Chapter 1. Mental Imagery
1.1 Introduction
Mental Imagery
This experiment investigates how people use mental imagery. It replicates the early work of Kosslyn (1975), who proposed that mental images were stored as “quasi-pictorial” images, a view consistent with the Analogue theory of mental imagery. Alternatively, the Propositional theory of imagery posits that mental “images” are stored as a set of instructions for assembling an image. Paivio (1969) approached the question of mental imagery from a different perspective. Paivio suggested that more concrete features are used more efficiently; concrete and meaningful stimuli are remembered better than those that are more abstract. Paivio suggested that this advantage for meaningful stimuli supports the heuristic value of mental imagery.
1.2 Experiment Setup
1.3 Instructions
Instructions
You will need to press the space bar to begin the experiment. At the beginning of each trial, you will see the names of two animals that you will create mental images of. On the left side, there will always be one of two animals; for instance, either an elephant or a fly. The other animal in the pair, on the right side, will be the target animal. After a brief period in which you should create an image of the two specified animals side-by-side, you will hear a property of an animal (for example, legs) and you will need to report whether that property exists in the target animal.
| Key | What Response Means |
|---|---|
| f | True (property exists on target) |
| j | False (property doesn't exist on target) |
1.4 Experiment
Begin Experiment
1.5 Results
Results
1.6 Debriefing
Debriefing
The differences in performance related to the size of the comparison animal support Kosslyn’s notion that the content of the mental image is an image and not a set of instructions. Slower reaction times to smaller comparator animals suggest that a smaller animal projects a smaller mental image, making feature judgments more difficult. Kosslyn also performed neuroscience research on the topic of mental imagery. He determined, as did others, that some of the same structures were activated in both visual perception and mental imagery studies.
References:
Kosslyn, S. (1975). Information representation in visual images. Cognitive Psychology, 7(3), 341-370.
Paivio, A. (1969). Mental imagery in associative learning and memory. Psychological Review, 76(3), 241-263.
Pylyshyn, Z. (1981). The imagery debate: analogue media versus tacit knowledge. Psychological Review, 88(1), 16-45.
1.7 Quiz
Quiz