A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins.

  • Mary Whiton Calkins
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    precisely the image of clock-winding. Indeed, the artifi¬ cial auxiliary image, expressly formed to suggest some other image, has a pertinacious way of absorbing attention and thus of preventing the association desired. If I try to remember Mr. Saltmarsh’s name by ‘ connecting’ it with the term ‘ Fresh- meadow,’ I am more than likely to strain our relations by calling Mr. Saltmarsh ‘ Freshmeadow’ when next I meet him. A final rule for memory has already been implied: one should repeat the fact, or the series, or the group of facts to he remembered. This rule is based on the principle underlying association that the frequently occurring experience is likely to be suggested, or remembered; and that it is also, by virtue of mere repetition, likely to be suggestive. However common¬ place or naturally uninteresting the scene or the paragraph, let it often enough be repeated in one’s experience and one is bound to remember it — perhaps to the exclusion of the vivider landscape or stanza. This is a truth of very great pedagogical importance. We know that naturally interesting and recent and frequent experiences are likely to recur. But the inter¬ est — that is, roughly speaking, the pleasantness or unpleas¬ antness, or unusualness — of an experience is, for the most part, beyond our direct control. We cannot at will make our experiences vivid in order to remember them, nor dull their poignancy in order to forget them. And though we are often able to secure the recency of our experience — to refresh our memories and to Tram’ overnight for examinations — yet this sort of memory is notoriously evanescent. In repetition, on the other hand, we have a memory-method which is, in great degree, directly subject to our control and variation and which is also significant and relatively permanent in effect. With a sufficient number of repetitions one may remember, for a while
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