diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17829-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 103824 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17829-h/17829-h.htm | 2054 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17829-h/images/bord1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 17535 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17829-h/images/ill-1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 28341 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17829-h/images/ill-2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 26498 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17829.txt | 1592 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17829.zip | bin | 0 -> 27612 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
10 files changed, 3662 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17829-h.zip b/17829-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b3a11b --- /dev/null +++ b/17829-h.zip diff --git a/17829-h/17829-h.htm b/17829-h/17829-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfad02b --- /dev/null +++ b/17829-h/17829-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2054 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Trained Memory, by Warren Hilton, A.B., L.L.B.. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 65%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; + text-align: left; empty-cells: show;} + td {text-align: left;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 20%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 2%; + font-size: smaller; + font-style: normal; + } /* page numbers */ + + +.sidenote { position: absolute; left: 82%; width: 15%; + padding-left: 0; text-indent: 0; margin: 0 0 0 0; + font-size: 80%; text-align: left; font-style: italic; + } +/* + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} +*/ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .gap {margin-top: 3em;} + + + .figcenter {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;} + .decheader {margin-top: 5em; margin-bottom: 3em; width: 350px;} + .photo {margin-top: 5em; margin-bottom: 3em;} + .caption {font-size: 90%;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trained Memory, by Warren Hilton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Trained Memory + Being the Fourth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the + Applications of Psychology to the Problems of Personal and + Business Efficiency + +Author: Warren Hilton + +Release Date: February 22, 2006 [EBook #17829] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAINED MEMORY *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Paul Ereaut and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h2>APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY</h2> + +<h1>THE TRAINED MEMORY</h1> + +<h3><i>Being the Fourth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the Applications of +Psychology to the Problems of Personal and Business Efficiency</i> +</h3> +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>WARREN HILTON, A.B., L.L.B.</h2> +<h4>FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></h4> + + +<h4>ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF</h4> +<h3>THE LITERARY DIGEST</h3> +<h4>FOR</h4> + +<h2><i>The Society of Applied Psychology</i></h2> +<h3>NEW YORK AND LONDON</h3> +<h3>1920</h3> + + + +<p class="center gap">COPYRIGHT 1914<br /> +BY THE APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY PRESS<br /> +SAN FRANCISCO</p> + +<p class="center">(<i>Printed in the United States of America</i>)</p> + + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> + +<tr><td>Chapter</td> +<td></td> +<td class="right">Page</td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td></td> +<td></td></tr> + +<tr><td>I.</td> +<td><b>THE ELEMENTS OF MEMORY</b></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>FOUR SPECIAL MEMORY PROCESSES</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td></td> +<td></td></tr> + +<tr><td>II.</td> +<td><b>THE MENTAL TREASURE VAULT AND ITS LOST COMBINATION</b></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>WHAT EVERYONE THINKS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>CAUSES OF FORGETFULNESS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>SEEING WITH "HALF AN EYE"</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE MAN ON BROADWAY</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>WAXEN TABLETS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>NOT HOW, BUT HOW MUCH</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>REMEMBERING THE UNPERCEIVED</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>SPEAKING A FORGOTTEN TONGUE</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>LIVING PAST EXPERIENCES OVER AGAIN</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE "FLASH OF INSPIRATION"</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE TOTALITY OF RETENTION</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>POSSIBILITIES OF SELF-DISCOVERY</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>"ACRES OF DIAMONDS"</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td></td> +<td></td></tr> + +<tr><td>III.</td> +<td><b>THE MECHANISM OF RECALL</b></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE RIGHT STIMULUS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>"COMPLEXES" OF EXPERIENCE</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE THRILL OF RECOLLECTION</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>"COMPLEXES" AND FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENTS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>AUTOMATICALLY WORKING MENTAL MECHANISMS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>TWO CLASSES OF "COMPLEXES"</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE SUBCONSCIOUS STOREHOUSE</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td></td> +<td></td></tr> + +<tr><td>IV.</td> +<td><b>THE LAWS OF RECALL</b></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE LAW OF INTEGRAL RECALL</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>WHAT ORDINARY "THINKING" AMOUNTS TO</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE REVERSE OF COMPLEX FORMATION</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>PROLIXITY AND TERSENESS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE LAW OF CONTIGUITY</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>LAWS OF HABIT AND INTENSITY</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>APPLICATIONS TO ADVERTISING</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>EFFECT OF REPETITIONS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>RATIO OF SIZE TO VALUE</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>RISKS IN ADVERTISING</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td></td> +<td></td></tr> + +<tr><td>V.</td> +<td><b>THE SCIENCE OF FORGETTING</b></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE SKILLED ARTISAN</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>HOW THE ATTENTION WORKS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>IRON FILINGS AND MENTAL MAGNETS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE COMPARTMENT OF SUBCONSCIOUS FORGETFULNESS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>MAKING EXPERIENCE COUNT</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>HOW HABITS ARE FORMED</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td></td> +<td></td></tr> + +<tr><td>VI.</td> +<td><b>THE FALLACY OF MOST MEMORY SYSTEMS</b></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>PRACTICE IN MEMORIZING INADEQUATE</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>TORTURE OF THE DRILL</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>REAL CAUSE OF FAILING MEMORY</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE MANUFACTURED INTEREST</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>MEMORY LURE OF A DESIRE</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td></td> +<td></td></tr> + +<tr><td>VII.</td> +<td><b>A SCIENTIFIC MEMORY SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS</b></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>IMPORTANCE OF ASSOCIATES</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>"CRAMMING" AND "WILLING"</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>BASIC PRINCIPLE OF THOUGHT-REPRODUCTION</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>METHODS OF PICK</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>SCIENTIFIC PEDAGOGY</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>HOW TO REMEMBER NAMES</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>FIVE EXERCISES FOR DEVELOPING OBSERVATION</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>INVENTION AND THOUGHT-MEMORY</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THREE EXERCISES FOR DEVELOPING THOUGHT-MEMORY</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>HOW TO COMPEL RECOLLECTION</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>FORMATION OF CORRECT MEMORY HABITS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>NOW!</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>PERSISTENCE, ACCURACY, DISPATCH</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>MEMORY SIGNS AND TOKENS</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> +<td>THE MENTAL COMBINATION REVEALED</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr> + +</table></div> + + + + +<hr /> +<h2>THE ELEMENTS OF MEMORY</h2> + +<div class="figcenter decheader" > +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +<img src="images/bord1.jpg" width="350" height="88" alt="Decorative Header" title="Decorative Header" /></div> + + +<h2><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> I</h2> + +<h2>THE ELEMENTS OF MEMORY</h2> + + + + +<p><span class="sidenote">Four Special Memory Processes</span> +You have learned of the sense-perceptive and judicial processes by which +your mind acquires its knowledge of the outside world. You come now to a +study of the phenomenon of memory, the instrument by which your mind +retains and makes use of its knowledge, the agency that has power to +resurrect the buried past or power to enfold us in a Paradise of dreams +more perfect than reality.</p> + + +<p>In the broadest sense, memory is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> faculty of the mind by which we +(1) <i>retain</i>, (2) <i>recall</i>, (3) <i>picture to the mind's eye</i>, and (4) +<i>recognize</i> past experiences.</p> + +<p>Memory involves, therefore, four elements, <i>Retention</i>, <i>Recall</i>, +<i>Imagination</i> and <i>Recognition</i>.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +</p> +<h2> +THE MENTAL TREASURE VAULT AND ITS LOST COMBINATION</h2> + +<div class="figcenter decheader" > +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +<img src="images/bord1.jpg" width="350" height="88" alt="Decorative Header" title="Decorative Header" /></div> + + + +<h2><span class="smcap">Chapter II</span></h2> + +<h2>THE MENTAL TREASURE VAULT AND ITS LOST COMBINATION</h2> + + + +<p><span class="sidenote">What Everyone Thinks</span> +Almost everyone seems to think that we retain in the mind <i>only</i> those +things that we can voluntarily recall; that memory, in other words, is +limited to the power of voluntary reproduction.</p> + +<p>This is a profound error. It is an inexcusable error. The daily papers +are constantly reporting cases of the lapse and restoration of memory +that contain all the elements of underlying truth on this subject.</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Causes of Forgetfulness</span> +It is plain enough that the memory <i>seems</i> decidedly limited in its +scope. This is because our power of voluntary recall is decidedly +limited.</p> + +<p>But it does not follow simply because we are without the power to +deliberately recall certain experiences that all mental trace of those +experiences is lost to us.</p> + +<p><i>Those experiences that we are unable to recall are those that we +disregarded when they occurred because they possessed no special +interest for us. They are there, but no mental associations or +connections with power to awaken them have arisen in consciousness.</i></p> + + +<p> +Things are continually happening all around us that we see with but +"half an eye." They are in the "fringe" of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Seeing with "Half an Eye"</span> +consciousness, and we +deliberately ignore them. Many more things come to us in the form of +sense-impressions that clamorously assail our sense-organs, but no +effort of the will is needed to ignore them. We are absolutely +impervious to them and unconscious of them because by the selection of +our life interests we have closed the doors against them.</p> + +<p>In either case, whether in the "fringe" of consciousness or entirely +outside of consciousness, these unperceived sensations will be found to +be sensory images that have no connection with the present subject of +thought. They therefore attract, and we spare them, no part of our +attention.</p> + +<p>Just as each of our individual sense-organs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +selects from the multitude +of ether vibrations constantly beating upon the surface of the body only +those waves to the velocity of which it is attuned, so each one of us as +an integral personality selects from the stream of sensory experiences +only those particular objects of attention that are in some way related +to the present or habitual trend of thought.</p> + + +<p><span class="sidenote">The Man on Broadway</span> +Just consider for a moment the countless number and variety of +impressions that assail the eye and ear of the New Yorker who walks down +Broadway in a busy hour of the day. Yet to how few of these does he pay +the slightest attention. He is in the midst of a cataclysm of sound +almost equal to the roar of Niagara and he does not know it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Waxen Tablets</span> +Observe how many objects are right now in the corner of your mind's eye +as being within the scope of your vision while your entire attention is +apparently absorbed in these lines. You see these other things, and you +can look back and realize that you have seen them, but you were not +aware of them at the time.</p> + + +<p>Let two individuals of contrary tastes take a day's outing together. +Both may have during the day practically identical sensory images; but +each one will come back with an entirely different tale to tell of the +day's adventures.</p> + +<p><i>All sensory impressions, somehow or other, leave their faint impress on +the waxen tablets of the mind. Few are or can be voluntarily recalled.</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +Just where and how memories are retained is a mystery. There are +theories that represent sensory experiences as actual physiological +"impressions" on the cells of the brain. They are, however, nothing but +theories, and the manner in which the brain, as the organ of the mind, +keeps its record of sensory experiences has never been discovered. +Microscopic anatomy has never reached the point where it could identify +a particular "idea" with any one "cell" or other part of the brain.