Imagination

For other uses, see Imagination (disambiguation).

basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling
Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is (narrative),[1][5] in which the exactness of the chosen
words is the fundamental factor to evoke worlds.[6]
It is accepted as the innate ability and process of inventing
partial or complete personal realms within the mind from
elements derived from sense perceptions of the shared
world. The term is technically used in psychology for
the process of reviving in the mind, percepts of objects
formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of
the term conicts with that of ordinary language, some
psychologists have preferred to describe this process as
"imaging" or "imagery" or to speak of it as reproductive
as opposed to productive or constructive imagination.
Imagined images are seen with the "minds eye".
Imagination can also be expressed through stories such as
fairy tales or fantasies. Children often use such narratives
and pretend play in order to exercise their imaginations.
When children develop fantasy they play at two levels:
rst, they use role playing to act out what they have developed with their imagination, and at the second level they
play again with their make-believe situation by acting as
if what they have developed is an actual reality.[7]

1 Description
The common use of the term is for the process of forming
new images in the mind that have not been previously experienced with the help of what has been seen, heard, or
felt before, or at least only partially or in dierent combinations. Some typical examples follow:
Fairy tale
Fiction
A form of verisimilitude often invoked in fantasy
and science ction invites readers to pretend such
stories are true by referring to objects of the mind
such as ctional books or years that do not exist apart
from an imaginary world.
Imagination, not being limited to the acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of practical necessity
is largely free from objective restraints. The ability to
imagine ones self in another persons place is very important to social relations and understanding. Albert Einstein said, Imagination ... is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the
world.[8]

Olin Levi Warner, Imagination (1896). Library of Congress

Thomas Jeerson Building, Washington, D.C.

the creative ability to form images, ideas, and sensations

in the mind without direct input from the senses, such
as seeing or hearing. Imagination helps make knowledge
applicable in solving problems and is fundamental to integrating experience and the learning process.[1][2][3][4] A
1

5 VERSUS BELIEF

In various spheres, however, even imagination is in practice limited: thus a person whose imaginations do violence to the elementary laws of thought, or to the necessary principles of practical possibility, or to the reasonable probabilities of a given case is usually regarded by
mental health professionals as insane.
The same limitations beset imagination in the eld of
scientic hypothesis. Progress in scientic research is due
largely to provisional explanations which are developed
by imagination, but such hypotheses must be framed in
relation to previously ascertained facts and in accordance
with the principles of the particular science.
Imagination is an experimental partition of the mind used
to develop theories and ideas based on functions. Taking objects from real perceptions, the imagination uses
complex IF-functions to develop new or revised ideas.
This part of the mind is vital to developing better and
easier ways to accomplish old and new tasks. In sociology, Imagination is used to part ways with reality and
have an understanding of social interactions derived from
a perspective outside of society itself. This leads to the
development of theories through questions that wouldn't
usually be asked. These experimental ideas can be safely
conducted inside a virtual world and then, if the idea is
probable and the function is true, the idea can be actualized in reality. Imagination is the key to new development
of the mind and can be shared with others, progressing
collectively.

3 Memory
Memory and imagination have been shown to be aected
by one another.[13] Images made by functional magnetic resonance imaging technology show that remembering and imagining sends blood to identical parts of
the brain.[13] An optimal balance of intrinsic, extraneous, and germane forms of information processing can
heighten the chance of the brain to retain information
as long term memories, rather than short term memories. This is signicant because experiences stored as
long term memories are easier to be recalled, as they are
ingrained deeper in the mind. Each of these forms require information to be taught in a specic manner so as to
use various regions of the brain when being processed.[14]
This information can potentially help develop programs
for young students to cultivate or further enhance their
creative abilities from a young age. The neocortex and
thalamus are responsible for controlling the brains imagination, along with many of the brains other functions
such as consciousness and abstract thought.[15] Since
imagination involves many dierent brain functions, such
as emotions, memory, thoughts, etc., portions of the brain
where multiple functions occursuch as the thalamus
and neocortexare the main regions where imaginative
processing has been documented.[16] The understanding
of how memory and imagination are linked in the brain,
paves the way to better understand ones ability to link
signicant past experiences with their imagination.

Regarding the volunteer eort, imagination can be classied as:

4 Perception
voluntary (the dream from the sleep, the daydream)

Piaget posited that perceptions depend on the world view

of a person. The world view is the result of arranging
perceptions into existing imagery by imagination. Piaget
involuntary (the reproductive imagination, the crecites the example of a child saying that the moon is folative imagination, the dream of perspective)
lowing her when she walks around the village at night.
Like this, perceptions are integrated into the world view
to make sense. Imagination is needed to make sense of
perceptions.[17]

Psychology

Psychologists have studied imaginative thought, not only

in its exotic form of creativity and artistic expression
but also in its mundane form of everyday imagination.[9]
Ruth M.J. Byrne has proposed that everyday imaginative
thoughts about counterfactual alternatives to reality may
be based on the same cognitive processes on which rational thoughts are also based.[10] Children can engage in the
creation of imaginative alternatives to reality from their
very early years.[11] Cultural psychology is currently elaborating a view of imagination as a higher mental function
involved in a number of everyday activities, both at the individual and collective level[12] that enables people to manipulate complex meanings of both linguistic and iconic
forms in the process of experiencing.

