The Mind and Its Education

G >> George Herbert Betts >> The Mind and Its Education

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It is of course obvious that the influence of association extends to
moral action as well. In general, our conduct follows the trend of
established associations. We are likely to do in great moral crises
about as we are in the habit of doing in small ones.

2. THE TYPES OF ASSOCIATION

FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF ASSOCIATION.--Stated on the physiological side, the
law of habit as set forth in the definition of association in the
preceding section includes all the laws of association. In different
phrasing we may say: (1) Neurone groups accustomed to acting together
have the tendency to work in unison. (2) The more frequently such groups
act together the stronger will be the tendency for one to throw the
other into action. Also, (3) the more intense the excitement or tension
under which they act together the stronger will be the tendency for
activity in one to bring about activity in the other.

The corresponding facts may be expressed in psychological terms as
follows: (1) Facts accustomed to being associated together in the mind
have a tendency to reappear together. (2) The more frequently these
facts appear together the stronger the tendency for the presence of one
to insure the presence of the other. (3) The greater the tension,
excitement or concentration when these facts appear in conjunction with
each other, the more certain the presence of one is to cause the
presence of the other.

Several different types of association have been differentiated by
psychologists from Aristotle down. It is to be kept in mind, however,
that all association types _go back to the elementary law of
habit-connections among the neurones_ for their explanation.

ASSOCIATION BY CONTIGUITY.--The recurrence in our minds of many of the
elements from our past experience is due to the fact that at some time,
possibly at many times, the recurring facts were contiguous in
consciousness with some other element or fact which happens now to be
again present. All have had the experience of meeting some person whom
we had not seen for several months or years, and having a whole series
of supposedly forgotten incidents or events connected with our former
associations flood into the mind. Things we did, topics we discussed,
trips we took, games we played, now recur at the renewal of our
acquaintance. For these are the things that were contiguous in our
consciousness with our sense of the personality and appearance of our
friend. And who has not in similar fashion had a whiff of perfume or the
strains of a song recall to him his childhood days! Contiguity is again
the explanation.

AT THE MERCY OF OUR ASSOCIATIONS.--Through the law thus operating we are
in a sense at the mercy of our associations, which may be bad as well as
good. We may form certain lines of interest to guide our thought, and
attention may in some degree direct it, but one's mental make-up is,
after all, largely dependent on the character of his associations. Evil
thoughts, evil memories, evil imaginations--these all come about through
the association of unworthy or impure images along with the good in our
stream of thought. We may try to forget the base deed and banish it
forever from our thinking, but lo! in an unguarded moment the nerve
current shoots into the old path, and the impure thought flashes into
the mind, unsought and unwelcomed. Every young man who thinks he must
indulge in a little sowing of wild oats before he settles down to a
correct life, and so deals in unworthy thoughts and deeds, is putting a
mortgage on his future; for he will find the inexorable machinery of his
nervous system grinding the hated images of such things back into his
mind as surely as the mill returns to the sack of the miller what he
feeds into the hopper. He may refuse to harbor these thoughts, but he
can no more hinder their seeking admission to his mind than he can
prevent the tramp from knocking at his door. He may drive such images
from his mind the moment they are discovered, and indeed is guilty if he
does not; but not taking offense at this rebuff, the unwelcome thought
again seeks admission.

The only protection against the return of the undesirable associations
is to choose lines of thought as little related to them as possible. But
even then, do the best we may, an occasional "connection" will be set
up, we know not how, and the unwelcome image stands staring us in the
face, as the corpse of Eugene Aram's victim confronted him at every
turn, though he thought it safely buried. A minister of my acquaintance
tells me that in the holiest moments of his most exalted thought, images
rise in his mind which he loathes, and from which he recoils in horror.
Not only does he drive them away at once, but he seeks to lock and bar
the door against them by firmly resolving that he will never think of
them again. But alas! that is beyond his control. The tares have been
sown among the wheat, and will persist along with it until the end. In
his boyhood these images were given into the keeping of his brain cells,
and they are only being faithful to their trust.