</p> + + +<p><span class="sidenote">Not How, but How Much</span> +For us, the important question is not <i>how</i>, but <i>how much</i>; <i>not the +manner in which, but the extent to which</i>, sensory impressions are +preserved. Now, all the evidences indicate that <i>absolutely every +impression received upon the sensorium +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Remembering the Unperceived</span> +is indelibly recorded in the +mind's substance</i>. A few instances will serve to illustrate the +remarkable power of retention of the human mind.</p> + + +<p>Sir William Hamilton quotes the following from Coleridge's "Literaria +Biographia": "A young woman of four- or five-and-twenty, who could +neither read nor write, was seized with a nervous fever, during which, +according to the asseverations of all the priests and monks of the +neighborhood, she became 'possessed,' and, as it appeared, by a very +learned devil. She continued incessantly talking Latin, Greek and Hebrew +in very pompous tones, and with most distinct enunciation. Sheets full +of her ravings were taken down from her own mouth, and were found +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> to +consist of sentences coherent and intelligible each for itself but with +little or no connection with each other. Of the Hebrew, a small portion +only could be traced to the Bible; the remainder seemed to be in the +Rabbinical dialect."</p> + +<p>The case was investigated by a physician, who learned that the girl had +been a waif and had been taken in charge by a Protestant clergyman when +she was nine years old and brought up as his servant. This clergyman had +for years been in the habit of walking up and down a passage of his +house into which the kitchen door opened and at the same time reading to +himself in a loud voice from his favorite book. A considerable number of +these books were still in the possession of his niece, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> who told the +physician that her uncle had been a very learned man and an accomplished +student of Hebrew. Among the books were found a collection of Rabbinical +writings, together with several of the Greek and Latin fathers; and the +physician succeeded in identifying so many passages in these books with +those taken down at the bed-side of the young woman that there could be +no doubt as to the true origin of her learned ravings.</p> + +<p>Now, the striking feature of all this, it will be observed, is the fact +that the subject was an illiterate servant-girl to whom the Greek, Latin +and Hebrew quotations were <i>utterly unintelligible,</i> that <i>normally she +had no recollection of them, that she had no idea of their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Speaking a Forgotten Tongue</span> +meaning</i>, +and finally that they had been impressed upon her mind <i>without her +knowledge</i> while she was engaged in her duties in her master's kitchen.</p> + + +<p>Several cases are reported by Dr. Abercrombie, and quoted by Professor +Hyslop, in which mental impressions long since forgotten beyond the +power of voluntary recall have been revived by the shock of accident or +disease. "A man," he says, "mentioned by Mr. Abernethy, had been born in +France, but had spent the greater part of his life in England, and, for +many years, had entirely lost the habit of speaking French. But when +under the care of Mr. Abernethy, on account of the effects of an injury +to the head, he always spoke French.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +"A similar case occurred in St. Thomas Hospital, of a man who was in a +state of stupor in consequence of an injury to the head. On his partial +recovery he spoke a language which nobody in the hospital understood but +which was soon ascertained to be Welsh. It was then discovered that he +had been thirty years absent from Wales, and, before the accident, had +entirely forgotten his native language.</p> + +<p>"A lady mentioned by Dr. Pritchard, when in a state of delirium, spoke a +language which nobody about her understood, but which was afterward +discovered to be Welsh. None of her friends could form any conception of +the manner in which she had become acquainted with that language; but, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Living Past Experiences Over Again</span> +after much inquiry, it was discovered that in her childhood she had a +nurse, a native of a district on the coast of Brittany, the dialect of +which is closely analogous to Welsh. The lady at that time learned a +good deal of this dialect but had entirely forgotten it for many years +before this attack of fever."</p> + + +<p>Dr. Carpenter relates the following incident in his "Mental Physiology": +"Several years ago, the Rev. S. Mansard, now rector of Bethnal Green, +was doing clerical duty for a time at Hurstmonceaux, in Sussex; and +while there he one day went over with a party of friends to Pevensey +Castle, which he did not remember to have ever previously visited. As he +approached the gateway he became conscious of a very +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> vivid impression +of having seen it before; and he 'seemed to himself to see' not only the +gateway itself, but donkeys beneath the arch and people on top of it. +His conviction that he must have visited the castle on some former +occasion—although he had neither the slightest remembrance of such a +visit nor any knowledge of having ever been in the neighborhood +previously to his residence at Hurstmonceaux—made him inquire from his +mother if she could throw any light on the matter. She at once informed +him that being in that part of the country, when he was but <i>eighteen +months old</i>, she had gone over with a large party and had taken him in +the pannier of a donkey; that the elders of the party, having brought +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +lunch with them, had eaten it on the roof of the gateway, where they +would have been seen from below, whilst he had been left on the ground +with the attendants and donkeys."</p> + +<p>"An Italian gentleman," says Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, "who died of +yellow fever in New York, in the beginning of his illness spoke English, +in the middle of it French, but on the day of his death only Italian."</p> + +<p>Striking as these instances are, they are not unusual. Everyone on +reflection can supply similar instances. Who among us has not at one +time or another been impressed with a mysterious feeling of having at +some time in the past gone through the identical experience which he is +living now?</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The "Flash of Inspiration"</span> +On such occasions the sense of familiarity is sometimes so persistent as +to fill one with a strange feeling of the supernatural and to incline +our minds to the belief in a reincarnation.</p> + +<p>The "flash of inspiration" which, for the lawyer, solves a novel legal +issue arising in the trial of a case, or, for the surgeon, sees him +successfully through the emergencies of a delicate operation, has its +origin in the forgotten learning of past experience and study.</p> + + +<p>Succeeding books in this <i>Course</i> will bring to light numerous other +facts less commonly observed, drawn indeed from the study of abnormal +mental states, indicating that we retain a great volume of +sense-impressions of whose very recording we are at the time unaware. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Totality of Retention</span> +In other words, all the evidences point to the absolute totality of our +retention of all sensory experiences. They indicate that every +sense-impression you ever received, whether you actually perceived and +were conscious of it or not, has been retained and preserved in your +memory, and can be "brought to mind" when you understand the proper +method of calling it into service.</p> + +<p>A vast wealth of facts is stored in the treasure vaults of your mind, +but there are certain inner compartments to which you have lost the +combination.</p> + + +<p>The author of "Thoughts on Business" says: "It is a great day in a man's +life when he truly begins to discover himself. The latent capacities of +every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Possibilities of Self-Discovery</span> +man are greater than he realizes, and he may find them if he +diligently seeks for them. A man may own a tract of land for many years +without knowing its value. He may think of it as merely a pasture. But +one day he discovers evidences of coal and finds a rich vein beneath his +land. While mining and prospecting for coal he discovers deposits of +granite. In boring for water he strikes oil. Later he discovers a vein +of copper ore, and after that silver and gold. These things were there +all the time—even when he thought of his land merely as a pasture. But +they have a value only when they are discovered and utilized."</p> + +<p>"Not every pasture contains deposits of silver and gold, neither oil +nor +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">"Acres of Diamonds"</span> +granite, nor even coal. But beneath the surface of every man there +must be, in the nature of things, a latent capacity greater than has yet +been discovered. And one discovery must lead to another until the man +finds the deep wealth of his own possibilities. History is full of the +acts of men who discovered somewhat of their own capacity; but history +has yet to record the man who fully discovered all that he might have +been."</p> + + +<p>You who are a bit vain of your visits to other lands, your wide reading, +your experience of men and things; you who secretly lament that so +little of what you have seen and read remains with you, behold, your +"acres of diamonds" are within you, needing but the mystic formula that +shall reveal the treasure!</p> + + + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE MECHANISM OF RECALL</h2> + +<div class="figcenter decheader" > +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +<img src="images/bord1.jpg" width="350" height="88" alt="Decorative Header" title="Decorative Header" /></div> + + + +<h2><span class="smcap">Chapter III</span></h2> + +<h2>THE MECHANISM OF RECALL</h2> + + + +<p><span class="sidenote">The Right Stimulus</span> +Somehow, somewhere, all experiences, whether subject to voluntary recall +or not, are preserved, and are capable of reproduction when the right +stimulus comes along.</p> + +<p>And it is a law that <i>those experiences which are associated with each +other, whether ideas, emotions or voluntary or involuntary muscular +movements, tend to become bound together into groups, and these groups +tend to become bound together into systems</i>.</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">"Complexes" of Experience</span> +Such a system of associated groups of experiences is technically known +as a "complex."</p> + +<p>Pay particular attention to these definitions, as "groups" of ideas and +"complexes" of ideas, emotions and muscular movements are terms that we +shall constantly employ.</p> + +<p>You learned in a former lesson that mental experiences may consist not +only of sense-perceptions based on excitements arising in the memory +nerves, but also of bodily emotions, the "feeling tones" of ideas, and +of muscular movements based on stimuli arising in the motor nerves.</p> + +<p><i>Groups consist, therefore, not only of associated ideas, but of +associated ideas coupled with their emotional +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Thrill of Recollection</span> +qualities and impulses to +muscular movements.</i></p> + +<p>All groups bound together by a mutually related idea constitute a single +"complex." Every memory you have is an illustration of such "complexes."</p> + + +<p>Suppose, for example, you once gained success in a business deal. Your +recollection of the other persons concerned in that transaction, of any +one detail in the transaction itself, will be accompanied by the faster +heartbeat, the quickened circulation of the blood, the feeling of +triumph and elation that attended the original experience.</p> + + +<p>Complexes formed out of harrowing earthquakes, robberies, murders or +other dreadful spectacles, which were originally accompanied on the part +of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">"Complexes" and Functional Derangements</span> +the onlooker by trembling, perspiration and palpitation of the +heart, when lived over again in memory, are again accompanied by all +these bodily activities. Your memory of a hairbreadth escape will bring +to your cheek the pallor that marked it when the incident occurred.</p> + +<p>The formation and existence of "complexes" explains the origin of many +functional diseases of the body—that is to say, diseases involving no +loss or destruction of tissue, but consisting simply in a failure on the +part of some bodily organ to perform its allotted function naturally and +effectively.</p> + + +<p>Thus, in hay fever or "rose cold" the tears, the inflammation of the +membranes of the nose, the cough, the other trying symptoms, all are +linked with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Automatically Working Mental Mechanisms</span> +the sight of a rose, or dust, or sunlight, or some other +outside fact to which attention has been called as the cause of hay +fever, into a complex, "an automatically working mechanism." And the +validity of this explanation of the regular recurrence of attacks of +this disease is sufficiently demonstrated by the fact that a paper rose +is likely to prove just as effective in producing all the symptoms of +the disease as a rose out of Nature's garden.</p> + +<p>Another striking illustration of the working of this principle is +afforded by two gentlemen of my acquaintance, brothers, each of whom +since boyhood has had unfailing attacks of sneezing upon first arising +in the morning. No sooner is one of these men awake and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Two Classes of "Complexes"</span> +seated upon the +edge of his bed for dressing than he begins to sneeze, and he continues +to sneeze for fifteen or twenty minutes thereafter, although he has no +"cold" and never sneezes at any other time.</p> + + +<p>Obviously, if absolutely all mental experiences are preserved, they +consist altogether of two broad classes of complexes: first, those that +are momentarily <i>active in consciousness</i>, forming part of the present +mental picture, and, second, all the others—that is to say, all past +experiences that are <i>not at the present moment before the mind's eye</i>.</p> + +<p>There are, then, <i>conscious</i> complexes and <i>subconscious</i> complexes, +complexes of <i>consciousness</i> and complexes of <i>subconsciousness</i>.</p> + + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Subconscious Storehouse</span> +And of the complexes of subconsciousness, some are far more readily +recalled than others. Some are forever popping into one's thoughts, +while others can be brought to the light of consciousness only by some +unusual and deep-probing stimulus. And <i>the human mind is a vast +storehouse of complexes, far the greater part buried in +subconsciousness</i>, yet somehow, like impressions on the wax cylinder of +a phonograph, preserved with life-like truth and clearness.