ABSTRACT
Many facts, however, indicate that interest is only a partial explanation. It is clear that many more experiences are conserved than come into conscious memory under any circumstances of normal, every-day life. This chapter describes briefly a few of the singular phenomena of memory and shows that these conserved experiences may profoundly affect our thinking and acting. Curiosities of memory would hardly be complete without reference to some of the equally strange instances of forgetfulness. The two are really one, and, of the two aspects of this unitary process, forgetfulness probably requires explanation rather than memory itself. In applying to memory the theory that mental processes are always accompanied by physiological processes, it should also be noted that neurones correlated, through activity, with past experiences are re-aroused by the excitation of associated nervous processes. Through this concomitant activity of mental and physiological processes, and by the correlation of sets of neurones through association, neurones become organized into functionally united systems.
