Wk10: Imagery and Foresight Flashcards
(34 cards)
What is representation (in reference to imagery)?
A concept of object that refers to another concept of object
Representations are about something
They have a referent and a sense
What is the mind?
The element that allows us to be aware, to think, to feel.
Phantom limbs prove: pain does not occur in the body except in the mind
Types of representation
Analogue: episodic, isomorphic
Propositional: semantic, symbolic
What is a referent?
The item to which is being referred in a representation
The house in a photo of a house
What is a sense (referring to representation)?
The abstract concept being referred to in a representation
The home in a photo of a house
What is analogue representation?
A 1:1/ episodic representation of the item
Meaning is derived from it; it tells us meaning
E.g. A photo of a person representing that person
E.g. Analogue clock; physical mvmt of hand responds to mvmt in time
E.g. A map
What is propositional/ allegorical representation?
A symbolic/ semantic representation of an item
Meaning is ascribed to it; we give it meaning
E.g. A written description of a person
E.g. Digital clock; numbers are arbitrary representation
E.g. Roman numerals
What is imagery?
Conceptual representation - an imagining
What can imagery do?
Free us from present
Free us from reality
Generate new info (based on prev experience)
Generate mental maps
Practice without mvmt (imagine piano helps piano)
What are mental maps?
Using imagery to represent physical places and relative location
What is Paivio’s dual coding
That repersentation can be encoded in both imaginal and verbal sense
Concrete words (book/ light) remembered better than abstract words (information, vision)
E.g. chair = physical imagery of a chair, and the word “chair”
What is the conceptual-propositional hypothesis
Relationship (subject, object)
We represent the information semantically, not episodically
E.g. We do not store the specific phonemes used by people in sentences, we store the meaning of sentences
How do you test the conceptual-propositional hypothesis?
IV: “O—O barbells” or “O—O spectacles”
DV: “O–O” or “O—-O” in recall
O–O ~= spectacles
O—-O ~= barbells
What is the evidence for analogue hypothesis?
Transformation
Size effects
Image scanning
What is transformational evidence for analogue representation
Imagine the letter “D” and rotate in 90˚, then put the number 4 on top. What is it? [a boat]
What are size effects as evidence for analogue representation?
Px imagine a frog and
IV: an elephant or a fly
DV: RT to q “does the frog have a tail?”
Int: quicker RT to frog and the fly condition (assumed because they are closer in physical size)
What is image scanning and how is it evidence for analogue representation?
Px shown map to study
IV: imagine you are at location A, location B, then location C
DV: RT between imagining
Int: When the distance between locations is larger, RT is longer
What is the functional equivalence hypothesis?
That representation is proportional to the external object
That physical differences are also encoded into representation (RT proportional
What is mental rotation as evidence for the functional equivalence hypothesis?
Px identify is this object (image) the same as this rotated object (image)
IV: degree of rotation
DV: RT
Int: the more the object was rotated, the longer it took for px to ans
Does imagery use the same cognitive processes as vision?
Check for interference
Mental rotation task, rotational aftereffects impact RT
Auditory and visual detection tasks while imagining an audio or visual item; congruent (A-A, V-V) items had more errors, then incongruent (A-V) presumably using the same system
In their mental rotation study, Shepard and Metzler found a linear relationship between degree of rotation and reaction time. If you look at a clockwise spinning disc for 30 seconds before a trial, with the following stimuli (the one on the right is to be assessed):
W ∑
a. the linear relationship should disappear over trials
b. you are more likely to get it right
c. your reaction time is likely to be slower than normal
d. your reaction time is likely to be faster than normal
d. faster reaction time
The degree of rotation in the stimuli is smaller in the clockwise direction
You need to rotate the image anticlockwise
The aftereffect would be show an anticlockwise rotation
This would reduce the perceived difference in rotation, thus decrease reaction time
What effect does spacial neglect have on imagery?
Those with spacial neglect (e.g. can’t see left visual field) asked to imagine being in a known building
When imagining entering or exiting the building, they report seeing items found on their right side - even though they are different
What do brain scans tell us about imagery?
PET: greater occipital and parietal lobe activation when imagining items compared to being shown them
ERP: those who claim to have vivid imagery have more brain activation when imagining things than those who don’t
How is imagery different from mental perception?
- Greater activation in general
- Greater activation of memory areas when imagining items