</p> + +<p>Turn back for a moment to our definition of memory. You will observe +that its second essential element is Recall.</p> + +<p>Recall is the process by which the experiences of the past are summoned +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +from the reservoir of the subconscious into the light of present +consciousness. We necessarily touched upon this process in a previous +book, in considering the Laws of Association, but here, in relation to +memory, we shall go into the matter somewhat more analytically.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE LAWS OF RECALL</h2> + +<div class="figcenter decheader" > +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +<img src="images/bord1.jpg" width="350" height="88" alt="Decorative Header" title="Decorative Header" /></div> + + +<h2><span class="smcap">Chapter IV</span></h2> + +<h2>THE LAWS OF RECALL</h2> + + + +<p><span class="sidenote">The Law of Integral Recall</span> +<span class="smcap">Law I.</span> The primary law of recall is this: <i>The recurrence or +stimulation of one element in a complex tends to recall all the others.</i></p> + +<p>In our explanation of "complex" formation we necessarily cited instances +that illustrate this principle as well, since <i>recall is merely a +reverse operation from that involved in "complex" formation</i>.</p> + + +<p>For example, in running through a book I come upon a flower pressed +between its pages. At once the memory +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">What Ordinary "Thinking" Amounts to</span> +of the friend who gave it to me +springs into consciousness and becomes the subject of reminiscence. This +recalls the mountain village where we last met. This recalls the fact +that a railroad was at the time under process of construction, which +should transform the village into a popular resort. This in turn +suggests my coming trip to the seashore, and I am reminded of a business +appointment on which my ability to leave town on the appointed day +depends. And so on indefinitely.</p> + +<p>Far the greater part of your successive states of consciousness, or even +of your ordinary "thinking," commonly so-called, consists of trains of +mental pictures "suggested" one by another. If the associated pictures +are of the everyday +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Reverse of Complex Formation</span> +type, common to everyone, you have a prosaic mind; +if, on the other hand, the associations are unusual or unique, you are +happily possessed of wit and fancy.</p> + + +<p>These instances of the action of the Law of Recall illustrate but one +phase of its activity. They show simply that groups of ideas are so +strung together on the string of some common element that <i>the activity +of one "group" in consciousness is apt to be automatically followed by +the others. But the law of association goes deeper than this. It enters +into the activity of every individual group, and causes all the elements +of every group, ideas, emotions and impulses to muscular movements, to +be simultaneously manifested.</i></p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Prolixity and Terseness</span> +There is no principle to which we shall more continually refer than this +one. Our explanation of hay fever a moment ago illustrates our meaning. +Get the principle clearly in your mind, and see how many instances of +its operation you can yourself supply from your own daily experience.</p> + +<p>So far as the mere linking together of groups of ideas is concerned, +this classifying quality is developed in some persons to a greater +degree than in others. It finds its extreme exemplar in the type of man +who can never relate an incident without reciting all the prolix and +minute details and at the same time wandering far from the original +subject in pursuit of every suggested idea.</p> + + +<p class="gap"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Law of Contiguity</span> +<span class="smcap">Law II.</span> <i>Similarity and nearness in time or space between two +experiential facts causes the thought of one to tend to recall the +thought of the other.</i></p> + +<p>This is the Associative Law of Contiguity considered from the standpoint +of recall. The points of contiguity are different for different +individuals. Similarities and nearnesses will awaken all sorts of +associated groups of ideas in one person that are not at all excitable +in the same way in another whose experiences have been different.</p> + +<p class="gap"><span class="smcap">Law III.</span> <i>The greater the frequency and intensity of any given +experience, the greater the ease and likelihood of its reproduction and +recall.</i></p> + + +<p>This explains why certain groups in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Laws of Habit and Intensity</span> +any complex are more readily +recalled than others—why some leap forth unbidden, why some come next +and before others, why some arrive but tardily or not at all.</p> + +<p>This is how the associative Laws of Habit and Intensity affect the power +of recall. +</p> + + + +<p class="gap">There is no department of business to which the application of these +Laws of Recall is so apparent as the department of advertising. The most +carefully worded and best-illustrated advertisement may fail to pay its +cost unless the underlying principles of choice of position, selection +of medium and size of space are understood. The advertisers in +metropolitan newspapers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Applications to Advertising</span> +and magazines of large circulation are the ones +who have most at stake. But whatever the field to be reached, it is well +to bear in mind certain facts based on the Laws of Recall that have been +established by psychological experiment.</p> + +<p>Most advertisers have a general idea that certain relative positions on +the newspaper or magazine page are to be preferred over others, but they +have no conception of the real differences in relative recall value. +When the great cost of space in large publications is considered the +financial value of such knowledge is evident.</p> + +<p>By a great number of tests the relative recall value of every part of +the newspaper page has been approximately +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Effect of Repetitions</span> +determined. It has been +found, for example, that a given space at the upper right-hand corner of +the page has more than twice the value of the same amount of space in +the lower left-hand corner.</p> + + +<p>Many advertisers adopt the policy of repeating full-page advertisements +at long intervals instead of advertising in a small way continually. +Laboratory tests have shown, on the contrary, that a quarter-page +advertisement appearing in four successive issues of a newspaper is +fifty per cent more effective than a full-page advertisement appearing +only once. It does not follow, however, that an eighth-page +advertisement repeated eight times is correspondingly more effective; +for below a certain relative size the value of an advertisement +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Ratio of Size to Value</span> +decreases much more rapidly than the cost. There are, of course, +modifying conditions, such as special sales of department stores, where +occasional displays and announcements make it desirable to use either +full pages, or even double pages, but the great bulk of advertising is +not of this character.</p> + + +<p>Every year in the United States alone six hundred millions of dollars +are expended in advertising the sale of commodities, and for the most +part expended in a haphazard, experimental and unscientific way. The +investment of this vast sum with risk of perhaps total loss, or even +possible injury, through the faulty construction or improper placing of +advertisements should stimulate the interest of every <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Risks in Advertising</span> +advertiser in the +work that psychologists have done and are doing toward the accumulation +of a body of exact knowledge on this subject.</p> + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE SCIENCE OF FORGETTING</h2> + + +<div class="figcenter photo" style="width: 346px;"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +<img src="images/ill-2.jpg" width="346" height="255" alt="TESTING THE MEMORY " title="TESTING THE MEMORY" /> +<span class="caption">TESTING THE MEMORY</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter decheader" > +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +<img src="images/bord1.jpg" width="350" height="88" alt="Decorative Header" title="Decorative Header" /></div> + + + +<h2><span class="smcap">Chapter V</span></h2> + +<h2>THE SCIENCE OF FORGETTING</h2> + + + +<p><span class="sidenote">The Skilled Artisan</span> +Attention is the instrumentality through which the Laws of Recall +operate. Wittingly or unwittingly, consciously or unconsciously, every +man's attention swings in automatic obedience to the Laws of Recall.</p> + +<p>Attention is the artisan that, bit by bit, and with lightning quickness, +constructs the mosaic of consciousness.</p> + +<p>Having the whole vast store of all present and past experiences to draw +upon, he selects only those groups and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">How the Attention Works</span> +those isolated instances that +are related to our general interests and aims. He disregards others.</p> + + +<p>The attention operates in a manner complementary to the general Laws of +Recall. It is an active principle not of association, but of +<i>dissociation</i>.</p> + +<p>You choose, for example, a certain aim in life. You decide to become the +inventor of an aeroplane of automatic stability. This choice henceforth +determines two things. First, it determines just which of the sensory +experiences of any given moment are most likely to be selected for your +conscious perception. Secondly, it determines just which of your past +experiences will be most likely to be recalled.</p> + +<p>Such a choice, in other words, determines +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Iron Filings and Mental Magnets</span> +to some extent the sort of +elements that will most probably be selected to make up at any moment +the contents of your consciousness.</p> + + +<p>From the instant that you make such a choice you are on the alert for +facts relevant to the subject of your ambition. Upon them you +concentrate your attention. They are presented to your consciousness +with greater precision and clearness than other facts. All facts that +pertain to the art of flying henceforth cluster and cling to your +conscious memory like iron filings to a magnet. All that are impertinent +to this main pursuit are dissociated from these intensely active +complexes, and in time fade into subconscious forgetfulness.</p> + + +<p>By subconscious forgetfulness we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Compartment of Subconscious Forgetfulness</span> +mean a <i>compartment</i>, as it were, of +that reservoir in which all past experiences are stored.</p> + +<p><i>Consciousness is a momentary thing.</i> It is a passing state. It is +ephemeral and flitting. It is made up <i>in part of present +sense-impressions</i> and in part of past experiences. These past +experiences are brought forth from subconsciousness. Some are +voluntarily brought forth. Some present themselves without our conscious +volition, but by the operation of the laws of association and +dissociation. Some we seem unable voluntarily to recall, yet they may +appear when least we are expecting them. It is these last to which we +have referred as lost in subconscious forgetfulness. As a matter of +fact, <i>none</i> are ever actually <i>lost</i>.</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Making Experience Count</span> +All the wealth of your past experience is still yours—a concrete part +of your personality. All that is required to make it available for your +present use is a sufficient concentration of your attention, <i>a +concentration of attention that shall dwell persistently and exclusively +upon those associations that bear upon the fact desired</i>.</p> + +<p>The tendency of the mind toward dissociation, a function limiting the +indiscriminate recall of associated "groups," is also manifested in all +of us in the transfer to unconsciousness of many <i>muscular activities</i>.</p> + + +<p>As infants we learn to walk only by giving to every movement of the +limbs the most deliberate conscious attention. Yet, in time, the +complicated co-operation +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">How Habits Are Formed</span> +of muscular movements involved in walking +becomes involuntary and unconscious, so that we are no longer even aware +of them.</p> + +<p>It is the same with reading, writing, playing upon musical instruments, +the manipulation of all sorts of mechanical devices, the thousand and +one other muscular activities that become what we call <i>habitual</i>.</p> + +<p>The moment one tries to make these habitual activities again dependent +on the conscious will he encounters difficulties.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The centipede was happy quite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the toad, for fun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Said, 'Pray which leg goes after which?'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This stirred his mind to such a pitch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He lay distracted in a ditch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Considering <i>how</i> to run."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +<i>All these habitual activities are started as acts of painstaking care +and conscious attention. All ultimately become unconscious.</i> They may, +however, be started or stopped at will. They are, therefore, still +related to the conscious mind. They occupy a semi-automatic middle +ground between conscious and subconscious activities.</p> + + +<hr /> +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +</p> + +<h2>THE FALLACY OF MOST MEMORY SYSTEMS</h2> +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter decheader" > +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +<img src="images/bord1.jpg" width="350" height="88" alt="Decorative Header" title="Decorative Header" /></div> + + + + +<h2><span class="smcap">Chapter VI</span></h2> + +<h2>THE FALLACY OF MOST MEMORY SYSTEMS</h2> + + + +<p><span class="sidenote">Practice in Memorizing Inadequate</span> +It is evident that if what we have been describing as the process of +recall is true, then the commonly accepted idea that <i>practice</i> in +memorizing makes memorizing <i>easier</i> is false, and that there is no +truth in the popular figure of speech that likens the memory to a muscle +that grows stronger with use.</p> + +<p>So far as the memory is concerned, however, practice may result in a +more or less unconscious improvement in the <i>methods</i> of memorizing.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Torture of the Drill</span> +<i>By practice we come to unconsciously discover and employ new +associative methods in our recording of facts, making them easier to +recall, but we can certainly add nothing to the actual scope and power +of retention.