ASSOCIATION BY SIMILARITY AND CONTRAST.--All are familiar with the fact
that like tends to suggest like. One friend reminds us of another friend
when he manifests similar traits of character, shows the same tricks of
manner, or has the same peculiarities of speech or gesture. The telling
of a ghost or burglar story in a company will at once suggest a similar
story to every person of the group, and before we know it the
conversation has settled down to ghosts or burglars. One boastful boy is
enough to start the gang to recounting their real or imaginary exploits.
Good and beautiful thoughts tend to call up other good and beautiful
thoughts, while evil thoughts are likely to produce after their own
kind; like produces like.

Another form of relationship is, however, quite as common as similars in
our thinking. In certain directions we naturally think in _opposites_.
Black suggests white, good suggests bad, fat suggests lean, wealth
suggests poverty, happiness suggests sorrow, and so on.

The tendency of our thought thus to group in similars and opposites is
clear when we go back to the fundamental law of association. The fact is
that we more frequently assemble our thoughts in these ways than in
haphazard relations. We habitually group similars together, or compare
opposites in our thinking; hence these are the terms between which
associative bonds are formed.

PARTIAL, OR SELECTIVE, ASSOCIATION.--The past is never wholly reinstated
in present consciousness. Many elements, because they had formed fewer
associations, or because they find some obstacle to recall, are
permanently dropped out and forgotten. In other words, association is
always _selective_, favoring now this item of experience, now that,
above the rest.

It is well that this is so; for to be unable to escape from the great
mass of minutiae and unimportant detail in one's past would be
intolerable, and would so cumber the mind with useless rubbish as to
destroy its usefulness. We have surely all had some experience with the
type of persons whose associations are so complete and impartial that
all their conversation teems with unessential and irrelevant details.
They cannot recount the simplest incident in its essential points but,
slaves to literalness, make themselves insufferable bores by entering
upon every lane and by-path of circumstance that leads nowhere and
matters not the least in their story. Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot,
Shakespeare, and many other writers have seized upon such characters and
made use of them for their comic effect. James, in illustrating this
mental type, has quoted the following from Miss Austen's "Emma":

"'But where could _you_ hear it?' cried Miss Bates. 'Where could you
possibly hear it, Mr. Knightley? For it is not five minutes since I
received Mrs. Cole's note--no, it cannot be more than five--or at least
ten--for I had got my bonnet and spencer on, just ready to come out--I
was only gone down to speak to Patty again about the pork--Jane was
standing in the passage--were not you, Jane?--for my mother was so
afraid that we had not any salting-pan large enough. So I said I would
go down and see, and Jane said: "Shall I go down instead? for I think
you have a little cold, and Patty has been washing the kitchen." "Oh, my
dear," said I--well, and just then came the note.'"

THE REMEDY.--The remedy for such wearisome and fruitless methods of
association is, as a matter of theory, simple and easy. It is to
emphasize, intensify, and dwell upon the _significant and essential_ in
our thinking. The person who listens to a story, who studies a lesson,
or who is a participant in any event must apply a _sense of value_,
recognizing and fixing the important and relegating the trivial and
unimportant to their proper level. Not to train one's self to think in
this discriminating way is much like learning to play a piano by
striking each key with equal force!

3. TRAINING IN ASSOCIATION

Since association is at bottom nothing but habit at work in the mental
processes, it follows that it, like other forms of habit, can be
encouraged or suppressed by training. Certainly, no part of one's
education is of greater importance than the character of his
associations. For upon these will largely depend not alone the _content_
of his mental stream, the stuff of his thinking, but also its
_organization_, or the use made of the thought material at hand. In
fact, the whole science of education rests on the laws and principles
involved in setting up right systems of associative connections in the
individual.

THE PLEASURE-PAIN MOTIVE IN ASSOCIATION.--A general law seems to obtain
throughout the animal world that associative responses accompanied by
pleasure tend to persist and grow stronger, while those accompanied by
pain tend to weaken and fall away. The little child of two years may not
understand the gravity of the offense in tearing the leaves out of
books, but if its hands are sharply spatted whenever they tear a book,
the association between the sight of books and tearing them will soon
cease. In fact, all punishment should have for its object the use of
pain in the breaking of associative bonds between certain situations and
wrong responses to them.

