Part 12 (2/2)
IMAGES VARY AS TO TYPE--We do not all rees or ideas When you remembered that Colue of Colu on the deck of his shi+p, as the old picture shows hioness” Others, in recalling the sae of the coast on which he landed, and perchance felt the rocking of the boat and heard it scraping on the sand as it neared the shore And still others saw on the printed page the words stating that Columbus discovered Aes or ideas we h of course the fact is not really the same fact to any two of us, nor to any one of us when it coes
OTHER MEMORY MATERIAL--But sensory ies are not the only material hich memory has to deal We o today without having ies of the rain We may recall that Colues of the event As a matter of fact we do constantly recall many facts of abstract nature, such as ery other than that of the words or symbols, if indeed these be present Mees, but also a wide range of facts, ideas and s of all sorts
4 LAWS UNDERLYING MEMORY
The developree on the closeness hich we follow certain well-demonstrated laws
THE LAW OF assOCIATION--The law of association, as we have already seen, is fundamental Upon it the whole structure ofthis law in neural terether at the same time tend to establish associative paths_, so that when one of theht into activity Expressing the same truth in ether in consciousness_, and one of them is later recalled, it tends to cause the other to appear also
THE LAW OF REPEtitION--The law of repetition is but a restatement of the law of habit, and may be formulated as follows: The _more frequently_ a certain cortical activity occurs, thethis law in mental terms we may say: The more often a fact is recalled in consciousness the easier and more certain the recall becomes It is upon the law of repetition that reviews and drills to fix things in the memory are based
THE LAW OF RECENCY--We ical terms as follows: The _more recently_ brain centers have been employed in a certain activity, the more easily are they thrown into the same activity This, on the mental side, means: The more recently any facts have been present in consciousness the more easily are they recalled It is in obedience to this law that ant to rehearse a difficult lesson just before the recitation hour, or cra of this law also explains the tendency of all memories to fade out as the years pass by
THE LAW OF VIVIDNESS--The law of vividness is of pri On the physical side it her the tension_ or the more intense the activity of neural centers the more easily the activity is repeated The counterpart of this law in ree of attention_ or concentration when the fact is registered the more certain it is of recall Better far one iree of vividness than several repetitions with the attention wandering or the brain too fatigued to respond Not drill alone, but drill with concentration, is necessary to sure memory,--in proof of which witness the futile results on the part of the s lesson over fifteen ti his marbles
5 RULES FOR USING THE MEMORY
Much careful and fruitful experimentation in the field of memory has taken place in recent years The scientists are now able to give us certain si our memories, even if we lack the time or opportunity to follow all their technical discussions
WHOLES VERSUS PARTS--Probablyto work to commit to memory a poem, oration, or other such material, have a tendency to learn it first by stanzas or sections and then put the parts together to form the whole Many tests, however, have shown this to be a less effective o over the whole poe special attention to any particularly difficult places The only exception to this rule would see productions, which th Theby wholes instead of parts not only econoives a better sense of unity andto the etting is found to be verythan after a longer ti to forget of matter committed to memory approximately one-half will fall aithin the first twenty-four hours and three-fourths within the first three days Since it is always econo out before it has been wholly forgotten, it will manifestly pay to review important memory material within the first day or two after it has once been memorized
DIVIDED PRACTICE--If to coo over it, say, ten different times, the results are found to be much better when the entire number of repetitions are not had in immediate succession, but with reasonable intervals between This is due, no doubt, to the well-known fact that associations tend to take forrow more secure even after we have ceased to think specifically of the matter in hand The intervals allow time for the associations to form their connections It is in this sense that Ja the winter and to skate during the suit, the memory should be forced into activity just as fast as it is able to carry part of thea poem over once, parts of it can be repeated without reference to the text, the memory should be compelled to reproduce these parts So with all othershould be applied only at such points as the rasped
NOT A MEMORY, BUT MEMORIES--Professor James has emphasized the fact, which has often been demonstrated by experimental tests, that we do not possess a ood in one line and poor in another Nor can we ”train ourthe i poetrythe eneral, the memory must be trained in the specific lines in which it is to excel General training will not serve except as itwhat is to be memorized
6 WHAT CONStitUTES A GOOD MEMORY
Let us next inquire what are the qualities which enter into e call a good memory The merchant or politician will say, ”Ability to remember well people's faces and names”; the teacher of history, ”The ability to recall readily dates and events”; the teacher of mathematics, ”The power to recall mathematical formulae”; the hotel waiter, ”The ability to keep in er of a corporation, ”The ability to recall all the necessary details connected with the running of the concern” While these answers are very divergent, yet they ; for out of thees this common truth, that _the best memory is the one which best serves its possessor_ That is, one's memory not only ht kind ofA very easy corollary at once grows out of this fact; naht kind of es and ideas, for thewhich we have not first given into its keeping
A GOOD MEMORY SELECTS ITS MATERIAL--The best memory is not necessarily the one which iest number of facts of past experience Everyone has many experiences which he never needs to have reproduced in h they may have been at the time, but wholly useless and irrelevant later They have served their purpose, and should henceforth slumber in oblivion They would be but so much rubbish and lumber if they could be recalled Everyone has surely met that particular type of bore whose memory is so faithful to details that no incident in the story he tells, noHis associations work in such a tireless round ofable to take a jump or a short cut, that he is powerless to separate the wheat from the chaff; so he du ears
Dr Carpenter tells of a al docu When he was congratulated on his ree to hireat inconvenience, because when he wished to recollect anything in a docu the whole fro up to the point which he wished to recall Maudsley says that the kind of raphic copy of former impressions with his h intellectual power,” and gives as a reason that such a mind is hindered by the very wealth ofthe relations between separate facts upon which judg depend It is likewise a co teachers that many of the pupils who could outstrip their class and memory do not turn out to be able men But this, says Whately, ”is as reasonable as to wonder that a cistern if filled should not be a perpetual fountain” It is possible for one to be so lost in a tangle of trees that he cannot see the woods
A GOOD MEMORY REQUIRES GOOD THINKING--It is not, then, ood mee has not necessarily as good a memory as the one who remembers fewer facts, but sees the relations between those remembered, and hence is _able to choose what he will remember_ Memory must be _discriminative_ It must fasten on that which is iree that ”_the art of re_” Discrimination must select the ies must be associated with as many others as possible which are already well fixed in memory, and hence are sure of recall when needed In this way the old will always serve as a cue to call up the new
MEMORY MUST BE SPECIALIZED--And not only enerally worthless, or trivial, or irrelevant, and supply the generally useful, significant, and relevant, but it ree be a _specialized memory_ It must minister to the particular needs and requirements of its owner Small consolation to you if you are a Latin teacher, and are able to call up the binomial theorem or the date of the fall of Constantinople when you are in dire need of a conjugation or a declension which eludes you It is ood memory for nalish monarchs from Alfred the Great to Edward VII and not be able to tell John Smith from Tom Brown
It is much more desirable for the lawyer to be able to remember the necessary details of his case than to be able to recall all the various athletic records of the year; and so on
In order to be a goodwith the material which constitutes the needs of our vocations
Our s outside of our immediate vocations, else our lives will be narrow; but its chief concern andthe path of our everyday requirements at its hands And this works out well in connection with the physiological lahich were stated a little while since, providing that our vocations are along the line of our interests For the things hich ork daily, and in which we are interested, will be often thought of together, and hence will become well associated They will be frequently recalled, and hence more easily remembered; they will be vividly experienced as the inevitable result of interest, and this goes far to insure recall