Module 08: Visual Imagery

Question 1

what is the method of loci

Answer 1

imagine a series of places that have some sort of order to them

Bower
List of principles that improve the workings of the method of loci technique

Ross and Lawrence
College students trained using method of loci could recall up to 38 of 40 words after one presentation

Question 2

what are interacting images and what did a study using interacting images find (bower)

Answer 2

Study in a894, recall of concrete nouns on list improved when participants told to form images of the words

Bower
Similar results in paired-associates learning

Pair of words (goat-pipe), participants who formed images of goat smoking pipe recalled almost twice as many paired associates

To be maximally effective, form images that interact
Ex. goat smoking pipe vs goat and pipe separately

Question 3

what is the pegword method

Answer 3

Involves picturing items with another set of ordered cues, pegging them to the cue

Cues not locations but noun that come from a memorized rhyming list

Question 4

mediators

Answer 4

internal codes that connect item to be remembered and your later overt responses (images/ words and sentences)

Question 5

describe the dual coding hypothesis

Answer 5

Items can be coded by verbal labels or visual images or both

Study where participants asked to learn one of four lists of noun pairs
Found that whenever possible, participants spontaneously formed visual images of the noun pairs

First noun in pair serves as conceptual peg on which second noun is hooked
Imaginability of first noun particularly important (CA higher than AC condition)

Supports idea that images and words use different kinds of internal codes (like dual-coding hypothesis)

Question 6

describe the relational organizational hypothesis

Answer 6

Imagery improved memory because imagery produces more associations between items to be recalled

Forming an image requires people to create links of hooks between info

Question 7

symbolic distance effect

Answer 7

ex:

Asked question like which item is larger

People faster to respond when 2 objects differed greatly – called symbolic distance effect

Question 8

what did shepard and metzler find in a mental rotation task study

Answer 8

Found that amount of time it took for participants to decide if two drawings depicted same object was proportional to the angle of rotation between the two objects

Question 9

T/F: when people view 3d objects as long as basic geometric components of the object remain visible people can recognize the object without performing rotation

Answer 9

true

Question 10

imaginal scanning

Answer 10

participant s to form visual image and then scan it, moving between locations

Idea that time people take to scan reveals something about the ways images represent spatial properties

The longer the distance from the designated end to location of the part, the longer it took people to say whether the part they were looking for was in the image

Reaction times to scan between objects correlated with the distance between the objects

Reinforced idea that images preserve spatial relations

People’s scanning of visual images similar to scanning of actual pictures

Question 11

what is one way mental images are not like pictures

Answer 11

People’s maps are systematically distorted because people use different heuristics (rules of thumb) in orientating and anchoring oddly shaped units such as continents or provinces

People try to ‘line up’ things

Question 12

what are the principles of visual imagery

Answer 12

Implicit encoding

Perceptual equivalence

Spatial equivalence

Transformational equivalence

Structural equivalence

Question 13

implicit encoding with images

Answer 13

Mental imagery is instrumental in retrieving info about physical properties of objects or physical relationships among objects that was not explicitly encoded at any previous time

Images are places from which some info can be obtained, even if that info was never intentionally stored

Used to answer questions for which you probably don’t have a directly stored answer

Info stored unintentionally along with other info that allows you to construct a visual image of your kitchen

Question 14

imagery and perceptual equivalence

Answer 14

Imagery is functionally equivalent to perception to the extent that similar mechanisms in the visual system are activated when objects or event are imagines as when the same objects or events are actually perceived

Many of the same kinds of internal processes used in mental visualization are used in visual perception as well

Question 15

spatial equivalence and visual imagery

Answer 15

How spatial info like location, distance, and size is represented in visual imagery

The spatial arrangement of the elements of a mental image corresponds to the way objects or their parts are arranged on actual physical surfaces or in an actual physical space

Question 16

transformational equivalence

Answer 16

Way images are mentally transformed

Imagined transformations and physical transformations exhibit corresponding dynamics characteristics and are governed by the same laws of motion

Evidence from studies of mental rotation

Question 17

structural equivalence

Answer 17

Ways images are organized and assembled

The structure of mental images corresponds to that of actual perceived objects in the sense that the structure is coherent, well organized, and can be reorganized and reinterpreted

Like drawing an object

Question 18

critiques of mental imagery research and theory

Answer 18

experiments give enough hints for people to perform by relying on their beliefs and knowledge rather than relying strictly on visual imagery

Questions about the metaphor of images as pictures

Questions about the need to talk about imagery as a distinct kind of internal code