“I am now treating a case of loss of memory in a person advanced in years, who did not know that his memory had failed most remarkably until I told him of it.  He is making vigorous efforts to bring it back again, and with partial success.  The method pursued is to spend two hours daily, one in the morning and one in the evening, in exercising this faculty.  The patient is instructed to give the closest attention to all that he learns, so that it shall be impressed on his mind clearly.  He is asked to recall every evening all the facts and experiences of the day, and again the next morning.  Every name heard is written down and impressed on his mind clearly and an effort made to recall it at intervals.  Ten names from among public men are ordered to be committed to memory every week.  A verse of poetry is to be learned, also a verse from the Bible, daily.  He is asked to remember the number of the page of any book where any interesting fact is recorded.  These and other methods are slowly resuscitating a failing memory.”

[Sidenote:  Real Cause of Failing Memory]

As remarked by Professor James, “It is hard to believe that the memory of the poor old gentleman is a bit the better for all this torture except in respect to the particular facts thus wrought into it, the occurrences attended to and repeated on those days, the names of those politicians, those Bible verses, etc., etc.”

The error in the book first quoted from lies in the fact that its author looks upon a failing memory as indicating a loss of retentiveness.  The real cause is the loss of an intensity of interest. It is the failure to form sufficiently large groups and complexes of related ideas, emotions and muscular movements associated with the particular fact to be remembered.  There is no reason to believe that the retention of sensory experiences is not at all times perfectly mechanical and mechanically perfect.

Interest is a mental yearning.  It is the offspring of desire and the mother of memory.

It goes out spontaneously to anything that can add to the sum of one’s knowledge about the thing desired.

[Sidenote:  The Manufactured Interest]

A manufactured interest is counterfeit.  When a thing is done because it has to be done, desire dies and “duty” is born.  In proportion as a subject is associated with “duty,” it is divorced from interest.

[Sidenote:  Memory Lure of a Desire]

If you want to impress anything on another man’s mind so that he will remember it, harness it up with the lure of a desire.

Diffused interest is the cause of all unprofitable forgetfulness.  Do not allow your attention to grope vaguely among a number of things.  Whatever you do, make a business of doing it with your whole soul.  Turn the spotlight of your mind upon it, and you will not forget it.

[Illustration:  TESTING ABILITY TO OBSERVE, REMEMBER AND REPORT THINGS SEEN PRIVATE LABORATORY, SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY]