The New Student's Reference Work/Imagination

Imagination. This term is ordinarily used to indicate creative power of the mind. Psychologists commonly employ it in a somewhat more limited sense to mean the reproduction, in more or less original combinations, of the impressions received from the senses. They distinguish imagination from memory proper or memory in the narrow or technical sense of the term, in that the latter involves in addition to images a consciousness that these represent some specific experience in one's own past life. We can imagine the North Pole, but memories are possible only of places where we have been. Imagination is usually classified as reproductive or productive, according to whether its content is simply a reproduction of a past experience or a new construction. It is probable that these types differ in degree of originality rather than in kind. All images usually differ from the impressions that they reproduce in definiteness, vividness and feeling of reality. They also commonly involve some difference in the arrangement of the colors, sounds, forms or objects presented. When these differences become so great that we seem to have an entirely new concrete situation presented, we say that we have productive or creative imagination. The materials of creative imagination, as colors, forms, sounds, tastes, odors etc. are, however, all derived from sense-experience. One born deaf cannot in the psychological sense imagine sound. He might try to do so, but his image would be based on those sensations that he himself is capable of getting. Men differ very much not only in vigor but also in kind of imagination. (See Memorizing). Some image sights especially well, others sounds, others again touches, tastes, odors or motor-sensations. A good, all-around imagination often occurs. The value of imagination, especially of sights or sounds, is great. It enriches the mental life, making it more complex, resourceful and interesting. The practical use of this lies in that, when new situations are presented with which the habits of the individual are unable to cope, imagination comes to the rescue with alternatives. A farmer with imagiination, when one crop fails, thinks of the possibility of raising others or of different uses for his land. An imaginative mechanic is not at a loss when his machine breaks down. Imagination calls up other experiences than the habitual ones, getting from them suggestions that may prove fruitful when the routine ways of acting fail. Thus it constitutes the proper reaction of a resourceful mind in the case of a crisis. When the images are very definite and vivid, and especially when we recall in memory the experience from which they sprang, we gain the additional advantage of being able to judge more accurately the probable success of the line of action suggested by imagination. A milliner who can clearly picture the hat that her imagination suggests, or remembers similar hats, is helped in anticipating whether or not her creation will prove a success.

Imagination is governed by the laws of association of ideas (q. v.). Its cultivation, therefore, depends on enriching the experience of the child and, especially, on increasing the associations by virtue of which these experiences will be recalled when needed. Modern methods of teaching (q.v.), aim especially at such associations and also at developing the self-reliance and resourcefulness of the child. As imagination is the original, the experimental, factor in the mind, so too close an insistence that its products shall conform to truth or taste or practical excellence may check its spontaneity and leave the pupil critical but not productive. See Association of Ideas, Memorizing and Teaching, Method of. Consult Ribot's Essay on the Creative Imagination. (Open Court Pub. Co.)