text: Recollection is thus the self-directed activity of retrieving the information stored in a memory impression.Only humans can remember impressions of intellectual activity, such as numbers and words.Animals that have perception of time can retrieve memories of their past observations.Remembering involves only perception of the things remembered and of the time passed.Aristotle believed the chain of thought, which ends in recollection of certain impressions, was connected systematically in relationships such as similarity, contrast, and contiguity, described in his laws of association.Aristotle believed that past experiences are hidden within the mind.A force operates to awaken the hidden material to bring up the actual experience.According to Aristotle, association is the power innate in a mental state, which operates upon the unexpressed remains of former experiences, allowing them to rise and be recalled.Dreams Aristotle describes sleep in On Sleep and Wakefulness.Sleep takes place as a result of overuse of the senses or of digestion, so it is vital to the body.While a person is asleep, the critical activities, which include thinking, sensing, recalling and remembering, do not function as they do during wakefulness.Since a person cannot sense during sleep they cannot have desire, which is the result of sensation.However, the senses are able to work during sleep, albeit differently, unless they are weary.Dreams do not involve actually sensing a stimulus.In dreams, sensation is still involved, but in an altered manner.Aristotle explains that when a person stares at a moving stimulus such as the waves in a body of water, and then looks away, the next thing they look at appears to have a wavelike motion.When a person perceives a stimulus and the stimulus is no longer the focus of their attention, it leaves an impression.