Pelman Exercise Set One

Exercise  1

We need vivid impressions to build sound knowledge and reliable memory. Therefore in mental training we need to educate the powers through which most of our information comes, namely, sight and hearing.

Take a sheet of paper and write down the list of the names of three of your friends — both sexes. Opposite each name write (a) the color of the eyes, (b) the nature of the complexion, (c) the manner of wearing the hair, and (d) in the case of men, the absence or presence of beard and moustache. (e) Add also a note as to any particular article of clothing worn on the last occasion you saw the person concerned.

Some people find an exercise of this kind very easy; they are naturally acute observers; others find it rather difficult; their powers need training. It is the object of this exercise to discover the extent to which you observe people and things — nothing more.

Practice it occasionally throughout the course in order to see how you are developing in observational power.

Exercise 2

Go some place where sense appeals are possible, and write down what you see, hear, or otherwise experience. It can be anywhere and it can be something like this: “I heard a train whistle, a motor car honked in the distance. Saw a swallow fly past the window. Heard a strange sound several times, but could not identify it. Counted the shades of green in the foliage. There were five.”

Exercise 3

Deal out four playing cards, face downward, side by side. Turn up the first and note what it is, replacing it face downward. Repeat the process with the three other cards, then after a few minutes, try to recall the four in order. When you can do this correctly, experiment with five cards, gradually increasing the number. It is possible to recall a very large number if you continue to repeat mentally the cards you use from the first.

Work on one or two of these simple exercises occasionally, until you feel you are acquiring greater speed and accuracy in them, but do not hold up your work with other parts of the course Press on.

Exercise 4

It is interesting and useful to know at what distance removed from you the ticking of a watch can be heard. Deafness is a matter of degree, and often of inattention. Sometimes minor defects in hearing, quite remediable in their early stages, are allowed to develop unnoticed. If possible, have your sight and hearing tested. Acuteness of hearing can be cultivated; and it is worth the trouble to increase by inches the distance between you and the watch, so as to determine the ratio of improvement. Thus, if on a first attempt you can hear a watch ticking on a table five yards off, stand a foot farther away, then another foot, and so on until you fail to hear the sound. Use the same watch always, and in the same place if possible.

To Come

When there is a connection between two ideas, or between the words representing two ideas, the connection is based on certain methods grouped under the general heading of association. Later on we will look at ways to master association to the point where you will be able to write down 1,000 or more words, read them over once, and then be able to repeat the whole list from beginning to end or from the end to the beginning.