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Cognitive Psychology > Visual Imagery > Flashcards

Visual Imagery Flashcards

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1
Q

Define visual imagery.

A

Seeing in the absence of visual stimulus.

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2
Q

Define mental imagery.

A

The ability to recreate the sensory world in the absence of physical stimuli.

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3
Q

Who proposed that images were one of the three basic elements of consciousness?

A

Wundt.

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4
Q

Name Wundt’s three basic elements of consciousness.

A

Images, sensations and feelings.

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5
Q

What is the imageless thought debate?

A

Created due to the idea that imagery and thinking are linked, and based on Aristotle’s idea “thought is impossible without an image” though other psychologists contend this and say the opposite.

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6
Q

What supports the idea that imagery is not required for thinking?

A

Galton’s observation that people who have great difficulty forming visual images are still capable of thinking.

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7
Q

What did behaviourists find the study of imagery unproductive?

A

Because visual images are invisible to everyone except the person experiencing them.

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8
Q

How did Watson, the founder of behaviourism, see images? (2)

A

Mythological and unproven.

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9
Q

What did Paivio show were easier to remember, and how does this support visual imagery?

A

Concrete nouns that can be imaged are easier to remember than abstract concepts, like truth or justice.

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10
Q

What technique did Paivio use?

A

Paired-associate learning.

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11
Q

What occurs in paired associate learning?

A

Subjects are presented with pairs of words during a study period. The first of the word pair is then presented to them in the test period, and they must recall the word that it was paired with.

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12
Q

Who proposed the conceptual peg hypothesis?

A

Paivio.

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13
Q

What is the conceptual peg hypothesis, and what is it used to explain?

A

Concrete nouns create images that other words can hang on to, which explain’s Paivio’s finding that concrete nouns are easier to remember and visualise than abstract concepts.

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14
Q

Who used mental chronometry to infer cognitive processes? (2)

A

Shepard and Metzler.

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15
Q

Define mental chronometry.

A

Determining the amount of time needed to carry out various cognitive tasks.

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16
Q

What is important about Shepard and Metzler’s experiment? (2)

A

It was one of the first to apply quantitative methods to visual imagery and to suggest that imagery and perception may share mechanisms.

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17
Q

What do mental and perceptual images both involve?

A

Spatial representation of the stimulus.

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18
Q

What is mental scanning?

A

A task where subjects create mental images and then scan them in their minds.

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19
Q

How did Lea explain the results of Kosslyn’s mental scanning experiment?

A

As subjects scanned, they may have encountered other interesting parts, and the distraction could have increased reaction time.

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20
Q

What did Kosslyn hypothesise about the results of his mental scanning experiment, and was this true?

A

He reasoned that if imagery was spatial, then it should take longer for subjects to find parts of an image that are located farther from the initial point of focus, which was supported by his results.

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21
Q

What is the imagery debate?

A

A debate about whether imagery is based on spatial mechanisms, like those in perception, or mechanisms related to language, called propositional mechanisms.

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22
Q

What is spatial representation?

A

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

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23
Q

Why did Pylyshyn disagree with Kosslyn’s findings that imagery involves spatial representation?

A

Pylyshyn thought that just because we experiences the imagery as spatial, that doesn’t mean that the underlying representation is spatial.

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24
Q

What did Pylyshyn argue the spatial experience of mental images is?

A

An epiphenomenon.

