ABSTRACT
Popular and more precise meanings o f ‘thinking’. ‘T hinking5 is yet ano ther w ord w hich in popular language is used w ith several different meanings. W hen looking a t a d istant vague object we m ay say, ‘I th ink i t’s a horse.’ H ere we have m erely visual sensations plus in terp retation ; and the process m ight also be labelled ‘perception’, though th a t too would be incom plete. After a day in the country we m ay lounge in a chair, m entally p icturing a beautiful river and the reflection o f the trees, and m ay say, ‘I ’m thinking o f th a t lovely river.’ This process m ay consist largely o f ‘visual im agery’. A series of associated ideas m ay ‘ru n through the head’ w ith no particu lar purpose, a type o f thinking in w hich the dullest person m ay indulge. Again a m aster, speaking to a boy who is a ttem pting to solve a p roblem in algebra, o f a kind w hich has ju s t been expounded to him , m ay say, ‘Think, boy, th ink' H ere is som ething m uch m ore than the first th ree examples. T he boy is expected to recall and apply to new facts and figures a principle or m ethod he has previously had explained to him .
