The groundwork of psychology / by G.F. Stout.

  • George Frederick Stout
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The groundwork of psychology / by G.F. Stout. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    unity of the total object less intimate. It has been found that repetitions more or less immediately following one another yield less enduring associations than those which are separated by considerable intervals of time. In learn- ing a series of nonsense syllables, associations are less firmly established by twenty-four consecutive repetitions than by four repetitions a day continued for six days. This division again yields a less favourable result than two repetitions a day continued for twelve days. The conditions of the experiment show that the results can only be accounted for if we suppose that older associations are more strengthened by repetition than those which have been more recently formed. The Forms of Reproduction.—We now pass from the conditions under which associations are formed to their effects in conscious process. In other words, we have to consider the various forms of recall or reproduction. Of these we may distinguish three : (a) Free or explicit revival occurring directly. (b) Free or explicit reinstatement oc- curring indirectly through motor associations. (c) Nascent or implicit revival. (a) In free or explicit reproduction the several items of previous experience emerge into consciousness with a mutual distinctness and independence, such as they pos- sessed in their original occurrence. Where the revival is direct they take the form of mental images, copying actual sensations in their qualities and forms of combinations. In our previous illustration the words “ A pocketful of rye ” are recalled in this way. Each word is separately and successively heard by the mind’s ear as it was originally by the bodily ear. Here the words are sup- posed to be merely mentally recalled by direct as-
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