</i></p> + + +<p>Yet many books on memory-training have wide circulation whose authors, +showing no conception of the processes involved, seek to develop the +general ability to remember by incessant practice in memorizing +particular facts, just as one would develop a muscle by exercise.</p> + +<p>The following is quoted from a well-known work of this character:</p> + +<p>"I am now treating a case of loss of memory in a person advanced in +years, who did not know that his memory had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> failed most remarkably +until I told him of it. He is making vigorous efforts to bring it back +again, and with partial success. The method pursued is to spend two +hours daily, one in the morning and one in the evening, in exercising +this faculty. The patient is instructed to give the closest attention to +all that he learns, so that it shall be impressed on his mind clearly. +He is asked to recall every evening all the facts and experiences of the +day, and again the next morning. Every name heard is written down and +impressed on his mind clearly and an effort made to recall it at +intervals. Ten names from among public men are ordered to be committed +to memory every week. A verse of poetry is to be learned, also a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Real Cause of Failing Memory</span> +verse +from the Bible, daily. He is asked to remember the number of the page of +any book where any interesting fact is recorded. These and <i>other</i> +methods are slowly resuscitating a failing memory."</p> + + +<p>As remarked by Professor James, "It is hard to believe that the memory +of the poor old gentleman is a bit the better for all this torture +except in respect to the particular facts thus wrought into it, the +occurrences attended to and repeated on those days, the names of those +politicians, those Bible verses, etc., etc."</p> + +<p>The error in the book first quoted from lies in the fact that its author +looks upon a failing memory as indicating a loss of retentiveness. The +<i>real</i> cause is the loss of an intensity of interest. <i>It is the failure +to form sufficiently large +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Manufactured Interest</span> +groups and complexes of related ideas, +emotions and muscular movements associated with the particular fact to +be remembered. There is no reason to believe that the retention of +sensory experiences is not at all times perfectly mechanical and +mechanically perfect.</i></p> + +<p>Interest is a mental yearning. It is the offspring of desire and the +mother of memory.</p> + +<p>It goes out spontaneously to anything that can add to the sum of one's +knowledge about the thing desired.</p> + + +<p>A manufactured interest is counterfeit. When a thing is done because it +has to be done, desire dies and "duty" is born. In proportion as a +subject is associated with "duty," it is divorced from interest.</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Memory Lure of a Desire</span> +If you want to impress anything on another man's mind so that he will +remember it, harness it up with the lure of a desire.</p> + +<p>Diffused interest is the cause of all unprofitable forgetfulness. Do not +allow your attention to grope vaguely among a number of things. Whatever +you do, make a business of doing it with your whole soul. Turn the +spotlight of your mind upon it, and you will not forget it.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter photo" style="width: 346px;"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +<img src="images/ill-1.jpg" width="346" height="255" alt="TESTING ABILITY TO OBSERVE, REMEMBER AND REPORT THINGS SEEN." title="TESTING ABILITY TO OBSERVE, REMEMBER AND REPORT THINGS SEEN." /> +<span class="caption">TESTING ABILITY TO OBSERVE, REMEMBER AND REPORT THINGS SEEN</span> +</div> + + + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> +<h2>A SCIENTIFIC MEMORY SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS</h2> + +<div class="figcenter decheader" > +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +<img src="images/bord1.jpg" width="350" height="88" alt="Decorative Header" title="Decorative Header" /></div> + + + +<h2><span class="smcap">Chapter VII</span></h2> + +<h2>A SCIENTIFIC MEMORY SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS</h2> + + + +<p><span class="sidenote">Importance of Associates</span> +We recall things by their associates. <i>When you set your mind to +remember any particular fact, your conscious effort should be not +vaguely to will that it shall be impressed and retained, but +analytically and deliberately to connect it with one or more other facts +already in your mind.</i></p> + + +<p>The student who "crams" for an examination makes no permanent addition +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">"Cramming" and "Willing"</span> +to his knowledge. There can be no recall without association, and +"cramming" allows no time to form associations.</p> + +<p>If you find it difficult to remember a fact or a name, do not waste your +energies in "willing" it to return. Try to recall some other fact or +name associated with the first in time or place or otherwise, and lo! +when you least expect it, it will pop into your thoughts.</p> + +<p>If your memory is good in most respects, but poor in a particular line, +it is because you do not interest yourself in that line, and therefore +have no material for association. Blind Tom's memory was a blank on most +subjects, but he was a walking encyclopedia on music.</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Basic Principle of Thought-Reproduction</span> +<i>To improve your memory you must increase the number and variety of your +mental associations.</i></p> + +<p>Many ingenious methods, scientifically correct, have been devised to aid +in the remembering of particular facts. These methods are based wholly +on the principle that <i>that is most easily recalled which is associated +in our minds with the most complex and elaborate groupings of related +ideas</i>.</p> + + + + +<p>Thus, Pick, in "Memory and Its Doctors," among other devices, presents a +well-known "figure-alphabet" as of aid in remembering numbers. Each +figure of the Arabic notation is represented by one or more letters, and +the number to be recalled is translated into such letters as can best be +arranged <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Methods of Pick</span> +into a catch word or phrase. To quote: "The most common +figure-alphabet is this:</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="chart"> + +<tr><td class="center">1</td><td class="center">2</td><td class="center">3</td><td class="center">4</td><td class="center">5</td><td class="center">6</td><td class="center">7</td><td class="center">8</td><td class="center">9</td><td class="center">0</td></tr> +<tr><td class="center">t</td><td class="center">n</td><td class="center">m</td><td class="center">r</td><td class="center">l</td><td class="center">sh</td><td class="center">g</td><td class="center">f</td><td class="center">b</td><td class="center">s</td></tr> +<tr><td class="center">d</td><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center">j</td><td class="center">k</td><td class="center">v</td><td class="center">p</td><td class="center">o</td></tr> +<tr><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center">ch</td><td class="center">c</td></tr> +<tr><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center"></td><td class="center">g</td><td class="center">qu</td><td class="center">z</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + +<p>"To briefly show its use, suppose it is desired to fix 1,142 feet in a +second as the velocity of sound, t, t, r, n, are the letters and order +required. Fill up with vowels forming a phrase like 'tight run' and +connect it by some such flight of the imagination as that if a man tried +to keep up with the velocity of sound, he would have a 'tight run.'"</p> + + +<p>The same principle is at the basis of all efficient pedagogy. The +competent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Scientific Pedagogy</span> +teacher endeavors by some association of ideas to link every +new fact with those facts which the pupil already has acquired.</p> + +<p>In the pursuit of this method the teacher will "compare all that is far +off and foreign to something that is near home, making the unknown plain +by the example of the known, and connecting all the instruction with the +personal experience of the pupil—if the teacher is to explain the +distance of the sun from the earth, let him ask, 'If anyone there in the +sun fired off a cannon straight at you, what should you do?' 'Get out of +the way,' would be the answer. 'No need of that,' the teacher might +reply; 'you may quietly go to sleep in your room and get up +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">How to Remember Names</span> +again; you +may wait till your confirmation day, you may learn a trade, and grow as +old as I am—<i>then only</i> will the cannon-ball be getting near, <i>then</i> +you may jump to one side! See, so great as that is the sun's distance!'"</p> + +<p>We shall now show you how to apply this principle in improving your +memory and in making a more complete use of your really vast store of +knowledge.</p> + +<p class="gap"><span class="smcap">Rule I.</span> <i>Make systematic use of your sense-organs.</i></p> + + +<p>Do you find it difficult to remember names? It is because you do not +link them in your mind with enough associations. Every time a man is +introduced to you, look about you. Who is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> present? Take note of as many +and as great a variety of surrounding facts and circumstances as +possible. Think of the man's name, and take another look at his face, +his dress, his physique. Think of his name, and at the same time his +voice and manner. Think of his name, and mark the place where you are +now for the first time meeting him. Think of his name in conjunction +with the name and personality of the friend who presented him.</p> + +<p>Memory is not a distinct faculty of mind in the sense that one man is +generously endowed in that respect while another is deficient. Memory, +as meaning the power of voluntary recall, is wholly a question of +trained habits of mental operation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Five Exercises for Developing Observation</span> +Your memory is just as good as mine or any other man's. It is your +indifference to what you would call "irrelevant facts" that is at fault. +Therefore, cultivate habits of observation. Fortify the observed facts +you wish to recall with a multitude of outside associations. Never rest +with a mere halfway knowledge of things.</p> + + +<p>To assist you in training yourself in those habits of observation that +make a good memory of outside facts, we append the following exercises:</p> + +<p><i>a.</i> Walk slowly through a room with which you are not familiar. Then +make a list of all the contents of the room you can recall. Do this +every day for a week, using a different room each time. Do it not +half-heartedly, but as if your +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> life depended on your ability to +remember. At the end of the week you will be surprised at the +improvement you have made.</p> + +<p><i>b.</i> As you walk along the street, observe all that occurs in a space of +one block, things heard as well as things seen. Two hours later make a +list of all you can recall. Do this twice a day for ten days. Then +compare results.</p> + +<p><i>c.</i> Make a practice of recounting each night the incidents of the day. +The prospect of having this to do will cause you unconsciously to +observe more attentively.</p> + +<p>This is the method by which Thurlow Weed acquired his phenomenal memory. +As a young man with political ambitions he had been much +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> troubled by +his inability to recall names and faces. So he began the practice each +night of telling his wife the most minute details of incidents that had +occurred during the day. He kept this up for fifty years, and it so +trained his powers of observation that he became as well known for his +unfailing memory as for his political adroitness.</p> + +<p><i>d.</i> Glance once at an outline map of some State. Put it out of sight +and draw one as nearly like it as you can. Then compare it with the +original. Do this frequently.</p> + + +<p><i>e.</i> Have some one read you a sentence out of a book and you then repeat +it. Do this daily, gradually increasing the length of the quotation from +short sentences to whole paragraphs. Try to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Invention and Thought-Memory</span> +find out what is the +extreme limit of your ability in this respect compared with that of +other members of your family.</p> + + +<p class="gap"><span class="smcap">Rule II.</span> <i>Fix ideas by their associates.</i></p> + +<p>There are other things to be remembered besides facts of outside +observation. You are not one whose life is passed entirely in a physical +world. You live also within. Your mind is unceasingly at work with the +materials of the past painting the pictures of the future. You are +called upon to scheme, to plan, to devise, to invent, to compose and to +foresee.</p> + +<p>If all this mental work is not wasted energy, you must be able to recall +its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Three Exercises for Developing Thought-Memory</span> +conclusions when occasion requires. A happy thought comes to +you—will you remember it tomorrow when the hour for action arrives? +There is but one way to be sure, and that is by making a study of the +whole associative mental process.</p> + +<p>Review the train of ideas by which you reached your conclusion. Carry +the thought on in mind to its legitimate conclusion. See yourself acting +upon it. Mark its relations to other persons. Note all the details of +the mental picture. In other words, to remember thoughts, cultivate +thought-observation just as you cultivate sense-observation to remember +outside matters.</p> + + +<p>To train yourself in thought-memory, use the following exercises:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +<i>a.</i> Every morning at eight o'clock, sharp on the minute, fix upon a +certain idea and determine to recall it at a certain hour during the +day. Put your whole will into this resolution. Try to imagine what +activities you will be engaged in at the appointed hour, and think of +the chosen idea as identified with those activities. Associate it in +your mind with some object that will be at hand when the set time comes. +Having thus fixed the idea in your mind, forget it. Do not refer to it +in your thoughts. With practice you will find yourself automatically +carrying out your own orders. Persist in this exercise for at least +three months.</p> + +<p><i>b.