Reminiscence and gestalt theory

By definition, reminiscence appears after the learning process and at the time of the second recall. The first recall must result in an incomplete reproduction of the material if new, i.e., reminiscent, material is to appear in the second recall. If this hypothesis is true, the available reminiscent material having the greatest stress at the time of the second recall should show the greatest reminiscence, since its stress will give relatively greater strength to the tension set up by the second recall. In accordance with the earlier assumptions and the indicated relationship between tension and organization with the passage of time, the following should be expected if the hypothesis of this experiment is supported. Two hundred young men selected from those attending an industrial school for delinquents served as subjects. The entire school population had previously been given the Revised Stanford- Binet Scale for Measuring Intelligence, Form L, and the subjects for this experiment were selected at random from those obtaining an intelligence quotient of 80 or above. The subjects were chosen from those boys who were living in single cells, i.e., those boys who did not have cell mates. This was done to control as much as possible the probability of discussion of the experiment which would act as practice facilitating later recall. It is the purpose of this section to demonstrate the general application of the theory of reminiscence developed in this paper, supported by the gestalt theory of memory traces, to the major conditions reported in the literature as conditioning the appearance of reminiscence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)