The more comprehensive way, then, of looking at memory is to regard it as a process and not simply as an end result. The process, as we shall see, is made up of three factors—Registration, Conservation, and Reproduction. Of these the end result is reproduction; conservation being the preservation of that which was registered.
This view is far more fruitful, as you will presently see, for memory acquires a deeper significance and will be found to play a fundamental and unsuspected part in the mechanism of many obscure mental processes.
From this point of view, upon memory, considered as a process, depend the acquired conscious and subconscious habits of mind and body.
The process involves unconscious as well as conscious factors and may be wholly unconscious (subconscious).
Two of its factors—registration and conservation—are responsible for the building up of the unconscious as the storehouse of the mind and, therefore, primarily for all subconscious processes, other than those which are innate.
To it may be referred the direct excitation of many subconscious manifestations of various kinds.
Consciously or subconsciously it largely determines our prejudices, our superstitions, our beliefs, our points of view, our attitudes of mind.
Upon it to a large degree depend what we call personality and character.
It often is the unsuspected and subconscious secret of our judgments, our sentiments, and impulses.
It is the process which most commonly induces dreams and furnishes the material out of which they are constructed.