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25
Define epiphenomenon.
Something that accompanies the real mechanism but is not actually part of the mechanism.
26
Pylyshyn proposed that the underlying mechanism of mental imagery is:
Propositional.
27
What is a propositional representation?
One where relationships can be represented as abstract symbols.
28
What is a depictive representation?
A representation that is like a realistic picture of the object, so that parts of the representation correspond to parts of the object.
29
What do propositional networks act very similarly to?
Semantic networks.
30
What is the tacit knowledge explanation?
Subjects unconsciously use knowledge about the world in making their judgements.
31
What is a mental walk task?
Subjects imagine themselves walking towards a mental image.
32
How did Perky find the interaction between perception and imagery?
She asked participants to imagine an image projected onto a screen, while she projected a dim image of the object onto it. Not one participants realised that the image was real and not a mental projection.
33
Why did Farah believe we couldn't rule out Pylyshyn's tacit knowledge explanation?
Subjects can be influenced by past experiences with perception, and so could unknowingly be simulating perceptual responses in imagery experiments.
34
What did Farah suggest we do to rule out the tacit knowledge explanation?
Investigate how the brain responds to visual imagery.
35
Who studied patients with electrodes implanted in the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus and amygdala?
Kreiman.
36
What did Kreiman find?
Neurons that responded to some objects but not too others, and neurons that responded to mental images of objects and real-life ones.
37
What did Kreiman name neurons who fired for imaginary and real-life images of the same object?
Imagery neurons.
38
How do imagery neurons support spatial representation?
Imagery neurons respond in the same way to perceiving an object and imagining it.
39
What did Le Bihan demonstrate?
Both perception and mental imagery activate the visual cortex.
40
What does the topographic map of the visual cortex refer to?
Specific locations on a visual stimulus cause activity at specific locations in the visual cortex, and points next to each other on the stimulus cause activity at locations next to each other on the cortex.
41
Where does looking at a small object cause activity in the visual cortex?
The back.
42
Where does looking at a large object cause activity in the visual cortex?
A spread towards the front of the visual cortex.
43
What did Kosslyn find imagery and perception resulted in, with reference to the visual cortex?
Topographically organised brain activation.
44
What did Ganis do?
Used fMRI to measure activation under two conditions; perception and imagery.
45
What were the results of Ganis' experiment?
Perception and imagery both activate the same areas of the frontal lobe, but imagery activates much less of the occipital lobe's visual cortex than perception.
46
What is an explanation for Ganis' findings about perception, imagery, and the visual cortex?
Perception causes greater activation because the visual cortex is where signals from the retina first reach the cortex, which doesn't occur for mental imagery.
47
What areas did Ameri find were deactivated when subjects used mental imagery?
Areas associated with nonvisual stimuli, like hearing and touch.
48
What was Amedi's explanation for deactivation of brain areas while the subject used imagery?
Visual images are more fragile than real perception and the deactivation helps quiet irrelevant activity that may interfere with the mental image.
49
Lee used brain activation patterns to determine whether their subjects were perceiving or imagining. What did they find?
Activity in the visual cortex was the best predictor of perception, and activity in higher visual areas was the best predictor for imagining.
50
What did Pylyshyn argue about brain activation?
It is also an epiphenomenon, as brain activity indicates that something is happening but may have nothing to do with causing imagery.
51
How did Kosslyn conclude that brain activation is not a epiphenomenon, and brain activity in the visual cortex plays a causal role in both perception and imagery?
TMS stimulation applied to the visual area of the brain caused subjects to respond more slowly for both perception and imagery.
52
How does patient M.G.S's case study provide support for the link between the visual cortex and mental imagery?
She had part of her visual cortex removed as a treatment for epilepsy, but prior to this performed a mental walk task to see at which point a mental image overflowed. After the surgery, the distance between her and the object increased from 15 to 35 feet before overflow occurred, because removal of the visual cortes reduced the size of her field of view.
53
What is unilateral neglect?
Resulting from damage to the parietal lobes, the patient ignores objects in one half of the visual field.
54
Who investigated the imagery of patients with unilateral neglect? (2)
Bisiach and Luzzatti.
55
What were the results of Bisiach and Luzzatti's unilateral neglect experiment?
The patient neglected both the left side of his perceptions and mental images.
56
What evidence supports the idea that mental imagery and perception share physiological mechanisms?
The results of Kosslyn's TMS experiment, Farah's case study of M.G.S., and Bisiach and Luzzatti's unilateral neglect experiment.
57
What did Guariglia study?
A patient whose brain damage had little affect on his ability to perceive, but caused neglect in his mental images.
58
Where did R.M. have brain damage?
The occipital and parietal lobes.
59
What was R.M. capable of? (2)
Recognising objects and drawing accurate images of objects that were placed before him.
60
What could R.M. not do? (2)
Draw objects from memory, and answer questions that depend on imagery.
61
What did C.K. suffer from after his car accident?
Visual agnosia.
62
Define visual agnosia.
The inability to visually recognise objects.
63
What could C.K. do and not do?
Recognise parts of objects, but he couldn't integrate them into a whole.
64
What do the cases in which imagery and perception are affected differently by brain damage provide evidence for?
A double dissociation between perception and imagery.
65
How does Behrmann explain the double dissociation of perception and imagery?
The mechanisms of perception and imagery overlap partially, with the mechanism for perception being located at both lower and higher visual centers, and the mechanism for imagery being in higher visual centers.
66
According to Behrmann, what kind of processing is involved in visual perception?
Bottom-up.
67
Why is the visual cortex crucial for perception?
Objects begin being analysed into components like edges and orientations.
68
What happens after the visual cortex analyses objects into components?
The information is sent to higher visual areas where perception is assembled, and top-down processing may be involved.
69
What kind of process is imagery?
Top-down, as it involves high brain areas that are responsible for memory.
70
Based on Behrmann's explanations of the types of processing involved in perception and imagery, what can be inferred about C.K.'s difficulty in perceiving?
Damage early in the processing stream, but the ability to create images remains because the higher-level brain areas are intact.
71
Based on Behrmann's explanations of the types of processing involved in perception and imagery, what can be inferred about R.M.'s difficulty creating mental images?
Damage to higher level areas, where mental images originate, but he can perceive objects because areas earlier in the processing stream are still functioning.
72
What are the differences between perception and imagery?
Perception occurs automatically and is stable, while imagery needs effort to be generated and can vanish without continued effort, and it is harder to manipulate mental images.
73
The power of imagery to improve memory is tied to its ability to create:
Organised locations at which memories for specific items can be placed.
74
Who invented the method of loci?
Simonides.
75
What is the method of loci?
A method in which things to be remembered are placed at different locations in a mental image of a spatial layout.
76
How does the pegword technique compare to the method of loci?
Instead of visualising items in different locations, you associate them with concrete words.
77
What are the steps in the pegword technique?
Create a list of nouns, then pair each of the things you want to remember with a pegword by creating a vivid mental image of the remembered item and the object represented by the word.
78
What is food craving?
A desire for food that goes beyond ordinary hunger because of its intensity and specificity.
79
What is the most common food craved in Western society?
Chocolate.
80
What has recurrent food craving been associated with? (3)
Overeating, sabotaged diets, and binge eating.
81
What is food craving caused by?
Nutritional deficiencies, hormonal changes, emotions, and proximity to enticing foods.
82
What specific cognitive factor is food craving associated wit?
Imagery.
83
How can nonfood imagery decrease food craving?
Food craving is decreased after both visual and auditory imagery, but visual imagery has a greater effect.
84
What model did Harvey use to explain the larger effect of visual imagery in reducing food craving?
Baddeley and Hitch's model of working memory.
85
How does Harvey explain the effect of nonfood visual imagery in reducing food craving?
The nonfood visual imagery uses some of the capacity of the visuospatial sketch pad, so food-related imagery is reduced.
86
How does Harvey explain the effect of auditory imagery in reducing food craving?
Auditory images affect the phonological loop, but not the visuospatial sketch pad.

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