On the other hand, the dog that is being trained to perform his tricks
is rewarded with a tidbit or a pat when the right response has been
made. In this way the bond for this particular act is strengthened
through the use of pleasure. All matter studied and learned under the
stimulus of good feeling, enthusiasm, or a pleasurable sense of victory
and achievement not only tends to set up more permanent and valuable
associations than if learned under opposite conditions, but it also
exerts a stronger appeal to our interest and appreciation.

The influence of mental attitude on the matter we study raises a
question as to the wisdom of assigning the committing of poetry, or
Bible verses, or the reading of so many pages of a literary masterpiece
as a punishment for some offense. How many of us have carried away
associations of dislike and bitterness toward some gem of verse or prose
or Scripture because of having our learning of it linked up with the
thought of an imposed task set as penance for wrong-doing! One person
tells me that to this day she hates the sight of Tennyson because this
was the volume from which she was assigned many pages to commit in
atonement for her youthful delinquencies.

INTEREST AS A BASIS FOR ASSOCIATION.--Associations established under the
stimulus of strong interest are relatively broad and permanent, while
those formed with interest flagging are more narrow and of doubtful
permanence. This statement is, of course, but a particular application
of the law of attention. Interest brings the whole self into action.
Under its urging the mind is active and alert. The new facts learned are
completely registered, and are assimilated to other facts to which they
are related. Many associative connections are formed, hence the new
matter is more certain of recall, and possesses more significance and
meaning.

ASSOCIATION AND METHODS OF LEARNING.--The number and quality of our
associations depends in no small degree on our methods of learning. We
may be satisfied merely to impress what we learn on our memory,
committing it uncritically as so many facts to be stored away as a part
of our education. We may go a step beyond this and grasp the simplest
and most obvious meanings, but not seek for the deeper and more
fundamental relations. We may learn separate sections or divisions of a
subject, accepting each as a more or less complete unit, without
connecting these sections and divisions into a logical whole.

But all such methods are a mistake. They do not provide for the
associative bonds between the various facts or groups of facts in our
knowledge, without which our facts are in danger of becoming but so much
lumber in the mind. Meanings, relations, definitely recognized
associations, should attach to all that we learn. Better far a smaller
amount of _usable_ knowledge than any quantity of unorganized and
undigested information, even if the latter sometimes allows us to pass
examinations and receive honor grades. In short, real mastery demands
that we _think_, that is _relate_ and _associate_, instead of merely
_absorbing_ as we learn.

4. PROBLEMS IN OBSERVATION AND INTROSPECTION

1. Test the uncontrolled associations of a group of pupils by
pronouncing to the class some word, as _blue_, and having the members
write down 20 words in succession as rapidly as they can, taking in each
instance the first word that occurs to them. The difference in the
scope, or range, of associations, can easily be studied by applying this
test to, say, a fourth grade and an eighth grade and then comparing
results.

2. Have you ever been puzzled by the appearance in your mind of some
fact or incident not thought of before for years? Were you able to trace
out the associative connection that caused the fact to appear? Why are
we sometimes unable to recall, when we need them, facts that we
perfectly well know?

3. You have observed that it is possible to be able to spell certain
words when they occur in a spelling lesson, but to miss them when
employing them in composition. It is possible to learn a conjugation or
a declension in tabular form, and then not be able to use the correct
forms of words in speech or writing. Relate these facts to the laws of
association, and recommend a method of instruction that will remove the
discrepancy.

4. To test the quickness of association in a class of children, copy the
following words clearly in a vertical column on a chart; have your class
all ready at a given signal; then display the chart before them for
sixty seconds, asking them to write down on paper the exact _opposite_
of as many words as possible in one minute. Be sure that all know just
what they are expected to do.

Bad, inside, slow, short, little, soft, black, dark, sad, true,
dislike, poor, well, sorry, thick, full, peace, few, below, enemy.

Count the number of correct opposites got by each pupil.

5. Can you think of garrulous persons among your acquaintance the
explanation of whose tiresomeness is that their association is of the
_complete_ instead of the _selective_ type? Watch for such illustrations
in conversation and in literature (e.g., Juliet's nurse).

