Chapter 10: Visual Imagery

Question 1

mental imagery

Answer 1

experiencing a sensory impression int he absence of sensory input

Question 2

visual imagery

Answer 2

“seeing” in the absence of a visual stimulus, provides a way of thinking that adds another dimension to purely verbal techniques.

Question 3

early ideas about imagery

Answer 3

imageless thought debate, is thinking possible without images

Question 4

imagery and the cognitive revolution

Answer 4

developed ways to measure behavior that could be used to infer cognitive processes, paired-associate learning

Question 5

Paivio experiment

Answer 5

memory for words that evoke mental images is better than for those that do not, conceptual peg hypothesis. Concrete vs. abstract words -

Question 6

Shepard and Metzler experiment

Answer 6

mental chronometry, participants mentally rotated one object to see if it matched another object

Question 7

mental scanning

Answer 7

participants create mental images and then scan them in their minds

Question 8

Kosslyn boat experiment

Answer 8

memorize picture and create an image of it. In the image, move from one part of the picture to the other. It took longer for participants to mentally move long distances than shorter distances. Imagery is spatial.

Question 9

Lea experiment

Answer 9

more distractions when scanning longer distances may have increased the reaction time, interesting things encountered during the mental scan are responsible for these distractions.

Question 10

Kosslyn and coworkers island experiment

Answer 10

island with seven locations, 21 trips. It took longer to scan between greater distances, visual imagery is spatial.

Question 11

Pylyshyn experiment

Answer 11

spacial representation is an epiphenomenon, it accompanies real mechanisms but it not actually a part of it. Proposed that imagery is propositional - can be represented by abstract symbols.

Question 12

Imagery debate

Answer 12

propositional representation - symbols, language.
Depictive representation - similar to realistic pictures

Question 13

comparing imagery and perception

Answer 13

relationship between viewing distance and ability to perceive details. Imagine small object next to large object, quicker to detect details on the larger object.

Question 14

Mental walk task

Answer 14

move closer to small animals than to large animals, images are spatial, like perception.

Question 15

Pylyshyn experiment

Answer 15

Kosslyn’s results can be explained by using real-world knowledge unconsciously - Tacit-knowledge explanation.

Question 16

Finke and pinker experiment

Answer 16

Participants judge whether arrow points to dot previously seen. Longer reaction time when greater distance between arrow and dot. Not instructed to use visual imagery. No time to memorize, no tacit knowledge.

Question 17

Perky experiment

Answer 17

mistake actual picture for a mental image, dim images were projected onto screen in front of participant.

Question 18

Imagery and the brain

Answer 18

imagery neurons respond to both perceiving and imagining an object, overlap in brain activity and involves visual cortex.

Question 19

Le Bihan and coworkers experiment

Answer 19

found overlap in brain activation, and use of visual cortex. Studied brain activity using fMRI, activity increases to presentation of a visual stimulus and also increases when participants were imagining the stimulus.

Question 20

Ganis and coworkers experiment

Answer 20

complete overlap of activation by perception and imagery in front of the brain, difference near back of the brain.

Question 21

Amedi and coworkers experiment

Answer 21

overlap of activation, deactivation of non-visual areas of brain (hearing and touch), mental images are more fragile and less activation keeps other things from interfering.

Question 22

Brain response in response to imagery

Answer 22

may indicate something is happening, may not cause imagery.

Question 23

transcranial magnetic stimulation

Answer 23

decrease brain functioning in a particular area of the brain for a short time. If behavior is disrupted, the deactivated part of the brain is causing that behavior

Question 24

Kosslyn and coworkers experiment

Answer 24

TMS to visual area of brain during perception and imagery task, response time slower for both, brain activity in visual area of brain plays a causal role for both perception and imagery.

Question 25

Unilateral neglect

Answer 25

patient ignores objects in one half of visual field in perception and imagery.

Question 26

Guariglia and coworkers experiment

Answer 26

brain-damaged patient, patient’s perceptions intact, but mental images were impaired.

Question 27

R.M.

Answer 27

damage to occipital and parietal lobes, could draw accurate pictures of objects in front of him, could not draw accurate pictures of objects from memory.

Question 28

C.K.

Answer 28

inability to name pictures of objects, even his own drawings, in front of him, could draw objects in great detail from memory.

Question 29

evidence of double dissociation

Answer 29

imagery and perception have separate mechanisms and some shared mechanisms.

Question 30

Behrmann and coworkers experiment

Answer 30

mechanisms partially overlap, visual perception involves bottom-up processing; located at lower and higher visual centers, imagery is a top-down process; located at higher visual centers. Explains C.K. and R.M. but not M.G.S.

Question 31

Differences in experience - imagery/perception

Answer 31

perception is automatic and stable, but imagery takes effort and is fragile.

Question 32

Chalmers and Reisberg experiment

Answer 32

had participants create mental images of ambiguous figures, difficult to flip from one perception to another while holding a mental image of it.

Question 33

method of loci

Answer 33

placing images at locations, visualizing items to be remembered in different locations in a mental image of a spatial layout.

Question 34

Pegword technique

Answer 34

associating images with words, associate items to be remembered with concrete words, pair each of these things with a pegword, create a vivid image of things to be remembered with the object represented by the word.