Part 11 (1/2)
FACTORS DETERMINING DIRECTION OF RECALL--_Which_ of these we get first, which of the ies the taste percept calls to take its place as it drops out of consciousness, will depend, other things being equal, on which center was inal situation, and is at thethe stolen fruit, our thoughts were keenly self-accusing for taking the apples without perh the path gustatory-thought, and we shall recall these thoughts and their acco of the dog frightened us badly, thenthe path gustatory-auditory, and we shall get the auditory i, which in turn e appearance over the auditory-visual fibers It is clear, however, that, given any one of the elements of the entire situation back, the rest are potentially possible to us, and any one iven the starting point, we get them all, depends solely on whether the paths are sufficiently open between the that the first experience made sufficient impression to be retained
Since this simple illustration may be made infinitely complex by means of the millions of fibers which connect every center in the cortex with every other center, and since, in passing from one experience to another in the round of our daily activities, these various areas are all involved in an endless chain of activities so intimately related that each one can finally lead to all the others, we have here the machinery both of retention and of recall--the mechanish being reproduced in the forh this ood or bad; for both the good and the bad alike are brought back to us through its operations
When the repetition of a series of acts has rendered habit secure, the association is relatively certain If I recite to you A-B-C-D, your thought at once runs on to E, F, G If I repeat, ”Tell me not in mournful numbers,” association leads you to folloith ”Life is but an eroups are accusto anything froe up of the right associative connections in the brain
assOCIATION IN THINKING--All thinking proceeds by the discovery or recognition of relations between the terht
The science of mathematics rests on the relations found to exist between numbers and quantities The principles and laws of natural science are based on the relations established ay that operates in this field So also in the realm of history, art, ethics, or any other field of human experience Each fact or event must be linked to other facts or events before it possesses significance association therefore lies at the foundation of all thinking, whether that of the original thinker who is creating our sciences, planning and executing the events of history, evolving a syste these fields as they already exist byequal, he is the best thinker who has his knowledge related part to part so that the whole forms a unified and usable system
assOCIATION AND ACTION--association plays an equally important part in all our motor responses, the acts by which we carry on our daily lives, do our work and our play, or whatever elseourselves to our environment Some sensations are often repeated, and demand practically the same response each time In such cases the associations soon become fixed, and the response certain and automatic For exa folloith all its complex acts, as a matter of course We lie down in bed, and the response of sleep coers produce the accustomed music
It is of course obvious that the influence of association extends to eneral, our conduct follows the trend of established associations We are likely to do in greatin small ones
2 THE TYPES OF assOCIATION
FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF assOCIATION--Stated on the physiological side, the law of habit as set forth in the definition of association in the preceding section includes all the laws of association In different phrasing we ether have the tendency to work in unison (2) The er will be the tendency for one to throw the other into action Also, (3) the more intense the exciteer will be the tendency for activity in one to bring about activity in the other
The corresponding facts ical terether in the ether (2) The er the tendency for the presence of one to insure the presence of the other (3) The greater the tension, excitement or concentration when these facts appear in conjunction with each other, the more certain the presence of one is to cause the presence of the other
Several different types of association have been differentiated by psychologists from Aristotle down It is to be kept in o back to the ele the neurones_ for their explanation
assOCIATION BY CONTIGUITY--The recurrence in our minds of many of the elements from our past experience is due to the fact that at so facts were contiguous in consciousness with soain present All have had the experience ofsome person e had not seen for several otten incidents or events connected with our fors we did, topics we discussed, trips we took, games we played, now recur at the renewal of our acquaintance For these are the things that were contiguous in our consciousness with our sense of the personality and appearance of our friend And who has not in similar fashi+on had a whiff of perfu recall to hiain the explanation
AT THE MERCY OF OUR assOCIATIONS--Through the law thus operating we are in a sense at the ood We ht, and attention ree direct it, but one's ely dependent on the character of his associations Evil thoughts, evil h the association of unworthy or iht We et the base deed and banish it forever frouarded moment the nerve current shoots into the old path, and the iht and unwelcoe in a little sowing of wild oats before he settles down to a correct life, and so deals in unworthy thoughts and deeds, is putting a e on his future; for he will find the inexorable es of such things back into his mind as surely as the mill returns to the sack of the miller what he feeds into the hopper He hts, but he can noadmission to hisat his door He es frouilty if he does not; but not taking offense at this rebuff, the unwelcoainst the return of the undesirable associations is to choose lines of thought as little related to them as possible But even then, do the best we may, an occasional ”connection” will be set up, we know not how, and the unwelcoene Araht it safely buried A minister of my acquaintance tells ht, ies rise in his mind which he loathes, and from which he recoils in horror
Not only does he drive theainst theain But alas! that is beyond his control The tares have been sown a with it until the end In his boyhood these i of his brain cells, and they are only being faithful to their trust
assOCIATION BY SIMILARITY AND CONTRAST--All are faest like One friend reminds us of another friend when he manifests similar traits of character, shows the same tricks of esture The telling of a ghost or burglar story in a coest a siroup, and before we know it the conversation has settled down to ghosts or burglars One boastful boy is enough to start the gang to recounting their real or ihts tend to call up other good and beautiful thoughts, while evil thoughts are likely to produce after their own kind; like produces like
Another form of relationshi+p is, however, quite as co In certain directions we naturally think in _opposites_
Black suggests white, good suggests bad, fat suggests lean, wealth suggests poverty, happiness suggests sorrow, and so on
The tendency of our thought thus to group in sio back to the fundamental law of association The fact is that we hts in these ways than in haphazard relations We habitually group si; hence these are the terms bethich associative bonds are formed
PARTIAL, OR SELECTIVE, assOCIATION--The past is never wholly reinstated in present consciousness Many elements, because they had formed fewer associations, or because they find sootten In other words, association is always _selective_, favoring now this item of experience, now that, above the rest
It is well that this is so; for to be unable to escape froreat mass of minutiae and unimportant detail in one's past would be intolerable, and would so cumber the mind with useless rubbish as to destroy its usefulness We have surely all had some experience with the type of persons whose associations are so complete and impartial that all their conversation teems with unessential and irrelevant details
They cannot recount the simplest incident in its essential points but, slaves to literalness,upon every lane and by-path of circumstance that leads nowhere and matters not the least in their story dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Shakespeare, and many other writers have seized upon such characters and made use of the thisfrom Miss Austen's ”Emma”:
”'But where could _you_ hear it?' cried Miss Bates 'Where could you possibly hear it, Mr Knightley? For it is not five minutes since I received Mrs Cole's note--no, it cannot be ot one down to speak to Patty again about the pork--Jane was standing in the passage--were not you, Jane?--for e enough So I said I would go down and see, and Jane said: ”Shall I go down instead? for I think you have a little cold, and Patty has been washi+ng the kitchen” ”Oh, my dear,” said I--well, and just then came the note'”
THE REMEDY--The remedy for such wearisome and fruitless methods of association is, as a matter of theory, simple and easy It is to enificant and essential_ in our thinking The person who listens to a story, who studies a lesson, or who is a participant in any eventthe i the trivial and unimportant to their proper level Not to train one's self to think in this discri each key with equal force!