In fact, it is evident that in this mode of recognition we have the transition from common perception to individual recollection.[8] While we may thus distinguish different steps in the process of visual recognition, we may make a further distinction, marking off a passive and an active stage in the process.

The one may be called the stage of preperception, the other that of perception proper.[9] In the first the mind holds itself in a passive attitude, except in so far as the energies of external attention are involved.

The impression here awakens the mental images which answer to past experiences according to the well-known laws of association.

The interpretative image which is to transform the impression into a percept is now being formed by a mere process of suggestion.
When the image is thus formed, the mind may be said to enter upon a more active stage, in which it now views the impression through the image, or applies this as a kind of mould or framework to the impression.

This appears to involve an intensification of the mental image, transforming it from a representative to a presentative mental state, making it approximate somewhat to the full intensity of the sensation.