The impression B has frequently been observed to
follow the impression A. The association thus produced is represented as
the memory, A -> B. When the impression A appears again, the idea of B
follows, associated with that of the immediate appearance of the
impression B. If the impression B does appear, the expectation is said
to be verified; while the memory A -> B is strengthened, and gives rise
in turn to a stronger expectation. And repeated verification may render
that expectation so strong that its non-verification is inconceivable.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] It is not worth while, for the present purpose, to consider
whether, as all nervous action occupies a sensible time, the duration of
one impression might not overlap that of the impression which follows
it, in the case supposed.
[25] We give no name to faint memories; but expectations of like
character play so large a part in human affairs that they, together with
the associated emotions of pleasure and pain, are distinguished as
"hopes" or "fears."
CHAPTER V.
THE MENTAL PHENOMENA OF ANIMALS.
In the course of the preceding chapters, attention has been more than
once called to the fact, that the elements of consciousness and the
operations of the mental faculties, under discussion, exist
independently of and antecedent to, the existence of language.
If any weight is to be attached to arguments from analogy, there is
overwhelming evidence in favour of the belief that children, before they
can speak, and deaf mutes, possess the feelings to which those who have
acquired the faculty of speech apply the name of sensations; that they
have the feelings of relation; that trains of ideas pass through their
minds; that generic ideas are formed from specific ones; and, that among
these, ideas of memory and expectation occupy a most important place,
inasmuch as, in their quality of potential beliefs, they furnish the
grounds of action.
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