In such a situation as this, imagery may function on the side of
_stimulus_ when, taking its cue from the stimuli which are actually
present, and which grow out of the strain and friction, it represents
the missing conditions of action sufficiently to direct a search for
them. It projects a map, so to speak, in which the fragmentary
conditions immediately present to sense-perception may find their
bearings, or in which in some way the missing members may be discovered.
A familiar instance of this would be the experience one sometimes has in
trying to recall the forgotten name of an acquaintance. The images of
scenes associated with the acquaintance, of various letters and sounds
of words associated with his name, which may be called to mind, do not
function so much as direct stimuli as they do as intermediate or
indirect stimuli. It is a case of casting about for the image that will
function as a direct stimulus in bringing an acquired but temporarily
lost adjustment into play.
Image functions on the side of _response_, on the side of developing new
habits, new forms of adjustment, in so far as the conditions of action
which it represents, or projects, are not the actual conditions of
action, either because they are so inaccessible as to demand development
of new habits for purposes of attaining them, or else because, though
actually present, they stimulate relatively uncontrolled æsthetic or
emotional responses, whose very expression, however, may be translated
into a demand for more adequate, intelligent, controlled habits or
adjustments. The conscious projection of the unattained, even of the
unattainable, not only marks a certain degree of attainment, but is the
initiation of further development. Here we see again that a stimulus is
a condition of action in both senses of the ambiguity of the word
"condition." It is both a state or condition of activity, and an
initiation or condition of further activity.
As an indirect stimulus growing out of a problematic situation imagery
necessarily brings in more or less irrelevant material. If I may be
permitted the paradox, imagery would not be relevant if it did not bring
in the irrelevant. The novelty of the situation makes it impossible to
say in advance what will be relevant. Hence the demand for range and
play of imagery. It is only the successful adjustment finally hit upon
and worked out that is the test of the relevancy of the imagery which
anticipated it. Even this test may be unfair, since it is likely to
discount the value of imagery which is now ruled out, but which may have
been indispensable in turning up the proper cues in the course of the
process of reflection and experiment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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