6. Observe children in the schoolroom for good and poor training in
association. Have you ever had anything that you otherwise presumably
would enjoy rendered distasteful because of unpleasant associations?
Pass your own methods of learning in review, and also inquire into the
methods used by children in study, to determine whether they are
resulting in the best possible use of association.

CHAPTER XI

MEMORY

Every hour of our lives we call upon memory to supply us with some fact
or detail from out our past. Let memory wholly fail us, and we find
ourselves helpless and out of joint in a world we fail to understand. A
poor memory handicaps one in the pursuit of education, hampers him in
business or professional success, and puts him at a disadvantage in
every relation of life. On the other hand, a good memory is an asset on
which the owner realizes anew each succeeding day.

1. THE NATURE OF MEMORY

Now that you come to think of it, you can recall perfectly well that
Columbus discovered America in 1492; that your house is painted white;
that it rained a week ago today. But where were these once-known facts,
now remembered so easily, while they were out of your mind? Where did
they stay while you were not thinking of them? The common answer is,
"Stored away in my memory." Yet no one believes that the memory is a
warehouse of facts which we pack away there when we for a time have no
use for them, as we store away our old furniture.

WHAT IS RETAINED.--The truth is that the simple question I asked you is
by no means an easy one, and I will answer it myself by asking you an
easier one: As we sit with the sunlight streaming into our room, where
is the darkness which filled it last night? And where will all this
light be at midnight tonight? Answer these questions, and the ones I
asked about your remembered facts will be answered. While it is true
that, regardless of the conditions in our little room, darkness still
exists wherever there is no light, and light still exists wherever there
is no darkness, yet for this particular room _there is no darkness when
the sun shines in_, and _there is no light when the room is filled with
darkness_. So in the case of a remembered fact. Although the fact that
Columbus discovered America some four hundred years ago, that your house
is of a white color, that it rained a week ago today, exists as a fact
regardless of whether your minds think of these things at all, yet the
truth remains as before: for the particular mind which remembers these
things, _the facts did not exist while they were out of the mind_.

_It is not the remembered fact which is retained_, BUT THE POWER TO
REPRODUCE THE FACT WHEN WE REQUIRE IT.

THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF MEMORY.--The power to reproduce a once-known fact
depends ultimately on the brain. This is not hard to understand if we go
back a little and consider that brain activity was concerned in every
perception we have ever had, and in every fact we have ever known.
Indeed, it was through a certain neural activity of the cortex that you
were able originally to know that Columbus discovered America, that your
house is white, and that it rained on a day in the past. Without this
cortical activity, these facts would have existed just as truly, but
_you_ would never have known them. Without this neural activity in the
brain there is no consciousness, and to it we must look for the
recurrence in consciousness of remembered facts, as well as for those
which appear for the first time.

HOW WE REMEMBER.--Now, if we are to have a once-known fact repeated in
consciousness, or in other words _remembered_, what we must do on the
physiological side is to provide for a repetition of the neural activity
which was at first responsible for the fact's appearing in
consciousness. The mental accompaniment of the repeated activity _is the
memory_. Thus, as _memory is the approximate repetition of
once-experienced mental states or facts, together with the recognition
of their belonging to our past, so it is accomplished by an approximate
repetition of the once-performed neural process in the cortex which
originally accompanied these states or facts_.

The part played by the brain in memory makes it easy to understand why
we find it so impossible to memorize or to recall when the brain is
fatigued from long hours of work or lack of sleep. It also explains the
derangement in memory that often comes from an injury to the brain, or
from the toxins of alcohol, drugs or disease.

DEPENDENCE OF MEMORY ON BRAIN QUALITY.--Differences in memory ability,
while depending in part on the training memory receives, rest ultimately
on the memory-quality of the brain. James tells us that four distinct
types of brains may be distinguished, and he describes them as follows:

Brains that are:

(1) Like _marble_ to receive and like _marble_ to retain.
(2) Like _wax_ to receive and like _wax_ to retain.
(3) Like _marble_ to receive and like _wax_ to retain.
(4) Like _wax_ to receive and like _marble_ to retain.

