Chapter 10 Flashcards
what is visual imagery?
seeing an object or scene in the absence of the visual stimulus
what is mental imagery?
the ability to recreate the sensory world in the absence of physical stimuli.
What are Wundt’s three elements of consciousness?
Images, sensations, and feelings.
What is the imageless thought debate?
thought is impossible without image vs thinking can occur without images
What is the behaviourists pov on visual imagery
study of imagery is unproductive because visual images are invisible and can’t be studied through behaviour
What is Paivio’s discovery on nouns
simple nouns that can be imagined (trees) are more easily remembered than abstract nouns like justice or truth
What was shepard and metzler’s visual spatial sketchpad experiment
participants have to indicate whether two pictures were the same object or not, based on the angle.
What are the results of the visual spatial sketchpad experiment?
time it took to decide that two views were of the same object was directly related to how different the angles were between the two views.
what did kosslyn’s mental scanning experiment reveal?
if imagery is spatial, then it should take longer to find parts that are located further away from the initial focus point.
what is an alternative explanation for the longer reactions times in kosslyn’s mental scanning experiment?
distractions may have caused the slower reaction times
What is Kosslyns perspective in the imagery debate?
mechanism responsible for imagery involve spatial representation
what is spatial representation?
representation in which different parts of an image can be described as corresponding to specific locations in space
What is psylyshyn’s perspective on imagery as being spatial?
just because we experience imagery as spatial, doesn’t mean that underlying representation is also spatial.
What is the Epiphenomenon?
something that accompanies the real mechanisms but is not actually part of the mechanism itself
what is propositional representation?
relationships can be represented by abstract symbols such as an equation or a statement.
what is an example of propositional representation?
“the cat is under the table” instead of showing a cat under a table.
what is the tacit knowledge explanation? and what does it debunk?
participants unconsciously use knowledge about the world in making their judgments. Attempts to counter the idea that this knowledge influences the distances we imagine in our minds.
what did finke and pinker do?
displayed dots then an arrow pointing at a dot. Participants had to determine whether an arrow was pointing at the dot. Took longer to respond when the arrow was at a longer distance. Countered the idea of tacit knowledge because they didn’t have time to memorize the distances.
what was kosslyn’s question about size and visual fields?
is viewing distance and detail perception able to occur in mental images?
What was kosslyn’s experiment to test the mental representation of distance and size in the visual field?
Experiment: imagine an elephant and a rabbit → does the rabbit have whiskers? Imagine rabbit and a fly → does the rabbit have whiskers? Questions about rabbit answered more rapidly when next to the fly.
What is the mental walk task and what does it explain?
imagining walking towards an animal until overflow: took longer to walk to smaller animals.
What was Broggin, Savazzi, and Marzi’s experiment? and what were their hypotheses?
Investigated the effect of variations in 1 visual characteristic on perception and imagery. if perception and imagery rely on overlapping representations, RTs should be similar
Broggin, Savazzi, Marzi: What was the result of their experiment?
RTs were relatively slower for stimuli with low versus high luminance, low versus high contrast, low versus high motion speed, and oblique versus vertical orientation.
What was perky’s experiment and what did it reveal?
Participants projected visual images on a screen and described the images. Back projecting a dim image. Descriptions of visual images (orientation) matched projection.
what is the difference between perception and imagery in terms of processing?
Perception relies on bottom-up and top down processes. Imagery is only top-down processes.
What did Kreiman find out about neurons?
neurons responded to some objects and not others. Example: neuron responded to a picture of a baseball and not a face. Neuron fired the same way when a person imagined a baseball
What are imagery neurons? and what did they reveal?
Neurons that fire both when stimulus is perceived and imagined. revealed a psychological mechanism for imagery. Confirmed idea relation between perception and imagery.
What happens in the brain when a person observed presentations of visual stimuli and imagined stimuli?
activity in the primary visual cortex increased.
what is the topographic organization of the visual cortex?
specific locations on a visual stimulus cause activity at specific locations in the visual cortex. Eg: looking at a small object causes activity in the back of the visual cortex.
What does perception activate more than imagery?
perception activates the occipital lobe more than imagery and both activate areas in the frontal lobe.
What did Kravitz find out about which lobes are better used to predict perception or imagery.
Activity in the occipital lobe resulted in the best predictions for what participants were perceiving. Activity in the temporal lobe was the better predictor for what they were imagining.
What was found out with patient MGS?
performed mental walk before removing right occipital lobe and after. After operation, imagined distance between her and object was farther before image took over visual field.
What are some examples of perceptual problems impacting imagery?
Unilateral neglect as a result of damage to the parietal lobes → ignores objects in one side of their visual fields.
Patients imagining an area in which they were familiar with neglected the left side of their mental images, just as they neglected the left side of their perceptions.
What did Guariglia discover about perception but neglect in mental images?
Patient RM → damage to occipital and parietal lobes. Could recognize objects and draw accurate pictures but unable to draw from memory (requires imagery). Trouble answering questions that depended on imagery.
Patient CK → perception is impaired but imagery is relatively normal. Suffered from visual agnosia → inability to visually recognize objects. Could recognize parts of objects but could not integrate them into a meaningful whole.
Was able to correctly draw the objects from memory (dependent on imagery). Can still create images because higher-level areas of the brain are still intact.
What is the role of the gaze in mental imagery?
gaze patterns during the recollection of a particular scene are remarkably similar to those measured during perception of the same scene.
How do eye movements aid in imagery?
Eye movements help to reconstruct the past by looking at the spatial location of where objects had appeared or retracing the same scanning pathway that was performed during perception.
Why do emotional images seem more real?
Emotional images are more vivid which makes them seem more real and believable.
How does emotion negatively impact images?
It becomes difficult to distinguish between real and believable events. Attention is drawn to emotion rather than other cues that distinguish images from real events.
what are ways to dissociate emotions and images?
When carrying out spatial finger tapping and imagining a negative image, the vividness rating decreased → a demonstration of retroactive interference
What is retroactive interference?
newly learned information interferes with the recall of previously learned information
What is imagery rescripting?
reframing and modifying traumatic memories. Involves imagining the memory that causes distress but altering the imagery in a way that reduces negative emotions associated with it.
