Whether Memory Can Be Improved By Practise or Not?

The question whether memory can be improved by practice is controversial. Memory mainly involves learning, retention, and recall. William James holds that retention is a physiological pheno­menon. No amount of practice can improve a person’s general retentiveness. It is a physiological quality given by Nature to a person with his organisation once for ail, which is unalterable.

It differs no doubt in disease and health: it is better in health than in illness. But the power of retention is congenital and cannot, therefore, be improved by practice. But James admits that the power of learning can be improved by increases attention.

The power of recall depends on the degree of attention given to the original experience. The power of attention can be increased by practice. But the power of recall cannot be improved by practice. The power of learning alone, not the power of retention, can be increased by practice. This is the view of James.

James is right when he says that increased attention is the ulti­mate cause of the improvement of memory by practice. Well-directed attention fixes an object in the mind and makes its trace more permanent, brings it into relation with other objects, and makes it a permanent unit of the system of knowledge.

So it can easily be recalled. Interest is a condition of attention. Hence learning can be improved by increased attention and interest.

But Stout contends, that, though memory in general cannot be improved, memory in & particular direction can be improved by practice. Mental dispositions interpenetrate one another. Hence the practice of memory for certain experiences can improve the memory for similar experiences.

If a man has made a certain amount of progress in learning a foreign language, his further progress is facilitated by this knowledge of certain general characteristics of the language. Actors can quickly learn their parts; clergymen can quickly learn their sermons; professors can quickly master their Lectures; lawyers ran quickly learn their arguments.

McDougall is inclined to hold that the power of memorizing can be improved to a certain extent: that the power of retention cannot lie appreciably improved; and that the power of reproduction can be improved to certain extent. Woodworth thinks that memorizing ran be improved by practice, but that retention, recall and recog­nition cannot.

Munn gives some hints for memory training.

(i) Learn with the intention of remembering it.

(ii) Pay close attention to what you learn.

(iii) Make use of images while you learn.

(iv) Form associa­tions between what you learn and other things.

(v) Make use of rhythm which is an aid to retention.

(vi) Learn the same material at intervals. Do not cram.

(vii) Recite the learned material to yourself. Recitation facilitates learning, and aids retention.

(viii) Rest or sleep after you have studied.

(ix) Read the whole chapter, and then study its parts.

Transfer of Training:

Can the skill acquired in learning and memorising one kind of material be transferred to another kind of material? The transfer is small.

The greater the similarities between the two kinds of material, the greater the amount of transfer If the learner observes md closely attends to relationship and principles, and cultivates a confident attitude to the task, he can to a certain extent, transfer the skill acquired in learning another kind of material.

Stress should be laid on the learner’s confidence in his ability to memorize, attention to groupings and relations and meanings, and on recitation and learning by wholes. Some complain of poor memory for names, dates, events, etc.

Their poor memory is due to their lack of interest in, and attention to, the specific items. The remedy lies in taking greater interest in, and paying greater attention to them. Often a muemonic system is devised as an aid in remembering disconnected facts. The students of Logic remember the different figures and moods of syllogisms with the help of the muemonic lines.