Part 1

MILLER'S MIND TRAINING _for_ CHILDREN

_A Practical Training for Successful Living_

_Educational Games That Train the Senses_

WILLIAM E. MILLER _AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER_ Alhambra, California.

BY WILLIAM E. MILLER ALHAMBRA, CALIFORNIA

AUTHOR OF

_The Natural Method of Memory Training_

COPYRIGHT 1920 COPYRIGHT 1921

WILLIAM E. MILLER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING FOREIGN COPYRIGHTS

CONTENTS--BOOK TWO

Page

Training the Memory 7

The Strongest Sense Is Sight 10

Visual Impressions Most Accurate 12

Nature's Special Memory Endowment 12

A Memory Picture 12

The Visual Impression Strengthened 13 Exaggeration 14 Motion 16 Unusual Associations 17

Value of Improved Imagination 18

First Picture Association 19

Two Mental Operations 23

Reversing the Process 25

Sharpening the Tools 27

List for Memory Exercise 30

To Develop Definite Pictures 31

The Law of Association 32

Reminder Pictures 34

Forming a Health Habit 35

Beware of Procrastination 39

Attention and Memory 40

The Child's Code List 41 The Game of Code 42

Remembering Errands 44 Errands for Practice 47

Important Points to Be Followed 48

Value of Forgetting 50

Alphabetical Hitching Posts 50

Filing Abstract Ideas 51

Thinking by Pictures 53

Uses of Hitching Posts 54

Speaking Without Notes 55

The Mind's Eye and the Story 56 The Game of Story Telling 57

Two Results of Visualization 57

Learning Poetry and Prose 58 Exercises for Practice 59-60

To Preserve Early Memories 61

How to Remember Figures 63 The Number Code 66 Forming Number Words 69 Number Value of Code Words 74 The Game of Number Code 76 The Number Game 78 The Game of Solitaire 78 Code Words and Number Values 80 All Hitching Posts Numbered 81 Forming Larger Number Words 82 Adjective as Helps 85 Telephone Numbers 86 Remembering Addresses 88 Remembering Fractions 88 The Game of Memory Demonstration 89

Remembering People's Names 92 The Name of Pictures 95 Association Next Important Step 96 To Remember Mr. King 97 Associating Name and Face Pictures 98 Thought Channels 111 Review Is Essential 112 Methodical Review Best 113 A Review Test 114 Good Observation Necessary 115 Systematic Observation of Faces 116 The Game of Faces 118 The Name Game 120 The Game for Quick Naming 120 The Game of Introductions 121 Suggestions to Travelers 122 Remembering the Initials 123 The Price Must Be Paid 125

TRAINING THE MEMORY

The memory is the most used of all the faculties, therefore it is very important that it should have special attention and training. Almost every exercise in the First Book, while developing the other faculties, used the memory in some manner. It is necessary for the success of most mental operations. Memory influences thought, and contributes to character development.

A good memory is the greatest aid to the student at any age. Lack of knowledge of how to use and improve the memory has been a great handicap in the life of most of us. It is no longer necessary for your children to be continuously dependent upon the operation of the memory, without knowing how to properly use it. From this book you will get a practical understanding of how to develop this faculty for them.

The young child has little conception of the importance of Memory. Do not use your time trying to impress the value of memory upon him, but rather in helping him to do the things which will result in the development of this faculty. By training the child's memory you can endow him with the knowledge and capacity which will be an ever increasing source of profit, and for which he will never cease to thank you.

=To start your children in life with a trained and dependable memory is a greater endowment than a perfunctory education or even a fortune.=

This is not only your privilege but your duty. The decision to do so must be yours. At first the principal effort and persistence must come from you. Follow carefully the instructions of this book and you will have no difficulty in accomplishing this desirable result.

First read the entire book, then apply the ideas and exercises according to the age of the child. Let the children advance as rapidly as they can master the work. Do not over urge them, or make the work tedious. Above all, see that the children understand the principles and apply them to all of their activities.

=Memory is largely a habit. See to it that your children acquire this habit early.=

Let your effort be continuous and not spasmodic. Ten minutes a day is far better than an hour once a week.

