Inquiries into human faculty and its developmentGalton, Francis
Science
Inquiries into human faculty and its development
Galton, Francis
Ability; Eugenics
3. _Colouring_.--Are the colours of the china, of the toast, bread
crust, mustard, meat, parsley, or whatever may have been on the table,
quite distinct and natural?
4. _Extent of field of view_.--Call up the image of some panoramic
view (the walls of your room might suffice), can you force yourself
to see mentally a wider range of it than could be taken in by any
single glance of the eyes? Can you mentally see more than three
faces of a die, or more than one hemisphere of a globe at the same
instant of time?
5. _Distance of images_.--Where do mental images appear to be
situated? within the head, within the eye-ball, just in front of the
eyes, or at a distance corresponding to reality? Can you project
an image upon a piece of paper?
6. _Command over images_.--Can you retain a mental picture steadily
before the eyes? When you do so, does it grow brighter or dimmer?
When the act of retaining it becomes wearisome, in what part of the
head or eye-ball is the fatigue felt?
7. _Persons_.--Can you recall with distinctness the features of all
near relations and many other persons? Can you at will cause your
mental image of any or most of them to sit, stand, or turn slowly
round? Can you deliberately seat the image of a well-known person
in a chair and see it with enough distinctness to enable you to
sketch it leisurely (supposing yourself able to draw)?
8. _Scenery_.--Do you preserve the recollection of scenery with much
precision of detail, and do you find pleasure in dwelling on it? Can
you easily form mental pictures from the descriptions of scenery
that are so frequently met with in novels and books of travel?
9. _Comparison with reality_.--What difference do you perceive
between a very vivid mental picture called up in the dark, and a
real scene? Have you ever mistaken a mental image for a reality when
in health and wide awake?
10. _Numerals and dates_.--Are these invariably associated in your
mind with any peculiar mental imagery, whether of written or printed
figures, diagrams, or colours? If so, explain fully, and say if you
can account for the association?
11.--_Specialities_.--If you happen to have special aptitudes for
mechanics, mathematics (either geometry of three dimensions or pure
analysis), mental arithmetic, or chess-playing blindfold, please
explain fully how far your processes depend on the use of visual
images, and how far otherwise?
12. Call up before your imagination the objects specified in the six
following paragraphs, numbered A to F, and consider carefully
whether your mental representation of them generally, is in each
group very faint, faint, fair, good, or vivid and comparable to the
actual sensation:--
A. _Light and colour_.--An evenly clouded sky (omitting all landscape),
first bright, then gloomy. A thick surrounding haze, first white,
then successively blue, yellow, green, and red.
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