Power of Mental Imagery: Being the Fifth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the; Applications of Psychology to the Problems of Personal and; Business EfficiencyHilton, Warren
Science
Power of Mental Imagery: Being the Fifth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the; Applications of Psychology to the Problems of Personal and; Business Efficiency
Hilton, Warren
Imagery (Psychology); Psychology, Applied
THIS ADVERTISEMENT AWAKENS THE WRONG KIND OF MENTAL IMAGES. SEE
TEXT, PAGE 34]
"Another in describing his image of a railroad-train, writes: 'I
am not able to state whether I hear the train or not. I am
inclined to think that it is a noiseless one. It is hard for me
to conceive of the sound of a bell, for instance. I can see the
bell move to and fro, and for an instant seem to hear the ding,
dong; but it is gone before I can identify it. When I try to
conceive of shouts I am like one groping in the dark. I cannot
possibly retain the conception of a sound for any length of
time.'
"Another, who seems to have no vivid images of any kind, writes:
'When I recall the breakfast-table I see it and the persons
around it. The number of them is distinct, for there is only one
of them on each side of the table. But they seem like mere
objects in space. Only when I think of each separately do I
clearly see them. As for the table, all I see is a general
whiteness, interspersed with objects. I hear nothing at all, and
indeed the whole thing is so indistinct it bewilders me when I
think of it. My mental imagery is very vague and hazy, unless I
have previously taken special notice of what I now have an image
of. For instance, when I have an image of a certain person I
cannot tell his particular characteristics unless my attention
was formerly directed to them.'
"Another writes: 'There is no sound in connection with any image.
In remembering, I call up an incident and gradually fill out the
details. I can very seldom recall how anything sounds. One sound
from the play "Robespierre," by Henry Irving, which I heard about
two years ago and which I could recall some time afterward, I
have been unable to recall this fall, though I have tried to do
so. I can see the scene quite perfectly, the position of the
actors and stage setting, even the action of a player who brought
out the sound.'
"Quite a large proportion of persons find it impossible to
imagine motion at all. As they think of a football game, all
the players are standing stock-still; they are as they are
represented in a photograph. They are in the act of running, but
no motion is represented. Likewise, the banners and streamers
are all motionless. They find it impossible to think of such a
thing as motion. Others find that the motions are the most
vivid part of their images. What they remember of a scene is
principally movement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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