</i> Every night when you retire fix upon the hour at which you wish to +get +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> up in the morning. In connection with your waking at that hour, +think of all the sounds that will be apt to be occurring at that +particular time. Bar every other thought from your consciousness and +fall asleep with the intense determination to arise at the time set. By +all means, get up instantly when you awaken. Keep up this exercise and +you will soon be able to awaken at any hour you may wish.</p> + + +<p><i>c.</i> Every morning outline the general plan of your activities for the +day. Select only the important things. Do not bother with the details. +Determine upon the logical order for your day's work. Think not so much +of <i>how</i> you are to do things as of the <i>things</i> you are to do. Keep +your mind on results. And +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">How to Compel Recollection</span> +having made your plan, stick to it. Be your +own boss. Let nothing tempt you from your set purpose. Make this daily +planning a habit and hold to it through life. It will give you a great +lift toward whatever prize you seek.</p> + +<p class="gap"><span class="smcap">Rule III.</span> <i>Search systematically and persistently.</i></p> + +<p>When once you have started upon an effort at recollection, persevere. +The date or face or event that you wish to recall <i>is bound up with a +multitude of other facts of observation and of your mind life</i> of the +past. Success in recalling it depends simply upon your ability <i>to hit +upon some idea so indissolubly associated with the object of search that +the recall of one automatically recalls +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Formation of Correct Memory Habits</span> +the other</i>. Consequently the +thing to do is to hold your attention to one definite line of thought +until you have exhausted its possibilities. You must pass in review all +the associated matters and suppress or ignore them until the right one +comes to mind. This may be a short-cut process or a roundabout process, +but it will bring results nine times out of ten, and if habitually +persisted in will greatly improve your power of voluntary recall.</p> + + +<p class="gap"><span class="smcap">Rule IV.</span> <i>The instant you recollect a thing to be done, do it.</i></p> + +<p>Every idea that memory thrusts into your consciousness carries with it +the impulse to act upon it. If you fail to do so, the matter may not +again occur +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">NOW!</span> +to you, or when it does it may be too late.</p> + +<p><i>Your mental mechanism will serve you faithfully only as long as you act +upon its suggestions.</i></p> + + +<p>This is as true of bodily habits as of business affairs. The time to act +upon an important matter that just now comes to mind is not "tomorrow" +or a "little later," but <i>NOW</i>.</p> + +<p>What you do from moment to moment tells the story of your career. Ideas +that come to you should be compared as to their relative importance. But +do this honestly. Do not be swayed by distracting impulses that +inadvertently slip in. And having gauged their importance give free rein +at once to the impulse to do everything that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Persistence, Accuracy, Dispatch</span> +should not make way for +something more important.</p> + + +<p>If, for any reason, action must be deferred, fix the matter in your mind +to be called up at the proper time. Drive all other thoughts from your +consciousness. Give your whole attention to this one matter. Determine +the exact moment at which you wish it to be recalled. Then put your +whole self into the determination to remember it at precisely the right +moment. And finally, and perhaps most important of all,—</p> + +<p class="gap"><span class="smcap">Rule V.</span> <i>Have some sign or token.</i> This memory signal may be +anything you choose, but it must somehow be directly connected with the +hour at which the main event is to be recalled.</p> + + +<p>Make a business of observing the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">Memory Signs and Tokens</span> +memory signs or tokens you have been +habitually using. Practice tagging those matters you wish to recall with +the labels that form a part of your mental machinery.</p> + +<p>Make it a habit to do things when they ought to be done and in the order +in which you ought to do them. Habits like this are "paths" along which +the mind "moves," paths of least resistance to those qualities of +promptness, energy, persistence, accuracy, self-control, and so on, that +create success.</p> + +<p>Success in business, success in life, can come only through the +formation of right habits. A right habit can be deliberately acquired +only by <i>doing a thing consciously until it comes to be done +unconsciously and automatically</i>.</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">The Mental Combination Revealed</span> +Every man, consciously or unconsciously, forms his own memory habits, +good or bad. Form your memory habits consciously according to the laws +of the mind, and in good time they will act unconsciously and with +masterful precision.</p> + +<p>"'Amid the shadows of the pyramids,' Bonaparte said to his soldiers, +'twenty centuries look down upon you,' and animated them to action and +victory. But all the centuries," says W.H. Grove, "and the eternities, +and God, and the universe, look down upon us—and demand the highest +culture of body, mind and spirit."</p> + +<p>A good memory is yours for the making. But <i>you</i> must make it. We can +point the way. <i>You</i> must act.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +The laws of Association and Recall are the combination that will unlock +the treasure-vaults of memory. Apply these laws, and the riches of +experience will be available to you in every need.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%" /> +<p >The purpose of this book has been to make clear certain mental +principles and processes, namely, those of Retention, Association and +Recall. Incidentally, as with every book in this <i>Course</i>, it contains +some facts and instructions of immediate practical utility. But +primarily it is intended only to help prepare your mind to understand a +scientific system for success-achievement that will be unfolded in +subsequent volumes.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trained Memory, by Warren Hilton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAINED MEMORY *** + +***** This file should be named 17829-h.htm or 17829-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/8/2/17829/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Paul Ereaut and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/17829-h/images/bord1.jpg b/17829-h/images/bord1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70d0c42 --- /dev/null +++ b/17829-h/images/bord1.jpg diff --git a/17829-h/images/ill-1.jpg b/17829-h/images/ill-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..807fa74 --- /dev/null +++ b/17829-h/images/ill-1.jpg diff --git a/17829-h/images/ill-2.jpg b/17829-h/images/ill-2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..60165a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/17829-h/images/ill-2.jpg diff --git a/17829.txt b/17829.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f18fe37 --- /dev/null +++ b/17829.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1592 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trained Memory, by Warren Hilton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Trained Memory + Being the Fourth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the + Applications of Psychology to the Problems of Personal and + Business Efficiency + +Author: Warren Hilton + +Release Date: February 22, 2006 [EBook #17829] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAINED MEMORY *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Paul Ereaut and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + + + + + + +APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY + +THE TRAINED MEMORY + +_Being the Fourth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the Applications of +Psychology to the Problems of Personal and Business Efficiency_ + +BY + +WARREN HILTON, A.B., L.L.B. +FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY + + +ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE LITERARY DIGEST + +FOR + +The Society of Applied Psychology +NEW YORK AND LONDON +1920 + +COPYRIGHT 1914 +BY THE APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY PRESS +SAN FRANCISCO + +(_Printed in the United States of America_) + + + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter + + I. THE ELEMENTS OF MEMORY + FOUR SPECIAL MEMORY PROCESSES + + II. THE MENTAL TREASURE VAULT AND ITS LOST COMBINATION + WHAT EVERYONE THINKS + CAUSES OF FORGETFULNESS + SEEING WITH "HALF AN EYE" + THE MAN ON BROADWAY + WAXEN TABLETS + NOT HOW, BUT HOW MUCH + REMEMBERING THE UNPERCEIVED + SPEAKING A FORGOTTEN TONGUE + LIVING PAST EXPERIENCES OVER AGAIN + THE "FLASH OF INSPIRATION" + THE TOTALITY OF RETENTION + POSSIBILITIES OF SELF-DISCOVERY + "ACRES OF DIAMONDS" + +III. THE MECHANISM OF RECALL + THE RIGHT STIMULUS + "COMPLEXES" OF EXPERIENCE + THE THRILL OF RECOLLECTION + "COMPLEXES" AND FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENTS + AUTOMATICALLY WORKING MENTAL MECHANISMS + TWO CLASSES OF "COMPLEXES" + THE SUBCONSCIOUS STOREHOUSE + + IV. THE LAWS OF RECALL + THE LAW OF INTEGRAL RECALL + WHAT ORDINARY "THINKING" AMOUNTS TO + THE REVERSE OF COMPLEX FORMATION + PROLIXITY AND TERSENESS + THE LAW OF CONTIGUITY + LAWS OF HABIT AND INTENSITY + APPLICATIONS TO ADVERTISING + EFFECT OF REPETITIONS + RATIO OF SIZE TO VALUE + RISKS IN ADVERTISING + +V. THE SCIENCE OF FORGETTING + THE SKILLED ARTISAN + HOW THE ATTENTION WORKS + IRON FILINGS AND MENTAL MAGNETS + THE COMPARTMENT OF SUBCONSCIOUS FORGETFULNESS + MAKING EXPERIENCE COUNT + HOW HABITS ARE FORMED + +VI. THE FALLACY OF MOST MEMORY SYSTEMS + PRACTICE IN MEMORIZING INADEQUATE + TORTURE OF THE DRILL + REAL CAUSE OF FAILING MEMORY + THE MANUFACTURED INTEREST + MEMORY LURE OF A DESIRE + +VII. A SCIENTIFIC MEMORY SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS + IMPORTANCE OF ASSOCIATES + "CRAMMING" AND "WILLING" + BASIC PRINCIPLE OF THOUGHT-REPRODUCTION + METHODS OF PICK + SCIENTIFIC PEDAGOGY + HOW TO REMEMBER NAMES + FIVE EXERCISES FOR DEVELOPING OBSERVATION + INVENTION AND THOUGHT-MEMORY + THREE EXERCISES FOR DEVELOPING THOUGHT-MEMORY + HOW TO COMPEL RECOLLECTION + FORMATION OF CORRECT MEMORY HABITS + NOW! + PERSISTENCE, ACCURACY, DISPATCH + MEMORY SIGNS AND TOKENS + THE MENTAL COMBINATION REVEALED + + + + +THE ELEMENTS OF MEMORY + +[Illustration: Decorative Header] + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ELEMENTS OF MEMORY + + +[Sidenote: _Four Special Memory Processes_] + +You have learned of the sense-perceptive and judicial processes by which +your mind acquires its knowledge of the outside world. You come now to a +study of the phenomenon of memory, the instrument by which your mind +retains and makes use of its knowledge, the agency that has power to +resurrect the buried past or power to enfold us in a Paradise of dreams +more perfect than reality. + + +In the broadest sense, memory is the faculty of the mind by which we +(1) _retain_, (2) _recall_, (3) _picture to the mind's eye_, and (4) +_recognize_ past experiences. + +Memory involves, therefore, four elements, _Retention_, _Recall_, +_Imagination_ and _Recognition_. + + + + +THE MENTAL TREASURE VAULT AND ITS LOST COMBINATION + +[Illustration: Decorative Header] + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MENTAL TREASURE VAULT AND ITS LOST COMBINATION + + +[Sidenote: _What Everyone Thinks_] + +Almost everyone seems to think that we retain in the mind _only_ those +things that we can voluntarily recall; that memory, in other words, is +limited to the power of voluntary reproduction. + +This is a profound error. It is an inexcusable error. The daily papers +are constantly reporting cases of the lapse and restoration of memory +that contain all the elements of underlying truth on this subject. + +[Sidenote: _Causes of Forgetfulness_] + +It is plain enough that the memory _seems_ decidedly limited in its +scope. This is because our power of voluntary recall is decidedly +limited. + +But it does not follow simply because we are without the power to +deliberately recall certain experiences that all mental trace of those +experiences is lost to us. + +_Those experiences that we are unable to recall are those that we +disregarded when they occurred because they possessed no special +interest for us. They are there, but no mental associations or +connections with power to awaken them have arisen in consciousness._ + +[Sidenote: _Seeing with "Half an Eye"_] + +Things are continually happening all around us that we see with but +"half an eye." They are in the "fringe" of consciousness, and we +deliberately ignore them. Many more things come to us in the form of +sense-impressions that clamorously assail our sense-organs, but no +effort of the will is needed to ignore them. We are absolutely +impervious to them and unconscious of them because by the selection of +our life interests we have closed the doors against them. + +In either case, whether in the "fringe" of consciousness or entirely +outside of consciousness, these unperceived sensations will be found to +be sensory images that have no connection with the present subject of +thought. They therefore attract, and we spare them, no part of our +attention. + +Just as each of our individual sense-organs selects from the multitude +of ether vibrations constantly beating upon the surface of the body only +those waves to the velocity of which it is attuned, so each one of us as +an integral personality selects from the stream of sensory experiences +only those particular objects of attention that are in some way related +to the present or habitual trend of thought. + +[Sidenote: _The Man on Broadway_] + +Just consider for a moment the countless number and variety of +impressions that assail the eye and ear of the New Yorker who walks down +Broadway in a busy hour of the day. Yet to how few of these does he pay +the slightest attention. He is in the midst of a cataclysm of sound +almost equal to the roar of Niagara and he does not know it. + +Observe how many objects are right now in the corner of your mind's eye +as being within the scope of your vision while your entire attention is +apparently absorbed in these lines. You see these other things, and you +can look back and realize that you have seen them, but you were not +aware of them at the time. + +Let two individuals of contrary tastes take a day's outing together. +Both may have during the day practically identical sensory images; but +each one will come back with an entirely different tale to tell of the +day's adventures. + +[Sidenote: _Waxen Tablets_] + +_All sensory impressions, somehow or other, leave their faint impress on +the waxen tablets of the mind. Few are or can be voluntarily recalled._ + +Just where and how memories are retained is a mystery. There are +theories that represent sensory experiences as actual physiological +"impressions" on the cells of the brain. They are, however, nothing but +theories, and the manner in which the brain, as the organ of the mind, +keeps its record of sensory