ASSOCIATION.
In the preceding chapters we have seen that in order that a thing may be
remembered, it must be impressed clearly upon the mind in the first
place; and that in order to obtain a clear impression there must be a
manifestation of attention. So much for the recording of the
impressions. But when we come to recalling, recollecting or remembering
the impressions we are brought face to face with another important law
of memory--the law of Association. Association plays a part analogous to
the indexing and cross-indexing of a book; a library; or another system
in which the aim is to readily find something that has been filed away,
or contained in some way in a collection of similar things. As Kay says:
"In order that what is in the memory may be recalled or brought again
before consciousness, it is necessary that it be regarded in connection,
or in association with one or more other things or ideas, and as a rule
the greater the number of other things with which it is associated the
greater the likelihood of its recall. The two processes are involved in
every act of memory. We must first impress, and then we must associate.
Without a clear impression being formed, that which is recalled will be
indistinct and inaccurate; and unless it is associated with something
else in the mind, it cannot be recalled. If we may suppose an idea
existing in the mind by itself, unconnected with any other idea, its
recall would be impossible."
All the best authorities recognize and teach the importance of this law
of association, in connection with the memory. Abercrombie says: "Next
to the effect of attention is the remarkable influence produced upon
memory by association." Carpenter says: "The recording power of memory
mainly depends upon the degree of attention we give to the idea to be
remembered. The reproducing power again altogether depends upon the
nature of the associations by which the new idea has been linked on to
other ideas which have been previously recorded." Ribot says: "The most
fundamental law which regulates psychological phenomena is the law of
association. In its comprehensive character it is comparable to the law
of attraction in the physical world." Mill says: "That which the law of
gravitation is to astronomy; that which the elementary properties of the
tissues are to physiology; the law of association of ideas is to
psychology." Stewart says: "The connection between memory and the
association of ideas is so striking that it has been supposed by some
that the whole of the phenomena might be resolved into this principle.
The association of ideas connects our various thoughts with each other,
so as to present them to the mind in a certain order; but it presupposes
the existence of those thoughts in the mind,--in other words it
presupposes a faculty of retaining the knowledge which we acquire. On
the other hand, it is evident that without the associating principle,
the power of retaining our thoughts, and of recognizing them when they
occur to us, would have been of little use; for the most important
articles of our knowledge might have remained latent in the mind, even
when those occasions presented themselves to which they were immediately
applicable."
Association of ideas depends upon two principles known, respectively, as
(1) the law of contiguity; and (2) the law of similarity. Association by
contiguity is that form of association by which an idea is linked,
connected, or associated with the sensation, thought, or idea
immediately preceding it, and that which directly follows it. Each idea,
or thought, is a link in a great chain of thought being connected with
the preceding link and the succeeding link. Association by similarity is
that form of association by which an idea, thought, or sensation is
linked, connected, or associated with ideas, thoughts, or sensations of
a similar kind, which have occurred previously or subsequently. The
first form of association is the relation of sequence--the second the
relation of kind.
