Page:Memory; how to develop, train, and use it - Atkinson - 1919.djvu/120

114 qualities in names is believed to be the principal obstacle and difficulty. Fuller says of this matter: “A proper noun, or name, when considered independently of accidental features of coincidence with something that is familiar, doesn’t mean anything; for this reason a mental picture of it is not easily formed, which accounts for the fact that the primitive, tedious way of rote, or repetition, is that ordinarily employed to impress a proper noun on the memory, while a common noun, being represented by some object having shape, or appearance, in the physical or mental perception, can thus be seen or imagined: in other words a mental image of it can be formed and the name identified afterwards, through associating it with this mental image.” We think that the case is fully stated in this quotation.

But in spite of this difficulty, persons have and can greatly improve their memory of names. Many who were originally very deficient in this respect have not only improved the faculty far beyond its former condition, but have also developed exceptional ability in this special phase of memory so that they