How To Use Your Mind - Harry D. Kitson

 

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. INTELLECTUAL PROBLEMS OF THE COLLEGE FRESHMAN

Number. Variety. Lecture Method. Note Taking. Amount of Library Work.

High Quality Demanded. Necessity for Making Schedule. A College Course

Consists in the Formation of Habits. Requires Active Effort on Part of

Student. Importance of Good Form.

II. NOTE TAKING

Uses of Notes. LECTURE NOTES—Avoid Verbatim Reports. Maintain Attitude

of Mental Activity. Seek Outline Chiefly. Use Notes in Preparing Next Lesson.

READING NOTES—Summarize Rather Than Copy. Read With Questions in Mind. 

How to Read. 

How to Make Bibliographies. LABORATORY NOTES—

Content. Form. Miscellaneous Hints.

III. BRAIN ACTION DURING STUDY

The Organ of Mind. Gross Structure. Microscopic Structure. The Neurone.

The Nervous Impulse. The Synapse. Properties of Nervous Tissue —Impressibility, Conductivity, Modifiability. Pathways Used in

Study—Sensory, Motor, Association. Study is a Process of Making

Pathways in Brain.

IV. FORMATION OF STUDY-HABITS

Definition of Habit. Examples. Inevitableness of Habits in Brain and Nervous System. 

How to Insure Useful Habits—Choose What Shall Enter;Choose Mode of Entrance; 

Choose Mode of Egress; Go Slowly at First;

Observe Four Maxims. Advantages and Disadvantages of Habit. Ethical Consequences.

V. ACTIVE IMAGINATION

Nature of the Image. Its Use in Imagination. Necessity for Number,Variety, Sharpness. Source of "Imaginative" Productions. 

Method ofDeveloping Active Imaginative Powers: Cultivate Images in Great Number, Variety, Sharpness; Actively Combine the Elements of Past Experience.

VI. FIRST AIDS TO MEMORY—IMPRESSION

Four Phases. Conditions of Impression: Care, Clearness, Choice of Favorable Sense Avenue, Repetition, Overlearning, Primacy, Distribution of Repetitions, (Inferences Bearing Upon Theme-writing), "Whole" vs."Part" Method, "Rote" vs. "logical" Method, Intention.

VII. SECOND AIDS TO MEMORY—RETENTION, RECALL AND RECOGNITION

Retention. Recall. Recall Contrasted With Impression. Practise Recall in Impression. Recognition. Advantages of Review. Memory WorksAccording to Law.

 Possibility of Improvement. Connection With Other Mental Processes.

VIII. CONCENTRATION OF ATTENTION

Importance in Mental Life. Analysis of Concrete Attentive State.

Cross-section of Mental Stream. Focal Object, Clear; Marginal Objects,Dim. Fluctuation. Ease of Concentration Requires (1) Removal of All Marginal Distractions Possible, (2) Ignoring Others. Conditions Favorable for Concentration. Relation to Other Mental Processes.

IX. HOW WE REASON

Reasoning Contrasted with Simpler Mental Operations. Illustrated by Method of Studying Geometry. Analysis of Reasoning Act: Recognition of Problem, Efforts to Solve It, Solution. Study in Problems. Requirements for Effective Reasoning: Many Ideas, Accessible, Clear. How to Clarify Ideas: Define, Classify. Relation Between Habit and Reasoning. Summary.

X. EXPRESSION AS AN AID IN STUDY

Expression an Inevitable Accompaniment of Nervous Activity. Extent of

Expressive Movements. Relation Between Ideas and Expressive Acts.

Ethical Considerations. Methods of Expression Chiefly Used in Study:

Speech, Writing, Drawing. Effects of Expression: (1) On Brain, (2) On

Ideas. Hints on Development of Freedom of Expression.

XI. HOW TO BECOME INTERESTED IN A SUBJECT

Nature of Interest. Intellectual Interests Gained Through Experience.

Many Possible Fields of Interest. Laws of Interest.

XII. THE PLATEAU OF DESPOND

Measurement of Mental Progress. Analysis of the "Learning Curve. "Irregularity. Rapid Progress at Beginning. The Plateau. Causes. Remedies.

XIII. MENTAL SECOND-WIND

Description: (1) Physical, (2) Mental. Hidden Sources of Energy.

Retarding Effect of Fatigue. Analysis of Fatigue. How to Reduce Fatigue in Study.

XIV. EXAMINATIONS

Purposes. Continuous Effort and Cramming. Effective Methods of Reviewing. 

Immediate Preparation for an Examination Conduct in Examination-room. Attitude of Activity. Attitude of Confidence.

XV. BODILY CONDITIONS FOB EFFECTIVE STUDY

FOOD: Quantity, Quality, Surroundings. 

SLEEP: Amount, Conditions,Avoidance of Insomnia. EXERCISE: Regularity, Emphasis.

SUGGESTIONS FOB FURTHER READING 

CHAPTER I

INTELLECTUAL PROBLEMS OF THE COLLEGE FRESHMAN

In entering upon a college course you are taking a step that may completely revolutionize your life. You are facing new situations vastly different from any you have previously met. They are also of great variety, such as finding a place to eat and sleep, regulating your own finances, inaugurating a new social life,forming new friendships, and developing in body and mind. The problems connected with mental development will engage your chief attention. You are now going to use your mind more actively than ever before and should survey some of the intellectual difficulties before plunging into the fight.

Perhaps the first difficulty you will encounter is the substitution of the lecture for the class recitation to which you were accustomed in high school. This substitution requires that you develop a new technic of learning, for the mental processes involved in an oral recitation are different from those used in listening to a lecture. The lecture system implies that the lecturer has a fund of knowledge about a certain field and has organized this knowledge in a form that is not duplicated in the literature of the subject. The manner of presentation, then, is unique and is the only means of securing the knowledge in just that form. As soon as the words have left the mouth of the lecturer they cease to be accessible to you. Such conditions require a unique mental attitude and unique mental habits. You will be obliged, in the first place, to maintain sustained attention over long periods of time. The situation is not like that in reading, in which a temporary lapse of attention may be remedied by turning back and rereading. In listening to a lecture, you are obliged to catch the words "on the fly."

Accordingly you must develop new habits of paying attention. You will also need to develop a new technic for memorizing, especially for memorizing things heard. As a partial aid in this, and also for purposes of organizing material received in lectures, you will need to develop ability to take notes. This is a process with which you have heretofore had little to do. It is a most important........

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