Imagery & Visual Representations

Question 1

Estimation inflation

- Linking memory distortions and imagery

Answer 1

Landau, Libkuman, & Wildman (2002)
- Had people imagine different scenarios
Lifting a refrigerator
Close your eyes and imagine that you are helping a friend move and that it is your responsibility to move the refrigerator.  Mentally picture yourself reaching around the appliance and gently lifting up and holding it there for a few seconds.  Now, ease the refrigerator back to the ground and move away from it.
No imagination control group
Rate how much weight you can lift
Lifting a refrigerator (114 lbs)
No imagination control group (88 lbs)

Question 2

Message about Estimation Inflation?

Answer 2

Imagining can make it difficult to assess reality (remember source monitoring?)
People believe they are better at a task after imagining it
BUT- they are not
So- imagery can be a somewhat misleading tool if not used properly

Question 3

What did Neisser say?

Answer 3

“A subject is imagining whenever he employs some of the same cognitive processes that he would use in perceiving, but when the stimulus input that would normally give rise to such perception is absent.”

By this account, they are very similar processes

Question 4

Images (imagined) versus pictures (perceived)

Answer 4

Heavily debated issue in cognitive psychology
Problem: how do I measure your visual imagery experience?
It is your private experience
Introspection???
Anecdotes???
Simonides and the method of loci
Roger Shepard’s mental walk to count windows
Finding objective measures

Question 5

Is there any objective evidence about images versus pictures?

Answer 5

Memory studies
- Picture-superiority effect
- Concrete words (chair, building) are better remembered than abstract words (justice, truth)
- Concrete words are things that you can easily picture
- Abstract words are harder to imagine
- This ease is beneficial for memory!!
Paivio’s dual code theory

Question 6

Paivio’s Dual Code Theory

Answer 6

Verbal system
Imagery system
Concrete words are privileged
 - Verbal coding
 - Imagery coding
Double coding!!

Question 7

Objective Mental Imagery Data

Brooks (1968)

Answer 7

• Study an image
• Fix the image in mind
• Extreme top or extreme bottom?
• Response modes
  
  • Verbal response (“YES” or “NO”)
  • Tapping (left hand=YES, right hand=NO)
  • Pointing (Y’s or N’s)
• Measured reaction time
• RESULTS: Verbal < Tapping < Pointing
  
  • Pointing requires visual processes
  • This drains the system and provided some interference
  • S-l-o-w-s you down
  • Visual processes can interfere with imagery processes

Question 8

Objective Mental Imagery Data

Posner

Answer 8

People see two letters
Respond: SAME or DIFFERENT
Measure Reaction Time
Identical Match 	A A
Name match		A a
Manipulated time between letters
 - .5 second
 - 1 second
 - 2 seconds
RESULTS: Identical match was quicker

Question 9

Kosslyn (1973)

Answer 9

People studied objects like clocktowers, airplanes, boats, and flowers (simple drawings)
Then asked to form an image of one of the pictures
- Think about the top (or bottom of the image)
- Flag on the lighthouse
- Scan the image for a different part
- Clock
- Door
RESULTS: People needed more time to scan from the flag to the door than from the flag to the clock

Question 10

Kosslyn, Ball, & Reiser (1978)

** Perfect chart **

Answer 10

Learn map
Remove map
Picture an object on the map
Press a button when they find another object
- Think of the well
- Press button when you get to sandy beach
- Press button when you get to the tree
- Faster time to make it to the tree
- Centimeters predict reaction time

Question 11

Intons-Peterson & Roskos-Ewoldsen (1989)

Answer 11

Mentally traveling to different locations
Carrying a 
  - Cannonball
  - Ball
  - Balloon
  - Speck
Does this influence speed of MENTAL travel?
  - YES!

Question 12

Podgorny & Shephard (1977) Experimental Design

Answer 12

5 x 5 matrix
See different patterns
  - Imagine group
  - Picture group
See blank matrix
Probe dot appears in one of the cells
People respond if the dot is on the darkened cells (yes/no)

Question 13

Podgorny & Shephard (1977) Findings

Answer 13

RT is a function of the number of filled cells
RT is faster for YES than NO
RT is faster for NO responses that are far from the darkened cells
RT is faster at an intersection
VISUALIZE condition = IMAGINE condition

Question 14

Symbolic Distance Effect

Answer 14

• Larger differences = faster responding
• Smaller differences = slower responding
• Same effect for pictures (comparing pictures of gravestones) as with mental images (comparing states, animals)

Question 15

Neuropsychological Evidence

Roland & Friberg (1985)

Answer 15

Measure blood flow in three tasks
- Counting
- Imagine a song
- Walking a familiar path
Greatest blood flow observed in the Occipital lobes
Occipital lobes are where vision is processed

Question 16

Neuropsychological Evidence

Farah

Answer 16

Retrospective analysis of brain damaged folks
Three kinds of visual problems
  - Image generation deficits
  - LTM- imagery difficulties
  - Inspection deficits
Verbal processing was fine

Question 17

What versus Where

Answer 17

Perceptual theories
Where system helps us identify location
What system helps us identify an object’s identity
Seem to have different pathways and speeds of processing in the brain

Question 18

Pylyshyn (1981)

Answer 18

• Argued that the results from many imagery studies reflect participants’ underlying and implicit TACIT KNOWLEDGE and beliefs about the task rather than their construction and manipulation of visual images.
• Paid special attention to image-scanning experiments.
• Participants’ scanning time is proportional to distance scanned, because they know that the amount of time it takes to physically scan between two points in a visual display depends on distance AND because they expect the experiment to demand this kind of performance.
• Argued people may be “mentally pausing” in image scanning experiments because of their beliefs and expectations about what the experimenters want them to do.
• Tasks that are affected by people’s beliefs and expectations are termed by Pylyshyn to be cognitively penetrable.
• Such a task that cues the person on how to behave is said to have demand characteristics, or the task “demands” somehow that the person should behave in a certain way.

Question 19

Tacit Knowledge

Answer 19

Tacit knowledge (as opposed to formal, codified or explicit knowledge) is the kind of knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalizing it. (Ex: Leadership, Innovation, Intuition, Body Language, etc.)