other cell in the brain; thus there is also one connecting path between
those two cells which were stimulated at once. Now if the two ends of an
anatomical path are excited at the same time, the path itself becomes
changed. The connecting way becomes a path of least resistance, and that
means that if, in future, one of the two brain cells becomes excited
again, the overflow of the nervous excitement will not now go on easily
in all directions, but only just along that one channel which leads to
that other brain cell. A theory like this explains in real explanatory
terms, in ways which physics and chemistry can demonstrate as necessary,
that any excitement of the odor cell runs over into the sound cell and
vice versa. In short, the psychological association of ideas, which we
should simply have to accept as inexplainable fact, is thus transformed
into a connection which we understand as necessary; and the fact is
really explained.
This simple scheme of the physiology of association for a hundred years
has given a most decided impulse to the progress of psychology. As the
association process can so easily be expressed in physiological terms,
the aim was prevalent to understand the interplay of mental life more
and more as the result of association. The underlying thought of this
whole association psychology was thus a conviction that whenever two
mental experiences occur together, either of them keeps the tendency to
reawaken the other at a later time. Through the endless combination
which life's impressions awaken in the mind from the first hour after
birth, the whole stream of memory images and thoughts and aims and
imaginations is thus to be explained.
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