[Phys-l] memory associations Was: Re: thoughts for future physics regents.

[Bernard Cleyet <bernardcleyet@redshift.com>]

On 2011, Jun 23, , at 04:36, John Denker wrote:

> Remember what William James said (in
> the 1890s!) about the connections between ideas:
>  http://www.av8n.com/physics/thinking.htm#quote-james
> __________________________




In the 1890s William James (reference 3) described memory in terms of the associations between ideas:

Each of the associates is a hook to which [the memory] hangs, a means to fish it up when sunk below 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 forming of associations with a fact, – what is it but thinking about the fact as much as possible? Briefly, then, of two men with the same outward experiences, the one who thinks over his experiences most, and weaves them into the most systematic relations with each other, will be the one with the best memory.


Reminds me of the locus method -- placing the ideas to be remembered on the various statutes in the person's atrium;   Sci. Am. article from long ago.


The Wiki page including a "brain" theory (retrosplenial cortex).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci#Parietal_cortex_and_retrosplenial_cortex_contributions_to_spatial_mnemonics


bc thinks about 1960.