Miller's Mind training for children Book 2 (of 3): A practical training for successful living; Educational games that train the senses — John Shaqi
Miller's Mind training for children Book 2 (of 3): A practical training for successful living; Educational games that train the sensesMiller, William Emer
Philosophy
Miller's Mind training for children Book 2 (of 3): A practical training for successful living; Educational games that train the senses
Miller, William Emer
Mnemonics; Senses and sensation
=The ease with which any impression can be recalled will
depend,--first, upon how strongly it is made.=
Your senses are unequal in their ability to impress the brain. Some
make stronger impressions than others, not so much because of the thing
to be impressed, but because of the natural unequal strength of the
groups of nerves. All experience or knowledge that makes a strong,
definite impression is more easily recalled than in those cases where
the impression is less distinct.
Nature has endowed one of the senses with a peculiar ability to make
impressions upon the brain which are many times stronger than those
made by any of the others. To learn to properly use this one sense is
the greatest aid to memory improvement.
The Strongest Sense Is Sight
The nerves connecting the eye with the brain are many times larger than
the nerves of any of the other sense organs and can make an impression
which is many times stronger than the impression made by any of the
others. Without your conscious knowledge this fact has been operating
all your life. The things which you have seen are the things which you
have most easily remembered. For this reason the memory of your youth
consists principally of things which you saw, or impressions made upon
your brain by the use of your eye.
Prove this fact; recall some of your earliest recollections; how did
your brain accept these impressions? Was it through feeling, hearing,
or through seeing? It is an eye impression and is recalled in your
mind as a picture. You will find that most of the past which you can
remember is based upon the visual impression. The poet says, "How dear
to my heart are the scenes of my childhood." The scenes of childhood
are the memory of childhood.
"Travel is the greatest of educators." Why? One reason is because you
are gathering a group of eye impressions which are the most lasting.
One psychologist defines memory, "as the act of recalling the picture
of a past experience." The fact that the visual memory is most lasting
has been known for generations, but we have failed to take proper
advantage of the fact. In making a comparison of the eye and ear
impressions upon the brain Robert Mudie wrote in 1832: "That which is
told us we may forget because of the weakness of the impressions made,
but that which we see with our own eye is proof against accident,
against time and forgetfulness."
Visual Impressions Most Accurate
Besides being the strongest of all the senses, sight is the most
accurate. Psychological tests have shown the eye to be mistaken only
eighteen per cent of the time, and the ear, which is the second sense
in strength, is mistaken thirty-four per cent. Note that your sense
of sight is especially endowed with the power to make the strongest,
and at the same time, the most accurate impression upon your brain.
The first step in memory improvement is to learn the proper use of
this sense in impressing upon the brain those things which you wish to
recall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account