Problem: The science of mnemonics has long been in existence, but being considered as an extraordinary subject, it has never taken an important position in the field of science. We believe, however, that a study of the extraordinary phenomenon helps, in some cases, to make clear the ordinary one. Under this point of view, we made an experimental study of mnemonics, getting one of the mnemonists who visited our institute.
Here, we will chiefiy report on the imageless activity that plays an important part in his memory, which looks like an association of visual images.
Subject: Sigeyuki Isihara, twenty-eight years old in 1934. Finished a middle school course.
Metbod: A kind of reproductive method; many series of figures, meaningless syllables and personal names are used as material.
Quantitative results: 1) Isihara's memory of figures is superior to the memory of any subject (Inaudi, Diamandi, Arnould and Rückle) who has been put under examination by foreign investigators.
2) We compared his memory of meaningless syllables and personal names with the memories of normal subjects. We recognized also his extraordinary power of retention concerning meaningless syllables and personal names.
Qualitative results:
1) He says that the visual images help his learning, but according our opinion, the imageless thoughts also contribute to it, specially in the
plastic complex. These statements are found in some of our protocols. Above all in case of reproduction, the
fundamental idea moves in the state of
imageless thought. He said, “......undoubtly it (
fundamental idea) is in my consciousness, but not as a visual image. In spite of being an
imageless thought, it gives me direction and order.”
One day he compared his
fundamental idea to a geometrical point which would have a situation without any size whatever. Therefore, it appears that his memory operates without images.
2) We made observation about his forgetfulness and recognized that there is a
fluctuation in it. We found the
fluctuation not only in the total sum of reproduced figures, but also in the reproduced figures themselves. For instance, figures 76 and 62 which Isihara failed to reproduce five times before, were reproduced for the first time after 31 days, and some figures which he could not reproduce after two weeks since its impression, were completely reproduced after 27 weeks. These facts show that something which seems at first to be forgotten is not completely lost but cannot momentarily be reproduced. He said,“when I can not reproduce something, it does not mean that I have forgotten it; it means only that I can not find it”. Then, what is the course of success or failure in reproduction? We think that reproduction depends on
subjective attitude, in which the feeling has an important position. He said,“when I cannot reproduce, my attention goes in a wrong direction for reproduction, as in the case of an untrained cyclist who wishes to keep away from a stone but the more he tries, the nearer he rides toward it.”
Conclusion:
1) The
imageless thought plays an important part even in the mnemonics, specially in
plastic complex.
2) It seems to us that forgetfulness must not be supposed to be the complete loss of memory residue.
3) Success or failure in reproduction probably depends on the
subjective attitude, in which the feeling has an important position. Next time we will try to make some particular observations about 2) and 3).
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