ABSTRACT
Science thrives on making distinctions, and the science of psychology, with its specific and varied data, is especially dedicated to this task. To ignore the concrete differences among phenomena in favor of generalities is to introduce confusion and disorder into the psychological household. Psychology often employs the terms of popular speech for its vocabulary, but invariably these come to have specific or restricted meanings which differ considerably from popular usage. Remembering is one such word which in ordinary language stands for several different, though related, kinds of behavior. In one sense, it refers to the direct repetition of a previously learned act, as when the man remembers the poem he learned as a schoolboy. In another sense, it refers to any implicit action, as when I remember how the gymnasium was decorated for the dance last night. The looseness of popular usage becomes apparent when we change the above to read, “I think of how the gymnasium was decorated.” Thinking and remembering are given different definitions in science; in popular speech, they may be used interchangeably.