Association by contiguity is the great law of thought, as well as of
memory. As Kay says: "The great law of mental association is that of
contiguity, by means of which sensations and ideas that have been in the
mind together or in close succession, tend to unite together, or cohere
in such a way that the one can afterward recall the other. The
connection that naturally subsists between a sensation or idea in the
mind, and that which immediately preceded or followed it, is of the
strongest and most intimate nature. The two, strictly speaking, are but
one, forming one complete thought." As Taine says: "To speak correctly,
there is no isolated or separate sensation. A sensation is a state which
begins as a continuation of preceding ones, and ends by losing itself
in those following it; it is by an arbitrary severing, and for the
convenience of language, that we set it apart as we do; its beginning
is the end of another, and its ending the beginning of another." As
Ribot says: "When we read or hear a sentence, for example, at
the commencement of the fifth word something of the fourth word
still remains. Association by contiguity may be separated into two
sub-classes--contiguity in time; and contiguity in space. In contiguity
in time there is manifested the tendency of the memory to recall the
impressions in the same order in which they were received--the first
impression suggesting the second, and that the third, and so on. In this
way the child learns to repeat the alphabet, and the adult the
succeeding lines of a poem." As Priestly says: "In a poem, the end of
each preceding word being connected with the beginning of the succeeding
one, we can easily repeat them in that order, but we are not able to
repeat them backwards till they have been frequently named in that
order." Memory of words, or groups of words, depends upon this form of
contigious association. Some persons are able to repeat long poems from
beginning to end, with perfect ease, but are unable to repeat any
particular sentence, or verse, without working down to it from the
beginning. Contiguity in space is manifested in forms of recollection or
remembrance by "position." Thus by remembering the things connected with
the position of a particular thing, we are enabled to recall the thing
itself. As we have seen in a preceding chapter, some forms of memory
systems have been based on this law. If you will recall some house or
room in which you have been, you will find that you will remember one
object after another, in the order of the relative positions, or
contiguity in space, or position. Beginning with the front hall, you may
travel in memory from one room to another, recalling each with the
objects it contains, according to the degree of attention you bestowed
upon them originally. Kay says of association by contiguity: "It is on
this principle of contiguity that mnemonical systems are constructed, as
when what we wish to remember is associated in the mind with a certain
object or locality, the ideas associated will at once come up; or when
each word or idea is associated with the one immediately preceding it,
so that when the one is recalled the other comes up along with it, and
thus long lists of names or long passages of books can be readily learnt
by heart."
From the foregoing, it will be seen that it is of great importance that
we correlate our impressions with those preceding and following. The
more closely knitted together our impressions are, the more closely will
they cohere, and the greater will be the facility of remembering or
recollecting them. We should endeavor to form our impressions of things
so that they will be associated with other impressions, in time and
space. Every other thing that is associated in the mind with a given
thing, serves as a "loose end" of memory, which if once grasped and
followed up will lead us to the thing we desire to recall to mind.
Association by similarity is the linking together of impressions of a
similar kind, irrespective of time and place. Carpenter expresses it as
follows: "The law of similarity expresses the general fact that any
present state of consciousness tends to revive previous states which are
similar to it.... Rational or philosophical association is when a fact
or statement on which the attention is fixed is associated with some
fact previously known, to which it has a relation, or with some subject
which it is calculated to illustrate." And as Kay says: "The similars
may be widely apart in space or in time, but they are brought together
and associated through their resemblance to each other. Thus, a
circumstance of to-day may recall circumstances of a similar nature that
occurred perhaps at very different times, and they will become
associated together in the mind, so that afterwards the presence of one
will tend to recall the others." Abercrombie says of this phase of
association: "The habit of correct association--that is, connecting
facts in the mind according to their true relations, and to the manner
in which they tend to illustrate each other, is one of the principle
means of improving the memory, particularly that kind of memory which is
an essential quality of a cultivated mind--namely, that which is founded
not upon incidental connections, but on true and important relations."
As Beattie says: "The more relations or likenesses that we find or can
establish between objects, the more easily will the view of one lead us
to recollect the rest." And as Kay says: "In order to fix a thing in
the memory, we must associate it with something in the mind already,
and the more closely that which we wish to remember resembles that with
which it is associated, the better is it fixed in the memory, and the
more readily is it recalled. If the two strongly resemble each other, or
are not to be distinguished from each other, then the association is of
the strongest kind.... The memory is able to retain and replace a vastly
greater number of ideas, if they are associated or arranged on some
principle of similarity, than if they are presented merely as isolated
facts. It is not by the multitude of ideas, but the want of arrangement
among them, that the memory is burdened and its powers weakened." As
Arnott says: "The ignorant man may be said to have charged his hundred
hooks of knowledge (to use a rude simile), with single objects, while
the informed man makes each hook support a long chain to which thousands
of kindred and useful things are attached."
We ask each student of this book to acquaint himself with the general
idea of the working features of the law of association as given in this
chapter for the reason that much of the instruction to be given under
the head of the several phases and classes of memory is based upon an
application of the Law of Association, in connection with the law of
Attention. These fundamental principles should be clearly grasped before
one proceeds to the details of practice and exercise. One should know
not only "how" to use the mind and memory in certain ways, but also
"why" it is to be used in that particular way. By understanding the
"reason of it," one is better able to follow out the directions.