The Questions that I circulated were as follows; there was an earlier and uncomplete form, which I need not reproduce here.
The object of these Questions is to elicit the degree in which different persons possess the power of seeing images in their mind's eye, and of reviving past sensations.
From inquiries I have already made, it appears that remarkable variations exist both in the strength and in the quality of these faculties, and it is highly probable that a statistical inquiry into them will throw light upon more than one psychological problem.
Before addressing yourself to any of the Questions on the opposite page, think of some definite object--suppose it is your breakfast-table as you sat down to it this morning--and consider carefully the picture that rises before your mind's eye.
1. _Illumination_.--Is the image dim or fairly clear? Is its brightness comparable to that of the actual scene?
2. _Definition_.--Are all the objects pretty well defined at the same time, or is the place of sharpest definition at any one moment more contracted than it is in a real scene?
3. _Colouring_.--Are the colours of the china, of the toast, bread crust, mustard, meat, parsley, or whatever may have been on the table, quite distinct and natural?
4. _Extent of field of view_.--Call up the image of some panoramic view (the walls of your room might suffice), can you force yourself to see mentally a wider range of it than could be taken in by any single glance of the eyes? Can you mentally see more than three faces of a die, or more than one hemisphere of a globe at the same instant of time?
5. _Distance of images_.--Where do mental images appear to be situated? within the head, within the eye-ball, just in front of the eyes, or at a distance corresponding to reality? Can you project an image upon a piece of paper?
6. _Command over images_.--Can you retain a mental picture steadily before the eyes? When you do so, does it grow brighter or dimmer? When the act of retaining it becomes wearisome, in what part of the head or eye-ball is the fatigue felt?
7. _Persons_.--Can you recall with distinctness the features of all near relations and many other persons? Can you at will cause your mental image of any or most of them to sit, stand, or turn slowly round? Can you deliberately seat the image of a well-known person in a chair and see it with enough distinctness to enable you to sketch it leisurely (supposing yourself able to draw)?
8. _Scenery_.--Do you preserve the recollection of scenery with much precision of detail, and do you find pleasure in dwelling on it? Can you easily form mental pictures from the descriptions of scenery that are so frequently met with in novels and books of travel?
9. _Comparison with reality_.--What difference do you perceive between a very vivid mental picture called up in the dark, and a real scene? Have you ever mistaken a mental image for a reality when in health and wide awake?
10. _Numerals and dates_.--Are these invariably associated in your mind with any peculiar mental imagery, whether of written or printed figures, diagrams, or colours? If so, explain fully, and say if you can account for the association?
11.--_Specialities_.--If you happen to have special aptitudes for mechanics, mathematics (either geometry of three dimensions or pure analysis), mental arithmetic, or chess-playing blindfold, please explain fully how far your processes depend on the use of visual images, and how far otherwise?
12. Call up before your imagination the objects specified in the six following paragraphs, numbered A to F, and consider carefully whether your mental representation of them generally, is in each group very faint, faint, fair, good, or vivid and comparable to the actual sensation:--
A. _Light and colour_.--An evenly clouded sky (omitting all landscape), first bright, then gloomy. A thick surrounding haze, first white, then successively blue, yellow, green, and red.
B. _Sound_.--The beat of rain against the window panes, the crack of a whip, a church bell, the hum of bees, the whistle of a railway, the clinking of tea-spoons and saucers, the slam of a door.
C. _Smells_.--Tar, roses, an oil-lamp blown out, hay, violets, a fur coat, gas, tobacco.
D. _Tastes_.--Salt, sugar, lemon juice, raisins, chocolate, currant jelly.
E. _Touch_.--Velvet, silk, soap, gum, sand, dough, a crisp dead leaf, the prick of a pin.
F. _Other sensations_.--Heat, hunger, cold, thirst, fatigue, fever, drowsiness, a bad cold.
13. _Music_.--Have you any aptitude for mentally recalling music, or for imagining it?
14. _At different ages_.--Do you recollect what your powers of visualising, etc., were in childhood? Have they varied much within your recollection?
_General remarks_.--Supplementary information written here, or on a separate piece of paper, will be acceptable.
