Test #2 - Chapters 4&5 Flashcards
pre-zoom - straight slides (45 cards)
What is mental imagery?
Processing of information in the absence of an external source, in other words, no actual stimuli are coming in, we are creating an image in our mind.
How do we process information in a mental image?
When we imagine something, our brain activates similar neural pathways as when we actually see the object. This relies on top-down processing, we use prior knowledge to shape how we visualize things.
How are imaginal and perceptual processing related?
They use shared brain regions, imaginal = top-down, perceptual = bottom-up, mental imagery can prime perception (imagining a face before seeing it can enhance recognition) and likewise, perception can influence imagery (a recent strong sensory experience makes mental imagery of it more vivid).
What brain areas are involved in mental imagery?
Occipital Lobe: Primary Visual Cortex (activated when forming mental images and visual perception)
Parietal Lobe: spatial processing and rotating objects in the mind)
Temporal Lobe: store and retrieve visual memories for imagery
Prefrontal Cortex: involved in working memory and planning, helping to control and organize mental images.
How we develop mental images of our environment?
We take in visual, auditory, and spatial information from our surroundings using the eyes, ears, and other senses. We then create mental representations of places, develop internal maps. As we move through space our brain updates these mental images. When needed we recall mental images to navigate or describe places.
How do we use images to navigate our environment?
We use cognitive maps we have developed from previously being in that environment. We match what we see with our mental images to confirm we are on the right path (landmark recognition).
What is epiphenomenon?
The idea that while we experience vivid mental images, they might not actually play a functional role in cognition or decision-making.
Ex: imagining a tiger you cant count the number of stripes or have a definite image of the tiger
What would damage to the Brocas area cause?
unable to use verbal imagery
What would damage to the fusiform gyrus cause?
unable to conjure up a face in your mind
Explain Santa’s Experiment
Participants response times were measured based on different visual and verbal arrays.
With the visual condition: response time was fastest when the configuration was identical to the original then when it was linear.
With the verbal condition: response time was faster when the configuration was linear and not the exact same as the original.
What did Shepard and Metzler discover about mental rotation?
Found a 1:1 response time for physically rotating an object and mentally rotating an object. Also found that the greater the angle of disparity between the two objects, the longer the participants took to complete the rotation.
What did Kosslyn and colleagues discover about mental rotation?
That if you were to imagine your hand rotating, the area in your brain that activates when you are actually moving your body (motor cortex), would activate as well.
What are the two distinct kinds of imagery ability?
spatial and object oriented
What did Chambers and Reisberg find about visual imagery?
We can interpret visual images in only one way. We are unable to re-interpret an image we’ve already seen and identified as something else.
Ex: the duck/rabbit drawing.
What is the Parahippocampal place area in the brain for?
Place processing.
What is aphantasia?
little or no mental imagery, referred to as blind imagination.
What is a route map?
Representation of the environment consisting of the paths between locations
(model-free learning)
What is survey maps?
Representation of the environment consisting of the position of locations in space. (model-based learning)
Route-following vs. way-finding virtual reality study findings:
Route-following: learned a fixed path through town, participants showed greater activity in anterior motor regions.
Way-finding: freely explored the town, participants showed greater activity in a number of regions related to visual imagery, including parietal cortex and hippocampus.
What is egocentric representation?
Self-centered view: spatial information is represented relative to the individual’s current position and perspective.
ex: when navigating a city, you might think, “the coffee shop is to my left”
What is allocentric representation?
World-centered view: spatial information is represented independently of the individual’s current location or orientation, based on a fixed coordinate system.
Ex: a mental map of your hometown, where landmarks remain in a fixed position regardless of where you are standing.
What is the london taxi drivers phenomenon?
Big city taxi drivers have a greater hippocampal volume. They had to form mental maps of London’s street.
How do we represent the significant aspects of our experience?
Emotional Associations: significant experiences are often linked to emotions, making them more memorable.
Do we represent knowledge in ways that are not tied to specific perceptual modalities?
Amodal Representations: info stored in a conceptual format. Ex: the concept of justice does not rely on a specific visual, sound, or touch-based representation.
Symbolic Representations: words, numbers, and symbols encode meaning in a way that is not directly connected to perception. Ex: the word “dog” represents the concept of a dog without needing a mental image or sensory input.
