Chap 10 Visual Imagery

Question 1

Visual Imagery

Answer 1

seeing in the absence of a visual stimulus.

ex: seeing the ocean in California standing a top of a mountain

Question 2

Mental Imagery

Answer 2

ability to recreate the sensory world in the absence of physical stimuli. Occurs in other senses besides vision.

Question 3

Imageless thought debate:

Answer 3

Is thinking possible without images?

Question 4

Paired-Associate Learning

Answer 4

ex:
Two unrelated words
Tree + Boat > Ps had to remember them together by visualizing or just repetition.

Question 5

Paivio (1963,65) – Memory

Answer 5

Memory for words that evoke mental images is better than those that do not = CONCRETE vs. ABSTRACT (tree + freedom)

It is easier to remember concrete words. Used paired-associate learning.

Question 6

Conceptual-“peg” hypothesis

Answer 6

abstract word can “hang” on concrete word.

Question 7

Shepard and Meltzer (1971)

Mental Chronometry

Answer 7

measure of time, one of the first quantitative methods to to study imagery.

Imagery + perception share the same mechanisms

Question 8

Kosslyn (1973) -

Mental Scanning

Answer 8

Subjects create mental images ad scan them in their minds.

Asked subjects to memorize a picture of an object, such as a boat, and then create an image of that object in their mind and to focus on one part of the boat, such as the anchor.

Question 9

Result of Kosslyn (1973)

Answer 9

It took longer for participants to mentally move long distances than short distances.

IMAGERY SHOULD ALWAYS BE SPATIAL

Question 10

Lea (1975) Distractions

Answer 10

“As subjects scanned, they may have encountered other interesting parts (distractions), and it may have increased their reaction time.”

Question 11

Kosslyn (1975) Second Mental Scanning Experiment

Answer 11

Scan between two places on a map.

Result: Took longer to scan between greater distances. Visual imagery is spatial.

Question 12

Pylyshyn (1973) – Imagery Debate

Answer 12

A debate about whether imagery is based on spatial mechanisms (pictures) or on mechanisms related to symbols or language, called propositional mechanisms.

Question 13

epiphenomenon

Answer 13

something that accompanies the real mechanism but is not actually part of the mechanism

Question 14

Pylyshyn (2003)

Answer 14

“When asked to imagine something, people ask themselves what it would look like to see it, and simulate it as many aspects of this staged event as they can.”

ex: We know Montana is farther from MI than Minnesota > don’t need to imagine it.

Question 15

tacit-knowledge explanation

Answer 15

it states that subjects unconsciously use knowledge about the world in making their judgements.

Question 16

Finke and Pinker (1982) : Four - Dot Display Task

Answer 16

Ps took longer to respond for greater distances between the arrow and the dot. Results similar to scanning experiences.

Not instructed use visual imagery. No time to memorize, no tacit knowledge.

Question 17

Mental-walk task

Answer 17

Imagine if they were walking toward their mental image of an animal. “How close do we have to get?”

Images are spatial, like perception.

Question 18

Imagery and the Brain

Answer 18

Neurons respond to both perceiving and imagining an object.

overlap in brain activation ; fMRI
Visual cortex.

Question 19

LeBihan et al. (1993) – Perception and imagery activate the visual cortex.

Answer 19

Uses fMRI, shows overlap in brain activation.

Question 20

Unilateral neglect

Answer 20

Due to damage of parietal lobes – patient ignores objects in one half of visual field in perception and imagery.

Generally left side is neglected because of damage to the right side.

Question 21

Differences in experiences

Answer 21

1. Perception is automatic + stable.

2. Imagery takes more effort and is more fragile.

Question 22

Chalmers and Reisberg (1985)

Answer 22

Create mental images of ambiguous figures.

Result: Ps had difficulty to flip from one perception to another while holding a mental image of it.

ex: duck on rabbit picture. (the illusion)

Question 23

Method of Loci - Greek Poet: Simonides

Answer 23

A method in which things to be remembered are placed at different locations in a mental image of a spatial layout.

ex: Familiar spatial layout.

Grocery store shopping can be your home or grocery store (grocery list items)

Question 24

Pegword Technique

Answer 24

Associate items to be remembered with concrete words.

pair each of these with a pegword. “tree-three, four-door, etc”

create a vivid image of things to be remembered with object represented by the word.