experiences has never been discovered. +Microscopic anatomy has never reached the point where it could identify +a particular "idea" with any one "cell" or other part of the brain. + +[Sidenote: _Not How, but How Much_] + +For us, the important question is not _how_, but _how much_; _not the +manner in which, but the extent to which_, sensory impressions are +preserved. Now, all the evidences indicate that _absolutely every +impression received upon the sensorium is indelibly recorded in the +mind's substance_. A few instances will serve to illustrate the +remarkable power of retention of the human mind. + +Sir William Hamilton quotes the following from Coleridge's "Literaria +Biographia": "A young woman of four- or five-and-twenty, who could +neither read nor write, was seized with a nervous fever, during which, +according to the asseverations of all the priests and monks of the +neighborhood, she became 'possessed,' and, as it appeared, by a very +learned devil. She continued incessantly talking Latin, Greek and Hebrew +in very pompous tones, and with most distinct enunciation. Sheets full +of her ravings were taken down from her own mouth, and were found to +consist of sentences coherent and intelligible each for itself but with +little or no connection with each other. Of the Hebrew, a small portion +only could be traced to the Bible; the remainder seemed to be in the +Rabbinical dialect." + +[Sidenote: _Remembering the Unperceived_] + +The case was investigated by a physician, who learned that the girl had +been a waif and had been taken in charge by a Protestant clergyman when +she was nine years old and brought up as his servant. This clergyman had +for years been in the habit of walking up and down a passage of his +house into which the kitchen door opened and at the same time reading to +himself in a loud voice from his favorite book. A considerable number of +these books were still in the possession of his niece, who told the +physician that her uncle had been a very learned man and an accomplished +student of Hebrew. Among the books were found a collection of Rabbinical +writings, together with several of the Greek and Latin fathers; and the +physician succeeded in identifying so many passages in these books with +those taken down at the bed-side of the young woman that there could be +no doubt as to the true origin of her learned ravings. + +Now, the striking feature of all this, it will be observed, is the fact +that the subject was an illiterate servant-girl to whom the Greek, Latin +and Hebrew quotations were _utterly unintelligible,_ that _normally she +had no recollection of them, that she had no idea of their meaning_, +and finally that they had been impressed upon her mind _without her +knowledge_ while she was engaged in her duties in her master's kitchen. + +Several cases are reported by Dr. Abercrombie, and quoted by Professor +Hyslop, in which mental impressions long since forgotten beyond the +power of voluntary recall have been revived by the shock of accident or +disease. "A man," he says, "mentioned by Mr. Abernethy, had been born in +France, but had spent the greater part of his life in England, and, for +many years, had entirely lost the habit of speaking French. But when +under the care of Mr. Abernethy, on account of the effects of an injury +to the head, he always spoke French." + +[Sidenote: _Speaking a Forgotten Tongue_] + +"A similar case occurred in St. Thomas Hospital, of a man who was in a +state of stupor in consequence of an injury to the head. On his partial +recovery he spoke a language which nobody in the hospital understood but +which was soon ascertained to be Welsh. It was then discovered that he +had been thirty years absent from Wales, and, before the accident, had +entirely forgotten his native language. + +"A lady mentioned by Dr. Pritchard, when in a state of delirium, spoke a +language which nobody about her understood, but which was afterward +discovered to be Welsh. None of her friends could form any conception of +the manner in which she had become acquainted with that language; but, +after much inquiry, it was discovered that in her childhood she had a +nurse, a native of a district on the coast of Brittany, the dialect of +which is closely analogous to Welsh. The lady at that time learned a +good deal of this dialect but had entirely forgotten it for many years +before this attack of fever." + +[Sidenote: _Living Past Experiences Over Again_] + +Dr. Carpenter relates the following incident in his "Mental Physiology": +"Several years ago, the Rev. S. Mansard, now rector of Bethnal Green, +was doing clerical duty for a time at Hurstmonceaux, in Sussex; and +while there he one day went over with a party of friends to Pevensey +Castle, which he did not remember to have ever previously visited. As he +approached the gateway he became conscious of a very vivid impression +of having seen it before; and he 'seemed to himself to see' not only the +gateway itself, but donkeys beneath the arch and people on top of it. +His conviction that he must have visited the castle on some former +occasion--although he had neither the slightest remembrance of such a +visit nor any knowledge of having ever been in the neighborhood +previously to his residence at Hurstmonceaux--made him inquire from his +mother if she could throw any light on the matter. She at once informed +him that being in that part of the country, when he was but _eighteen +months old_, she had gone over with a large party and had taken him in +the pannier of a donkey; that the elders of the party, having brought +lunch with them, had eaten it on the roof of the gateway, where they +would have been seen from below, whilst he had been left on the ground +with the attendants and donkeys." + +"An Italian gentleman," says Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, "who died of +yellow fever in New York, in the beginning of his illness spoke English, +in the middle of it French, but on the day of his death only Italian." + +Striking as these instances are, they are not unusual. Everyone on +reflection can supply similar instances. Who among us has not at one +time or another been impressed with a mysterious feeling of having at +some time in the past gone through the identical experience which he is +living now? + +[Sidenote: _The "Flash of Inspiration"_] + +On such occasions the sense of familiarity is sometimes so persistent as +to fill one with a strange feeling of the supernatural and to incline +our minds to the belief in a reincarnation. + +The "flash of inspiration" which, for the lawyer, solves a novel legal +issue arising in the trial of a case, or, for the surgeon, sees him +successfully through the emergencies of a delicate operation, has its +origin in the forgotten learning of past experience and study. + +[Sidenote: _The Totality of Retention_] + +Succeeding books in this _Course_ will bring to light numerous other +facts less commonly observed, drawn indeed from the study of abnormal +mental states, indicating that we retain a great volume of +sense-impressions of whose very recording we are at the time unaware. +In other words, all the evidences point to the absolute totality of our +retention of all sensory experiences. They indicate that every +sense-impression you ever received, whether you actually perceived and +were conscious of it or not, has been retained and preserved in your +memory, and can be "brought to mind" when you understand the proper +method of calling it into service. + +A vast wealth of facts is stored in the treasure vaults of your mind, +but there are certain inner compartments to which you have lost the +combination. + +[Sidenote: _Possibilities of Self-Discovery_] + +The author of "Thoughts on Business" says: "It is a great day in a man's +life when he truly begins to discover himself. The latent capacities of +every man are greater than he realizes, and he may find them if he +diligently seeks for them. A man may own a tract of land for many years +without knowing its value. He may think of it as merely a pasture. But +one day he discovers evidences of coal and finds a rich vein beneath his +land. While mining and prospecting for coal he discovers deposits of +granite. In boring for water he strikes oil. Later he discovers a vein +of copper ore, and after that silver and gold. These things were there +all the time--even when he thought of his land merely as a pasture. But +they have a value only when they are discovered and utilized." + +"Not every pasture contains deposits of silver and gold, neither oil +nor granite, nor even coal. But beneath the surface of every man there +must be, in the nature of things, a latent capacity greater than has yet +been discovered. And one discovery must lead to another until the man +finds the deep wealth of his own possibilities. History is full of the +acts of men who discovered somewhat of their own capacity; but history +has yet to record the man who fully discovered all that he might have +been." + +[Sidenote: _"Acres of Diamonds"_] + +You who are a bit vain of your visits to other lands, your wide reading, +your experience of men and things; you who secretly lament that so +little of what you have seen and read remains with you, behold, your +"acres of diamonds" are within you, needing but the mystic formula that +shall reveal the treasure! + + + + +THE MECHANISM OF RECALL + +[Illustration: Decorative Header] + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MECHANISM OF RECALL + + +[Sidenote: _The Right Stimulus_] + +Somehow, somewhere, all experiences, whether subject to voluntary recall +or not, are preserved, and are capable of reproduction when the right +stimulus comes along. + +And it is a law that _those experiences which are associated with each +other, whether ideas, emotions or voluntary or involuntary muscular +movements, tend to become bound together into groups, and these groups +tend to become bound together into systems_. + +[Sidenote: _"Complexes" of Experience_] + +Such a system of associated groups of experiences is technically known +as a "complex." + +Pay particular attention to these definitions, as "groups" of ideas and +"complexes" of ideas, emotions and muscular movements are terms that we +shall constantly employ. + +You learned in a former lesson that mental experiences may consist not +only of sense-perceptions based on excitements arising in the memory +nerves, but also of bodily emotions, the "feeling tones" of ideas, and +of muscular movements based on stimuli arising in the motor nerves. + +_Groups consist, therefore, not only of associated ideas, but of +associated ideas coupled with their emotional qualities and impulses to +muscular movements._ + +All groups bound together by a mutually related idea constitute a single +"complex." Every memory you have is an illustration of such "complexes." + +[Sidenote: _The Thrill of Recollection_] + +Suppose, for example, you once gained success in a business deal. Your +recollection of the other persons concerned in that transaction, of any +one detail in the transaction itself, will be accompanied by the faster +heartbeat, the quickened circulation of the blood, the feeling of +triumph and elation that attended the original experience. + +[Sidenote: _"Complexes" and Functional Derangements_] + +Complexes formed out of harrowing earthquakes, robberies, murders or +other dreadful spectacles, which were originally accompanied on the part +of the onlooker by trembling, perspiration and palpitation of the +heart, when lived over again in memory, are again accompanied by all +these bodily activities. Your memory of a hairbreadth escape will bring +to your cheek the pallor that marked it when the incident occurred. + +The formation and existence of "complexes" explains the origin of many +functional diseases of the body--that is to say, diseases involving no +loss or destruction of tissue, but consisting simply in a failure on the +part of some bodily organ to perform its allotted function naturally and +effectively. + +[Sidenote: _Automatically Working Mental Mechanisms_] + +Thus, in hay fever or "rose cold" the tears, the inflammation of the +membranes of the nose, the cough, the other trying symptoms, all are +linked with the sight of a rose, or dust, or sunlight, or some other +outside fact to which attention has been called as the cause of hay +fever, into a complex, "an automatically working mechanism." And the +validity of this explanation of the regular recurrence of attacks of +this disease is sufficiently demonstrated by the fact that a paper rose +is likely to prove just as effective in producing all the symptoms of +the disease as a rose out of Nature's garden. + +Another striking illustration of the working of this principle is +afforded by two gentlemen of my acquaintance, brothers, each of whom +since boyhood has had unfailing attacks of sneezing upon first arising +in the morning. No sooner is one of these men awake and seated upon the +edge of his bed for dressing than he begins to sneeze, and he continues +to sneeze for fifteen or twenty minutes thereafter, although he has no +"cold" and never sneezes at any other time. + +[Sidenote: _Two Classes of "Complexes"_] + +Obviously, if absolutely all mental experiences are preserved, they +consist altogether of two broad classes of complexes: first, those that +are momentarily _active in consciousness_, forming part of the present +mental picture, and, second, all the others--that is to say, all past +experiences that are _not at the present moment before the mind's eye_. + +There are, then, _conscious_ complexes and _subconscious_ complexes, +complexes of _consciousness_ and complexes of _subconsciousness_. + +[Sidenote: _The Subconscious Storehouse_] + +And of the complexes of subconsciousness, some are far more readily +recalled than others. Some are forever popping into one's thoughts, +while others can be brought to the light of consciousness only by some +unusual and deep-probing stimulus. And _the human mind is a vast +storehouse of complexes, far the greater part buried in +subconsciousness_, yet somehow, like impressions on the wax cylinder of +a phonograph, preserved with life-like truth and clearness. + +Turn back for a moment to our definition of memory. You will observe +that its second essential element is Recall. + +Recall is the process by which the experiences of the past are summoned +from the reservoir of the subconscious into the light of present +consciousness. We necessarily touched upon this process in a previous +book, in considering the Laws of Association, but here, in relation to +memory, we shall go into the matter somewhat more analytically. + + + + +THE LAWS OF RECALL + +[Illustration: Decorative Header] + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAWS OF RECALL + + +[Sidenote: _The Law of Integral Recall_] + +Law I. The primary law of recall is this: _The recurrence or +stimulation of one element in a complex tends to recall all the others._ + +In our explanation of "complex" formation we necessarily cited instances +that illustrate this principle as well, since _recall is merely a +reverse operation from that involved in "complex" formation_. + +[Sidenote: _What Ordinary "Thinking" Amounts to_] + +For example, in running through a book I come upon a flower pressed +between its pages. At