Memory Most Valuable Faculty

The development resulting from use of the games and exercises of the first book has already influenced the memory faculty of the child. The faculties of visualization, observation, attention and concentration, all contribute to the proper operation of this faculty. They are the tools with which the desired result can be accomplished. It is of greatest importance that these tools be sharpened and tempered by use of the exercises given in Book One. It is now important that you know and understand the principles and methods of memory operation. Study this book with your children, if they are old enough to understand it.

For smaller children follow the plan of making the instructions into stories, and the exercises into games. Encourage the children in making the effort necessary for improvement and to expect a great deal of themselves.

The story of the success of great leaders of present day business and industrial life reveals the fact that they had an unusually retentive memory. That their minds were great storehouses of facts and figures regarding their business.

Others who had worked along with them for years, but were not able to absorb and retain the knowledge, could not progress as fast or as far. All have the natural endowment of a good, dependable memory and all have the faculties, which, if properly trained, will result in conscious ability to use the memory for all the needs of successful living.

=Your memory is your ability to make an impression upon your brain which you can recall at will.=

This involves two mental processes; first, the making of an impression upon the brain; second, the ability to recall it at will. The problem of memory is to know how to accomplish these two things and to be able to produce the result easily and quickly.

Five groups of nerves connect the brain with the outside world, these are the five senses. They are the avenues of approach over which all impressions or sensations are conducted to the brain.

=The ease with which any impression can be recalled will depend,--first, upon how strongly it is made.=

Your senses are unequal in their ability to impress the brain. Some make stronger impressions than others, not so much because of the thing to be impressed, but because of the natural unequal strength of the groups of nerves. All experience or knowledge that makes a strong, definite impression is more easily recalled than in those cases where the impression is less distinct.

Nature has endowed one of the senses with a peculiar ability to make impressions upon the brain which are many times stronger than those made by any of the others. To learn to properly use this one sense is the greatest aid to memory improvement.

The Strongest Sense Is Sight

The nerves connecting the eye with the brain are many times larger than the nerves of any of the other sense organs and can make an impression which is many times stronger than the impression made by any of the others. Without your conscious knowledge this fact has been operating all your life. The things which you have seen are the things which you have most easily remembered. For this reason the memory of your youth consists principally of things which you saw, or impressions made upon your brain by the use of your eye.

Prove this fact; recall some of your earliest recollections; how did your brain accept these impressions? Was it through feeling, hearing, or through seeing? It is an eye impression and is recalled in your mind as a picture. You will find that most of the past which you can remember is based upon the visual impression. The poet says, "How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood." The scenes of childhood are the memory of childhood.

"Travel is the greatest of educators." Why? One reason is because you are gathering a group of eye impressions which are the most lasting. One psychologist defines memory, "as the act of recalling the picture of a past experience." The fact that the visual memory is most lasting has been known for generations, but we have failed to take proper advantage of the fact. In making a comparison of the eye and ear impressions upon the brain Robert Mudie wrote in 1832: "That which is told us we may forget because of the weakness of the impressions made, but that which we see with our own eye is proof against accident, against time and forgetfulness."

Visual Impressions Most Accurate

Besides being the strongest of all the senses, sight is the most accurate. Psychological tests have shown the eye to be mistaken only eighteen per cent of the time, and the ear, which is the second sense in strength, is mistaken thirty-four per cent. Note that your sense of sight is especially endowed with the power to make the strongest, and at the same time, the most accurate impression upon your brain. The first step in memory improvement is to learn the proper use of this sense in impressing upon the brain those things which you wish to recall.

=For the purposes of memory, to see a thing once is equal to having repeated it eighteen or twenty times.=

Nature's Special Memory Endowment

We have a secondary or additional faculty which we call the mind's eye. You can close your eyes and see many familiar scenes or you can combine parts of these into new pictures that have never existed in fact. This process of visualization produces the strongest impression upon the brain that you are able to make.

The greatest step in the improvement of the memory is reached when the child realizes the value of this visual impression and is conscious of just how to use it.

A Memory Picture

Become familiar with the mind's eye picture and realize its value in memory, then follow the exercises given here until you are able to use it correctly for memory purposes. For practice visualize a House, use one that is familiar to you, see it as clearly as possible. Build a clear, definite picture as an artist would, first the outline, then add the detail, see the slope of the roof, the chimney, the gables, then see the shingles and the cracks between them, the bricks in the chimney and the plaster veins between.

