Mental Visualization Exercises
These exercises use a candle, an apple, and number sequences to practice forming and manipulating mental images. They offer prompts for attention and imagination, rather than a demonstrated program for improving general memory.
THE IDEA
Mental Visualization Exercises
- Candle. Sit quietly, close your eyes, and imagine a candle in front of you. Consider its size, color, distance, and how much wax remains. Is it lit? Can you picture the movement of the flame?
You can also look at a real candle, close your eyes, and try to recall its shape and details. Notice any afterimage without confusing it with a deliberately constructed image. Compare what you recall with the object. If visual imagery is faint or absent, you can still describe the features you remember.
- Apple. Imagine an apple’s color, shape, skin, and ripeness. Picture taking a bite. What sound would it make? What texture and taste do you expect? Compare its sweetness with another familiar food, such as honey.
Place the imagined apple somewhere specific: on a table, near a door, or in a fruit basket. Move it and track how its position changes relative to the room. You can add a person picking it up and taking a bite, then imagine the sounds and movements involved.
As a separate exercise, picture the route a swallowed piece takes through the digestive system. This is an imagined model, not a way to observe what your organs are doing. Use what you know about the process and check any uncertain steps against a reliable explanation.
- Number sequences. Picture the written symbol for seven. You might also imagine a group of seven apples or birds. Move forward and backward through consecutive numbers while keeping each symbol in mind.
Next, skip every other number. Move forward from seven to nine, eleven, and so on, or backward from seven to five and three. If you reach 21 before losing track, reverse the sequence: nineteen, seventeen, fifteen, thirteen, eleven, and so on. Choose a manageable stopping point and notice when maintaining the sequence becomes difficult.
When to use it
Practice recalling details of a familiar object and compare the recollection with the object.
Preparing for a public speech by visualizing the stage and audience.
Learning complex subjects by imagining processes step-by-step, like the digestion of an apple.
Enhancing creativity by constructing detailed mental scenes for problem-solving.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Candle Exercise
Imagine a candle and describe its size, shape, color, and position. Compare the mental image with a real candle, distinguishing remembered details from an afterimage.
Apple Exercise
Imagine an apple’s appearance, then taking a bite and noticing its expected sound, texture, and taste. Move the apple to different places in an imagined room.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
How detailed can you make your mental image of a simple object like a candle? Can you perceive its texture and weight?
Which aspects of the apple are easiest to imagine: appearance, taste, texture, or sound? Which remain vague?
How does skipping numbers in sequence challenge your working memory? How can this be applied to improve mental focus?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Thinking in Systems and Mental Models Think Like a Super Thinker (Dawson, Marcus P)