Cognitive Psychology - Visual Imagery Flashcards
(116 cards)
a type of mental imagery involving vision, in which an image is experienced in the absence of a visual stimulus
visual imagery
experiencing a sensory impression in the absence of sensory/physical input, is used to include all the senses
mental imagery
the debate about whether thought is possible in the absence of images
imageless thought debate
a learning task in which participants are first presented with pairs of words, then one word in each pair is presented and the task is recall the other word
paired associate learning
to explain that memory for pairs of concrete nouns is better than memory for pairs of abstract nouns, Paivio (1963, 1965) proposed a hypothesis in which concrete nouns create images that other words can “hang onto”
conceptual peg hypothesis
Shepard and Metzler inferred cognitive processes using ______ ______, determining the amount of time needed to carry out various cognitive tasks
mental chronometry
a debate about whether imagery is based on spatial mechanisms, such as those involved in perception, or on mechanisms related to language, called propositional mechanisms
imagery debate
Kosslyn proposes that the mechanism responsible for imagery involves _________ representations - representations in which different parts of an image can be described as corresponding to specific locations in space
spatial representations
an argument against spatial representations, proposed by Pylyshyn (1973) who argues that the spatial experience of mental images is something that accompanies the real mechanism but not actually part of the mechanism
epiphenomenon
Pylyshyn proposed that, rather than the spatial representations suggested by Kosslyn, the mechanism underlying imagery involved ___________ representations - representations in which relationships can be represented by abstract symbols, such as an equation, or statement, such as “the cat is under the table”
propositional
a representation that corresponds to spatial representations, where each part of the representation specifies a part of the corresponding object and the distance between the different parts in the representation preserve the corresponding distances between the parts of the object
depictive representation
a task used in imagery experiments in which participants are asked to form a mental image of an object and to imagine that they are walking toward the mental image
mental walk task
neurons in the human brain studied by Kreiman, which fire in the same way when a person sees a picture of an object and when a person creates a visual image of the object
imagery neurons
Each point on a visual stimulus causes activity at a specific location on a brain structure, such as the visual cortex, and points next to each other on the stimulus cause activity at points next to each other on the structure
topographic map
damage to the parietal lobe in which the patient ignores objects in one half of the visual field
unilateral neglect
a method in which things to be remembered are placed at different location in a mental image of a spatial layout - where placing images at locations can help with retrieving memories later
method of loci
a technique involving imagery, whereby each item is associated in imagination with a number–word pair
pegword technique
the ability to image spatial relations, such as the layout of a garden.
Spatial imagery
the ability to image visual details, features, or objects, such as a rose bush with bright red roses in the garden
Object imagery
a test designed to measure spatial imagery.
Participants see a piece of paper being folded and then pierced by a pencil. Their task was to pick from five choices what the paper would look like when unfolded
paper folding test
a questionnaire designed
to measure object imagery. Participants rate, on a 5-point scale, the vividness of mental images they were asked to create. A typical item: “The sun is rising above the horizon into a hazy sky.”
vividness of visual imagery questionnaire
A task in which a line drawing is degraded by omitting parts of the drawing and obscuring it with a visual noise pattern. The person’s task is to identify the object.
Degraded pictures task
a task requiring participants to judge whether pictures were two views of the same object or mirror-image objects.
mental rotation task
representations in which relationships can be represented by abstract symbols such as an equation, or reading the statement such as “the cat is under the table”
propositional representations