Visual Imagery

Question 1

Mental imagery

Answer 1

The ability to recreate the sensory world in the absence of physical stimuli.
Also occurs in senses other than vision.
People have the ability to imagine tastes, smells, and tactile experiences.

Question 2

Visual imagery

Answer 2

‘Seeing’ in the absence of a visual stimulus.

Question 3

Imageless-thought debate

Answer 3

Aristotle: “thought is impossible without an image”

But people who have difficulty forming mental images can still think.

Question 4

Cognitive revolution

Answer 4

Previously, behaviourism was the dominant school of psychology, and so determined visual imagery to be unnecessary (as only visible to Persian experiencing them).
In the 50s and 60s, cognitive revolution happened.
Alan Paivio’s work on memory.

Question 5

Paired-associate learning

Answer 5

Alan Paivio.
Easier to remember concrete nouns (tree, truck) that can be imagined, than it is to remember abstract nouns (truth, justice).
Memory for pairs of concrete nouns is much better than memory for pairs of abstract nouns.

Question 6

Conceptual-peg hypothesis

Answer 6

Concrete nouns create images that other words can ‘hang into’.

Question 7

Mental chronometry (rotation)

Answer 7

Shepard and Metzler.
Speed in determining if two views were the same object.
Directly related to how different the angles were between the two views.
Subjects were mentally rotating one of the views to see if it matched the other.
This experiment suggested that imagery and perception share the same mechanisms.

Question 8

Mental scanning

Answer 8

Subjects create mental images and then scan them in their minds.

Question 9

Kosslyn’s mental scanning experiments

Answer 9

Mentally scan a picture of a boat.
If imagery is spatial (like perception), then it should take longer for subjects to find parts that are located farther from the initial point of focus because they would be scanning across the image of the object.

Question 10

Imagery Denatte

Answer 10

Is imagery based on spatial mechanisms or on mechanisms falter to language (called propositional mechanisms)?

Question 11

Spatial representation

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Epiphenomenon

Answer 12

Something that accompanies the real mechanism, but is not actually part of the mechanism.

Question 13

Propositional representation

Answer 13

Relationships can be represented by abstract symbols, such as an equation, or statements such as ‘the cat is under the table’.
Imagery operates in a way similar to semantic networks.

Question 14

Tactic-knowledge explanation

Answer 14

Pylyshyn.
We unconsciously use knowledge we have the world when we make judgements.
Eg. takes longer to drive from one place to another, so mentally takes longer to travel from one to another.

Question 15

Comparing imagery and perception: size in the visual field

Answer 15

Relationship between viewing distance and ability to perceive details.
When imagining a small object next to a large object, subject is quicker to detect details on the larger object.
Eg elephant and rabbit, then rabbit and fly. Second one, rabbit fills more of the visual field so can see better details.

Question 16

Mental-walk task

Answer 16

Imagine walking towards a mental image until it fills up visual field.
Subjects had to move closer for smaller animals than for larger animals.
Provides more evidence for images being spatial, like perception.

Question 17

Comparing imagery and perception: interactions of imagery and perception

Answer 17

Perky experiment
Subjects asked to visualise a banana, didn’t know there was a banana on the screen. Described exact same banana.
Mistaken an actual picture for a mental image.
Imagery can affect perception.

Question 18

Interactions of imagery and perception: Farah letter visualisation experiment

Answer 18

Subjects asked to visualise either T or H. One of those letter flashed on the screen with blank square, hard to determine if 1st or 2nd square.
Accuracy better for identifying the letter when the flashed letter = imagined letter.

Question 19

Imagery neurons in the brain

Answer 19

Neurons that respond to both perception of a stimulus and imagining the stimulus eg. Fire the same when seeing a baseball and imagining a baseball.
Demonstrates a possible physiological mechanism for imagery.
Supports idea that perception and imagery are closely related.

Question 20

Brain imaging

Answer 20

Many studies see perception and imagery activate the visual cortex.
Both imagery and perception result in topographically organised brain activation (eg looking at small objects causes activity in back of visual cortex, so does imaging small objects).

Question 21

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

Answer 21

Stimulation caused subjects to respond more slowly.
Thus, brain activation that occurs in response to imagery is not an epiphenomenon (visual cortex plays a causal role in both perception and imagery)

Question 22

Removing part of the visual cortex decreases image size

Answer 22

Imagine they are further back from object for it to fill up visual field

Question 23

Perceptual problems are accompanied by problems with imagery

Answer 23

Many cases of patients with brain damage having a perceptual problem also have a similar problem with creating images. Eg. Lose colour vision, also have trouble imagining things in colour.

Question 24

Unilateral neglect

Answer 24

Damage to the parietal lobes which results in a person ignoring half their visual field eg. Only eating food off one half of their plate

Question 25

Conclusions on imagery debate

Answer 25

Inconsistencies mean we cannot be certain about whether mechanisms are independent or related.
Imagery is fragile and takes effort.
Perception is stable and automatic.
Perception and imagery have common AND distinct features.

Question 26

Using imagery to improve memory: method of loci

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Using imagery to improve memory: pegword technique

Answer 27

Involves imagery like method of loci but instead of visualising items in different locations, you associate them egg concrete words.