Abstract
THE training of the memory is undoubtedly a part of any good education, and it has hitherto been too much the peculiar field of the faddist and of ingenious but ignorant a priori system-makers. This little book, which aims at making of practical value to student and teacher the results of scientific experiment into the subject, is therefore to be welcomed. It is true that some of its precepts appear obvious, but where there are so many conflicting truisms the selection of the right obvious is not unimportant; and much definite information is given on particular points where the merely empirical adviser is quite at a loss, e.g. the advantages and disadvantages of specific types of mental imagery, and the variations of method corresponding to differences in the material to be memorised. Moreover, if the book did no more than free the ordinary adult from that excessive distrust of his memory, which is so bad in effect, and is, perhaps, toe-optimistically believed by Mr. Watt to be quite ungrounded in fact, it would be abundantly justified.
The Economy and Training of Memory.
By Henry J. Watt. Pp. viii + 128. (London: Edward Arnold, 1909.) Price 1s. 6d. net.
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The Economy and Training of Memory . Nature 81, 158 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/081158b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/081158b0