Your Mind and How to Use It: A Manual of Practical Psychology — John Shaqi
Your Mind and How to Use It: A Manual of Practical PsychologyAtkinson, William Walker
Science
Your Mind and How to Use It: A Manual of Practical Psychology
Atkinson, William Walker
Psychology
In addition to the phases of retention and reproduction, there are two
important phases of memory, viz.: (3) Recognition of the reproduced
impression or experience; and (4) localization of the impression, or its
reference to a more or less definite time and place.
The recognition of the recalled impression is quite important. It is not
enough that the impression be retained and recalled. If we are not able
to recognize the recalled impression as having been experienced before,
the recollection will be of but little use to us in our thought
processes; the purposes of thought demand that we shall be able to
identify the recalled impression with the original one. Recognition is
really re-cognition--re-knowing. Recognition is akin to perception. The
mind becomes conscious of the recalled impression just as it becomes
conscious of the sensation. It then recognizes the relation of the
recalled impression to the original one just as it realizes the relation
of the sensation to its object.
The localization of the recalled and recognized impression is also
important. Even if we recognize the recalled impression, it will be of
comparatively little use to us unless we are able to locate it as having
happened yesterday, last week, last month, last year, ten years ago, or
at some time in the past; and as having happened in our office, house,
or in such-and-such a place in the street, or in some distant place.
Without the power of localization we should be unable to connect and
associate the remembered fact with the time, place, and persons with
which it should be placed to be of use and value to us in our thought
processes.
RETENTION.
The retention of a mental impression in the memory depends very
materially upon the clearness and depth of the original impression. And
this clearness and depth, as we have previously stated, depend upon the
degree of attention bestowed upon the original impression. Attention,
then, is the important factor in the forming and recording of
impressions. The rule is: _Slight attention, faint record_; _marked
attention, clear and deep record_. To fix this fact in the mind, the
student may think of the retentive and reproductive phases of memory as
a phonographic record. The receiving diaphragm of the phonograph
represents the sense organs, and the recording needle represents the
_attention_. The needle makes the record on the cylinder deep or faint
according to the condition of the needle. A loud sound may be recorded
but faintly, if the needle is not properly adjusted. And, further, it
must be remembered that the strength of the reproduction depends almost
entirely upon the clearness and depth of the original impression on the
cylinder; as is the record, so is the reproduction. It will be well for
the student to carry this symbol of the phonograph in his mind; it will
aid him in developing his powers of memory.
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