Page "Mind" Paragraph 15

Imagination is the activity of generating or evoking novel situations, images, ideas or other qualia in the mind.

It is a characteristically subjective activity, rather than a direct or passive experience.

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 conflicts 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.

Things that are imagined are said to be seen in the " mind's eye ".

Among the many practical functions of imagination are the ability to project possible futures ( or histories ), to " see " things from another's perspective, and to change the way something is perceived, including to make decisions to respond to, or enact, what is imagined.