The Trained Memory Part 4

[Sidenote: _Methods of Pick_]

Thus, Pick, in "Memory and Its Doctors," among other devices, presents a well-known "figure-alphabet" as of aid in remembering numbers. Each figure of the Arabic notation is represented by one or more letters, and the number to be recalled is translated into such letters as can best be arranged into a catch word or phrase. To quote: "The most common figure-alphabet is this:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

t n m r l sh g f b s d j k v p o ch c g qu z

"To briefly show its use, suppose it is desired to fix 1,142 feet in a second as the velocity of sound, t, t, r, n, are the letters and order required. Fill up with vowels forming a phrase like 'tight run' and connect it by some such flight of the imagination as that if a man tried to keep up with the velocity of sound, he would have a 'tight run.'"

[Sidenote: _Scientific Pedagogy_]

The same principle is at the basis of all efficient pedagogy. The competent teacher endeavors by some a.s.sociation of ideas to link every new fact with those facts which the pupil already has acquired.

In the pursuit of this method the teacher will "compare all that is far off and foreign to something that is near home, making the unknown plain by the example of the known, and connecting all the instruction with the personal experience of the pupil--if the teacher is to explain the distance of the sun from the earth, let him ask, 'If anyone there in the sun fired off a cannon straight at you, what should you do?' 'Get out of the way,' would be the answer. 'No need of that,' the teacher might reply; 'you may quietly go to sleep in your room and get up again; you may wait till your confirmation day, you may learn a trade, and grow as old as I am--_then only_ will the cannon-ball be getting near, _then_ you may jump to one side! See, so great as that is the sun's distance!'"

We shall now show you how to apply this principle in improving your memory and in making a more complete use of your really vast store of knowledge.

Rule I. _Make systematic use of your sense-organs._

[Sidenote: _How to Remember Names_]

Do you find it difficult to remember names? It is because you do not link them in your mind with enough a.s.sociations. Every time a man is introduced to you, look about you. Who is present? Take note of as many and as great a variety of surrounding facts and circ.u.mstances as possible. Think of the man's name, and take another look at his face, his dress, his physique. Think of his name, and at the same time his voice and manner. Think of his name, and mark the place where you are now for the first time meeting him. Think of his name in conjunction with the name and personality of the friend who presented him.

Memory is not a distinct faculty of mind in the sense that one man is generously endowed in that respect while another is deficient. Memory, as meaning the power of voluntary recall, is wholly a question of trained habits of mental operation.

Your memory is just as good as mine or any other man's. It is your indifference to what you would call "irrelevant facts" that is at fault.

Therefore, cultivate habits of observation. Fortify the observed facts you wish to recall with a mult.i.tude of outside a.s.sociations. Never rest with a mere halfway knowledge of things.

[Sidenote: _Five Exercises for Developing Observation_]

To a.s.sist you in training yourself in those habits of observation that make a good memory of outside facts, we append the following exercises:

_a._ Walk slowly through a room with which you are not familiar. Then make a list of all the contents of the room you can recall. Do this every day for a week, using a different room each time. Do it not half-heartedly, but as if your life depended on your ability to remember. At the end of the week you will be surprised at the improvement you have made.

_b._ As you walk along the street, observe all that occurs in a s.p.a.ce of one block, things heard as well as things seen. Two hours later make a list of all you can recall. Do this twice a day for ten days. Then compare results.

_c._ Make a practice of recounting each night the incidents of the day.

The prospect of having this to do will cause you unconsciously to observe more attentively.

This is the method by which Thurlow Weed acquired his phenomenal memory.

As a young man with political ambitions he had been much troubled by his inability to recall names and faces. So he began the practice each night of telling his wife the most minute details of incidents that had occurred during the day. He kept this up for fifty years, and it so trained his powers of observation that he became as well known for his unfailing memory as for his political adroitness.

_d._ Glance once at an outline map of some State. Put it out of sight and draw one as nearly like it as you can. Then compare it with the original. Do this frequently.

[Sidenote: _Invention and Thought-Memory_]

_e._ Have some one read you a sentence out of a book and you then repeat it. Do this daily, gradually increasing the length of the quotation from short sentences to whole paragraphs. Try to find out what is the extreme limit of your ability in this respect compared with that of other members of your family.

