Psychology Part 52

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EXERCISES

1. Outline the chapter.

2. In what respects does the animal's solution of a problem fall short of reasoning?

3. Give a concrete instance of reasoning belonging under each of the types mentioned in the text.

4. How is it that superst.i.tions such as that of Friday being an unlucky day persist? What would be the scientific way of testing such a belief?

5. What causes tend to arouse belief, and what to arouse doubt?

6. Introspective study of the process of thinking. Attempt to solve some of the following problems, and write down what you can observe of the process.

(a) What is it that has four fingers and a thumb, but no flesh or bone?

(b) Why does the full moon rise about sunset?

(c) If a book and a postage stamp together cost $1.02, and the book costs $1.00 more than the stamp, how much does the stamp cost?

(d) A riddle: "Sisters and brothers have I none, yet this man's father is my father's son."

(e) Prove that a ball thrown horizontally over level ground will strike the ground at the same time, no matter how hard it is thrown.

(f) If no prunes are atherogenous, but some bivalves are atherogenous, can you conclude that some prunes are not bivalves?

(g) Deduce, as impersonally as possible, the opinion of you held by some other person.

REFERENCES

William James, _Principles of Psychology_, 1890, Vol. II, pp. 325-371.

John Dewey, _How We Think_, 1910.

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CHAPTER XIX

IMAGINATION

MENTAL AS DISTINGUISHED FROM MOTOR MANIPULATION

From discovery we now turn to invention, from exploration to manipulation.

The human enterprise of exploration, which we have examined under the headings of perception and reasoning, as well as earlier under attention, runs the gamut from simple exploratory movements of the sense organs in looking and listening, to the elaborate scientific procedure followed in testing hypotheses and discovering the laws of nature. Inventive or manipulative activity runs a similar gamut from the child's play with his toys to the creation of a work of art, the designing of a work of engineering, the invention of a new machine, or the organization of a new government. The distinction between the two lines of activity is that exploration seeks what is there, and manipulation changes it to something else. Exploration seeks the facts as they exist, while invention modifies or rearranges the facts. The two enterprises go hand in hand, however, since facts must be known to be manipulated, while on the other hand manipulation of an object brings to light facts about it that could never be discovered by simple examination. Invention is based on science and also contributes to the advance of science.

Manipulation and exploration certainly go hand in hand in the little child's behavior. The baby picks up his new toy, turns it about and examines it on all sides, shakes it and is pleased if it makes a noise, drops it and is pleased {482} with its bang on the floor. This is manipulation, certainly; but it is also a way of exploring the properties of the toy.

Beginnings of Imagination in the Child

Beginning with grasping, turning, pushing, pulling, shaking and dropping of objects, the child's manipulation develops in several directions. One line of development leads to _manual skill_. The child learns to manage his toys better.

A second line of development is in the direction of _constructiveness_. Taking things apart and putting them together, building blocks, a.s.sembling dolls and toy animals into "families" or "parties" setting table or arranging toy chairs in a room, are examples of this style of manipulation, which calls less for manual dexterity than for seeing ways in which objects can be rearranged.

_Make-believe_ is a third direction followed in the development of manipulation. The little boy puts together a row of blocks and pushes it along the floor, a.s.serting that it is a train of cars. The little girl lays her doll carefully in its bed, saying "My baby's sick; that big dog did bite him". This might be spoken of as "manipulating things according to the meanings attached to them", the blocks being treated as cars, and the doll as a sick baby.

Perhaps a little later than make-believe to make its appearance in the child is _story-telling_ the fourth type of manipulation. Where in make-believe he has an actual object to manipulate according to the meaning attached to it, in story-telling he simply talks about persons and things and makes them perform in his story. He comes breathless into the house with a harrowing tale of being pursued by a hippopotamus in the woods; or he gives a fantastic account of the doings of his acquaintances. For this he is sometimes accused of being a "little liar"--as indeed he {483} probably is when circ.u.mstances demand--and sometimes, more charitably, he is described as being still unable to distinguish observation from imagination; but really what he has not yet grasped is the _social_ difference between his make-believe, which no one objects to, and his story-telling, which may lead people astray.

Both make-believe and story-telling are a great convenience to the child, since he is able by their means to manipulate big and important objects that he could not manage in sober reality. He thus finds an outlet for tendencies that are blocked in sober reality--blocked by the limitations of his environment, blocked by the opposition of other people, blocked by his own weakness and lack of knowledge and skill.

Unable to go hunting in the woods, he can play hunt in the yard; unable to go to war with the real soldiers, he can shoulder his toy gun and campaign all about the neighborhood. The little girl of four years, hearing her older brothers and sisters talk of their school, has her own "home work" in "joggity", and her own graduation exercises.

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 a.s.sociation 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.

Play

Free imagination was spoken of a moment ago as a kind of play; and we might turn this about and say that play, usually if not always, contains an element of imagination or invention. Sometimes the child makes up new games, very simple ones of course, to fit the materials he has to play with; but even when he is playing a regular game, he has constantly to adapt himself to new conditions as the game-situation changes. We may take the child's play as the first and simplest case of free invention and ask our questions regarding it.

What are the child's play-stimuli (toys), how does he manipulate them, what end-results does he reach, and what satisfaction does he derive from {486} playing? We can ask these questions, but it is not so sure that we can answer them.

_What is a toy?_ Anything to play with. But what characteristics of an object make it a real toy, which shall actually arouse the play response? First, it must be such that the child can move it; and almost anything that he can move serves, one time or another, for a plaything. But the surest stimulus is a _new_ toy, the element of novelty and variety being important in arousing manipulation as it is in arousing exploration. However, to define a toy simply as something moveable, and also new if possible, fails to satisfy the spirit of inquiry, and about the only way to progress further is to make a long list of toys, and cla.s.sify them from the psychological point of view.

Thus we get the following cla.s.ses of play-stimuli:

Little models of articles used by adults, such as tools, furniture, dishes; and we might include here dolls and toy animals. The child's response to this cla.s.s of toys is imitative. Some psychologists have been so much impressed with the imitative play of children and animals (as ill.u.s.trated by puppies playing fight), that they have conceived of all play as a sort of rehearsal for the serious business of life; but this conception does not apply very well to some of the other sorts of toy.

Noise-makers: rattle, drum, bell, horn, whistle, fire-cracker.

Things that increase your speed of locomotion, or that move you in unusual ways, as bicycle, skate, sled, rocking-horse, swing, seesaw, merry-go-round. Here belong also such sports as hopping, skipping, jumping, dancing, skipping rope, vaulting, leapfrog, whirling, somersault. The dizzy sensation resulting from stimulation of the semicircular ca.n.a.ls is evidently pleasant to young children, and some of their sports seem aimed at securing a good measure of it.