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WHA
T IS STUD
Y
WHAT
STUDY
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.
Francis Bacon
What is study?
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HOW TO STUDY
connection with certain objects or matters relating to a particular subject or a particular field of knowledge, as, for instance, psychology.
Interest is a positive attitude towards something from which an individual derives a measure of pleasure that he thinks about, and that he
pursues actively. Queen Victoria wrote to A.J. Balfour (Dec 1899),
We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat.
Interest is the primary condition of effective study. It provides
the motive power in study. It grows on what it feeds on. The more
one knows about a subject, the more one wants to know about it.
Montaignes motto was What do I know? (Que sais-je?)
Concentration, a key element in study itself results from
interest.
Interest is so vital to study-work, as in any other work, that lack
of it is doom. I would far sooner lose a leg or two or three ribs, says
Herbert Casson, than lose my interest in my work.
Every fact or theory which you may have to master in your
study was once at least an object of some ones curiosity. It is, therefore, potentially interesting. As Wright puts it, There are, in fact, no
dull subjects of study, though there may be dull studentsor dull
teachers or writers. If a subject appears dull to a student, it is because he is not approaching it with the right interest or with the knowledge which is necessary in order to grasp what he is reading.
Given the interest, the application of study techniques becomes
easy. Without it, none works.
As interest is vital to success in study, you must build up genuine and glowing interest in your study-work, the sort described by
Andre Maurois:
The pleasure of working may become so complete that it
often succeeds in replacing all others. In my efforts to imagine
paradise, there enters my mind no vision of a place where winged
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souls do little else than sing and play their harps, but rather one of a
study where I work everlastingly at some marvellous novel of infinite length with the keen power and precision that I could so rarely
command upon earth. The paradise of the gardener is a garden; a
carpenters is a bench. (We may add that the paradise of the student
is his study.)
Jerome K. Jerome in his famous book Three Men in a Boat
says:
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my
heart.
Motivation: A motive is what induces a person to act, e.g. desire, fear and other positive or negative wants or needs. It is defined
as an affective-conative factor which operates, in determining the
individuals behaviour towards an end or goal. To motivate is to
provide an incentive. Motivation is a term employed generally for
the phenomena involved in the operation of incentives, drives and
motives. Motivation is the driving dynamic of purpose. It has to do
with the direction and persistence of action.
Interest, the foundation of effective study, depends in turn on
motivation. Lack of adequate motivation is an important cause of
failure.
Goals: For the satisfaction of his wants (needs) man selects a
goal, as becoming an executive, an engineer, a bank officer, a doctor
or an administrator.
A goal is the object of effort or ambition, the end result, immediate or remote, which the individual seeks, and towards which he
directs action.
Since a goal is the life-blood of successful study, select it judiciously. The characteristics of an appropriate goal are:
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plest things about all facts of life, says Norman Vincent Peale, is
that to get where you want to go, you must just keep on keeping on.
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus and Sartre have proclaimed that courage is not the absence of despair; it is rather the capacity to move
ahead inspite of despair.
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Planning
A man who does not think and plan ahead will find trouble at
his door.
Confucius
What is Planning?
To plan means to scheme, arrange beforehand, the way of proceeding to achieve an object, as planning a compaign or economy,
or a journey through space, or
But I was, thinking of a plan,
To dye ones whiskers green
in Lewis Carrolls Through the Looking-Glass.
The Importance of planning
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11
our plans will work only if you work them. Give top priority to
their implementation. Put your whole heart into them. Strive
with both your body and mind towards hitting your targets.
Give each stage in your plans your undivided attention. Dont
look farther than each stage, thereby following the example of the
mountaineer who cuts steps in the ice, refusing to look up at the heights
or down into the depths because the sight of either would terrify him.
A French sage remarks pertinently, The fool thinks every thing
is easy and comes in for many rude awakenings; the sluggard
believes that all is impossible, and undertakes nothing; the good
workman knows that great things are possible, and prudently, little
by little, he accomplishes them.
