of a lighter. The consecutive image will appear in approximately one second and will last for about five seconds. You will literally see the palm.

If we hear a number, we can easily repeat the last couple digits. This is a demonstration of inertness of the acoustic analyzer. However, these figures do not get into memory - for just after a minute, we are unable to recall them.

Yet, if we hear a sentence "The blue plate is on the white cup of milk" then memory instantly connects to the inertness of the acoustic analyzer. Words cause a combination of images in our imagination. The connections between the images are fixed by the «memory» process. We will be able to recollect this sentence the next day and even in a month.

Inertness of analyzers systems is based on the phenomenon of slow synaptic transmission. When the nerve cell receives stimulus, it discards special "slow" neuromediators which continue to stimulate the next nerve cell for some time, in spite of the fact that the stimulus is not there anymore.

Inertness of the analyzers systems is often mixed up with memory.

As connections in the analyzers systems are not formed, inertness of these systems cannot be classified as memory. It is exactly inertness - a temporary delay of stimulus.

Nevertheless, inertness of the analyzers systems is mostly used for "memorizing." By consciously repeating numbers or drawing them in the imagination, one can retain information in the analyzers system for the time sufficient to find a pencil and a notebook.

It is possible to use inertness of visual and auditory analyzers simultaneously. A simple trick with "memory" is based on this (disclosed with permission of Oleg Stepanov). Simultaneous use of the two analyzers allows an exactly two-time increase in the volume of temporarily-kept information. Instead of seven figures, it is possible to remember fourteen temporarily. Write fourteen figures on a sheet of paper. Keep seven of them in the visual analyzer and pronounce the other seven to keep them in the auditory analyzer.

People will get an illusion of instant memorization. Unmasking such a conjurer is very easy. After “instant memorizing," you can offer him or her some addition problems. After that, he or she will not be able to recollect the digits that were "instantly remembered."

Let's leave inertness of the analyzers systems to people with thick notebooks and return to memory.

Two-component model of memory

The theory of memory in GMS® emphasizes two kinds of memory, two "memory" processes.

Unlike official psychology which divides memory into short-term and long-term, in GMS®, memory is divided into two types by the way CONNECTIONS are formed. The concepts "short-term memory" and "long-term memory" are not used in GMS®.

The first kind of memory - reflex connections

This type of connections is well-studied and described in variety of textbooks. It is known that reflex connections can be unconditional (congenital) and conditional (developed during a lifetime).

When we touch a hot iron, our hand is spontaneously drawn aside. This is an example of an unconditional reflex.

When we hear a word "star," we imagine an image of a star. This is a conditional reflex formed in the brain during a learning process.

Reflex connections physically exist in the brain in the form of a synapse zone - the area of chemical transfer of an impulse from one nerve cell to another. It is impossible to classify reflex memory only by presence of synaptic connections. In fact, all nerve cells in the brain have such connections. Synaptic connections between nerve cells of different systems of analyzers are created in special associative zones of the brain, where all systems of analyzers have their "representations" concern reflex memory.

In associative zones of the brain, connections between different analyzers systems are created.

In order to form a reflex connection, processes of nerve cells should be in very close proximity, about 50 Angstrom units, and should work periodically within several days.

Reflex connection is uncontrollable; the impulse goes through a nerve cell in one direction.

Reflex connections can be like a chain: one stimulus can start a long sequence of reactions. Such chains of connections are created between intercalary neurons (usually reflex arch includes intermediate nerve cells). The sequence of reactions can "be played" in the imagination (on an idea-motor level) or realized physically with the help of muscles. Internal or simple speech can serve as examples of such consecutive reactions.

One more important feature of the reflex connections chains is that they always aspire to the end. If the program has started, a person cannot stop it. For example, it is difficult for a professional typist to suddenly stop typing: she needs to finish typing the sentence. A vivid example of anticipation is speech automatisms when, having seen or heard the beginning of a phrase, the brain reproduces the entire phrase “roses are red, violets are blue” by itself. The phenomenon of anticipation is used in GMS®, for example, for memorizing phrases of a foreign language.

The second kind of memory - electric (resonant) connections

This kind of memory is not described in psychology. Therefore, in the "Giordano Memorization System” it is named “electric memory.”

Neurophysiologists have studied this kind of memory for a long time, but still cannot formulate it. They make an assumption that the information can remain in a constant, not fading, electric potential on a neurons' membrane. The error is connected with the difficulty of understanding what information is, for our brain.

Information for a brain equates to a consecutive connection of several simple elements. A change in a sequence of connections leads to a change of information (in the habitual sense of this word).

George Michael - 125-36-72

Michael George - 125-72-36

The sense of memorization lies in memorizing connections between elements.

The information is not kept in electric activity of nerve cells. The information is kept in invisible resonant connection between nerve cells. An example of such a connection can be the invisible resonant connection between two identical tuning forks or between two strings which have been tuned to play the same note.

Electric memory = a process of synchronization of electric activity in a group of simultaneously working nerve cells.

