Recall

RECALL, one of the processes of memory, which reduces to the reproduction of previous experience, the revival of traces left by previous stimuli. At the basis of memory, as some authors think, lies the plasticity of living matter; every stimulus leaves a certain trace ("engram"), which under certain conditions can again acquire an active character, having caused corresponding reactions, "recollections," etc. ("ecphory"). The latter process can be realized with the help of a whole series of mechanisms. Thus, in particular, recall can be evoked with the help of "association" by contiguity; in these cases, the basis of recall is a mechanism close to the mechanism of conditioned reflexes: a specific stimulus evokes a series of reactions that once occurred simultaneously with it; recall is also evoked by other, more complex paths, for example, with the help of logical connections, and in this case, it is an expression of the work of the most qualified brain mechanisms. The process of recall can sometimes be sharply hindered; thus, difficulties in recall exist in cases when a significant amount of time has passed since the event, and also in cases when a person was distracted by some other activity; furthermore, recall is often hindered if the given experience was colored by unpleasant emotional tones. In such cases, the given experience may be repressed or inhibited. In diseases of the brain with a disturbance of the basic neurodynamic processes (inhibition and excitation), the function of recall is also sharply disturbed. The function of active recall appears in the process of a child's development quite late; the first manifestations of active recall usually relate to 1¹/₂–2¹/₂ years of age. Accordingly, the development of a child's memory is divided into a series of stages, of which the most primitive is instinctive-physiological memory (manifesting, for example, in the reproduction of breast-sucking reflexes, etc.), followed by "recognition memory," in which the reaction of recognition appears only upon the presentation of an object (recognition of parents, familiar faces, etc., in a child from 4 months to 1¹/₂ years); finally, a significantly more complex stage is "recollection memory," in which the child proves to be in a state to spontaneously recall elements of his previous experience himself. The processes of recall are studied with the help of a series of special methods (see Memory).