Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/621

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ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS.
591

broke away from its companions, and, itself persisting, surrounded itself with such new attributes as make up the notions of a "railroad king," of a rising and falling stock-market, and the like.

The gradual passage from Complete Contiguous to Similar Association

Fig. 2.

through what we have called Partial Association may be symbolized by diagrams. Fig. 2 is Pure Contiguous, Fig. 3 is Mixed, and Fig. 4 Similar, Association. A in each is the passing, B the coming thought. In "Contiguous," all parts of A are equally operative in

Fig. 3.

calling up B. In "Mixed," most parts of A are inert. The part M alone breaks out and awakens B. In "Similar," the focalized part M is much smaller than in the previous case, and after awakening its

Fig. 4.

new set of associates, instead of fading out itself, it continues persistently active along with them, forming an identical part in the two ideas, and making these, pro tanto, resemble each other.