. He notices positions, i.e., connects items with
their position in the list. He finds syllables that stand out as
peculiar in some way, being "odd", "fuzzy", smooth, agreeable,
disagreeable, or resembling some word, abbreviation or nickname. He
notes resemblances and contrasts between different syllables. He also
finds groups that resemble each other, or that resemble words.

Besides what he actually finds in the list, he imports _meanings_,
more or less far-fetched, into the list. He may make a rhythmical line
of verse out of it; he may make a story out of it. In short, he both
explores the list as it stands and manipulates it into some shape that
promises to be rememberable.

His line of attack differs according to the particular test that is
later to be made of his memory. Suppose he is shown a number of
pictures, with the understanding that later those now shown are to be
mixed with others, and that he must then pick out those now
shown--then he simply examines each picture for something
characteristic. But {336} suppose each picture is given a name, and he
must later tell the name of each--then he seeks for something in the
picture that can be made to suggest its name. Or suppose, once more,
that the pictures are spread out before him in a row, and he is told
that they will later be mixed and he be required to rearrange them in
the same order in which they are now shown--then he seeks for
relationships between the several pictures. His process of memorizing,
always observant, exploratory and manipulatory, differs in detail
according to the memory task that he expects later to perform.

For another example, suppose an experiment is conducted by the method
of "paired associates". The subject is handed a list of pairs of
words, such as

soprano emblem
grassy concise
nothing ginger
faraway kettle
shadow next
mercy scrub
hilltop internal
recite shoestring
narrative thunder
seldom harbor
jury eagle
windy occupy
squirm hobby
balloon multiply
necktie unlikely
supple westbound
obey inch
broken relish
spellbound ferment
desert expect

He must learn to respond with the second word of each pair when the
first word of the pair is given. What he does, in learning this
lesson, is to take each pair of words as a unit, and try to find
something in the pair that shall make it a firm