5 Versus belief
Imagination is dierent from belief because the subject
understands that what is personally invented by the mind
does not necessarily aect the course of action taken in
the apparently shared world, while beliefs are part of what
one holds as truths about both the shared and personal
worlds. The play of imagination, apart from the obvious
limitations (e.g. of avoiding explicit self-contradiction),
is conditioned only by the general trend of the mind at
a given moment. Belief, on the other hand, is immediately related to practical activity: it is perfectly possible
to imagine oneself a millionaire, but unless one believes
it one does not, therefore, act as such. Belief endeavors to

3
conform to the subjects experienced conditions or faith
in the possibility of those conditions; whereas imagination as such is specically free. The dividing line between
imagination and belief varies widely in dierent stages of
technological development. Thus in more extreme cases,
someone from a primitive culture who ill frames an ideal
reconstruction of the causes of his illness, and attributes
it to the hostile magic of an enemy based on faith and tradition rather than science. In ignorance of the science
of pathology the subject is satised with this explanation, and actually believes in it, sometimes to the point
of death, due to what is known as the nocebo eect.

pling fear can result from taking an imagined painful future too seriously.
Imagination can also produce some symptoms of real
illnesses. In some cases, they can seem so real that
specic physical manifestations occur such as rashes and
bruises appearing on the skin, as though imagination had
passed into belief or the events imagined were actually
in progress. See, for example, psychosomatic illness and
folie a deux.

It has also been proposed that the whole of human cognition is based upon imagination. That is, nothing that is
perceived is purely observation but all is a blend between
It follows that the learned distinction between imagination sense and imagination.
and belief depends in practice on religion, tradition, and
culture.

8 See also
6

Brain activation

A study using fMRI while subjects were asked to

imagine precise visual gures, to mentally disassemble
them, or mentally blend them, showed activity in the
occipital, frontoparietal, posterior parietal, precuneus,
and dorsolateral prefrontal regions of the subjects
brains.[18]

Art
Creativity
Fictional countries
Idea
Imagination ination
Intuition (psychology)

As a reality

The world as experienced is an interpretation of data arriving from the senses; as such, it is perceived as real
by contrast to most thoughts and imaginings. Users of
hallucinogenic drugs are said to have a heightened imagination. This dierence is only one of degree and can
be altered by several historic causes, namely changes to
brain chemistry, hypnosis or other altered states of consciousness, meditation, many hallucinogenic drugs, and
electricity applied directly to specic parts of the brain.
The dierence between imagined and perceived reality
can be proven by psychosis. Many mental illnesses can
be attributed to this inability to distinguish between the
sensed and the internally created worlds. Some cultures
and traditions even view the apparently shared world as
an illusion of the mind as with the Buddhist maya, or
go to the opposite extreme and accept the imagined and
dreamed realms as of equal validity to the apparently
shared world as the Australian Aborigines do with their
concept of dreamtime.
Imagination, because of having freedom from external
limitations, can often become a source of real pleasure
and unnecessary suering. Consistent with this idea,
imagining pleasurable and fearful events is found to engage emotional circuits involved in emotional perception
and experience.[19] A person of vivid imagination often
suers acutely from the imagined perils besetting friends,
relatives, or even strangers such as celebrities. Also crip-

Mimesis
Sociological imagination
Truth

9 References
[1] Norman 2000 pp. 1-2
[2] Brian Sutton-Smith 1988, p. 22
[3] Archibald MacLeish 1970, p. 887
[4] Kieran Egan 1992, pp. 50
[5] Northrop Frye 1963, p. 49
[6] As noted by Giovanni Pascoli
[7] Laurence Goldman (1998). Childs play: myth, mimesis
and make-believe. Oxford New York: Berg Publishers.
ISBN 1-85973-918-0. Basically what this means is that
the children use their make-believe situation and act as if
what they are acting out is from a reality that already exists
even though they have made it up.
[8] Viereck, George Sylvester (October 26, 1929). What life
means to Einstein: an interview. The Saturday Evening
Post.
[9] Ward, T.B., Smith, S.M, & Vaid, J. (1997). Creative
thought. Washington DC: APA