The first type gives us those who memorize slowly and with much heroic
effort, but who keep well what they have committed. The second type
represents the ones who learn in a flash, who can cram up a lesson in a
few minutes, but who forget as easily and as quickly as they learn. The
third type characterizes the unfortunates who must labor hard and long
for what they memorize, only to see it quickly slipping from their
grasp. The fourth type is a rare boon to its possessor, enabling him
easily to stock his memory with valuable material, which is readily
available to him upon demand.

The particular type of brain we possess is given us through heredity,
and we can do little or nothing to change the type. Whatever our type of
brain, however, we can do much to improve our memory by obeying the laws
upon which all good memory depends.

2. THE FOUR FACTORS INVOLVED IN MEMORY

Nothing is more obvious than that memory cannot return to us what has
never been given into its keeping, what has not been retained, or what
for any reason cannot be recalled. Further, if the facts given back by
memory are not recognized as belonging to our past, memory would be
incomplete. Memory, therefore, involves the following four factors: (1)
_registration_, (2) _retention_, (3) _recall_, (4) _recognition_.

REGISTRATION.--By registration we mean the learning or committing of the
matter to be remembered. On the brain side this involves producing in
the appropriate neurones the activities which, when repeated again
later, cause the fact to be recalled. It is this process that
constitutes what we call "impressing the facts upon the brain."

Nothing is more fatal to good memory than partial or faulty
registration. A thing but half learned is sure to be forgotten. We
often stop in the mastery of a lesson just short of the full impression
needed for permanent retention and sure recall. We sometimes say to our
teachers, "I cannot remember," when, as a matter of fact, we have never
learned the thing we seek to recall.

RETENTION.--Retention, as we have already seen, resides primarily in the
brain. It is accomplished through the law of habit working in the
neurones of the cortex. Here, as elsewhere, habit makes an activity once
performed more easy of performance each succeeding time. Through this
law a neural activity once performed tends to be repeated; or, in other
words, a fact once known in consciousness tends to be remembered. That
so large a part of our past is lost in oblivion, and out of the reach of
our memory, is probably much more largely due to a failure to _recall_
than to _retain_. We say that we have forgotten a fact or a name which
we cannot recall, try as hard as we may; yet surely all have had the
experience of a long-striven-for fact suddenly appearing in our memory
when we had given it up and no longer had use for it. It was retained
all the time, else it never could have come back at all.

An aged man of my acquaintance lay on his deathbed. In his childhood he
had first learned to speak German; but, moving with his family when he
was eight or nine years of age to an English-speaking community, he had
lost his ability to speak German, and had been unable for a third of a
century to carry on a conversation in his mother tongue. Yet during the
last days of his sickness he lost almost wholly the power to use the
English language, and spoke fluently in German. During all these years
his brain paths had retained the power to reproduce the forgotten words,
even though for so long a time the words could not be recalled. James
quotes a still more striking case of an aged woman who was seized with a
fever and, during her delirious ravings, was heard talking in Latin,
Hebrew and Greek. She herself could neither read nor write, and the
priests said she was possessed of a devil. But a physician unraveled the
mystery. When the girl was nine years of age, a pastor, who was a noted
scholar, had taken her into his home as a servant, and she had remained
there until his death. During this time she had daily heard him read
aloud from his books in these languages. Her brain had indelibly
retained the record made upon it, although for years she could not have
recalled a sentence, if, indeed, she had ever been able to do so.

RECALL.--Recall depends entirely on association. There is no way to
arrive at a certain fact or name that is eluding us except by means of
some other facts, names, or what-not so related to the missing term as
to be able to bring it into the fold. Memory arrives at any desired fact
only over a bridge of associations. It therefore follows that the more
associations set up between the fact to be remembered and related facts
already in the mind, the more certain the recall. Historical dates and
events should when learned be associated with important central dates
and events to which they naturally attach. Geographical names, places or
other information should be connected with related material already in
the mind. Scientific knowledge should form a coherent and related whole.
In short, everything that is given over to the memory for its keeping
should be linked as closely as possible to material of the same sort.
This is all to say that we should not expect our memory to retain and
reproduce isolated, unrelated facts, but should give it the advantage
of as many logical and well grounded associations as possible.

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