Lessons in Psychology CHAPTER I ASSOCIATIONS LESSON I THE LAW OF ASSOCIATIONS PREPARATION STEP.-I. There is no better place to begin the study of psychology than your own mind, and no better method to follow than that of constant observation of what takes place there. Suppose then that you study your stream of thought, say, from the standpoint of the law of associations. II. Surely you have noticed occasional trains of association. To gain a working idea, however, of the law, you must make a business of watching what passes through your mind. For convenience in analyzing it, regard your stream of consciousness as though it were all made up of successive trains of associations, each one interrupting the preceding one, and trace, trace, trace your fleeting thoughts morning, noon, and night! III. After having observed these trains of associations for a time, begin to write out lists of them. Recall the ideas that have helped to make your stream of thought for the last half hour and write them out somewhat in this way (I just looked to see what time it was.) (1.) A visual image of the clock-face; (2. Thought words) Eight o'clock; I must do my errands; (3.) Another series: (1.) A secondary (recalled) visual image of a shop I must visit. Temperature sensations of hot coffee in my mouth and throat; (2. Thought words) How good this hot coffee is! (3. Thought words) It is such a luxury to have it hot. A third series: (1.) (2. Thought words) (3. Thought words) (4.) A fourth series: (1.) Organic sensations in my lungs; Group of secondary (recalled, in- A group of sound sensations; (2. Thought words) Miss S. is opening the door; (3.) Group of secondary color sensations making an image of Miss S. opening the door; (4. Thought words) She always opens the door so gently. Trace in this way twenty trains of association an hour. IV. For convenience in tracing your thoughts count each outer experience as No. 1. Almost always No. 2 will be thought words naming, or identifying No. 1. Then may follow secondary visual images or images in the terms of any sense or more thought words. We may have any number almost of trains of association on the same subject, and also we may change the subject in each successive member of a train of associations. You will notice, moreover, that sometimes the series are very long, sometimes so short and quick, so fleeting that they hardly seem to have been in consciousness at all. V. What the relation is between brain and mind nobody has ever determined. It seems certain that when thoughts are in the mind the blood is circulating in the brain, and for given thoughts in consciousness the same part of the brain apparently is always flushed and stimulated. Do you re-. member the appearance in the sky of the aurora borealis? A recent writer has likened to the motion of this flitting, quivering light the shimmer and play of the activity of blood in the brain and of its accompanying mentality, one as subtle as the other. But though the relation between brain and mind cannot be explained, one must realize that the sensation blue is different from the vibration of brain-cells, that a mental state is different from the activity of matter. PRESENTATION STEP.-I. When we examine the parts of one of these trains of association we are led to the question, why should one group of sensations follow another? Why, for example, should a certain group of color sensations which makes the clock face be followed by the thought words, It is eight o'clock? Why did I not think instead, It rains, or China? The reason seems to be that sometime in the past I have had this certain grouping of color sensations in my mind before with the thought words, It is eight o'clock. Sometime before, also, I had thought, At eight o'clock I shall go out to do some errands. So now that I think, Eight o'clock, the thought follows, I must do my errands. And as I examine the members two and two of my trains of association, I find in each case that some or all of the ele ments composing them have been in my mind together before; I have been conscious of them as near in previous time relations. The law of associations then is, Mental elements that have been together in mind before will return together when some of them return, or, When part of an idea appears in consciousness, the whole appears. 66 II. Whatever other relations may be superadded, all thought seems to be governed by this law. But though stated in the terms of ideas, the law is really a description of the way in which the elements of the brain and the body are stimulated and respond. As Professor Titchener says, "When two or three parts of the brain have been excited together, in perception, a habit of co-excitation or joint excitation is set up; so that if, later on, one of the parts is excited alone the others will be involved also,-and involved the more certainly, the more habitual the connection has been in perception.' The law is fundamentally one governing bodily elements, the Law of Habit. APPLICATION STEP.-I. Watch your thoughts constantly; jot down lists and think the law of associations with each list. You cannot do this work by accident-you have to think about it and make an effort to do it. II. Watch different people to see how different their response is under apparently the same stimulus. Watch evidences of associations in children as shown in their speech and acts. Watch animals to see to what extent they are governed by the law of associations. III. In sleep the minimum of blood is sent to the brain and the mind is least active. We have not so many associations, "we are only a fraction of ourselves." Trace the associations in dreams. |