How to Improve the Mind’s Eye
The mind’s eye: the hypothetical site of visual recollection or imagination. A fairly abstract concept to be sure. Not something that is easily quantifiable, reproducible, and objectively observable by multiple people. Yet, we all know what it is when it’s mentioned. We all know that we are able to “visualize” objects, places, and people in our mind’s eye when necessary, allowing object manipulation, detailed recall, and navigation to occur without any outside input at the time. Yet, this abstract ability is rarely examined with the same scrutiny that we examine skills such as mathematics and verbal reasoning. I’d like to do that here, and put forth a pathway for developing this vitally important skill.
Mental visualization is closely related to actual visualization. By this I mean that we can only visualize what we have already seen. A newborn infant cannot visualize a building, a dragon, or an ocean, because he has received no visual input other than potentially different shades of darkness while in the womb. Only after the infant opens his eyes does it begin to receive visual information that it can later use for its internal mental imagery. In order to “see in color” in our dreams, we need to first “see in color” in reality. That is, our actual eyes must receive the input from our environment. Our mental imagery is only as good as our actual visual information. It uses the input that it receives like legos, to rebuild new images, that are all based on the original visual input received with open eyes. Therefore, someone who is blind will have imagery based on the other senses providing information to him such as texture, shape, and angles, but it will lack the colors and sharpness of a person with normal vision.
Furthermore, if we take a person who needs glasses, but place him in the stone age where no such visual aids exist, he will only receive blurry visual stimuli. Therefore, it is likely that his mental imagery will always be blurry. Without the clarity or precision of 20/20 vision, it is very difficult to imagine an accurate image forming in his mind - he is limited by his innate senses.
But even between two individuals who may both have 20/20 vision, their mind’s eye may not be identical. One person may be adept at manipulating three-dimensional objects in his mind, while the other person can picture the object, but is unable to manipulate it in her mind’s eye. One person may be able to recall a person’s face that he saw last week, while the other person can recall numerous minute details such as the amount of facial hair, the location of a birthmark, and the degree and placement of wrinkles on the face. Many of these differences began early in life, and were largely determined by attentional preferences. One person with 20/20 vision may have had an eye infection as a child. This pushed the child to prioritize tactile or auditory stimuli over visual input during this time. After the infection, a habit of prioritizing tactile or auditory stimuli may have continued, and while his vision returned to normal, his brain no longer focused on vision as the primary source of information. Over time, visual input did not receive the full attention of the child, and resultantly, his mind’s eye also lacked the detailed information necessary to reproduce accurate and detailed images. Fast forward to the present, and these two individuals with 20/20 vision now have decidedly different mental imagery abilities, largely due to a difference in focused attention that started at a young age.
This brings us to learning styles in general, which are a combination of underlying genetic sensitivities, coupled with attentional focus. If a person has poor vision, he will naturally focus less on that source of unreliable information, instead focusing on tactile and auditory inputs to guide his decisions. On the other hand, an individual with perfect vision, possibly better than 20/20, and no infections or issues during his childhood, will likely focus on visual stimuli as his chief input, with secondary considerations given to tactile and auditory stimuli. These individuals will learn better through images, videos, and graphs, rather than lectures and discussions. Without significant intervention, our learning styles quickly become fixed, largely dictating not only our abilities in certain areas, but also our careers and overall success in various domains.
If we take an individual who struggles to produce mental images, and we wish to improve this skill, we must first make sure that his input is accurate (i.e. corrective lenses, cataracts, etc.,) and secondly, refocus his attention on this stimuli as his principle means of learning about the world.
Here is an outline of how to improve someone’s mind’s eye:
Make sure that they have at least 20/20 vision through corrective lenses or surgery, and ensure that there are no other medical issues or concerns regarding their vision such as cataracts, floaters, etc.
Place them in a pitch black room in which they are familiar, with no sounds, and have them perform various simple tasks in total darkness. If not feasible, place blackout goggles on them to reduce visual input completely.
Have the person perform increasingly challenging and sophisticated tasks in complete darkness or with the blackout goggles on
Progress to having the person describe various objects using only their tactile senses, such as “describe this dresser” with the blackout goggles on
Have the person describe the layout of the room with as much detail as possible, again in complete darkness or with blackout goggles on.
Have the person move around their surroundings, performing as many tasks as possible in their daily routine in complete darkness or while wearing blackout goggles.
Eventually, the person may be mimicking the lifestyle of a blind person.
What is happening with this training?
By removing visual input, it is forcing the person to imagine what they can’t see with their actual eyes. Relying principally on tactile, and partially on auditory stimuli, they will be forced to recreate images of objects in their mind’s eye in order to be successful with these tasks. They will soon be picturing the dresser, and the bed, and the hallway, and the table, and the chair, as they bump into it and feel the texture of the wood or the fabric. Over time, they will improve in all of these tasks, and their mind’s eye will improve as well. Using mental imagery is the same reason that a blind person is able to navigate around their environment so seamlessly without bumping into things, or knocking things over.
While these exercises will go a long way towards improving the mind’s eye, it will not change the person’s habits at prioritizing tactile and auditory stimuli overnight. The person will still need to engage in many exercises and activities that focus on visual attention such as: picture recall, map recreation, drawing pictures from memory, and other activities that train the person to habitually prioritize visual input. As these tasks progress, auditory and tactile stimuli should be added, encouraging the person to prioritize visual stimuli, and “tune out” auditory and tactile stimuli to gain the most appropriate information during these exercises.
One may see an inherent trade-off involved in this sort of reprogramming of one’s sensory processing and learning style. It seems that once we prioritize one sensory modality, we inherently start to ignore the others. This is true, as attention is, by definition, limited. Portrait mode, largely popularized on modern smartphones, highlights this limited attention by trying to mimic what the human visual system does with images. The image in the forefront, or the main thing in focus (in this case the person’s face) is detailed and sharp, while the background image is blurry. Our visual system cannot process high clarity and focus on every image at the same time in our visual field, but rather must prioritize which information is most relevant. Thus, we can’t just increase our attention on everything. Instead, we must decide which type of information is most important to focus on at this time, and selectively tune out the other information temporarily.
But, returning to our original focus of the mind’s eye, we can improve this abstract skill through a series of progessive exercises and techniques. While there is not one single test that perfectly captures the ability of mental imagery, there are numerous tests that assess certain aspects of this skill. Therefore, we can apply some degree of quantitative analysis before and after the exercises to prove that the ability has been improved.
I hope that this abstract skill has become a little less daunting, and I wish anyone who wants to improve his mind’s eye great success. I guarantee that you’ll not only improve your IQ score, particularly on the visual-spatial reasoning portion of the exam, but you’ll also improve your navigational skills, and your overall visual memory. The abilities of the human mind are truly fascinating, and with a bit of effort, we can re-tune it for whatever purpose we want. Have fun with your new toy!
