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Visual imagery was described as consisting of the things that produced the sounds (although attention to visual imagery for purposes of recalling details proved detrimental to recall); of the things going through the motions they would make in producing the sounds; or of visual sound analogues, consisting of arbitrary forms, sometimes including colors, whose characteristics were patterned after the characteristics of the sounds. The motor processes which were used in imitating the sounds were inseparably connected with the effort to recall the sound vividly and minutely. The auditory imagery was very fragmentary, and could not usually be directly controlled voluntarily, but only through motor processes, or, in some instances, through visual imagery. Sleep-learning observers have pointed out that some time periods are more favorable to learning and some less. Edward Van Ormer conducted an investigation to determine the best time for study in terms of how well we remember later what we have learned. He examined retention after intervals of sleep and waking and found that on the whole recall was most efficient after sleep. Other investigators he reported on came to the same general conclusion; Jenkins and Dallenback said that "forgetting is not so much a matter of the decay of old impressions and associations as it is a matter of interference, inhibition, or obliteration of the old by the new." Heine said improved memory resulting from "sleeping on" the learned material was due to the elimination of the retroactive inhibition produced by the day activities which normally follow learning. |
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