once the memory of the friend who gave it to me +springs into consciousness and becomes the subject of reminiscence. This +recalls the mountain village where we last met. This recalls the fact +that a railroad was at the time under process of construction, which +should transform the village into a popular resort. This in turn +suggests my coming trip to the seashore, and I am reminded of a business +appointment on which my ability to leave town on the appointed day +depends. And so on indefinitely. + +Far the greater part of your successive states of consciousness, or even +of your ordinary "thinking," commonly so-called, consists of trains of +mental pictures "suggested" one by another. If the associated pictures +are of the everyday type, common to everyone, you have a prosaic mind; +if, on the other hand, the associations are unusual or unique, you are +happily possessed of wit and fancy. + +[Sidenote: _The Reverse of Complex Formation_] + +These instances of the action of the Law of Recall illustrate but one +phase of its activity. They show simply that groups of ideas are so +strung together on the string of some common element that _the activity +of one "group" in consciousness is apt to be automatically followed by +the others. But the law of association goes deeper than this. It enters +into the activity of every individual group, and causes all the elements +of every group, ideas, emotions and impulses to muscular movements, to +be simultaneously manifested._ + +[Sidenote: _Prolixity and Terseness_] + +There is no principle to which we shall more continually refer than this +one. Our explanation of hay fever a moment ago illustrates our meaning. +Get the principle clearly in your mind, and see how many instances of +its operation you can yourself supply from your own daily experience. + +So far as the mere linking together of groups of ideas is concerned, +this classifying quality is developed in some persons to a greater +degree than in others. It finds its extreme exemplar in the type of man +who can never relate an incident without reciting all the prolix and +minute details and at the same time wandering far from the original +subject in pursuit of every suggested idea. + +[Sidenote: _The Law of Contiguity_] + + +Law II. _Similarity and nearness in time or space between two +experiential facts causes the thought of one to tend to recall the +thought of the other._ + +This is the Associative Law of Contiguity considered from the standpoint +of recall. The points of contiguity are different for different +individuals. Similarities and nearnesses will awaken all sorts of +associated groups of ideas in one person that are not at all excitable +in the same way in another whose experiences have been different. + + +Law III. _The greater the frequency and intensity of any given +experience, the greater the ease and likelihood of its reproduction and +recall._ + +[Sidenote: _Laws of Habit and Intensity_] + +This explains why certain groups in any complex are more readily +recalled than others--why some leap forth unbidden, why some come next +and before others, why some arrive but tardily or not at all. + +This is how the associative Laws of Habit and Intensity affect the power +of recall. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: _Applications to Advertising_] + +There is no department of business to which the application of these +Laws of Recall is so apparent as the department of advertising. The most +carefully worded and best-illustrated advertisement may fail to pay its +cost unless the underlying principles of choice of position, selection +of medium and size of space are understood. The advertisers in +metropolitan newspapers and magazines of large circulation are the ones +who have most at stake. But whatever the field to be reached, it is well +to bear in mind certain facts based on the Laws of Recall that have been +established by psychological experiment. + +Most advertisers have a general idea that certain relative positions on +the newspaper or magazine page are to be preferred over others, but they +have no conception of the real differences in relative recall value. +When the great cost of space in large publications is considered the +financial value of such knowledge is evident. + +By a great number of tests the relative recall value of every part of +the newspaper page has been approximately determined. It has been +found, for example, that a given space at the upper right-hand corner of +the page has more than twice the value of the same amount of space in +the lower left-hand corner. + +[Sidenote: _Effect of Repetitions_] + +Many advertisers adopt the policy of repeating full-page advertisements +at long intervals instead of advertising in a small way continually. +Laboratory tests have shown, on the contrary, that a quarter-page +advertisement appearing in four successive issues of a newspaper is +fifty per cent more effective than a full-page advertisement appearing +only once. It does not follow, however, that an eighth-page +advertisement repeated eight times is correspondingly more effective; +for below a certain relative size the value of an advertisement +decreases much more rapidly than the cost. There are, of course, +modifying conditions, such as special sales of department stores, where +occasional displays and announcements make it desirable to use either +full pages, or even double pages, but the great bulk of advertising is +not of this character. + +[Sidenote: _Ratio of Size to Value_] + +Every year in the United States alone six hundred millions of dollars +are expended in advertising the sale of commodities, and for the most +part expended in a haphazard, experimental and unscientific way. The +investment of this vast sum with risk of perhaps total loss, or even +possible injury, through the faulty construction or improper placing of +advertisements should stimulate the interest of every advertiser in the +work that psychologists have done and are doing toward the accumulation +of a body of exact knowledge on this subject. + +[Sidenote: _Risks in Advertising_] + + + + +THE SCIENCE OF FORGETTING + +[Illustration: TESTING THE MEMORY WITH PROFESSOR JASTROW'S MEMORY +APPARATUS PRIVATE LABORATORY, SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY] + +[Illustration: Decorative Header] + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SCIENCE OF FORGETTING + + +[Sidenote: _The Skilled Artisan_] + +Attention is the instrumentality through which the Laws of Recall +operate. Wittingly or unwittingly, consciously or unconsciously, every +man's attention swings in automatic obedience to the Laws of Recall. + +Attention is the artisan that, bit by bit, and with lightning quickness, +constructs the mosaic of consciousness. + +Having the whole vast store of all present and past experiences to draw +upon, he selects only those groups and those isolated instances that +are related to our general interests and aims. He disregards others. + +[Sidenote: _How the Attention Works_] + +The attention operates in a manner complementary to the general Laws of +Recall. It is an active principle not of association, but of +_dissociation_. + +You choose, for example, a certain aim in life. You decide to become the +inventor of an aeroplane of automatic stability. This choice henceforth +determines two things. First, it determines just which of the sensory +experiences of any given moment are most likely to be selected for your +conscious perception. Secondly, it determines just which of your past +experiences will be most likely to be recalled. + +Such a choice, in other words, determines to some extent the sort of +elements that will most probably be selected to make up at any moment +the contents of your consciousness. + +[Sidenote: _Iron Filings and Mental Magnets_] + +From the instant that you make such a choice you are on the alert for +facts relevant to the subject of your ambition. Upon them you +concentrate your attention. They are presented to your consciousness +with greater precision and clearness than other facts. All facts that +pertain to the art of flying henceforth cluster and cling to your +conscious memory like iron filings to a magnet. All that are impertinent +to this main pursuit are dissociated from these intensely active +complexes, and in time fade into subconscious forgetfulness. + +[Sidenote: _The Compartment of Subconscious Forgetfulness_] + +By subconscious forgetfulness we mean a _compartment_, as it were, of +that reservoir in which all past experiences are stored. + +_Consciousness is a momentary thing._ It is a passing state. It is +ephemeral and flitting. It is made up _in part of present +sense-impressions_ and in part of past experiences. These past +experiences are brought forth from subconsciousness. Some are +voluntarily brought forth. Some present themselves without our conscious +volition, but by the operation of the laws of association and +dissociation. Some we seem unable voluntarily to recall, yet they may +appear when least we are expecting them. It is these last to which we +have referred as lost in subconscious forgetfulness. As a matter of +fact, _none_ are ever actually _lost_. + +[Sidenote: _Making Experience Count_] + +All the wealth of your past experience is still yours--a concrete part +of your personality. All that is required to make it available for your +present use is a sufficient concentration of your attention, _a +concentration of attention that shall dwell persistently and exclusively +upon those associations that bear upon the fact desired_. + +The tendency of the mind toward dissociation, a function limiting the +indiscriminate recall of associated "groups," is also manifested in all +of us in the transfer to unconsciousness of many _muscular activities_. + +[Sidenote: _How Habits Are Formed_] + +As infants we learn to walk only by giving to every movement of the +limbs the most deliberate conscious attention. Yet, in time, the +complicated co-operation of muscular movements involved in walking +becomes involuntary and unconscious, so that we are no longer even aware +of them. + +It is the same with reading, writing, playing upon musical instruments, +the manipulation of all sorts of mechanical devices, the thousand and +one other muscular activities that become what we call _habitual_. + +The moment one tries to make these habitual activities again dependent +on the conscious will he encounters difficulties. + + "The centipede was happy quite, + Until the toad, for fun, + Said, 'Pray which leg goes after which?' + This stirred his mind to such a pitch, + He lay distracted in a ditch, + Considering _how_ to run." + +_All these habitual activities are started as acts of painstaking care +and conscious attention. All ultimately become unconscious._ They may, +however, be started or stopped at will. They are, therefore, still +related to the conscious mind. They occupy a semi-automatic middle +ground between conscious and subconscious activities. + + + + +THE FALLACY OF MOST MEMORY SYSTEMS + +[Illustration: Decorative Header] + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE FALLACY OF MOST MEMORY SYSTEMS + + +[Sidenote: _Practice in Memorizing Inadequate_] + +It is evident that if what we have been describing as the process of +recall is true, then the commonly accepted idea that _practice_ in +memorizing makes memorizing _easier_ is false, and that there is no +truth in the popular figure of speech that likens the memory to a muscle +that grows stronger with use. + +So far as the memory is concerned, however, practice may result in a +more or less unconscious improvement in the _methods_ of memorizing. + +_By practice we come to unconsciously discover and employ new +associative methods in our recording of facts, making them easier to +recall, but we can certainly add nothing to the actual scope and power +of retention._ + +[Sidenote: _Torture of the Drill_] + +Yet many books on memory-training have wide circulation whose authors, +showing no conception of the processes involved, seek to develop the +general ability to remember by incessant practice in memorizing +particular facts, just as one would develop a muscle by exercise. + +The following is quoted from a well-known work of this character: + +"I am now treating a case of loss of memory in a person advanced in +years, who did not know that his memory had failed most remarkably +until I told him of it. He is making vigorous efforts to bring it back +again, and with partial success. The method pursued is to spend two +hours daily, one in the morning and one in the evening, in exercising +this faculty. The patient is instructed to give the closest attention to +all that he learns, so that it shall be impressed on his mind clearly. +He is asked to recall every evening all the facts and experiences of the +day, and again the next morning. Every name heard is written down and +impressed on his mind clearly and an effort made to recall it at +intervals. Ten names from among public men are ordered to be committed +to memory every week. A verse of poetry is to be learned, also a verse +from the Bible, daily. He is asked to remember the number of the page of +any book where any interesting fact is recorded. These and _other_ +methods are slowly resuscitating a failing memory." + +[Sidenote: _Real Cause of Failing Memory_] + +As remarked by Professor James, "It is hard to believe that the memory +of the poor old gentleman is a bit the better for all this torture +except in respect to the particular facts thus wrought into it, the +occurrences attended to and repeated on those days, the names of those +politicians, those Bible verses, etc., etc." + +The error in the book first quoted from lies in the fact that its author +looks upon a failing memory as indicating a loss of retentiveness. The +_real_ cause is the loss of an intensity of interest. _It is the failure +to form sufficiently large groups and complexes of related ideas, +emotions and muscular movements associated with the particular fact to +be remembered. There is no reason to believe that the retention of +sensory experiences is not at all times perfectly mechanical and +mechanically perfect._ + +Interest is a mental yearning. It is the offspring of desire and the +mother of memory. + +It goes out spontaneously to anything that can add to the sum of one's +knowledge about the thing desired. + +[Sidenote: _The Manufactured Interest_] + +A manufactured interest is counterfeit. When a thing is done because it +has to be done, desire dies and "duty" is born. In proportion as a +subject is associated with "duty," it is divorced from interest. + +[Sidenote: _Memory Lure of a Desire_] + +If you want to impress anything on another man's mind so that he will +remember it, harness it up with the lure of a desire. + +Diffused interest is the cause of all unprofitable forgetfulness. Do not +allow your attention to grope vaguely among a number of things. Whatever +you do, make a business of doing it with your whole soul. Turn the +spotlight of your mind upon it, and you will not forget it. + +[Illustration: TESTING ABILITY TO OBSERVE, REMEMBER AND REPORT THINGS +SEEN PRIVATE LABORATORY, SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY] + + + + +A SCIENTIFIC MEMORY SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS + +[Illustration: Decorative