11

[10] Byrne, R.M.J. (2005). The Rational Imagination: How

People Create Alternatives to Reality. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
[11] Harris, P. (2000). The work of the imagination. London:
Blackwell.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Sutton-Smith, Brian. (1988). In Search of the Imagination. In K. Egan and D. Nadaner (Eds.), Imagination and Education. New York, Teachers College
Press.
See also:

[12] Tateo, L. (2015). Giambattista Vico and the psychological imagination. Culture and Psychology, vol. 21(2):145161.
[13] Long, Priscilla (2011). My Brain On My Mind. p. 27.
ISBN 1612301363.
[14] Leahy, Wayne; John Sweller (5 June 2007). The Imagination Eect Increases with an Increased Intrinsic Cognitive Load. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 22: 275.
doi:10.1002/acp.1373.
[15] Welcome to Brain Health and Puzzles!".
2011-03-05.

Retrieved

[16] Welcome to ScienceForums.Net!".

[17] Piaget, J. (1967). The childs conception of the world. (J.
& A. Tomlinson, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul. BF721 .P5 1967X
[18] Alexander Schlegel, Peter J. Kohler, Sergey V. Fogelson,
Prescott Alexander, Dedeepya Konuthula, and Peter Ulric
Tse (Sep 16, 2013) Network structure and dynamics of the
mental workspace PNAS early edition
[19] Costa, VD, Lang, PJ, Sabatinelli, D, Bradley MM,
and Versace, F (2010). Emotional imagery: Assessing pleasure and arousal in the brains reward circuitry. Human Brain Mapping. 31 (9): 14461457.
doi:10.1002/hbm.20948. PMC 3620013 . PMID
20127869.

10

Further reading

Byrne, R.M.J. (2005). The Rational Imagination:

How People Create Alternatives to Reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Egan, Kieran (1992). Imagination in Teaching and
Learning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Watkins, Mary:
Waking Dreams [Harper
Colophon Books, 1976] and Invisible Guests - The
Development of Imaginal Dialogues [The Analytic
Press, 1986]
Moss, Robert: The Three Only Things: Tapping
the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and Imagination [New World Library, September 10, 2007]
This article incorporates text from a publication now
in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).
"article name needed ". Encyclopdia Britannica (11th
ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Three philosophers for whom imagination is a central
concept are Kendall Walton, John Sallis and Richard
Kearney. See in particular:
Kendall Walton, Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the
Foundations of the Representational Arts. Harvard University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-674-57603-9
(pbk.).
John Sallis, Force of Imagination: The Sense of the
Elemental (2000)
John Sallis, Spacings-Of Reason and Imagination. In
Texts of Kant, Fichte, Hegel (1987)
Richard Kearney, The Wake of Imagination. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (1988); 1st
Paperback Edition- (ISBN 0-8166-1714-7)
Richard Kearney, Poetics of Imagining: Modern to
Post-modern. Fordham University Press (1998)

11 External links

Fabiani, Paolo The Philosophy of the Imagination

in Vico and Malebranche. F.U.P. (Florence UP),
Italian edition 2002, English edition 2009.

Frye, N. (1963).
The Educated Imagination.
Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Imagination, Mental Imagery, Consciousness, and

Cognition: Scientic, Philosophical and Historical
Approaches

Norman, Ron (2000) Cultivating Imagination in

Adult Education Proceedings of the 41st Annual
Adult Education Research.

Two-Factor Imagination Scale at the Open Directory Project

Salazar, Noel B. (2011). The power of imagination

in transnational mobilities. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 18(6):576-598.

Imagination on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)

12
12.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Imagination Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagination?oldid=729836497 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, Lexor, Pizza Puzzle,