=The more distinctly you can see this object, the stronger the impression upon the brain--the longer it will last and the easier it will be to recall it.=

The use of the exercises on Visualization in Book One will make it possible for you to build at once a clear picture of the House. If you have any difficulty in doing this, follow the instructions for drawing the outline and other suggestions given for the development of the faculty of visualization as they are found in the first book.

The Visual Impression Strengthened

To remember you must be able to make an impression upon the brain which you can recall at will. This simple impression of the House may not be recalled as easily as you wish, but there are three simple and natural operations of the mind by the use of which you can strengthen this impression to any degree necessary. By their use you can learn to make an impression that is strong enough to be recalled at will.

The First Aid--Exaggeration

A large object makes a stronger impression upon your mind than a small one, a twenty-story building attracts your attention and impresses you more than a two-story one. Things which you see exaggerated out of their normal proportions make an unusually strong picture upon your brain. The House, which you have seen standing in the yard is small; if you wish to increase the strength of the impression, exaggerate the size of the house and see it as large as a ten-story building. The only limit to the size to which you can exaggerate the object is the limitation of your imagination. You can in this way strengthen the picture until the impression is strong enough to be recalled when needed.

Others Make You Remember

This idea of exaggeration is not new or unusual. There are two professions whose business it is to make us remember and they use this principle in doing it. They are the advertiser and the cartoonist. You have seen this same exaggeration of proportion in nearly every cartoon, but you think nothing of it. The cartoonist, however, knows that he can make a stronger impression upon your mind by its use. You remember the cartoon longer and recall it more easily than most anything you read.

One of the largest advertising companies of the country makes the statement, "A picture is worth a thousand words when it comes to making the public remember." Some of the most successful advertising campaigns have been largely confined to pictures. Almost without exception pictures drawn for advertising purposes take advantage of this principle and strongly exaggerate the proportions. You have seen this in the pictures used by the Goodyear Tire Company, the Bell Telephone Company, and many others. It is illustrated in the picture given here.

The Second Aid--Motion

You often pass a thing that is motionless without notice, but if it moves it attracts your attention. While walking down the city street you pay little attention to the show windows, but if there is something moving in one you will stop to notice it. The sidewalk will even be blocked by the simple motion of some thing in the display. This is the use of motion to impel your attention. If you are in a crowd and see a friend whose attention you wish to attract, you wave your hand or handkerchief. Children like to see "the wheels go 'round," and we never lose the fascination which motion has for us. A person lacking in the power of concentration will fix his closest attention upon the moving picture or object.

Just as the motion picture is more attractive than the old style stereopticon, so motion introduced into the visual pictures for memory purposes will increase the impression upon the brain and increase your ability to recall it.

To still further strengthen the impression of the House, see it in motion instead of standing still. See it on wheels moving down the street or blown from the foundation by a strong wind. The farther you see the object move, or the more rapid the motion, the stronger the impression.

Third Aid--Unusual Associations

When you go home in the evening the first thing mentioned is the unusual happening of the day. Those things which have been most out of the ordinary are the first mentioned in your conversation. If some very unusual circumstance has thrust itself upon those at home, they will rush out to meet you, to tell you perhaps that "The cat devoured the canary." All unusual circumstances impress the mind in such a manner that they are very easily recalled. To see the House balanced on one corner instead of in its usual position upon the foundation, will strengthen the impression of the picture already made. Take advantage of this natural fact and when you wish to remember make the picture an unusual one, even make it grotesque or ludicrous.

There is no limit to the degree in which you can use these three natural mental operations. Your exaggeration of a pin can make it appear the size of a pencil or a telephone pole, or as tall as a twenty-story building. You can see it move a foot or two or swinging in a pendulum-like rhythm or dancing upon a hill.

Thus the use of these three principles makes it possible for you to place upon your brain an impression of whatever strength you choose. If the first one is not recalled readily you know how to make a stronger one. Simply exaggerate the size, move it farther or more rapidly and in a more unusual or ludicrous manner.

