Is the faculty of forming new ideas, or images, or concepts of external objects or ideas not present to the senses. Imagination is the true form of intelligence in humankind according to Montessori. It is imagination that brings the human mind to abstraction. (Boehnlein)

“Imagination is the true form of the intelligence of man. It is always there in this form. If man did not have imagination, he would have the same intelligence animals have, only in a larger amount…However, man is capable of an inner activity. He can imagine things that are not present and create these things. This form of intelligence has no limits… Among all the animals, only man possesses this gift…It is imagination that enables us to acquire our culture, to retain the images that we gather in our minds, and to construct with these images It also enables us to see that which is not there…to see those things that are not in front of our eyes. This is what distinguishes man from animals, the ability to see that which is not there…we have the possibility of reconstruction that allows our intelligence to go far beyond the limits of sensorial impressions.” (Montessori, Maria, The 1946 London Lectures, pp. 171-174)