Imagery Flashcards
Mental Imagery
- Imagining something
- Seeing in the minds eye
- Seeing a mental image
What is the problem with studying mental imagery?
- Rely on self-report
* Don’t have a scanning system that can show us what people imagine
What are some individual differences with mental imagery?
- Some see very clear & can’t differentiate from what is imagined from truth
- Some see sketchy
- Some see black & white
What are some uses of Imagery outside of Cognitive Psychology?
- Detectives imagine a crime scene
- Artists
- To manage phobias (imagine dealing with it & then actually deal with it)
- Pain (must pay attention to feel pain)
- Sports (positive thinking)
What is the functional equivalence hypotheses?
- Visual imagery (imagining) & Visual perception (actually seeing) are not the same but are so similar that their functions are the same.
- Mental Rotation
- Image Scaling
- Image Scanning
Mental rotation
- As if we are physically rotating the object
- Images are rotated in the mind through a “functional space”
- More angle rotation = the more time it takes to respond.
- Less angle rotation = takes less time to respond
Image Scaling, Kosslyn (1975)
- “Zoom in” of image
- Closer you get = more detail
- Problem: need to make sure the size of the objects imagined will be the same for participants.
- Solution: use relative size = One really big, or relatively small object
Image scaling results
- Participants answered questions about the rabbit more rapidly than the elephant.
- Can see the rabbit better when it is the larger object in the pair b/c the rabbit is zoomed in.
- Important b/c it does not fit in semantic network (if rabbit have wiskers, does rabbit have a head?)
Image Scanning, Kosslyn (1973)
- Takes longer to mentally move long distances, the same way it takes longer to physically walk from point a to point b if there is a greater distance. (functional equivalence)
- Longer distance = longer response time
Is image scanning spatial or propositional?
- Spatial = see image
- Propositional representation = seeing the words, language
- Screen 1 = dots
- Screen 2 = Arrow, if there was a dot there?
- When arrow was right below = longer reaction time.
Imagery in the blind
- Born blind = slower on all tasks, but showed similar patterns
- faster response times when scanning shorter distances on topographical map
- faster response when asked about larger objects
- Spatial imagery seems to involve some representations that are analogues to visual percepts.
Imagery & Neuroscience – Perky
- If imagery affects perception or if perception affects imagery – if true this means that they must have access to the same neural mechanisms.
- subjects described the object exactly as presented with reduced opacity
- Nobody realized there was something being projected, they all thought it was their image
FMRI
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging
* measures blood flow to where there is activity
TMS
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation
* blocks neurons
Neuroscience & Imagery: Ganis, 2004
- Overlap of activation of perception & imagery in frontal lobe – as shown in FMRI
- Only differences occurred in the back of the brain
Neuroscience & Imagery: Amedi, 2005
- A lot of overlap
* Concluded that mental images are less fragile, so less activation keeps other things from interfering with the image.
Neuroscience & Imagery: Kosslyn, 1999
- TMS to visual area of brain during perception & imagery tasks
- slower response time to both
- Brain activity in visual area of brain plays a casual role for both perception & imagery
Do self described “visual imagers” show greater blood flow to visual areas of the brain?
• Yes, self described visual imagers show greater blood flow to visual areas of the brain when they form mental images
Brain damaged patients & Imagery
- Patients with prosopagnosia cannot recognize or visualize faces
- Patients with unilateral neglect syndrome also neglect one side of their images
- Conclusion – there is a lot of overlap btwn brain areas for imagery & perception
Imagery & Memory: Pavio (1963,1965)
- Easier to remember a concrete (thing) - noun (truck, tree) than a abstract (statement) noun (truth, justice)
- thing-nouns can be remembered visually and verbally = more chance of being remembered
Imagery & Memory: Method of loci
- Had to encode info based on interaction of an object & location
- Remembered more concrete nouns, than abstract noun
Imagination Inflation: Garry, Manning, Loftus & Sherman, 1996
- life events inventory
- Imagine 4 childhood events (2 weeks later)
- Life events inventory
• Results: imagining made the subjects more confident that the event actually happened.
Source Monitoring
- The process of determining where an event or knowledge originated from
- can increase SM errors by: decrease cognitive operations & increasing sensory details
- e.g: telling the same gossip to the person who told you the gossip.
Imagined events usually do not have
sensory details
What are two internal sources?
- thinking
* Imagining
What are two external sources?
- Movie
* Newspaper
Finke et al. 1988
Results: control ss = good
Horizantal ss= good
Vertical= bad
• idea that you generated more effort to the tasks, made you remember it more.
Thomas et al. 2003, can they get you to believe bizarre events?
- Imagined actions – imagine old or new diff. instructions
- instructed to image a simple or elaborate bizarre event
- the more detail there was to the imagined event, the more they said they did it.
- Repetition increased source monitoring errors
- Simple vs. elaborate, more detail = the more they said they did it.
