The author substantiates an "object-content" approach to studying selectivity of memory. Experiments have proved that orientation of thinking processes is linked to the selectivity of memory processes. The author has developed a method of studying memory which has revealed that a directed selection of object characteristics and links and their inclusion in a mnemonic scheme structurizing memorizing processes, is determined, on the one hand, by forms of thinking activity that have developed as a result of instruction and, on the other hand, by the individual features of the subject's mnemonic functions.