STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE CEREBRUM 185 



situation becomes often a matter of much difficulty. One set of 

 memories point toward one course and another set toward quite 

 the opposite course. When this happens it is necessary to call 

 in more and more remote considerations until the balance tips 

 unmistakably in one way or the other. When even this procedure 

 fails to be decisive, or when the mind wishes to avoid the labor of 

 deciding by this method recourse is often had to a selective external 

 stimulus. Deciding a course of action by the flip of a coin is a 

 case in point. 



Associative memories also come into conflict when immediate 

 considerations point toward one course and remote considerations 

 toward a different one. Associative memories are classified by 

 placing those of remote bearing higher than those of immediate 

 bearing. Highest of all, because most remote, are abstract con- 

 ceptions of right and wrong; conceptions of altruism, care for 

 mankind, are higher than conceptions of family love; these in 

 turn rank above purely personal considerations. Personal con- 

 siderations which have regard to the future are higher than those 

 dealing only with the immediate present. The progress of civiliza- 

 tion is largely measured by the degree to which remote considera- 

 tions outweigh immediate ones in determining conduct. 



Because the cerebrum rests upon an underlying reflex mechan- 

 ism the tendency of the organism is always toward immediate 

 response to sensory stimulation; the hungry man tends to take 

 the first food that comes to hand; the cold man tends to seek the 

 nearest available shelter. The action of associative memory, 

 when higher considerations dictate a different course, is to pre- 

 vent or inhibit the carrying out of the immediate response. In- 

 hibition is, then, one of the important functions of associative 

 memory. The man who deliberately does what he knows to be 

 wrong, acts as he does because his conceptions of right are not 

 powerful enough to inhibit the response to the lower stimulus. 

 The importance of inculcating the highest principles of right 

 living by training and example, during the receptive period of 

 the brain's development, is therefore clearly manifest. 



Will Power. In some persons there is an inborn tendency to 

 respond to immediate stimulation, even though associative mem- 

 ory shows that such response is not for the best. Such persons we 

 describe as weak-willed. Those in whom the dictates of associative 