Rule II. _Fix ideas by their a.s.sociates._

There are other things to be remembered besides facts of outside observation. You are not one whose life is pa.s.sed entirely in a physical world. You live also within. Your mind is unceasingly at work with the materials of the past painting the pictures of the future. You are called upon to scheme, to plan, to devise, to invent, to compose and to foresee.

If all this mental work is not wasted energy, you must be able to recall its conclusions when occasion requires. A happy thought comes to you--will you remember it tomorrow when the hour for action arrives?

There is but one way to be sure, and that is by making a study of the whole a.s.sociative mental process.

Review the train of ideas by which you reached your conclusion. Carry the thought on in mind to its legitimate conclusion. See yourself acting upon it. Mark its relations to other persons. Note all the details of the mental picture. In other words, to remember thoughts, cultivate thought-observation just as you cultivate sense-observation to remember outside matters.

[Sidenote: _Three Exercises for Developing Thought-Memory_]

To train yourself in thought-memory, use the following exercises:

_a._ Every morning at eight o'clock, sharp on the minute, fix upon a certain idea and determine to recall it at a certain hour during the day. Put your whole will into this resolution. Try to imagine what activities you will be engaged in at the appointed hour, and think of the chosen idea as identified with those activities. a.s.sociate it in your mind with some object that will be at hand when the set time comes.

Having thus fixed the idea in your mind, forget it. Do not refer to it in your thoughts. With practice you will find yourself automatically carrying out your own orders. Persist in this exercise for at least three months.

_b._ Every night when you retire fix upon the hour at which you wish to get up in the morning. In connection with your waking at that hour, think of all the sounds that will be apt to be occurring at that particular time. Bar every other thought from your consciousness and fall asleep with the intense determination to arise at the time set. By all means, get up instantly when you awaken. Keep up this exercise and you will soon be able to awaken at any hour you may wish.

[Sidenote: _How to Compel Recollection_]

_c._ Every morning outline the general plan of your activities for the day. Select only the important things. Do not bother with the details.

Determine upon the logical order for your day's work. Think not so much of _how_ you are to do things as of the _things_ you are to do. Keep your mind on results. And having made your plan, stick to it. Be your own boss. Let nothing tempt you from your set purpose. Make this daily planning a habit and hold to it through life. It will give you a great lift toward whatever prize you seek.

Rule III. _Search systematically and persistently._

When once you have started upon an effort at recollection, persevere.

The date or face or event that you wish to recall _is bound up with a mult.i.tude of other facts of observation and of your mind life_ of the past. Success in recalling it depends simply upon your ability _to hit upon some idea so indissolubly a.s.sociated with the object of search that the recall of one automatically recalls the other_. Consequently the thing to do is to hold your attention to one definite line of thought until you have exhausted its possibilities. You must pa.s.s in review all the a.s.sociated matters and suppress or ignore them until the right one comes to mind. This may be a short-cut process or a roundabout process, but it will bring results nine times out of ten, and if habitually persisted in will greatly improve your power of voluntary recall.

[Sidenote: _Formation of Correct Memory Habits_]

Rule IV. _The instant you recollect a thing to be done, do it._

Every idea that memory thrusts into your consciousness carries with it the impulse to act upon it. If you fail to do so, the matter may not again occur to you, or when it does it may be too late.

_Your mental mechanism will serve you faithfully only as long as you act upon its suggestions._

[Sidenote: _NOW!_]

This is as true of bodily habits as of business affairs. The time to act upon an important matter that just now comes to mind is not "tomorrow"

or a "little later," but _NOW_.

What you do from moment to moment tells the story of your career. Ideas that come to you should be compared as to their relative importance. But do this honestly. Do not be swayed by distracting impulses that inadvertently slip in. And having gauged their importance give free rein at once to the impulse to do everything that should not make way for something more important.

[Sidenote: _Persistence, Accuracy, Dispatch_]

If, for any reason, action must be deferred, fix the matter in your mind to be called up at the proper time. Drive all other thoughts from your consciousness. Give your whole attention to this one matter. Determine the exact moment at which you wish it to be recalled. Then put your whole self into the determination to remember it at precisely the right moment. And finally, and perhaps most important of all,--