Scientists have proven the effectiveness of instructions for memorization

A study by scientists from Merrimack College has shown that direct instructions to remember something are more effective than emotional associations or a full sleep. This was reported by Frontiers magazine.

It has long been known that good sleep plays a key role in memory consolidation, and negative emotions such as fear or anxiety can improve the memory process. However, a new study has shown that the intention to remember is a more powerful mechanism.

"What we consciously decide to remember or forget can make a huge difference. We have more control over our memories than we often realize," said Laura Kurdzil, lead author of the paper and a doctor at Merrimack College.

98 people participated in the study, divided into groups: 45 participants completed the task online, and 53 visited the laboratory. It is noted that one half of each group received the words to memorize in the morning and checked their memory in the evening, while the other half received the words in the evening and checked their memory in the morning after sleeping. All the people participated in both sessions.

Participants were shown 100 words, which were divided into negative and neutral shades, and accompanied each with a hint that they needed to remember or forget. Immediately after, they were shown another set of the same number of words and asked if they recognized them — 50 words were from the previous task, and the other 50 became "contrasting", which had not been shown before.

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In the second session, 12 hours later, participants were asked to recall as many words as possible. Subsequently, the scientists analyzed the results and data of electroencephalography (EEG), which was used for the evening group.

The instructions to memorize turned out to be much more effective than emotional factors: participants were better able to recall the words to which they were given direct instructions. Words with negative connotations were more likely to be remembered, but they also increased the risk of false memories — people mistook new negative words for those they had already seen.

According to Kurdzil, cognitive control systems can "mark" information as relevant, prompting the hippocampus to give it priority. She emphasized that this increases the likelihood of reactivation of a memory during sleep and its transfer to long-term memory. Also, the instructions not only reinforce relevant elements, but also suppress irrelevant ones.

Unexpectedly, researchers have found that the very fact of sleep does not improve memory. However, certain types of brain waves are associated with memory quality. For example, "sleep spindles" — short bursts of activity during sleep — contribute to the transfer of important information into long-term memory, while slow waves, on the contrary, correlated with the active forgetting of unnecessary data.

Scientists believe that sleep does not help all memories equally: the brain gives priority to those that a person intentionally seeks to preserve. Kurdzil concluded that the relevant data show that conscious memorization can surpass the influence of emotions and sleep.

Earlier, on October 10, Nikolai Brilliantov, a professor from the Skoltech Institute of Artificial Intelligence and co-author of the study, reported on the brain's ability to better remember when using the seven senses. According to him, the conclusions made during the study may have practical significance for robotics and the theory of artificial intelligence.

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