Memory [antikvár]

Editorial Foreword 'How can I improve my memory?' There can be few questions more frequently asked by those who turn to psychologists for advice on enhancing the powers of their minds. It is indeed an odd fact that people are apt to worry more about their memory than they do about their intelligence. 'Oh, I'm not very brainy,' people will gaily say, accepting the fact with cheerful resignation. Not so with memory. A poor memory is not to be accepted with cheerful resignation. A modest IQ is something with which one has been endowed and nothing much can be done about it, but one's memory, it is felt, is something for which some responsibility must be accepted. So notice is taken of courses of memory training advertised in the papers. Then the question is asked: Is there anything in these systems of memory training? Now this is a question which anyone should be able to answer for himself after reading this book. Until quite recently it was easy to get the impression that in psychology there is little that is firmly established, and that the subject consists in a tissue of highly speculative theories, all extremely controversial and affording little basis for confident application. This has long ceased to be true. For a time the science resembled a vast territory much of which was covered by a rank growth of exotic weeds but containing a number of clearings in which through good husbandry a number of useful herbs have been produced. Today there are many new clearings, older clearings have been enlarged, and the clearings are joining up to form an organized whole - the Science of Psychology.