Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/456

 442 GUSTAV SPILLER in confusion. Moreover, experience proves that he does not remember his mistakes. The apparent anomaly is accounted for as follows. When a right solution and a wrong one present themselves, he does not dwell equally on the two. The wrong one he regards with no interest and speedily dismisses. On the right one he dwells sensibly ; he is deeply interested in it ; he keeps it before his mind. Other things being equal, of the two subjects that which is dwelt upon is the one more easily remembered. Hence the right solution will tend to be recollected rather than the wrong one. Suppose he has for a second time to perform the action in which he dwelt upon the right solution and ignored the wrong one. That will happen which favours the former. He will make an effort to recall that and not the wrong one. Other things being equal, memory will favour the recollection of that which we make a sensible effort to remember. Hence the wrong solution is less likely to recur. Again, the right solution having been acted upon, the action is connected with the right solution and not with the wrong one. Hence thinking of the action will suggest the one and not the other. Further, the one solution having been acted upon, it was for a longer period before the mind, and memory will there- fore favour the recollection of that one of two or more lines of action which has been previously acted upon. And again, the wrong solution is not only dismissed ; it is recognised quickly, and therefore set aside the more quickly. We do not wait till it has fully unfolded itself. We thrust it back before it has seen the light of clear consciousness. Each time a solution is required, the right one is thus favoured, and the wrong one discouraged. Hence, on the average, the one not favoured is soon forgotten. Once more, other things being equal, that is recalled in which we are interested. Hence the right solution, in which we are interested, will be recalled, while the wrong one, in which the interest is negative, will tend to be forgotten. And lastly, since the right solution is acted upon frequently and at short intervals, it, rather than the wrong solution, will be fixed in the memory. In the preceding reflections we have an ample explanation of the fact that error lapses. In learning to write such error tends to disappear, while the knowledge of what the process should be prevents new mistakes from arising. The following propositions express the argument of this sub-section : (1) That on which attention is more exclusively centred is more easily remembered. (2) That which we do not, in the initial stage, make an effort to remember, is