Assimilative Memory or, How to Attend and Never Forget

a weak relation thought about is a hundred-fold stronger than mere repetition without any thinking at all.

CONTRAST.—When unconnected ideas have to be united in the memory so that hereafter one will recall the other, the teachers of other Memory Systems say: “What can I invent to tie them together—what story can I contrive—what foreign extraneous matter can I introduce—what mental picture can I imagine, no matter how unnatural or false the juxtaposition

Take the memories of members of the learned professions—they are usually only reference memories. They know where to find the coveted knowledge, but they do not possess it or retain it in their minds. On the other hand, the student who masters a book by my method really knows the contents of it, and he is thus enabled to devote to other purposes an

Similarity of Sound.—(Emperor, Empty.)

This is the Second Stage of the Memory—the revival of the previous experience—the recall to consciousness of the First Impression.

Whole and Part.—(Earth, Poles.)

What is the basic principle of my system? It is, Learn by Thinking. What is Attention? It is the will directing the activity of the intellect into some particular channel and keeping it there. It is the opposite of mind-wandering. What is thinking? It consists in finding relations between the objects of thought with an immediate awareness of those

Where two ideas pertain to one and the same idea, but occupy opposite relations in regard to it, it is a case of Exclusion.

he made use of the cementing Laws of the Memory. He sought out and found the relations between the words. By thinking of those relations, he exercised his intellect on those words in a double way—the meaning and the sound of the words were considered and then the similarities of meaning and of sound were noticed.