Just a few words concerning mnemotechnique, mnemonic, and anamnestic.
The discovery of some means of helping the memory has long been a human
purpose. From Simonides of Chios, to the Sophist Hippias of Elis,
experiments have been made in artificial development of the memory, and
some have been remarkably successful. Since the middle ages a large
group of people have done this. We still have the figures of the valid
syllogisms in logic, like Barbara, etc. The rules for remembering in the
Latin grammar, etc., may still be learned with advantage. The books of
Kothe and others, have, in their day, created not a little discussion.
As a rule, modern psychology pays a little attention to memory devices.
In a certain sense, nobody can avoid mnemonic, for whenever you tie a
knot in your handkerchief, or stick your watch into your pocket upside
down, you use a memory device. Again, whenever you want to bear anything
in mind you reduce difficulties and bring some kind of order into what
you are trying to retain.
Thus, some artificial grip on the object is applied by everybody, and
the utility and reliability of this grip determines the trustworthiness
of a man’s memory. This fact may be important for the criminal lawyer in
two ways. On the one hand, it may help to clear up misunderstandings
when false mnemonic has been applied. Thus, once somebody called an
aniline dye, which is soluble in water and is called “nigrosin,” by the
name “moorosin,” and asked for it under that name in the store. In order
to aid his memory he had associated it with the word for black man =
niger = negro = moor, and thus had substituted moor for nigro in the
construction of the word he wanted. Again, somebody asked for the “Duke
Salm” or the “Duke Schmier.” The request was due to the fact that in the
Austrian dialect _salve_ is pronounced like salm and the colloquial for
“salm” is “schmier” (to wipe). Dr. Ernst Lohsing tells me that he was
once informed that a Mr. Schnepfe had called on him, while, as a matter
of fact the gentleman’s name was Wachtel. Such misunderstandings,
produced by false mnemonic, may easily occur during the examination of
witnesses. They are of profound significance. If once you suspect that
false memory has been in play, you may arrive at the correct idea by
using the proper synonyms and by considering similarly-pronounced words.
If attention is paid to the determining conditions of the special case,
success is almost inevitable.
The second way in which false mnemotechnique is important is that in
which the technique was correct, but in which the key to the system has
been lost, i.e., the witness has forgotten how he proceeded. Suppose,
for example, that I need to recall the relation of the ages of three
people to each other. Now, if I observe that M is the oldest, N the
middle one, and O the youngest, I may suppose, in order to help my
memory, that their births followed in the same order as their initials,
M, N, O. Now suppose that at another time, in another case I observe the
same relation but find the order of the initials reversed O, N, M. If
now, in the face of the facts, I stop simply with this technique, I may
later on substitute the two cases for each other. Hence, when a witness
says anything which appears to have been difficult to remember, it is
necessary to ask him _how_ he was able to remember it. If he assigns
some aid to memory as the reason, he must be required to explain it, and
he must not be believed unless it is found reliable. If the witness in
the instance above, for example, says, “I never make use of converse
relations,” then his testimony will seem comparatively trustworthy. And
it is not difficult to judge the degree of reliability of any aid to
memory whatever.
Great liars are frequently characterized by their easy use of the most
complicated mnemotechnique. They know how much they need it.
Topic 7. THE WILL.