Preliminary Definition of Imagination
In such ways as we have been describing, the little child shows "imagination", or mental manipulation. In story-telling the objects manipulated are simply thought of; in make-believe, though there is actual motor manipulation of present objects, the attached meanings are the important matter; and in construction there is apt to be a plan in mind in advance of the motor manipulation, as when you look at the furniture in a room and consider possible rearrangements.
The materials manipulated in imagination are usually facts previously perceived, and to be available for mental [{484}] manipulation they must now be recalled; but they are not merely recalled--they are rearranged and give a new result that may never have been perceived. A typical product of imagination is composed of parts perceived at different times and later recalled and combined, as a centaur is composed of man and horse, or a mermaid of woman and fish. Imagination is like reasoning in being a mental reaction; but it differs from reasoning in being manipulation rather than exploration; reasoning consists in seeing relationships that exist between facts, and imagination in putting facts into new relationships. These are but rough distinctions and definitions; we shall try to do a little better after we have examined a variety of imaginative performances.
"Imagination" and "invention" mean very much the same mental process, though "imagination" looks rather to the mental process itself, and "invention" more to the outcome of the process, which is a product having some degree of novelty and originality.
Imagination, like association and like attention, is sometimes free, and sometimes controlled. Controlled imagination is directed towards the accomplishment of some desired result, while free imagination wanders this way and that, with no fixed aim. Controlled imagination is seen in planning and designing; free imagination occurs in moments of relaxation, and may be called "play of the imagination". The free variety, as the simpler, will be considered first.
Our study will have more point if we first remind ourselves what are the psychological problems to be attacked in studying any mental activity. What is the stimulus and what the response? These are the fundamental questions. But the study of response breaks up into three subordinate questions, regarding the tendency that is awakened, regarding the [{485}] end-result obtained, and regarding the often complex process or series of responses, that leads to the end-result.
The response in imagination we have already defined, in a general way, as mental manipulation, and the end-result as the placing of facts into new combinations or relationships. The stimulus consists of the facts, either perceived at the moment or recalled from past perception, that are now freshly related or combined. The more precise question regarding the stimulus is, then, as to what sort of facts make us respond in an inventive or imaginative way; and the more precise question regarding the end-result is as to what kind of combinations or new relationships are given to the facts--both pretty difficult questions. In regard to process, the great question is as to how any one can possibly escape from the beaten track of instinct and habit, and do anything new; and in regard to tendency the question is as to what motives are awakened in inventive activity and what satisfaction there is in the end-result. This last question, as to why we imagine, is about the easiest to answer.