It is now many years since I first came across the idea of the model in the mind. I imagined an old time pioneer moving westward with his family in a covered wagon as the North American continent opened up to those seeking fresh lands to harvest. In my mind's eye I could see him stopping one day and telling his family 'Here we stay. There we shall build our cabin. There we shall sow our corn. We shall take our water from the creek flowing there through the hollow.' In other words, that imaginary old time pioneer had observed the lie of the land and constructed a mental image of how it could be changed. This is how he made his plans for his future. This is how the model in the mind worked. How it could be applied to the crucial stages of our own lives. This morning I came across something not quite the same. I was reading Steven Rose (2005) The 21st century brain. On page 30 of the 2006 Vintage paperback edition he draws attention to the way in which an organism builds up its assessment of the external world and responds by making its response based on that assessment. So far, so good. But, as I ponder on the implications of Rose's words, it strikes me that how each of us actually sees the external world depends very much on the mental attitude conditioning the way we look. For one, the view of an overnight fall of snow proposes a dismal picture of an impending struggle to get to the shops to buy a loaf of bread. For another, the vision is of a sparkling pristine landscape stretching out to a brilliant eternity. My thoughts stray to the observation of a particle - or is it a wave? I now recognise just how much the presence of the observer determines what is seen - and that in the case of us humans, we can choose to look on the bright side, or ignore it. [Here endeth the lesson. I had not intended to build me a pulpit.] © francis cameron, oxford, 10 february 2010
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