Operational Thought and Symbolic Imagery

Abstract

It may seem otiose to try to revive the old problem of imagery in thinking since Binet, Marbe, and Külpe have shown that thought without images is possible, and especially since certain opponents of associationism have gone so far as to deny the very existence of mental imagery. However, contemporary psychology, on the basis of data obtained by neurophysiologic and other experimental methods, has broken with the tradition, according to which the image is a residue of perceptions, and has raised imagery to the rank of a signifier. Thus, the genesis of symbolic imagery is seen in a new light.