Lecture 10: Mental Imagery Flashcards
What did sheppard (1967) find about picture memory?
- recognition memory: 200 pictures
- 98% correct
What did Nickerson (1965) find about picture memory?
- 600 pictures
- 1 day later: 92%
- 1 year later: 63%
What did Leehey find about where nonverbal information, like pictures, were processed?
- hemispheric specialization
- stimuli presented to LVF (RH) vs. RVF (LH
- Results:
– Words: RVF (LH) > LVF (RH)
– Pictures: LVF (RH) > RVF (LH) - Suggests: Verbal and nonverbal stimuli processed
using different codes & different brain structures.
What is the dual coding theory?
- Paivio (1974- first person to study mental imagery)
- Two ways to represent (code) information
- Verbal (left hemisphere)
- Visual images (right hemisphere)
According to the dual coding theory, what does the type of code that is used depend on?
Type of code used will depend on:
- Nature of information
- Task
- Individual differences in people
What happens in the hemispheres when you compare concrete vs. abstract words?
- With abstract words, like justice, there is lots of activation in the left hemispere because it mainly processes words, however there is little activation in the right hemisphere because abstract words cannot be readily visualized or pictured.
- When shown concrete words like house, both hemispheres are activated the same amount because these words can easily be visualized (both a word and a picture)
What was Paivio’s study of concrete vs. abstract words?
1) Had individuals rate imageability (house vs. justice)
2) Match on meaningfulness, frequency (controlled for these factors and manipulated imagery)
3) paired assoc. task
High imagery- H car - house
H - Low imagery car - justice
L - H justice - car
L - L justice - dignity
What were the results of Paivio’s study?
- Recall results: H-H > H-L > L-H > L-L
- Suggests: compound image (when we get pairs of items that are highly imageable we form representations that are compound, e.g., car-house, see a car parked in front of a house. Cannot form compound image with Low imageable pairs)
- note: compare H-L > L-H
- “1st item provides cue(s) to reinstate compound image. When the first items is highly imageable it serves as a cue
What are the 3 common mental imagery questionnaires?
Test selective imagery ability
- VVIQ : Vividness of Mental Imagery
- QMI: Questionnaire of Mental Imagery
- TVIC: Test of Visual Imagery Control
How can memory performance be evidence for subjective imagery ability?
- Morris and Gale, 1974
- Low imagers couldn’t image things well in their mind so regardless of whether it was concrete or abstract their memory performance was the same (low). Whereas for people who were high imagers, they did really well when imagining concrete things but memory performance dropped a lot when the word was abstract.
How can mental practice with a ball task be evidence for subjective imagery ability?
- Richardson & Start (1963)
- Ball task (throw against wall, let it bounce then catch it). Imagining visual cues and motor movements and patterns. Break them down in your mind and practice those patterns.
- 8 different groups:
- High imagers no practice, low imagers no practice (these no practice groups didn’t do as well)
- High imagers with mental practice, low imagers with mental practice (they do better than no practice group. Especially if you’re a high imager)
- H with physical practice, L with physical practice (H and L have the same performance, this condition did better than just mental practice)
- H mental and physical practice, L mental and physical practice (doesn’t matter whether high or low, benefitted from mentla and physical)
- Main Results: the just mental practice group did better than the no practice group, especially if you were a high imager.
How can mental practice with a simple vs. complex task be evidence for subjective imagery ability?
- Simple task (pursuit motor task, keep wand on silver part of turn table.)
- Complex task (mirror tracing task, physical motor task where you have to trace a pattern using a mirror image).
- Conditions: high vs. low imagers
- Results
- simple task: with physical practice high imagers and low imagers did the same (both high performance), with mental practice high imagers did better than low imagers, however performance wasnt better than physical practice group. Control high and low imagers both performed the same (low)
- complex task: Control and mental practice group did the exact same (low performance) didn’t matter whether they were high or low imagers. physical practice condition did much better, same for high and low imagers
What is functional equivalence?
- images are abstract-analog representations (not exact representations bc it’s an image) of objects
- it’s abstract because: not one-to-one representation and not tied to visual input
- Its analog because: can simulate continuous change (e.g., mental images can also rotate in a continuous (rather than choppy) motion). Which makes mental imagery functionally similar to actual imagery)
How are mental images NOT first order isomorphism?
objects are NOT directly /structurally represented in brain
How ARE mental images second order isomorphism?
“relations between objects in cognitive system are same as relations in physical world”