The homely saying Little by little and bit by bit teaches
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13
Advantages of a time-table
The advantages of a time-table are many:
(i) The first advantage is the saving in time and effort. Without
it you are likely to spend much time in decisionin making up your
mind when and what to study. A lot of energy is uselessly consumed
in trying to choose between alternatives and in screwing up your
resolution to work. As William James has it, There is no more
miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but
indecision.
(ii) The second advantage is the proper use of time. It is
fatally easy to fritter time away. If you do not impose set hours on
yourself, you are more likely to spend the time when you should be
studying, in watching T.V., reading a magazine, conversing idly over
cups of tea or in doing any of those hundred and one things which
weak and irresolute persons are ready to do rather than buckle to
work. If you have a time-table and mean to stick to it, it has all the
force of a law which must be obeyed, and in time adherence to it
becomes effortless, and you begin to regard it as a natural part of
your life.
(iii) The third advantage lies in the saving that comes from
intelligent dovetailing of your various activities; in ensuring that you
do each work at the best possible time; and eventually in the selfconfidence and sense of competence which comes from regular daily
work. As Anthony Trollope puts it, A small daily task, if it be done
really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.
(iv) The fourth advantage is that a time-table is an antidote
against procrastination. Procrastinationdeferring things from day
to daywastes a lot of time and usually ends in nothing being done
at all. Edward Young who coined the famous proverb Procrastination is the thief of time, also exhorts, Be wise today; tis madness to
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defer.
(v) A time-table makes for efficiency. A sense of the value of
time, says Arnold Bennett, that is, of the best way to divide ones
time into ones various activitiesis an essential preliminary to efficient work; it is the only method of avoiding hurry.
(vi) Finally, a carefully worked out time-table will help you to
keep up to date, to form good study habits and to persevere.
How to frame a time-table?
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aving drawn up your time-table, adhere to it. You must be ruthless and self-disciplined and permit only special circumstances
to interfere with it:
See first that the design is wise and just,
That ascertained, pursue it resolutely,
Do not for one repulse forego the purpose
That you resolved to effect.
George Stephenson, when addressing young men, was accustomed to sum up his best advice to them in the words, Do as I have
donepersevere.
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17
If you want to reach your goal, you will have to give up your
giving up and replace it with dogged perseverance. Sir Thomas Fowell
Buxton once wrote:
I hold to a doctrine, to which I owe not much, but all the little I
ever had, namely, that with ordinary talent, and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.
Planning your work and working your plan will ensure your
success. Make it a habit to work to your time-table. Habit is a
second nature! Habit is ten times nature, the Duke of Wellington is
said to have exclaimed. Keep to this habit till you reach your goal.
And dont ever be discouraged if every shot is not a bulls-eye.
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CONCENTRA
TION
CONCENTRATION
The one prudence in life is concentration; the one evil is
dissipation....
Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in
trade, in short, in all management of human affairs.
R.W. Emerson
What is concentration?
19
n any area of success concentration is essential. Geniuses are commonly believed to excel other men in their power of sustained attention. Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninetynine per cent
perspiration, said Edison. Genius, said Helvetius, is nothing but
a continued attention. Genius, said Buffon, is only protracted
patience. In the exact sciences at least, said Cuvier, it is the patience of a sound intellect when invincible, which truly constitutes
genius. And Chesterfield also observed that the power of applying
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oncentration is an invaluable and indispensable technique of successful study. To study something you must concentrate upon it,
give your voluntary attention to it. Without sustained attention, you
gain very little from your study-work. As Martin Rhodes has it, Ability to concentrate is a vital study skill. Without concentration you
will never succeed in learning effectively; with it, almost nothing is
beyond your grasp and understanding.
