facts we wish to remember, and we should be able to insure their recall as
certainly and in a better way than through the device. Then, also, we should not
be in danger of handing over to the device various facts for which we should
discover relations, thus placing them in the logical body of our usable
knowledge where they belong.
8. PROBLEMS IN OBSERVATION AND INTROSPECTION
- Carefully consider your own powers of memory and see whether you can
decide which of the four types of brain you have. Apply similar tests to your
classmates or a group of school children whom you have a chance to observe. Be
sure to take into account the effects of past training or habits of memory. - Watch in your own memorizing and also that of school children for failures in
recall caused by lack of proper associations. Why is it particularly hard to
commit what one does not understand? - Observe a class in a recitation or an examination and seek to discover whether
any defects of memory revealed are to be explained by lack of (1) repetition, (2)
recency, (3) vividness in learning. - Make a study of your own class and also of a group of children in school to
discover their methods of memorizing. Have in mind the rules for memorizing
given in section 5 of this chapter. - Observe by introspection your method of recall of historical events you have
studied, and note whether images form an important part of your memory
material; or does your recall consist chiefly of bare facts? In how far does this
depend on your method of learning the facts in the first place? - Carefully consider your experience from cramming your lessons. Does the
material learned in this way stay with you? Do you understand it and find
yourself able to use it as well as stuff learned during a longer interval and with
more time for associations to form?