Header] + + +CHAPTER VII + +A SCIENTIFIC MEMORY SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS + + +[Sidenote: _Importance of Associates_] + +We recall things by their associates. _When you set your mind to +remember any particular fact, your conscious effort should be not +vaguely to will that it shall be impressed and retained, but +analytically and deliberately to connect it with one or more other facts +already in your mind._ + +[Sidenote: _"Cramming" and "Willing"_] + +The student who "crams" for an examination makes no permanent addition +to his knowledge. There can be no recall without association, and +"cramming" allows no time to form associations. + +If you find it difficult to remember a fact or a name, do not waste your +energies in "willing" it to return. Try to recall some other fact or +name associated with the first in time or place or otherwise, and lo! +when you least expect it, it will pop into your thoughts. + +If your memory is good in most respects, but poor in a particular line, +it is because you do not interest yourself in that line, and therefore +have no material for association. Blind Tom's memory was a blank on most +subjects, but he was a walking encyclopedia on music. + +[Sidenote: _Basic Principle of Thought-Reproduction_] + +_To improve your memory you must increase the number and variety of your +mental associations._ + +Many ingenious methods, scientifically correct, have been devised to aid +in the remembering of particular facts. These methods are based wholly +on the principle that _that is most easily recalled which is associated +in our minds with the most complex and elaborate groupings of related +ideas_. + +[Sidenote: _Methods of Pick_] + +Thus, Pick, in "Memory and Its Doctors," among other devices, presents a +well-known "figure-alphabet" as of aid in remembering numbers. Each +figure of the Arabic notation is represented by one or more letters, and +the number to be recalled is translated into such letters as can best be +arranged into a catch word or phrase. To quote: "The most common +figure-alphabet is this: + +1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 + +t n m r l sh g f b s +d j k v p o + ch c + g qu z + +"To briefly show its use, suppose it is desired to fix 1,142 feet in a +second as the velocity of sound, t, t, r, n, are the letters and order +required. Fill up with vowels forming a phrase like 'tight run' and +connect it by some such flight of the imagination as that if a man tried +to keep up with the velocity of sound, he would have a 'tight run.'" + +[Sidenote: _Scientific Pedagogy_] + +The same principle is at the basis of all efficient pedagogy. The +competent teacher endeavors by some association of ideas to link every +new fact with those facts which the pupil already has acquired. + +In the pursuit of this method the teacher will "compare all that is far +off and foreign to something that is near home, making the unknown plain +by the example of the known, and connecting all the instruction with the +personal experience of the pupil--if the teacher is to explain the +distance of the sun from the earth, let him ask, 'If anyone there in the +sun fired off a cannon straight at you, what should you do?' 'Get out of +the way,' would be the answer. 'No need of that,' the teacher might +reply; 'you may quietly go to sleep in your room and get up again; you +may wait till your confirmation day, you may learn a trade, and grow as +old as I am--_then only_ will the cannon-ball be getting near, _then_ +you may jump to one side! See, so great as that is the sun's distance!'" + +We shall now show you how to apply this principle in improving your +memory and in making a more complete use of your really vast store of +knowledge. + + +Rule I. _Make systematic use of your sense-organs._ + +[Sidenote: _How to Remember Names_] + +Do you find it difficult to remember names? It is because you do not +link them in your mind with enough associations. Every time a man is +introduced to you, look about you. Who is present? Take note of as many +and as great a variety of surrounding facts and circumstances as +possible. Think of the man's name, and take another look at his face, +his dress, his physique. Think of his name, and at the same time his +voice and manner. Think of his name, and mark the place where you are +now for the first time meeting him. Think of his name in conjunction +with the name and personality of the friend who presented him. + +Memory is not a distinct faculty of mind in the sense that one man is +generously endowed in that respect while another is deficient. Memory, +as meaning the power of voluntary recall, is wholly a question of +trained habits of mental operation. + +Your memory is just as good as mine or any other man's. It is your +indifference to what you would call "irrelevant facts" that is at fault. +Therefore, cultivate habits of observation. Fortify the observed facts +you wish to recall with a multitude of outside associations. Never rest +with a mere halfway knowledge of things. + +[Sidenote: _Five Exercises for Developing Observation_] + +To assist you in training yourself in those habits of observation that +make a good memory of outside facts, we append the following exercises: + +_a._ Walk slowly through a room with which you are not familiar. Then +make a list of all the contents of the room you can recall. Do this +every day for a week, using a different room each time. Do it not +half-heartedly, but as if your life depended on your ability to +remember. At the end of the week you will be surprised at the +improvement you have made. + +_b._ As you walk along the street, observe all that occurs in a space of +one block, things heard as well as things seen. Two hours later make a +list of all you can recall. Do this twice a day for ten days. Then +compare results. + +_c._ Make a practice of recounting each night the incidents of the day. +The prospect of having this to do will cause you unconsciously to +observe more attentively. + +This is the method by which Thurlow Weed acquired his phenomenal memory. +As a young man with political ambitions he had been much troubled by +his inability to recall names and faces. So he began the practice each +night of telling his wife the most minute details of incidents that had +occurred during the day. He kept this up for fifty years, and it so +trained his powers of observation that he became as well known for his +unfailing memory as for his political adroitness. + +_d._ Glance once at an outline map of some State. Put it out of sight +and draw one as nearly like it as you can. Then compare it with the +original. Do this frequently. + +[Sidenote: _Invention and Thought-Memory_] + +_e._ Have some one read you a sentence out of a book and you then repeat +it. Do this daily, gradually increasing the length of the quotation from +short sentences to whole paragraphs. Try to find out what is the +extreme limit of your ability in this respect compared with that of +other members of your family. + + +Rule II. _Fix ideas by their associates._ + +There are other things to be remembered besides facts of outside +observation. You are not one whose life is passed entirely in a physical +world. You live also within. Your mind is unceasingly at work with the +materials of the past painting the pictures of the future. You are +called upon to scheme, to plan, to devise, to invent, to compose and to +foresee. + +If all this mental work is not wasted energy, you must be able to recall +its conclusions when occasion requires. A happy thought comes to +you--will you remember it tomorrow when the hour for action arrives? +There is but one way to be sure, and that is by making a study of the +whole associative mental process. + +Review the train of ideas by which you reached your conclusion. Carry +the thought on in mind to its legitimate conclusion. See yourself acting +upon it. Mark its relations to other persons. Note all the details of +the mental picture. In other words, to remember thoughts, cultivate +thought-observation just as you cultivate sense-observation to remember +outside matters. + +[Sidenote: _Three Exercises for Developing Thought-Memory_] + +To train yourself in thought-memory, use the following exercises: + +_a._ Every morning at eight o'clock, sharp on the minute, fix upon a +certain idea and determine to recall it at a certain hour during the +day. Put your whole will into this resolution. Try to imagine what +activities you will be engaged in at the appointed hour, and think of +the chosen idea as identified with those activities. Associate it in +your mind with some object that will be at hand when the set time comes. +Having thus fixed the idea in your mind, forget it. Do not refer to it +in your thoughts. With practice you will find yourself automatically +carrying out your own orders. Persist in this exercise for at least +three months. + +_b._ Every night when you retire fix upon the hour at which you wish to +get up in the morning. In connection with your waking at that hour, +think of all the sounds that will be apt to be occurring at that +particular time. Bar every other thought from your consciousness and +fall asleep with the intense determination to arise at the time set. By +all means, get up instantly when you awaken. Keep up this exercise and +you will soon be able to awaken at any hour you may wish. + +[Sidenote: _How to Compel Recollection_] + +_c._ Every morning outline the general plan of your activities for the +day. Select only the important things. Do not bother with the details. +Determine upon the logical order for your day's work. Think not so much +of _how_ you are to do things as of the _things_ you are to do. Keep +your mind on results. And having made your plan, stick to it. Be your +own boss. Let nothing tempt you from your set purpose. Make this daily +planning a habit and hold to it through life. It will give you a great +lift toward whatever prize you seek. + + +Rule III. _Search systematically and persistently._ + +When once you have started upon an effort at recollection, persevere. +The date or face or event that you wish to recall _is bound up with a +multitude of other facts of observation and of your mind life_ of the +past. Success in recalling it depends simply upon your ability _to hit +upon some idea so indissolubly associated with the object of search that +the recall of one automatically recalls the other_. Consequently the +thing to do is to hold your attention to one definite line of thought +until you have exhausted its possibilities. You must pass in review all +the associated matters and suppress or ignore them until the right one +comes to mind. This may be a short-cut process or a roundabout process, +but it will bring results nine times out of ten, and if habitually +persisted in will greatly improve your power of voluntary recall. + +[Sidenote: _Formation of Correct Memory Habits_] + + +Rule IV. _The instant you recollect a thing to be done, do it._ + +Every idea that memory thrusts into your consciousness carries with it +the impulse to act upon it. If you fail to do so, the matter may not +again occur to you, or when it does it may be too late. + +_Your mental mechanism will serve you faithfully only as long as you act +upon its suggestions._ + +[Sidenote: _NOW!_] + +This is as true of bodily habits as of business affairs. The time to act +upon an important matter that just now comes to mind is not "tomorrow" +or a "little later," but _NOW_. + +What you do from moment to moment tells the story of your career. Ideas +that come to you should be compared as to their relative importance. But +do this honestly. Do not be swayed by distracting impulses that +inadvertently slip in. And having gauged their importance give free rein +at once to the impulse to do everything that should not make way for +something more important. + +[Sidenote: _Persistence, Accuracy, Dispatch_] + +If, for any reason, action must be deferred, fix the matter in your mind +to be called up at the proper time. Drive all other thoughts from your +consciousness. Give your whole attention to this one matter. Determine +the exact moment at which you wish it to be recalled. Then put your +whole self into the determination to remember it at precisely the right +moment. And finally, and perhaps most important of all,-- + + +Rule V. _Have some sign or token._ This memory signal may be +anything you choose, but it must somehow be directly connected with the +hour at which the main event is to be recalled. + +[Sidenote: _Memory Signs and Tokens_] + +Make a business of observing the memory signs or tokens you have been +habitually using. Practice tagging those matters you wish to recall with +the labels that form a part of your mental machinery. + +Make it a habit to do things when they ought to be done and in the order +in which you ought to do them. Habits like this are "paths" along which +the mind "moves," paths of least resistance to those qualities of +promptness, energy, persistence, accuracy, self-control, and so on, that +create success. + +Success in business, success in life, can come only through the +formation of right habits. A right habit can be deliberately acquired +only by _doing a thing consciously until it comes to be done +unconsciously and automatically_. + +[Sidenote: _The Mental Combination Revealed_] + +Every man, consciously or unconsciously, forms his own memory habits, +good or bad. Form your memory habits consciously according to the laws +of the mind, and in good time they will act unconsciously and with +masterful precision. + +"'Amid the shadows of the pyramids,' Bonaparte said to his soldiers, +'twenty centuries look down upon you,' and animated them to action and +victory. But all the centuries," says W.H. Grove, "and the eternities, +and God, and the universe, look down upon us--and demand the highest +culture of body, mind and spirit." + +A good memory is yours for the making. But _you_ must make it. We can +point the way. _You_ must act. + +The laws of Association and Recall are the combination that will unlock +the treasure-vaults of memory. Apply these laws, and the riches of +experience will be available to you in every need. + + * * * * * + +The purpose of this book has been to make clear certain mental +principles and processes, namely, those of Retention, Association and +Recall. Incidentally, as with every book in this _Course_, it contains +some facts and instructions of immediate practical utility. But +primarily it is intended only to help prepare your mind to understand a +scientific system for success-achievement that will be unfolded in +subsequent volumes. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trained Memory, by Warren Hilton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAINED MEMORY *** + +***** This file should be named 17829.txt or 17829.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/8/2/17829/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Paul Ereaut and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + diff --git a/17829.zip b/17829.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..57a8d33 --- /dev/null +++ b/17829.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d08b448 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #17829 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17829) |