Resonant and reflex connections are very different. Reflex connections are an executive system of the brain. The systems of such connections are our consciousness and sub-consciousness. Electric connections are our thinking and imagination. They are "filters" which analyze entrance impulses before muscular reaction occurs.

GMS® allows us to determine experimentally the time characteristics of electric memory and describes its functioning. Most importantly, GMS® allows you to operate the process of creating such connections.

Connection is formed very quickly. It is enough to keep two connected images in imagination for a couple seconds. The standard time is 6 seconds; the world record is 0.65 second (Andy Bell, memorizing 52 playing cards).

Natural memorization of speech, texts, and all that you see is based on this kind of memory. Memorization in GMS® is different only because images incorporate into imagination in a very special way and according to certain rules.

The connection, once created in the brain, is kept for approximately 40 minutes.

If the connection activates (is perceived repeatedly or referred to in imagination), it can be retained in the brain for life. Thus, electric memory is both short-term (40 minutes) and long-term at the same time.

It is possible to form many connections with only one image, though the last one which “rubs off” the previous connections will always be recalled. The connections that are "wiped out" are kept in the brain and can be reproduced when one is reminded of them (latent training).

The technique of memorizing in GMS® is constructed in a way that it allows you to remember the information with iterative (repetitive) elements. For example, one number 13 (the same image) can easily be remembered a thousand times.

The main difference between electric connections and reflex ones is that electric connections are not uni-directional. If you have created a sheaf of multiple images in your imagination (have looked at the cat consisting of a muzzle, eyes, ears, a tail, paws, etc.), any image can become a stimulus of this sheaf. The reaction to that will always be an occurrence of a complete image in the array of all images connected earlier. It is enough to see just the tail and the imagination will paint in the complete image of a cat.

This kind of connection explains the mechanism by which the brain creates associations. There were some attempts, unsuccessful however, made by Hartly and Sechenov (Yaroshesky, The History of Psychology) to explain the mechanism of forming associations.

Memory will not easily remember the first picture; it will remember the second one, though. Memory reacts to the common contour

A person can manipulate images in his or her imagination and connect them, thus consciously turning on the "memory" process - the process of forming a connection between images with a common contour.

It is enough for psychology to offer basic schemes (models) and understanding of an essence of the phenomenon with its experimental proof. Therefore, we will leave detailed neurophysiologic descriptions of any given kind of memory to neurophysiologists, physicists, and mathematicians.

The model of memory in GMS® looks very simple:

This is a general description of these types of memory. Apparently, different types of memory can cooperate with each other. The model does not consider those kinds of memory which have not been connected with cognitive processes - for example, genetic memory.

To assess the time characteristics of electric memory is very simple. In GMS®, it is done by registering the volume of the remembered information, time of memorizing, and number of errors. For example, when memorizing numbers, the numbers are transformed into images and incorporated into a sequence of basic (stimulating) images prepared in advance. Use of a cogitative operation "Connection of images" allows us to remember tens and hundreds of images after seeing them only once. Any information (numbers, terms, names, titles, etc.) can be coded into visual images.

If a person is not trained in GMS® (is not able to memorize), it is possible to check the mechanism for how the formation of a connection between the connected images occurs, by consecutively showing pictures on the screen where two images have a common contour. In this case, connections will be remembered by the brain automatically.

It is absolutely unessential, that connections are unusual. The brain will remember any such connections. 

For scanning memory - reading connections - it is necessary to show one of the pictures of a pair. The brain will reproduce the other picture (a person will recollect the second picture of the pair).

The principle of work of memory, "stimulus – reaction," seems quite obvious.

The formation of reflex connections in the brain is verified according to speed of recognition. For example, the speed of coding numbers into images should be about 0.5 seconds when figurative codes for numbers are learned. Numbers are shown in a random order.

Subjectively, reflex connections of numbers with images are expressed: when you look through a series of two-digit numbers, the visual images that correspond to these numbers are generated in the imagination spontaneously. It is very similar to the way we understand words of our native language (a spoon = an image of "spoon"; with GMS®, 35 = an image of "cube").

Understanding is a process of transformation of text (or speech) into a combination of visual images in the imagination.

The development of visual thinking (imagination) automatically develops the function of understanding text information.

You can find detailed information about this subject and glossary in the “GMS Manual”.

As a result, it is difficult to call our brain “a recording device.” The brain remembers neither images nor words. The brain cannot remember anything except connections, which are the basis for creating (generating) words, images, etc. The function of exact memorization can be emulated in the brain with the help of GMS®. Normally, without any special training, the brain cannot and should not remember what we are used to calling "information" (telephone numbers, historical dates, lists, complex texts, etc.)

Memory always works "on recognition" as a reaction to stimulus. Active reproduction of the information (without hints) is possible only after special training with the memorization technique, when the system of internal stimulation (system of support images) is created in the brain .

Characteristics of electric memory are obtained empirically and should be specified during organized, scientific experiments.

© School of Phenomenal Memory