Attention & Memory Training

Attention & Memory Training

"Memory, the daughter of Attention, is the teeming mother of wisdom."

The permanence of the impression which anything leaves on the memory, is proportionate to the degree of attention which was originally given to it. The experiences most permanently impressed upon consciousness are those upon which the greatest amount of attention has been fixed.

The great art of memory is attention.... Inattentive people have always bad memories.

Without some degree of attention no impression of any duration could be made on the mind, or laid up in the memory. It is a law of the mind that the intensity of the present consciousness determines the vivacity of the future memory; memory and consciousness are thus in the direct ratio of each other. Vivid consciousness, long memory; faint consciousness, short memory; no consciousness, no memory...

An act of attention, that is an act of concentration, is  necessary to every exertion of consciousness. It constitutes the better half of all intellectual power.

One of the most common causes of poor attention is to be found in the lack of interest.

A man may have a very poor memory for many things, but when it comes to the things in which his interest is involved he often remembers the most minute details. What is called involuntary attention is that form of attention that follows upon interest, curiosity, or desire—no special effort of the will being required in it. 

What is called voluntary attention is that form of attention that is bestowed upon objects not necessarily interesting, curious, or attractive—this requires the application of the will, and is a mark of a developed character.

Every person has some amount of involuntary naturally but few possess or have developed voluntary attention. The former is instinctive—the latter comes only by practice and training.