§ 4. Competition of Divergent Associations. — The same experience may have, and generally has, a great many connexions in the way of association. The question naturally arises, why one of these rather than another should be operative on any given occasion. "If the sight of a picture, for example, can recall to me the person whom it resembles, the artist who painted it, the friend who presented it to me, the room in which it formerly was hung, the series of portraits of which it then formed a part, and perhaps many circumstances and events that have been accidentally connected with It, why does it suggest one of these • • rather than the others?" * Stated in symbolic terms, the question is as follows: If a has become associated with b, c, and d, severally, why on any given occasion should it recall one of these, b, in preference to the others? Brown enumerates a number of special circumstances, depending on the conditions under which the association has been originally formed. The greater and more prolonged the attention given to a and b and to their connexion at the time they became associated, the firmer will be the association, and the stronger the tendency of a to recall b. Again, the frequency with which a and b have been previously combined is a very important factor. "It is thus we remember, after reading them three or four times over, the verses which we could not repeat, when we had read them only once."+ We must also take account of the recency of the association. "Immediately after reading any single line of poetry, we are able to repeat it, though we may have paid no particular attention to it; in a very few minutes, unless when we have paid particular attention to it, we are no longer able to repeat it accurately, and in a very short time we forget it altogether."* Lastly, much depends on whether b has been associated in a similar way with other objects besides a. "The song, which we have never heard but from one person, can scarcely be heard again by us, without recalling that person to our memory; but there is much less chance of this particular suggestion, if we have heard the same air and words frequently sung by others."+ As Dr. Ward remarks, "the average Englishman is continually surprised without his umbrella,"+ just because the weather is so changeable that no fixed association can be formed.

* Thomas Brown, Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. ii., pp. 271272.

+ Op. cit., p. 273.

These conditions are important, but they are not the most important. The predominant factors determining the actual lines which ideal reproduction takes, are to be found not in the conditions under which associations have been previously formed, but in the total mental state at the time when revival takes place. Those objects tend to be ideally reinstated which are relevant to the general trend of mental activity at the moment. The sight of rain will suggest an umbrella if we are intending to go out; otherwise it may only suggest the idea of somebody else getting wet. If our minds are occupied with scientific discussion, the word proofs will suggest one group of ideas; if we are engaged in preparing a book for the press, it will suggest something quite different.

* Ibid., p. 274.                                      + Ibid.

+ Encyclopaedia Article, p. 63.