What is imagination?
It seems like imagination is able to conjure up completely new material, defying the prospect that the brain can only use what it’s received as input. But does it really?
Anything you are capable of imagining, is actually only constructed from pieces of memories. Any image of imagination is only comprised of images you’ve seen in the past. Same with sound, smell, etc. You can perhaps imagine the image of something which seems new overall, but it is simply a new combination of different pieces taken from different memories of images.
Since imagination is limited to memories, any individuals sensory capabilities dictate the maximum scope of their imagination. This is why you cannot imagine any color that you have never seen. Many more colors exist, but you can’t imagine what they would look like. Or why a person blind from birth, cannot imagine what sight is like. They can’t imagine any image at all, since they have never experienced sight, in order to record memories of images. A human can’t imagine what it’s like for a tracking dog to smell the area of the ground that a specific animal ran through 3 hours ago. Our senses only give us a small array of elements there are to be detected. If we were to expand our sensory capabilities, there could be an entirely new perspective of this world to “see” and imagine.
If imagination, is generally making new combinations, using pieces of past memories, this should be an important function in order for someone to be have a high general intelligence, or effective ability to problem solve in the situation of new variables. If general intelligence is basically the ability to understand and comprehend varying information that they acquire, and potentially apply it to new circumstances, then imagining new combinations of past information, to potentially be applied to the new circumstances, would be required. Problem solving is virtually the same concept, involving memories of cause and effect of variables, as the pieces of which to combine for the new scenario.
It seems that imagination requires an effective ability to take portions of past memories and combine them. This is an ability almost exclusive to humans and the use of intelligent comprehension, to access memories of cause and effect of past circumstances, for application in a new scenario. This conscious thought process, is rather than the process of quick subconscious reaction. Animals subconscious reaction process, utilizes minimal imagination. As subconscious uses much more basic overall memories, the brain is making much fewer new combinations (if any) using portions of memories. Without the conscious advantage of dissecting memories, there is little to no pieces of memories for subconscious to combine for problem solving or imagination.
The ones who have the most expansive imagination of all, seem to be children. As children are gaining tons of new information daily, mindsets are not set in yet. Without time for repetition of use of memories in certain situations, the brain is able to make lots of new connections between various parts of memories, to make new combinations. As children get older, and use certain neural pathways more often, since certain combinations of memories prove to be effective, fewer new connections occur between portions of memories.
Subconscious reaction of preset combinations of memories can be time efficient for many scenarios in life, but when it comes to problem solving, innovation, making sense of new variables, or even just amusement, the advantages of conscious imagination can go as far as you can imagine.
