THE SCIENCE OF FORGETTING
[Sidenote: _The Skilled Artisan_]
Attention is the instrumentality through which the Laws of Recall
operate. Wittingly or unwittingly, consciously or unconsciously, every
man's attention swings in automatic obedience to the Laws of Recall.
Attention is the artisan that, bit by bit, and with lightning quickness,
constructs the mosaic of consciousness.
Having the whole vast store of all present and past experiences to draw
upon, he selects only those groups and those isolated instances that
are related to our general interests and aims. He disregards others.
[Sidenote: _How the Attention Works_]
The attention operates in a manner complementary to the general Laws of
Recall. It is an active principle not of association, but of
_dissociation_.
You choose, for example, a certain aim in life. You decide to become the
inventor of an aeroplane of automatic stability. This choice henceforth
determines two things. First, it determines just which of the sensory
experiences of any given moment are most likely to be selected for your
conscious perception. Secondly, it determines just which of your past
experiences will be most likely to be recalled.
Such a choice, in other words, determines to some extent the sort of
elements that will most probably be selected to make up at any moment
the contents of your consciousness.
[Sidenote: _Iron Filings and Mental Magnets_]
From the instant that you make such a choice you are on the alert for
facts relevant to the subject of your ambition. Upon them you
concentrate your attention. They are presented to your consciousness
with greater precision and clearness than other facts. All facts that
pertain to the art of flying henceforth cluster and cling to your
conscious memory like iron filings to a magnet. All that are impertinent
to this main pursuit are dissociated from these intensely active
complexes, and in time fade into subconscious forgetfulness.
[Sidenote: _The Compartment of Subconscious Forgetfulness_]
By subconscious forgetfulness we mean a _compartment_, as it were, of
that reservoir in which all past experiences are stored.
_Consciousness is a momentary thing._ It is a passing state. It is
ephemeral and flitting. It is made up _in part of present
sense-impressions_ and in part of past experiences. These past
experiences are brought forth from subconsciousness. Some are
voluntarily brought forth. Some present themselves without our conscious
volition, but by the operation of the laws of association and
dissociation. Some we seem unable voluntarily to recall, yet they may
appear when least we are expecting them. It is these last to which we
have referred as lost in subconscious forgetfulness. As a matter of
fact, _none_ are ever actually _lost_.
[Sidenote: _Making Experience Count_]
All the wealth of your past experience is still yours--a concrete part
of your personality. All that is required to make it available for your
present use is a sufficient concentration of your attention, _a
concentration of attention that shall dwell persistently and exclusively
upon those associations that bear upon the fact desired_.
The tendency of the mind toward dissociation, a function limiting the
indiscriminate recall of associated "groups," is also manifested in all
of us in the transfer to unconsciousness of many _muscular activities_.
[Sidenote: _How Habits Are Formed_]
As infants we learn to walk only by giving to every movement of the
limbs the most deliberate conscious attention. Yet, in time, the
complicated co-operation of muscular movements involved in walking
becomes involuntary and unconscious, so that we are no longer even aware
of them.
It is the same with reading, writing, playing upon musical instruments,
the manipulation of all sorts of mechanical devices, the thousand and
one other muscular activities that become what we call _habitual_.
The moment one tries to make these habitual activities again dependent
on the conscious will he encounters difficulties.
"The centipede was happy quite,
Until the toad, for fun,
Said, 'Pray which leg goes after which?'
This stirred his mind to such a pitch,
He lay distracted in a ditch,
Considering _how_ to run."
_All these habitual activities are started as acts of painstaking care
and conscious attention. All ultimately become unconscious._ They may,
however, be started or stopped at will. They are, therefore, still
related to the conscious mind. They occupy a semi-automatic middle
ground between conscious and subconscious activities.
THE FALLACY OF MOST MEMORY SYSTEMS
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