If one is to “make up his mind,” he must cast about in his brain and see what type of mind he possesses; then he will be better able to develop his brain along the lines of its truest advancement. Of course, there are the well-known temperaments, but the kinds of intellects are not so fully recognized. In general, minds are either visual, auditory, or actual.
The visual type of mind is common to all, although some have better powers of visualizing. To test your mind along visual lines, note what you do when you try to recall a telephone-number. Do you say, “three—five, six, four, or do you actually see in imagination the 3, the 5, the 6 and 4? Or, when you attempt to fix such a number in your mind, do you repeat until you get the sound of it, or do you look at the numbers until they make a kind of arithmetical picture?
The visual mind keeps snap-shots of names, numbers, and die like, so that they move their eyes rather than their lips when they strive to recollect. Those who have visual minds will succeed in drawing and painting, in sciences which require exact calculation. When they come to write, they may have to borrow 11 rom the auditory mind, but they will translate mental sounds in mental pictures.
The auditory mind is found in public speakers as also in writers, while others make use of the sound of die name, thing, or number to fix it in their minds. A public speaker has sometimes the feeling that a sort of mental prompter stands behind him telling him what to say, while certain writers have the imaginary experience of having their sentences dictated to them by another self within the mind.
The actual mind which is found in skilled artisans, holds ideas by recalling the movements made when those ideas were expressed in words or forms. How often, in trying to recall a name, do you not take a pencil and try to write it, as though your memory conserved the muscular activities involved in writing the word. Typists and pianists cultivate the actual mind, and are guided to their ideas by means of habitual movements of the muscles.Make up your mind! You have all three forms, but one of these must be most typical with you.
