Chapter 10 Visual Imagery

Question 1

Conceptual peg hypothesis

Answer 1

A hypothesis, associated with Paivio’s dual coding theory, that states that concrete nouns create images that other words can hang on to, which enhances memory for these words.

Question 2

Degraded pictures task

Answer 2

A task in which a line drawing is degraded by omitting parts of the drawing and obscuring it with a visual noise pattern. The person’s task is to identify the object.

Question 3

Depictive representation

Answer 3

Corresponds to spatial representation. So-called because a spatial representation can be depicted by a picture.

Question 4

Epiphenomenon

Answer 4

A phenomenon that accompanies a mechanism but is not actually part of the mechanism. An example of an epiphenomenon is lights that flash on a mainframe computer as it operates.

Question 5

Imageless thought debate

Answer 5

The debate about whether thought is possible in the absence of images.

Question 6

Imagery debate

Answer 6

The debate about whether imagery is based on spatial mechanisms, such as those involved in perception, or on propositional mechanisms that are related to language.

Question 7

Imagery neuron

Answer 7

Neurons in the human brain studied by Kreiman, which fire in the same way when a person sees a picture of an object and when a person creates a visual image of the object.

Question 8

Mental chronometry

Answer 8

Determining the amount of time needed to carry out a cognitive task.

Question 9

Mental imagery

Answer 9

Experiencing a sensory impression in the absence of sensory input.

Question 10

Mental rotation task

Answer 10

A task in which a person judges whether two pictures of three-dimensional geometric objects are pictures of the same object rotated in space or are pictures of two mirror-image objects rotated in space.

Question 11

Mental scanning

Answer 11

A process of mental imagery in which a person scans a mental image in his or her mind.

Question 12

Mental walk task

Answer 12

A task used in imagery experiments in which participants are asked to form a mental image of an object and to imagine that they are walking toward this mental image.

Question 13

Method of loci

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Object imagery

Answer 14

The ability to image visual details, features, or objects.

Question 15

Paired-associate learning

Answer 15

A learning task in which participants are first presented with pairs of words, then one word of each pair is presented and the task is to recall the other word.

Question 16

Paper folding task (PFT)

Answer 16

A test in which a piece of paper is folded and then pierced by a pencil to create a hole. The task is to determine, from a number of alternatives, where the holes will be on the unfolded piece of paper.

Question 17

Pegword technique

Answer 17

A method for remembering things in which the things to be remembered are associated with concrete words.

Question 18

Propositional representation

Answer 18

A representation in which relationships are represented by symbols, as when the words of a language represent objects and the relationships between objects.

Question 19

Spatial imagery

Answer 19

The ability to image spatial relations.

Question 20

Spatial representation

Answer 20

A representation in which different parts of an image can be described as corresponding to specific locations in space.

Question 21

Topographic map

Answer 21

Each point on a visual stimulus causes activity at a specific location on a brain structure, such as the visual cortex, and points next to each other on the stimulus cause activity at points next to each other on the structure.

Question 22

Unilateral neglect

Answer 22

A problem caused by brain damage, usually to the right parietal lobe, in which the patient ignores objects in the left half of his or her visual field.

Question 23

Visual imagery

Answer 23

A type of mental imagery involving vision, in which an image is experienced in the absence of a visual stimulus.

Question 24

Vividness of visual imagery questionnaire (VVIQ)

Answer 24

A test in which people are asked to rate the vividness of mental images they create. This test is designed to measure object imagery ability.