According to William James, Each of us literally chooses by
his way of attending to things, what sort of a universe, he shall appear
to himself to inhabit. The immediate effects of attention are, he says,
to make us:
(a) perceive (b) conceive (c) distinguish (d) remember better
than we otherwise wouldboth successive things and each thing more
clearly. It also (e) shortens reaction time. (The interval elapsing
between the presentation of a stimulus and the action that follows it
is the individuals reaction time.)
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elf-confidence helps sustain and enhance concentration. The feeling that you can attain your goal prods you to focalize on it. To
keep self-confidence at a high pitch, realise the psychological pay-offs
of failure to concentrate effectively. You will lose self-esteem. You
will come to feel that other persons are superior to you when in fact
they have no greater brain power, power of concentration or ability.
Never under-estimate your physical and mental capabilities.
Almost every man thinks too poorly of himself, says H.N. Casson.
He has no idea of what he can doif he dare.
Positive and optimistic attitude
25
Be patient
oredom destroys concentration. It is debilitating and psychologically unhealthy. It means you are off the quality track. It
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27
have been merely fatigued. But if when you go to bed you are....too
tired to sleep, or if when you do sleep you waken still tired, and the
tiredness hangs about you all the next day and interferes with your
effectiveness in work then you have been over-fatigued. To combat
over-fatigue take a real rest away from your studies. Two leisurely
days holiday can work wonders. To prevent its occurrence distribute
your time over as many different study periods as can be conveniently arranged and have rest periods of 10 or 15 minutes each at
intervals.
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THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
A place for everything, and everything in its place.
Samuel Smiles
he physical conditions of work, such as lighting, heating, ventilation influence your study-work output as well as efficiency.
Maude in the Life of Tolstoy, quotes him as saying, One thing I
cannot do without: I must have a quiet room to work.
It will be a great help if you can have a room where you can
study in reasonable comfort and without distraction. If necessary turn
a corner of your bed room into a study.
Psychologists have underscored the advantages of study room
or corner of ones own. A regular work place excites a disposition to
work in a very useful way. There you are free from distractions which
compete for your attention elsewhere. Says Wright, To enter the
work room, or sit at ones desk, is then to induce the appropriate
mental set, and to be relatively free from wandering thoughts and
contrary impulses, till the job in hand is completed. George J.
Dudycha, writes in the same vein: The place in which we study puts
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29
us into the mood for studying. Each time you sit down to your study
table, the attitude producing nature of the work place, will release in
you studying activities and nothing else.
A quiet study room is also invaluable for concentration. For
creative work it is indispensable.
A separate study room will save you from interruptions which
result in desultoriness. As Andre Maurois says, The effectiveness of
work increases according to geometrical progression if there are no
interruptions. In short the familiar study room provides the right
attitude, mood, atmosphere and stimulus for work. It is, therefore, a
desideratum.
Study furniture, Desk-table and chair
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Importance of posture
31
illumination and a table lamp directly over your study work. The
table lamp should not have an opaque shade, because this produces a
bright area of light surrounded by shadows. An ordinary table lamp
with a semi-transparent shade is better, but the bottom of the shade
should be about 20 inches above the table top so that the lamp shade
itself is outside the field of vision.
Avoid tubular fluorescent lighting which, though it provides a
high level of illumination at a low cost, can be fatiguing.
Research reveals that there is no substitute for daylight. As
Dudycha observes, Because daylight is white light and because of
its intensity, one is able to read with greater speed and efficiency and
with less fatigue under daylight than with any other type of light.
Ventilation and heating
rom the efficiency view-point the main requirements are (1) pure
air to breathe and (2) suitable air temperature and air movement
so that body temperature can be maintained without discomfort. Sleep
with the window open. In waking hours a close and stuffy atmosphere should be guarded against because it results in the deficiency
of oxygen (anoxia) thus preventing the brain from operating at top
efficiency.
Working under conditions of extreme heat or cold involves more
effort and more discomfort. To ensure maximum mental performance your study should have an electric fan and an electric heater in
hot and cold weather respectively.
