s that could be
remembered.

The experiment described a few pages back on "paired associates" is
another case in point. The subjects memorized the pairs, but made no
effort to connect the pairs in order, and consequently were not able
later to remember the order of the pairs.

Many somewhat similar experiments have been performed, with the object
of measuring the reliability of the testimony of eye-witnesses; and it
has been found that testimony is very unreliable except for facts that
were specifically noted at the time. Enact a little scene before a
class of students who do not suspect that their memory of the affair
is later to be tested, and you will find that their memory for many
facts that were before their eyes is hazy, absent, or positively
false.

These facts all emphasize the importance of the will to learn. But let
us consider another line of facts. An event occurs before our eyes,
and we do notice certain facts about it, not with any intention of
remembering them later, but simply because they arouse our interest;
later, we recall such facts with great clearness and certainty. Or, we
hear a tune time after time, and gradually come to be able to sing it
ourselves, without ever having attempted to memorize it. Practically
all that the child learns in the first few years of his life, he
learns without any "will to learn".

What is the difference between the case where the will to learn is
necessary, and the case where it is unnecessary? The difference is
that in the one case we observe facts for the purpose of committing
them to memory, and in the other case we observe the facts without any
such intention. In both cases we remember what we have definitely
observed, {348} and fail to remember what we have not observed.
Sometimes, to be sure, it is not so much observation as doing that is
operative. We may make a certain reaction with the object of learning
it so as to make it later, or we may make the reaction for some other
reason; but in either case we learn it.

What is essential, then, is not the will to learn, but the doing and
observing. The will to learn is sometimes important, as a directive
tendency, to steer doing and observing into channels relevant to the
particular memory task that we need to perform. But committing to
memory seems not to be any special form of activity; rather, it
consists of reactions that also occur without any view to future
remembering. Not only do we learn _by_ doing a