Conception is the recognition of the universal from the particulars it unifies. Conception is the name of the process which results in concepts or general notions.
Concepts are formed by comparison and abstraction. It is the recognition of the universal that is essential for conception. (The presence of the universal and the consciousness of that presence are two totally different things.)
 
CONCEPTION AND PERCEPTION

Every fact is an individual existence possessing some properties in common with and some properties different from,other facts.It is partly the same as and partly different from other. It has a commoner character which is only realised along with certain differences.’In other words,every particular fact is an identity in difference. In conception we have to bring out the universal, lift the identity from its concrete setting of difference, and mentally grasp the universal notion. It differs from perception only in complexity and clearness.

In a percept the universal is found in an obscure and vague mass of difference which is wrapped around it.The two,the universal and the particular are indistinguishably blended.It requires an effort of mind to discriminate them and hold fast the universal. (Conception is thus the thinking of the universal itself.)

In a percept the universal is present, but in a concept we become conscious of it it i5 also plain that the universal by itself has no objective existence. It is found in reality on along with other certain differences. Hence conception is an intelligible and not a sensible synthesis.

The distinction between conception and perception is one of degree,and not of kind. In a percept the universal is present,but is obscured on account of the differences that surround it.The universal is wrapped up in a mass of particularity. It is an identity hidden.In a concept the identity is removed from its concrete setting and viewed by itself .The identity is distinguished from difference.

Though the identity is present in the percept,we are not able to recognize it there,where as in a concept we become conscious of its existence.In a concept the identity is lifted from the background and and brought into the foreground implicitly contained in a percept is explicitly brought out in the concept. The difference is therefore ,one between vague and clear,implicit and explicit.

To hold, therefore, that the two differ in kind and not in degree and that conception gives us universals while perception gives us particulars wrong.The universal nature is then discovered and not produced. It is lying in the percept and not born of thought.
Perception and conception are different stages in the development of intelligence, differing only in degree of clearness.
 
CONCEPT AND IMAGE

The distinction between the two is one of structure and function Image is the sensory content,the ”that” or psychical presentation; while the concept is the outward reference, or meaning,the “what’ or identical reference indicated by the image. Eg: “The rose is withered”
Images: Image of the rose, image of its smell, its appearance.

But these images enable us to refer to the same outward obiect.It is possible for to us to pursue the same line of thought in spite of differences in the mental imagery. It is because the function of an image is only to signify or symbolize the external reality Somerneaning the image has to convey. The meaning of rose can be conveyed either by the smell image or the word image or the visual image.

Certain psychologists put forward the theory of “generic images” A generic image is an image possessing a distinct centre corresponding to the universals or the common properties of a class are like composite photographs in which certain features come out strongly, while the differences are left vague. There are serious objections to this theory. Introspective examination reveals no such general images The neural processes underlying the formation of such images is hard to conceive.

Besides it is a well-known fact that it is not possible for us to image all aspects of the object. Some are good visualizes while some are not. In the power of imaging individuals differ, and this fact is not taken into account by these theorists.