Noise and study
oise is a menace to study. It pollutes environment; affects efficiency, plays havoc with concentration, and sets our nerves on
edge. At times students are distracted or even maddened by noise.
Unfortunately noise is on the increase: bull-dozers, aeroplanes, auto32
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oise affects some people more than others doing the same work.
Extroverts are most influenced; introverts are least affected, and
some of them not at all by ordinary amounts of noise.
Attitude to noise
33
(1) Muffle the nosie at the source. For example use door checks
to prevent the noise of slamming doors; work on a linoleum instead
of metal or glass table top.
(2) Isolate the noise by shutting it out, moving it away, and
moving away from it.
(3) Absorb the noise to lower its loudness. Thick-pile fabrics
absorb 50 per cent of the sound that strikes them. Thick rugs absorb
more noise than thin ones.
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(4) Mask the noise: In bad cases you may insulate from distracting noise by closing the windows and generating some sounds
yourself in order to mask the unwelcome noises from outside. For
example, a radiogram enables you to play music which you think is
pleasant at intensities great enough to mask unwanted noises.
Background music softly played is sometimes used to mask
the irregular ringing of telephone bells and other noises.
(5) Change your attitude to noise: There are people who become so absorbed that they do not hear noises realizing that this is a
noisy world and is likely to continue to be so; it may even become
noisier as cities grow, traffic multiplies, and jet planes fill the sky.
Experiments reveal that people who had a passive attitude towards
the noise, who accepted it as just one of those things, to put up with,
tended to ignore the noise and consequently their work was not
affected. Become stoical about noise and put up unflinchingly with
what noise is unavoidable. It is futile running out to fight the man
with the sledge hammer. Buckle down to work to get your mind off
the noise that cannot be eliminated.
Also make it a habit to do your work more quietly; maybe the
noisy guy will imitate you!
The present state of the world and the whole life, said
Kierkegaard, is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my
advice, I should reply: Create silence.
Music while you work
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35
part from auditory distractions (noises), there are visual distractions that influence effective study. There may be photographs of friends, athletic events, idols of the movies, beloveds and
other exciting experiences to gaze upon. Eliminate such visual distractions. Place your table or desk against a blank wall. Keep photos
out of sight. Allow nothing in your field of vision when you are at
your study desk except those things that suggest study.
Shun time-wasters
o not let time-wasters intrude upon you while you are at work.
They are pitiless and unscrupulous. If you do not resist them
they will waste your valuable time. Kindness and patience towards
them are serious faults. Treat them ruthlessly; it would be suicidal to
make friends with them.
When despite contrary orders, a bore forced his way into
Goethes house, he was quickly discouraged by the great mans glacial manner. Goethe put both hands behind his back and refused to
speak. If a visitor was someone of importance Goethe cleared his
throat and uttered a few monosyllables which soon brought the conversation to an end! Many people complained of Goethe for this inhuman quality, but it was this quality that enabled him to produce
such masterpieces as Faust and Wilhelm Meister.
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Working in libraries
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37
WHA
T IS LEARNING?
WHAT
He who adds not to his learning diminishes it.
The Talmud
What is learning?
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also been shown that where the learner has only to master the essential ideas of a passage rather than learn the material verbatim, increased length has a comparatively small effect on learning time.
Meaningfulness: Many studies have demonstrated clearly that
the rate of verbal learning depends greatly upon the meaningfulness
of the material. Thus meaningful prose and poetry can be learned
more readily than can meaningless material: Even where there is no
intent to learn, meaningful relationships facilitate learning. The heart
of academic learning, says Dudycha, is discovering new relationships. Learning is the process of discovering relationships.
