Page:Memory; how to develop, train, and use it - Atkinson - 1919.djvu/81

Rh contiguity in time there is manifested the tendency of the memory to recall the impressions in the same order in which they were received—the first impression suggesting the second, and that the third, and so on. In this way the child learns to repeat the alphabet, and the adult the succeeding lines of a poem. As Priestly says: “In a poem, the end of each preceding word being connected with the beginning of the succeeding one, we can easily repeat them in that order, but we are not able to repeat them backwards till they have been frequently named in that order. Memory of words, or groups of words, depends upon this form of contigious association. Some persons are able to repeat long poems from beginning to end, with perfect ease, but are unable to repeat any particular sentence, or verse, without working down to it from the beginning. Contiguity in space is manifested in forms of recollection or remembrance by “position.” Thus by remembering the things connected with the position of a particular thing, we are enabled to recall the thing itself. As we have seen in a pre-