"... mano nesa.m gocara-visaya.m paccanubhoti"
"mano enjoys the function-spheres of the other senses"
Mahavedalla sutta M. I.295
and on the other hand, it uses the memory:
“Manassa pana, bho gotama, ki.m pa.tisara.nan”ti? “manassa kho, braahma.na, sati pa.tisaran”ti.
Unnabha-brahmana sutta, S. V.217
To understand better the function of 'mano', it is necessary to remember Samkhya model, where 'mano' is an integrative faculty for five other senses, which uses the accumulation of previous experience (ahamkara). (See Samkhya chart in attachment to this message).
Besides these there is also a sixth ('mental') sense:
* mano-vijñana: thought-consciousness or intellect, the consciousness of psychic formations which also includes the psychic activities of vedana (perception); samjña (cognition); and samskara (volition).
Mano-vijñana than functions as the centralizing factor for thought and experience, but not without the interaction (feed-back) with the other consciousness aspects. This stage of consciousness is the working of discursive, conceptual, discriminative thought, which not only processes data from the 'outside' according to a 'manas' program, but which also continuously adds its 'own interpretation' to this experiential data.
From a good article on Samkhya by Dan Lusthaus:
The empirical mind (manas) interprets the sensorium, coordinating the discrete sense fields (audition, vision, etc.) into coherent experience.
http://www.acmuller.net/yogacara/school ... ya-uni.htm
Mano synthesizes the data of five senses and former experience together, creating a model of reality, in the light of which new data are interpreted by recognition (saññā).
The noun 'mano' corresponds to the verb "maññati" (Vedic manyate, manute) - deem, imagine, consider.
"Citta is so named because it accumulates (cinoti); named manas because it knows (manute); named vij~naana because it distinguishes its object (aalambana.m vijaanaati).
http://www.buddhismtoday.com/english/ph ... efence.htm
This leads to conclusion the function of mano is to construct in imagination a mental model of sphere where attention is focused.