Influence of prior learning: deja vu (already seen): Prior learning has an important influence on later learning. The more ready learning of a new task because of a prior learning task is called proactive
facilitation or positive transfer. Interference of a prior learning task
with the learning (and recall) of a new task is called proactive inhibition or negative transfer. Positive transfer results when the prior task
and the present task have similar stimulus-response combinations,
whereas negative transfer may result when the stimuli used in the
prior activity must be related to different responses, when conflicting
associations must be learned or when the items to be learned are not
clearly differentiated from each other. When the two learning situations have nothing in common, there is no transfer at all.
Almost everybody has had the experience when in a new place,
of a feeling that the place is familiar. The French term it deja vu
which means already seen. Psychologists view this phenomenon
as a case of transfer of a common element. Many complex situations
have some detail in common. This common detail, having been experienced before, is recognized in the new situation. Deja vu, says
Freud, is that strange feeling we perceive in certain moments and
situations when it seems as if we had already had exactly the same
experience or had previously found ourselves in the same situation.
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understand. Clearly comprehend what you want to learn and remember, if the meaning is not clear it is difficult to remember it. The very
effort to find a meaning will stimulate attention and fix the material
more firmly in the memory. The more you know about a thing, says
Dr H.K. Miller, the easier it is to remember. Always try to understand.
To understand thoroughly what you are studying and to attain
insight into it, you must think and reflect and relate new knowledge
to the old. As William James put it: In mental terms, the more
other facts a fact is associated with in the mind, the better possession
of it our memory retains. Each of its associates becomes a hook to
which it hangs, a means to fish it up by when sunk beneath the surface. Together they form a network of attachments by which it is
woven into the entire tissue of our thought. The secret of a good
memory is thus the secret of forming diverse and multiple associations with every fact we care to retain. But this is forming of associations with a fact, what is but thinking about the fact as much as
possible? Briefly, then, of the two men with the same outward experiences and the same amount of mere native tenacity the one who
THINKS over his experiences most, and weaves them into systematic relations with each other, will be the one with the best memory.
We see examples of this on every hand. Most men have a good memory
for facts connected with their own pursuits. The college athlete who
remains a dunce at his books will astonish you by his knowledge of
mens records in various feats and games and will be a walking
dictionary of sporting statistics. The reason is that he is constantly
going over these things in his mind, and comparing and making
series of them. They form for him not so many odd facts, but a
concept-systemso they stick.
Use of imagination: Use of imagination is an important factor
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43
agination to help you visualize the reality of the material you are
studying. As Rhodes observes, without imagination you can learn a
book by heart and still remain ignorant because what you have learned
remains words which you repeat without true understanding. Make
imagination your active ally in learning.
Psychological quiz: For successful management of learning it
is important to know answer to some questions about your ability to
learn, in the light of psychological research:
Question: Is there an all-round ability?
Anwer: A single all-round ability to learn and remember has
not been found, but there may be ability factors common to different
kinds of learning tasks.
Question: Do slow learners remember better?
Answer: Fast learners appear to remember better than slow
learners.
Question: Can ability be increased through learning?
Answer: Learning set formation, is an important factor in the
rate of learning. (Learning set means a readiness to respond in a
certain way to a learning situation; learning how to learn). The more
learning sets an individual has in his repertoire, the greater his ability
to tackle complex learning material.
Question: How does learning ability change with age?
Answer: In general the quality of learning performance
increases during childhood and upto maturity, but then declines in
both speed and accuracy. Part of the age difference ability is due to
differences in motivation, decreased visual acuity with age and interference with previously learned material. There is no reason why
older people should give up trying to gain new knowledge and learn
new skills.
The adage, You cannot teach an old dog new tricks is false.
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No one is ever too old to learn. No matter how old you are, you are
not handicapped by age. Kelvin made his first scientific discovery
when he was 18 and he improved his marine compass when he was
83!
Learninga life-long process: Learning is a life-long process.
As psychologist puts it, No matter how long one lives, there is need
for learning. We continue to learn even when we rival Methuselah in
longevity. Solon, the Athenian law giver (d. 558 B.C.) said But I
grow old always learning many new things.
