Part 12 (1/2)

WHAT IS RETAINED--The truth is that the simple question I asked you is by noyou an easier one: As we sit with the sunlight strea into our rooht? And where will all this light be at ht? Answer these questions, and the ones I asked about your reardless of the conditions in our little rooht still exists wherever there is no darkness, yet for this particular room _there is no darkness when the sun shi+nes in_, and _there is no light when the room is filled with darkness_ So in the case of a reh the fact that Coluo, that your house is of a white color, that it rained a week ago today, exists as a fact regardless of whether your s at all, yet the truth remains as before: for the particular s, _the facts did not exist while they were out of the mind_

_It is not the remembered fact which is retained_, BUT THE POWER TO REPRODUCE THE FACT WHEN WE REQUIRE IT

THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF MEMORY--The power to reproduce a once-known fact depends ultio back a little and consider that brain activity was concerned in every perception we have ever had, and in every fact we have ever known

Indeed, it was through a certain neural activity of the cortex that you were able originally to know that Columbus discovered America, that your house is white, and that it rained on a day in the past Without this cortical activity, these facts would have existed just as truly, but _you_ would never have known them Without this neural activity in the brain there is no consciousness, and to it we must look for the recurrence in consciousness of remembered facts, as well as for those which appear for the first time

HOW WE REMEMBER--Now, if we are to have a once-known fact repeated in consciousness, or in other words _reical side is to provide for a repetition of the neural activity which was at first responsible for the fact's appearing in consciousness The mental accompaniment of the repeated activity _is the memory_ Thus, as _memory is the approximate repetition of once-experienced nition of their belonging to our past, so it is accomplished by an approximate repetition of the once-perforinally accompanied these states or facts_

The part played by the brain in memory makes it easy to understand e find it so iued fro hours of work or lack of sleep It also explains the derangement in memory that often comes fros or disease

DEPENDENCE OF MEMORY ON BRAIN QUALITY--Differences inmemory receives, rest ultimately on the memory-quality of the brain Jauished, and he describes them as follows:

Brains that are:

(1) Like _marble_ to receive and like _marble_ to retain

(2) Like _wax_ to receive and like _wax_ to retain

(3) Like _marble_ to receive and like _wax_ to retain

(4) Like _wax_ to receive and like _ives us those who memorize slowly and with much heroic effort, but who keep hat they have committed The second type represents the ones who learn in a flash, who can craet as easily and as quickly as they learn The third type characterizes the unfortunates whofor what they rasp The fourth type is a rare boon to its possessor, enabling him easily to stock his memory with valuable material, which is readily available to him upon deiven us through heredity, and we can do little or nothing to change the type Whatever our type of brain, however, we can dothe laws upon which all good memory depends

2 THE FOUR FACTORS INVOLVED IN MEMORY

Nothing is more obvious than that iven into its keeping, what has not been retained, or what for any reason cannot be recalled Further, if the facts given back byto our past, memory would be inco four factors: (1) _registration_, (2) _retention_, (3) _recall_, (4) _recognition_

REGISTRATION--By registration weof the matter to be re in the appropriate neurones the activities which, when repeated again later, cause the fact to be recalled It is this process that constitutes e call ”i is istration A thing but half learned is sure to be forgotten We often stop in the mastery of a lesson just short of the full impression needed for permanent retention and sure recall We sometimes say to our teachers, ”I cannot remember,” when, as awe seek to recall

RETENTION--Retention, as we have already seen, resides prih the law of habit working in the neurones of the cortex Here, as elsewhere, habit makes an activity once perforh this law a neural activity once performed tends to be repeated; or, in other words, a fact once known in consciousness tends to be ree a part of our past is lost in oblivion, and out of the reach of our ely due to a failure to _recall_ than to _retain_ We say that we have forgotten a fact or a name which we cannot recall, try as hard as we -striven-for fact suddenly appearing in our er had use for it It was retained all the tied man of my acquaintance lay on his deathbed In his childhood he had first learned to speak Gerht or nine years of age to an English-speaking community, he had lost his ability to speak German, and had been unable for a third of a century to carry on a conversation in histhe last days of his sickness he lost ale, and spoke fluently in Ger all these years his brain paths had retained the power to reproduce the forgotten words, even though for so long a time the words could not be recalled Jaed wo her delirious ravings, was heard talking in Latin, Hebrew and Greek She herself could neither read nor write, and the priests said she was possessed of a devil But a physician unraveled the e, a pastor, as a noted scholar, had taken her into his home as a servant, and she had re this time she had daily heard hies Her brain had indelibly retained the record h for years she could not have recalled a sentence, if, indeed, she had ever been able to do so

RECALL--Recall depends entirely on association There is no way to arrive at a certain fact or na us except by means of so ter it into the fold Mee of associations It therefore follows that the more associations set up between the fact to be remembered and related facts already in the mind, the more certain the recall Historical dates and events should when learned be associated with important central dates and events to which they naturally attach Geographical names, places or other information should be connected with related e should for that is given over to theshould be linked as closely as possible to material of the same sort

This is all to say that we should not expect our memory to retain and reproduce isolated, unrelated facts, but should give it the advantage of as rounded associations as possible

RECOGNITION--A fact reproduced byto our past experience would impress us as a new fact This would mean that memory would fail to link the present to the past Often we are puzzled to knohether we have before met a certain person, or on a former occasion told a certain story, or previously experienced a certain present state ofmental states are usually but instances of partial and incoer applies to e; for example, we say we remember that four times six is twenty-four, but probably none of us can recall when and where we learned this fact--we cannot _recognize_ it as belonging to our past experience So with ten thousand other things, which we _know_ rather than remember in the strict sense

3 THE STUFF OF MEMORY

What are the forms in which memory presents the past to us? What are the elements hich it deals? What is the stuff of which it consists?

IMAGES AS THE MATERIAL OF MEMORY--In the light of our discussion upon ery, and with the aid of a little introspection, the answer is easy I ask you to ree of the familiar house, with its well-known roos, comes to your mind I ask you to remember the last concert you attended, or the chorus of birds you heard recently in the woods; and there coely auditory, from the melodies you heard Or I ask you to reustatory and olfactory i the others which appear And so I e of your memory; and, whether I ask you for the siic or crucial experiences, or for the most abstruse and abstract facts which you know and can recall, the case is the same: es_ or of _ideas_ of your past