Chapter 7

Question 1

Mental Imagery

Answer 1

Representing objects or actions that are not physically present.

Question 2

Visual Imagery

Answer 2

Seeing in the absence of a visual stimulus.

Question 3

History of Mental Imagery

Answer 3

Imageless thought debate. “Thought is impossible without an image.” However, some studies suggested that imagery is not required for thinking.

Question 4

Rise of Behaviorism

Answer 4

“What we need to do is start work upon psychology making behavior, not consciousness, the objective point of our attack.”

Question 5

Cognitive Revolution

Answer 5

Paired-associate learning, mental chronometry.

Question 6

Mental Imagery and Perception

Answer 6

Spatial representation of imagery corresponds to specific locations in space. Depictive.

Propositional representation of imagery uses equations or statements. Descriptive.

Question 7

Characteristics of Mental Imagery

Answer 7

Rotation, Distance, Shape, Size, Ambiguity, Interference, Interaction.

Question 8

Mental Imagery and Rotation

Answer 8

Sign language.

Question 9

Mental Scanning

Answer 9

Creating mental images and then scanning them in your mind.

Question 10

Distance

Answer 10

Propositional representation.

Question 11

Shape

Answer 11

When objects are similar in shape it takes longer to make judgments about them, compared to objects that are different.

Question 12

Ambiguity

Answer 12

Mental images may be stored as descriptions. Bistable ambiguous images.

Question 13

Interference Between Imagery and Perception

Answer 13

The majority of the evidence suggests that mental imagery is similar to perception. Interference occurs in when mental images and perception are in the same modality.

Question 14

Cognitive Neuroscience of Mental Imagery

Answer 14

There is a lot of overlap in the mechanisms for perception and mental imagery. Eye tracking, fmri, transcranial magnetic stimulation.

However, there are some differences between perception and mental imagery. Difference scores in fMRI studies, case studies in neuropsychology.

Question 15

Cognitive Maps

Answer 15

Mental representation of a specific environment

Question 16

Rotation Heuristic

Answer 16

Tilted figures are remembered as more vertical or more horizontal than they really are.

Question 17

Alignment Heuristic

Answer 17

Locations are remembered as being more lined up than they really are.

Question 18

Distance

Answer 18

Effect of intervening points on the map. Distances are estimated to be larger when there were other “objects” in between. Effect of semantic categories, locations tend to shift closer to other locations in the same semantic cluster.

Question 19

Landmark Effect

Answer 19

Tendency to provide shorter estimates of distance when mentally traveling to a landmark versus non-landmark.

Question 20

90 Degree Angle Heuristic

Answer 20

Angles in a mental map are estimated as being closer to 90 degrees than they really are.

Question 21

Symmetry Heuristic

Answer 21

We remember objects as being more symmetrical than they really are.

Question 22

Cognitive Maps

Answer 22

Generally accurate. Errors can be traced to the use of heuristics. Rotation, alignment, intervening points, semantics, landmarks, 90 degree angles, symmetry.

Question 23

Place Cells

Answer 23

Neurons in the hippocampus that fire in response to specific locations in the environment.

Question 24

Neuroscience of Cognitive Maps

Answer 24

Places cells are sensitive to particular locations. Fire both when perceiving different locations and when mentally imagining them. Training your spatial cognition and cognitive map abilities may cause changes in the brain.