Aun aprendo, I am still learning, was one of the famous
mottoes of Aldous Huxley, and his way of life. The motto is the caption for a drawing Goya did in his old age, representing a man, bent
by the weight of years and infermities haltingly walking with the aid
of a staff.
Aun aprendo was the message Huxley would give to young
students who after twenty years of classroom learning were starting
out in life; it was the compliment he paid to his great friend Igor
Stravinsky on his seventy-eighth birthday. In one commencement
address he said, Age is no limit on the process of learning; not only
for masters such as Goya and Stravinsky, but for us all... The process
goes on, from the cradle to the grave and doubtless, beyond.
When you cease to learn, you cease to grow. Remember what
Merlin said about learning:
The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That is the
only thing that never fails...That is the only thing which the mind can
never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you.
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WHA
T MAKES US
WHAT
FORGET?
Life cannot go on without much forgetting.
Balzac
Meaning of forgetting
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capacity to forget is an essential prerequisite for happiness. You cannot be happy while constantly pursued by haunting memories of past
transgressions, errors and failures. By the same token, you cannot
study effectively if you are constantly plagued by past unhappy
experiences.
As Christina Rossetti said:
Better by far you should forget and smile,
Than that you should remember and be sad.
(Remember)
A Japanese proverb has it:
My skirt with tears is always wet
I have forgotten to forget.
This is what Francis Durivage wrote in this regard:
They teach us to remember; why dont they teach us to forget? There is not a man living who has not, some time in his life,
admitted that memory was as much of a curse as a blessing.
Here are some tips to forget futile, unhappy past experiences
that rob us of happiness and tend to immobilize us:
(i) Heed to Shakespeares admonition: What is gone and past
help, should be past grief. And things without remedy, should be
without regard; what is done is done.
(ii) It is no use crying over spilt milk. But if you do condense it.
(iii) All those dreadful memories you have stored in your brain
are hardly ever worth recalling. As a master of what stays in your
brain, you dont have to choose to keep them. Rid yourself of those
self-crippling memories, and, most importantly, give up the blame
and hatred you harbour for people who were only doing what they
knew how to do.
(iv) Rely upon the healing power of time: Time is the great
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WHA
T IS MEMORY
WHAT
Every one complains of his memory, but no one complains of
his judgement.
Rochefoucauld
What is memory?
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here is a two-stage memory process. The first process, the formation of the engram or memory trace is formed in the brain;
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sychologists are not yet quite agreed whether the natural quality
of memory can be changed, but the balance of opinion is entirely
against the possibility of improving the original or brute memory.
Adams observes that the natural quality must be taken as something
given, something that cannot be changed. We are born into the
world with a memory of a certain degree of retentiveness and power
of recall, and with that memory we must go through life, making the
best use of it that we can. We may use it wisely or foolishlyand for
this we are responsiblebut we have only that one memory to use,
we cannot improve its intrinsic quality. So far as is known, says
R.H. Rovere, a mans memory like his intelligence, remains just
about constant most of his life. Dr Furst cannot increase the power of
anyones memory but he can enable a person with a poor memory to
make the best use of it.
William James, a great authority on the subject, holds that all
improvement of the memory lies in the line of ELABORATING THE
ASSOCIATES of each of the several things to be remembered. No
amount of culture would seem capable of modifying a mans GENERAL retentiveness. He explodes the popular belief that certain
memory exercises will strengthen, not only a mans remembrance of
particular facts used in the exercises, but his faculty of remembering
facts at large. To see whether a certain amount of daily training in
learning poetry by heart would shorten the time it took to learn an
entirely different kind of poetry, James, during eight successive days
learned 158 lines of Victor Hugos Satyr. The total number of minutes required for this was 131-5/6. He then, working for twenty-odd
minutes daily, learned the entire first book of Miltons Paradise Lost,
occupying 38 days in the process. After this training he went back to
Hugos poem, and found that 158 additional lines (divided exactly as
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or permanence of the paths is a physiological property of the braintissue of the individual while their number is altogether due to the
facts of his mental experience. The former he terms native tenacity or
physiological retentiveness, which differs enormously from infancy
to old age and from one person to another. As regards the number of
brain paths, the more other facts a fact is associated with in the mind,
the better possession of it our memory retains. The secret of a good
memoryand its hall-markis the secret of forming diverse and
multiple associations with every fact you care to retain. As James
puts it, Of two men with the same outward experiences and the same
amount of mere native tenacity, the one who THINKS over his experiences most and weaves them into systematic relations with each
other, will be the one with the best memory.
