Chap 10 Visual Imagery Flashcards
Visual Imagery
seeing in the absence of a visual stimulus.
ex: seeing the ocean in California standing a top of a mountain
Mental Imagery
ability to recreate the sensory world in the absence of physical stimuli. Occurs in other senses besides vision.
Imageless thought debate:
Is thinking possible without images?
Paired-Associate Learning
ex:
Two unrelated words
Tree + Boat > Ps had to remember them together by visualizing or just repetition.
Paivio (1963,65) – Memory
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.
Conceptual-“peg” hypothesis
abstract word can “hang” on concrete word.
Shepard and Meltzer (1971)
Mental Chronometry
measure of time, one of the first quantitative methods to to study imagery.
Imagery + perception share the same mechanisms
Kosslyn (1973) -
Mental Scanning
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.
Result of Kosslyn (1973)
It took longer for participants to mentally move long distances than short distances.
IMAGERY SHOULD ALWAYS BE SPATIAL
Lea (1975) Distractions
“As subjects scanned, they may have encountered other interesting parts (distractions), and it may have increased their reaction time.”
Kosslyn (1975) Second Mental Scanning Experiment
Scan between two places on a map.
Result: Took longer to scan between greater distances. Visual imagery is spatial.
Pylyshyn (1973) – Imagery Debate
A debate about whether imagery is based on spatial mechanisms (pictures) or on mechanisms related to symbols or language, called propositional mechanisms.
epiphenomenon
something that accompanies the real mechanism but is not actually part of the mechanism
Pylyshyn (2003)
“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.
tacit-knowledge explanation
it states that subjects unconsciously use knowledge about the world in making their judgements.
Finke and Pinker (1982) : Four - Dot Display Task
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.
Mental-walk task
Imagine if they were walking toward their mental image of an animal. “How close do we have to get?”
Images are spatial, like perception.
Imagery and the Brain
Neurons respond to both perceiving and imagining an object.
overlap in brain activation ; fMRI
Visual cortex.
LeBihan et al. (1993) – Perception and imagery activate the visual cortex.
Uses fMRI, shows overlap in brain activation.
Unilateral neglect
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.
Differences in experiences
- Perception is automatic + stable.
2. Imagery takes more effort and is more fragile.
Chalmers and Reisberg (1985)
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)
Method of Loci - Greek Poet: Simonides
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)
Pegword Technique
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.