Stone, Jusjih, Daggerbox, Goethean, Shikuz, Academic Challenger, Cek, Ancheta Wis, Kenny sh, Micru, Yekrats, Jackol, Edcolins,
Quadell, Mormegil, Discospinster, Vsmith, Notinasnaid, Mani1, Bender235, Aranel, Reneld, Deathawk, Stesmo, Longhair, Arcadian,
Trevj, MPerel, Sam Korn, Pearle, Ranveig, Gary, Water Bottle, Ott, Hijiri88, Mel Etitis, Woohookitty, Uncle G, MattGiuca, Lincher,
Thruston, SCEhardt, Pictureuploader, Johan Lont, Kbdank71, Rjwilmsi, Jiohdi, Kalogeropoulos, Yamamoto Ichiro, Nihiltres, JdforresterBot, HurriSbezu, BMF81, Bgwhite, YurikBot, RobotE, Sceptre, RussBot, Flo98, Darker Dreams, Chichui, Bota47, Denis C., Kelovy,
Lt-wiki-bot, Fang Aili, LeonardoRob0t, Junglecat, Yusuf mumtaz, SmackBot, Lestrade, C.Fred, Edgar181, Fosterp, Oneismany, Bongowurm, Roscelese, SchftyThree, ACupOfCoee, Mladilozof, Japeo, Aldaron, Severinus, Byelf2007, BrownHairedGirl, JorisvS, RomanSpa, RandomCritic, Optimale, Lucid, Wolfdog, Sadalmelik, Steroid Expert, Juhachi, ShelfSkewed, Penbat, Julian Mendez, Christian75, Silentghost, Omicronpersei8, Letranova, Vertium, Dr. Blofeld, Doc Tropics, Danger, JAnDbot, Bencherlite, ' l, Fusionmix, Tedickey, BrianGV, Dilane, April Regina, Ciar, JaGa, Oroso, Antbelcastro, Robert Daoust, Arjun01, Mtevfrog, Trusilver, Tikiwont, Maurice Carbonaro, Eaglesondouglas, Kpmiyapuram, MTCown, IdLoveOne, BrokenSphere, Lordofring, NewEnglandYankee, Trilobitealive,
SJP, KylieTastic, Cometstyles, Philip Trueman, TXiKiBoT, CrazyPilot86, Sintaku, Ontoraul, Ismail 666, Greswik, Andrewaskew, Lova
Falk, Falcon8765, Soulgany, Brian Dare, Overtheblock, Jean-Louis Swiners, SieBot, Caltas, August Dominus, Flyer22 Reborn, Alethe,
Sanya3, Filam3nt, Finkefamily, Prowlgrrl, Martarius, ClueBot, SummerWithMorons, Roxy2k7, Treharne, Jackollie, Fyyer, The Thing
That Should Not Be, Herakles01, Arakunem, Mild Bill Hiccup, Scotfritz, TheOldJacobite, Phenylalanine, Excirial, CohesionBot, Faireldfencer, 7&6=thirteen, Razorame, MATRIX, Jengirl1988, XLinkBot, SilvonenBot, NellieBly, Adrian Scholl, Addbot, Some jerk on
the Internet, DougsTech, Jncraton, Looie496, Hans-Werner34, Ccacsmss, Aaronaaronaaron, Tide rolls, Noumenon, Jobytones, Luckasbot, Yobot, Inninati, AnomieBOT, Jim1138, Materialscientist, Bob Burkhardt, Xqbot, Bklee93, Bellicosek, The Evil IP address, J04n,
GrouchoBot, Omnipaedista, In fact, Imrich96, Aaron Kauppi, Prari, Zachalope, Paine Ellsworth, Skunksforever, Citation bot 1, Vicenarian, Baboshed, Heptadecagon, Jusses2, MastiBot, Turian, Lotje, LilyKitty, BlueEyedByrd, Tinystui, AXRL, EmausBot, Thedeepestblue,
Orphan Wiki, Mundomundi, Tommy2010, ZroBot, MithrandirAgain, Anir1uph, MindShifts, A930913, Monterey Bay, ChuispastonBot,
Herk1955, ClueBot NG, 570ad, O.Koslowski, Rezabot, M.Faye, Pooja1126, JBlore, DBigXray, BG19bot, AvocatoBot, Himmelssch,
Terrencereilly, JamesGroove, FinallyEditingWithAUsername, Shaun, BattyBot, EvilJerkGuy, Nathanielrst, Argon&Helium, Makecatbot, Dluttrell87, Remoteplanet, Ajd626, Monkbot, IvanZhilin, This is who i love to be yall, KasparBot, Josephine Snow, Anthonyjlopez
and Anonymous: 223

12.2

Images

File:Imagination-Warner-Highsmith.jpeg
Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/
Imagination-Warner-Highsmith.jpeg License: Public domain Contributors: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,
LC-DIG-highsm-03137 (original digital le), uncompressed archival TIFF version (95 MB), cropped and converted to JPEG with the
GIMP 2.4.5, image quality 88. Original artist: Artist is Olin Levi Warner (18441896). Photographed in 2007 by Carol Highsmith
(1946), who explicitly placed the photograph in the public domain.
File:Lock-green.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg License: CC0 Contributors: en:File:
Free-to-read_lock_75.svg Original artist: User:Trappist the monk
File:Nicolas_P._Rougier{}s_rendering_of_the_human_brain.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/
Nicolas_P._Rougier%27s_rendering_of_the_human_brain.png License: GPL Contributors: http://www.loria.fr/~{}rougier Original artist:
Nicolas Rougier
File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007
File:Wikiquote-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg License: Public domain
Contributors: Own work Original artist: Rei-artur
File:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Contributors: Rei-artur Original artist: Nicholas Moreau
File:Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg License: CC BYSA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Dan Polansky based on work currently attributed to Wikimedia Foundation but originally
created by Smurrayinchester

12.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0