Sundry facts about your memory
r R.S. Woodworth, after testing the memories of countless subjects came to a significant conclusion that every one has greater
power of memory than he imagines.
The storage capacity of your grape-fruit-sized brain is staggeringconservatively estimated at ten billion units of information. Says
Dr W.W. Dyer, Your built-in memory potential alone is phenomenal. You could train your mind, without much exercise, to remember all the phone numbers you use in a given year, to remember
100 names of strangers introduced at a party and recall them for
months afterwards, to describe in detail everything that happened to
you in the past week, to catalog all the objects in a room after a fiveminute visit, and to memorize any lengthy list of random facts. Dont
underestimate your powers of memory; avoid the game of one-downmanship in this area of your mental capabilities. Dont trade statements like I never could remember names, numbers, languages or
whatever. Have confidence and belief that you can learn and
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THE LA
WS OF
LAWS
ASSOCA
TION
ASSOCATION
Nothing is simpler, apparently than to notice that this law of
association is the truly fundamental, irreducible phenomenon of our
mental life...
M. Ribot
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bed before going to sleep. Her mother asked her why she did that.
The Sisters say, was the reply, that if we have to kneel by our beds
to look for our shoes, well remember to keep kneeling and say our
morning prayers.
Definition and classification
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have occurred together. Frequency is one of the most potent determinants of revival.
If I abruptly utter the word swallow, the reader if by habit an
ornithologist, will think of a bird; if a physiologist or a medical specialist in throat, he will think of deglutition.
If I say date, he will, if a fruit merchant think of the produce
of the palm; if an habitual student of history, figures with A.D. or
B.C. before them will rise in his mind.
(iv) The law of vividness (or intensity): This law is to the effect that two things are more likely to be associated the more vividly
they have occurred together: The more vivid an impression, the better it is retained.
If you have once witnessed an execution, any subsequent
conversation or reading about capital punishment will almost surely
suggest images of that scene.
If a man in his boyhood once talked with Napoleon any mention
of great men or historical events, battles or the whirligig of time will be
apt to draw to his lips the incidents of that one memorable interview.
Basis of the laws of association
he laws of association are based on logic, on reasoning as contrasted with imagination. Every man is gifted with reason and in
making use of the laws of association, he should be governed solely
by reason.
Which laws of association you prefer depends upon your way
of thinking: the more rational your thought, the more important
becomes cause and effect.
Magic of the laws of association
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all the leading teams in the country and that he does not make a single
mistake about runs and bowling even when the match in question
took place several years ago?
William James gives a perfect answer to the question. He points
to the fact that the boys interest makes him think of the game at
frequent intervals. Each thought makes a repetition of the first impression. Whenever he reads or hears of the most recent match, his
thoughts go back to similar matches played in the past, and every
such thought means forming a new association, thus strengthening
the memory of each match. As a result, every score, every player,
every match is anchored in his mind by different associations and
strengthened by so many repetitions that he is able to answer any
question instantly, regardless of his ability or want of it in other fields.
The college athlete who is a dunce at his books astonishes you
by his knowledge of mens and womens records in various feats and
games and is a walking cyclopaedia of sports statistics.