Value of Improved Imagination

The unusualness of this picture is dependent upon your imagination. This idea of picture making for memory purposes is two-fold in its value. It results in a better memory and strengthens the productive imagination. The exercises in Book One will help you to use your imagination for these memory pictures, and making them is one of the best exercises for the development of the imagination.

Practice Makes Perfect

You now know how to make a strong impression upon your brain. This has proven to be the most valuable aid to a better memory. Thousands of successful men have learned to use it practically in their work. It is the greatest aid to students in assimilating and recalling their studies.

You have the knowledge, but to be of value you must practice with it sufficiently to prove its usefulness and to learn to apply it accurately. This practice can be gained in a variety of ways; the essential thing is that you train yourself to make strong visual impressions upon your brain, to see the pictures clearly and to know that you are recalling them accurately. For practice let us use a list of common objects.

In order to recall a list of objects or a series of any kind, instead of making separate pictures of the objects, combine two in each impression. If you will follow the method used in making the following Memory Pictures you will find that it will enable you to recall the objects at will. We will use a list of objects that have no natural associations, that you could not easily remember by any other method, yet when you use this visual process the matter is a simple one.

First Picture Association

The first word of the list will be the House, the second Clock. We have already made a strong visual impression of the House, by seeing it in an Exaggerated, Moving, Unusual picture. We could make as strong an impression of the Clock in the same way, but to be able to recall the word following House, we must see the two objects together in the same picture. To see a large Clock standing alongside of the House, will make a strong impression. A stronger one may be made by exaggerating the size and proportion of the two objects. To further strengthen it you can use unusual motion, such as balancing a huge Clock on the edge of the House. Now introduce motion, see the Clock topple and roll down the roof and fall to the ground. To get the full value of this impression upon your brain, close your book and see the picture in your mind's eye. If it does not seem distinct close your eyes, or take a pencil and try to draw the picture. This will help you to see it more clearly. See the Clock rolling down the roof, see it fall to the ground, make it seem real and as distinct as possible.

Add Flowers to the List

To do this make a large moving picture of Clock and Flowers. See the Clock decorated with flowers and large bunches tied to the end of each of the hands. See them going around. Add the colors, make all the detail bright, and become interested in the picture. Fix your attention on it as you have learned to do in the first book. Note the changes.

In each of these pictures there are two objects, never more and never less. Do not see the House in this second picture. Always drop the first object when adding a new one.

=Memory Pictures Should Always Contain Two Objects.=

Flowers and Circus

Continue the list by adding the word Circus. Picture the new word with the last one which was Flowers. Let your imagination see the Flowers playing in the circus tent, see them riding the horses, or have the performers all dressed in flowers; any picture clearly visualized and concentrated upon for a moment will produce the desired result.

=The length of time that an impression will last, depends first, upon the vividness of your picture.=

Circus and Soldier

Add this new word by exaggerated motion picture of the Circus and the Soldier. Make your own picture, see that it is definite and let the mind dwell upon it for a moment.

Soldier and Church

Proceed in the same way as before, but do not go on with the list until you have visualized the picture clearly. A dim picture will not last long and will be recalled with difficulty, if at all.

Church and Rocks

Not stones, but great, rough, rugged rocks piled high. See them clearly, let them fall on the Church and damage it. When recalling your pictures you will need to be sure of the object and to recall the exact word. The ability to do this will depend upon the vividness and definiteness of the picture as you see it the first time.

Rocks and Auto

Here is an opportunity to imagine and picture an auto accident. Make your own picture and photograph it upon your mind.

Proceed with a few more pictures, making each clear and definite and do not yet attempt to recall them; just visualize each two objects in turn.

Auto and Shoes

Shoes and Dishes

See each two objects in a separate Memory Picture. Now review the list beginning with House and Clock, Clock and Flowers, etc. Let one picture suggest the next in which one object of the preceding picture always appears. Repeat the list slowly, recalling the two objects in each picture. Do this without looking at the list; there are ten separate objects you can check by keeping count.

House and Clock. Clock and Flowers. Flowers and Circus. Circus and Soldier. Soldier and Church. Church and Rocks. Rocks and Auto. Auto and Shoes. Shoes and Dishes.