EYE-MINDEDNESS AND EAR-MIXDEDNESS. 607 



A few words should be said about those to whom action is the 

 cliief aspect of mental experience — the "motaires." I have not 

 succeeded in devising a satisfactory test for the importance of this 

 avenue of knowledge in our mental fabric, for the obvious reason 

 that it operates so generally under the guidance of the eye or (in 

 speaking) of the ear. (It would be easier to devise tests applica- 

 ble to the congenitally blind.) Even when we write or draAv with 

 closed eyes, we imagine and interpret what we do by how it will 

 look. A few hints as to the strength of this faculty can be gath- 

 ered from some of the above and similar experiments. In the 

 last test, for example, he who would be decidedly aided by writing 

 what he read would be somewhat strongly motor-minded ; while 

 this trait would be weak in one not much aided by Avriting what 

 he reads. Again, one might find the limit of memory for words, 

 sentences, etc., written from a copy and again written from dicta- 

 tion, and observe which the motor feelings aided more and how 

 much altogether ; one can also have the hand moved by another, 

 drawing a more or less complicated figure, and compare the at- 

 tempt to repeat the drawing with a similar repetition of a drawing 

 momentarily seen. These tests— for which the average of a large 

 number of trials is necessary as a standard — would be certain to 

 bring out decided " motaires," but they must be perfected before 

 they are as available and conclusive as those for ear- and eye- 

 mindedness. 



It goes without saying that every one will probably have a 

 hint (though often only a slight one) as to the sensory bent of his 

 apperceptive processes, especially any one engaged in mental 

 labor. If he is a " visionaire " he will have noted how much bet- 

 ter he remembers what he reads than what he hears ; that he often 

 remembers the position of a word on a page ; will, perhaps, have a 

 good memory for forms and faces ; will find that he can easily 

 read while talking is going on ; that he readily gets absorbed 

 when his eye is occupied ; and so on in a hundred ways. The " au- 

 ditaire " will note that a lecture impresses him more deeply than 

 a review article ; that he imagines the sounds of the words as he 

 reads or writes (and is usually thus a slow reader) ; that he re- 

 l)eats aloud what he has written to judge of its effect — he wants to 

 know how " it sounds " even when it is only to be read ; he ob- 

 serves harsh sound-combinations in style (the "visionaire" ob- 

 serves misprints) ; talking easily disturbs him when reading or 

 writing, his attention being involuntarily drawn to the conversa- 

 tion ; he may have a good memory for tunes, and so on. Those 

 who approach the motor or the indifferent type will have greater 

 dijficulty in discerning this by hap-hazard observation. The 

 above are, of course, only general descriptions ; they will be vari- 

 ously modified in individual cases, but will retain a typical ap- 