Similarly, the trader remembers prices, the politician other
politicians speeches and votes, with a copiousness that astounds
outsiders but which the amount of thinking they bestow on these
subjects easily explains.
How to use laws of association
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many people cannot remember whether the American clocks are fast
or slow compared with the English. In this case no mnemonic is required. Every body knows that the sun moves from east to west. When
it is overhead in London, London had midday, while America must
wait till the sun reaches her before it can be midday there. An English
watch must, therefore, be fast when compared with an American
watch.
(2) In the scale of colours, the wave lengths increase towards
the red end of the spectrum and diminish towards the violet. For the
student of elementary physics it is comforting to remember that red is
the smallest name for a colour and yet has the highest wave length.
Violet has a big name and yet has the smallest wave length. This
mnemonic is typical of the sort of thing that is most useful to you in
your ordinary work. It is simple, natural, free from scaffolding and
all manner of fuss; and these are just the qualities you should insist
upon in the mnemonics you use, concludes Sir John.
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TECHNIQUES OF
LEARNING AND
REMEMBERING
There is no royal road to learning.
English proverb
For effective learning and remembering, the adoption of psychologically sound techniques is essential. In this chapter we outline
such techniques.
Cut out rituals
ritual is a preliminary to something else. There are many rituals indulged in as preliminaries to studying. There are personal
rituals. Some students must go through the ritual of dressing for the
ordeal of study. Some pre-study rituals take the form of special eating. These are gastronomical rituals. Then there are social rituals like
talking to some one, making telephone calls.
Such ritualistic activities are apparently legitimate reason for
postponing studying that is anticipated as both being difficult and
disagreeable. Indulgence in them means frittering away of time and
energy. They are attempts to put off what you are not at all eager to
do. Cut out the rituals. Get on with the work.
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(1) Survey: Briefly this means that instead of picking up a textbook and reading one of its chapters over and over, you should first
survey: i.e., find out all you can about the aims and purposes of the
book, read the authors preface, study the table of contents and the
index, read the chapter summaries (if there are summaries) and skim
rapidly through the book. Keep in mind your own object in study, the
syllabus you are trying to cover, and the relevance of the book to
your own areas of interest. If the book does not suit your purpose, if
it is not well-written, and at the right level of standard, look for a
better one that makes the grade. In brief make a reconnaissance
before you start your main work, and get an over-all perspective of
what lies before you. It is akin to military, naval, etc reconnaissance
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ver-learning is an important technique in learning and remembering. Over-learning is learning in which repetition or practice
has proceeded beyond the point necessary for the retention or recall
required. Such over-learning may, however, be necessary in view of
the factors likely to affect recall, which are bound to enter subsequently from the circumstances of the case.
It is that added time and effort beyond what is required now
that you have put into learning what you intend to recall at sometime
in the future. It also means that you spend added time and energy
learning something which you already know.
As Maddox observes, material is underlearned when it has
not been studied long enough for you to be able to recall it 100 per
cent correctly. It is over-learned when you continue to practise it
after you can recall it 100 per cent correctly. For example, it might
take you 10 minutes to learn a vocabulary of 20 foreign words. If
you then carry on learning and reciting with the same close attention as before, you are over-learning the material. Another 5 minutes would represent 50 per cent over-learning, another 10 minutes
100 per cent.
It pays to over-learn because of the distinct gain in retention: it
increases the strength of your memory traces. If you want to remember something for a long time, you should over-learn it.
Over-learning to be effective, must be active learning. Your
attention must be riveted upon what is being learnt. Therefore, overlearn actively and with conscious attention by using various methods
of recitation. As Dudley puts it, Do not repeat what you wish to
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remember until you barely know it, but until you know it really well.
Whole v. part technique of learning
ach of the two methods, the part learning and the whole learning
has its advantages and disadvantages.
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to mastery and then dropped for the moment. This eliminates spending more time than is needed in going over easy parts.
Advantages of the whole method
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