Chapter 10 Visual imagery

Test yourself 10.1

Step 1 of 3
It has been reported by lots of people that they experience images visually when
they answer questions like how the furniture is arranged in their room, the
number of windows that are present in the house that is present opposite their
house, and others.

Step 2 of 3
In the absence of stimuli that are physical in nature, the ability of recreating the
sensory world or mental imagery occurs in the senses other than ones vision.
People can imagine tactile experiences, smells, and tastes. Imagery therefore,
occurs in real life as well and is not just a phenomenon that can be shown in the
laboratory.
Visual imagery has led to both practical applications and scientific insights, in the
same way as in creative processes like music, auditory imagery plays a role. The
best example of imagery that is visual which led to a scientific discovery is that of
Albert Einstein who described that he developed and understood the theory of
relativity by imagining that he was travelling right next to a light beam.

Step 3 of 3
A way of thinking is provided by imagery that adds another dimension to
techniques that are verbal and are generally associated to thinking.
2. Make a list ofthe important events in the history of the study of imagery in
psychology, from the imageless thought debate of the 1800s to the studies of
imagery that occurred early in the cognitive revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.

Answer:

Step 1 of 3
According to Wundt, the three elements that are basic to consciousness are
feelings, sensations, and images. He also said that as images accompany thoughts,
therefore, a way of studying thinking was by studying images.

Step 2 of 3
The imageless thought debate arose due to the idea of a link between thinking
and imagery. The observation in the year 1883 by Francis Galton supported the
idea that for thinking, imagery was not essential as even the people who
possessed problems in forming visual images were able to think.
In the year 1928, John Watson who found behaviorism said that images were
mythological and unproven and therefore, they were unworthy of study. Through
the years between the 1920s and 1950s, behaviorism dominated psychology and
therefore, study of imagery was pushed out.

Step 3 of 3
The above stated situation changed in the 1950s as cognition study was born
again. The years between the 1950s and 1960s is known as the cognitive
revolution. Cognitive psychologists developed ways by which behavior could be
measured for inferring cognitive processes thereby leading to the success of this
revolution.
3. How did Kosslyn use the technique of mental scanning (in the boat and island
experiments) to demonstrate similarities between perception and imagery? Why
were Kosslyn's experiments criticized, and how did Kosslyn answer Pylyshyn's
criticism with additional experiments?

Answer:

Step 1 of 4

Stephen Kosslyn has done research which led him to propose a few theories that
were influential about imagery that were based on parallels between perception
and imagery.

Step 2 of 4
In one experiment, Kosslyn asked all the participants to remember the picture of
a boat, and then create its image in their mind and only focus on a single part of
the boat, like the anchor. They were then asked to visualize the motor of the boat
and press the button that read ‘true’ and in case they could not find it, press the
button that read ‘false’.
According to Kosslyn, if imagery is spatial like perception, then all the participants
should take more time to find the part (motor) which is located further than the
point which they were made to focus initially (anchor) as they would have to scan
across the whole image of the boat (object). Kosslyn used this example as the
evidence for the spatial nature of imagery.
Similarly, Kosslyn performed an experiment in which all the participants were told
that they needed to imagine an island that had had seven locations. He
determined the relationship between distance and reaction time by telling the
participants to scan between all the possible pair of locations on the island. Again
the results obtained, that is, more time was taken by the participants to scan
between distances that were greater supported his idea that visual imagery is
indeed spatial.

Step 3 of 4
Zenon Pylyshyn opposed the view of Stephen Kosslyn and started the imagery
debate. This debate is regarding whether imagery is based on the mechanisms
that are related to language, which is known as propositional mechanisms or is
based on mechanisms that are spatial, like the ones that are involved in
perception. Representations that are propositional are the ones in which
relationships are represented by means of abstract symbols.

Step 4 of 4
Kosslyn answered the criticism of Pylyshyn by performing an experiment in which
he told all the participants to imagine many animals standing next to each other,
like a rabbit and an elephant, and then imagine that most of their visual field was
filled with the animal that was large as they were standing close to it. He then
asked question related to both the large and small animal. From their answers, he
concluded that that they answered questions regarding the larger animal more
quickly as they took up most of their visual field.
Another experiment done by Kosslyn to prove the same was that he asked all the
participants to do a walk task mentally, where they had to imagine that they are
walking towards the mental image of whichever animal they chose. They had to
guess the distance that was between them and the animal when there was an
overflow (filling of the visual field) of the animal. The result was that for overflow
to occur, people who imagined smaller animals had to walk closer and vice versa
for larger animals.
Therefore, both these experiments by Kosslyn demonstrated the idea that images
are indeed spatial, like perception is.
4. Describe the spatial (or depictive) and propositional explanations of the
mechanism underlying imagery. How can the propositional explanation interpret
the results of Kosslyn's boat and island imagescanning experiments?

Answer:

Step 1 of 3
Zenon Pylyshyn opposed the view of Stephen Kosslyn which started the imagery
debate. This debate is regarding whether imagery is based on the mechanisms
that are related to language, which is known as propositional mechanisms or is
based on mechanisms that are spatial, like the ones that are involved in
perception.
Step 2 of 3
On the basis of the results obtained by Kosslyn, he concluded that imagery occurs
as a result of spatial representation, which means that the various parts of an
image can be explained as being present at fixed locations in space.
Pylyshyn argued that the experience of mental images being spatial is actually an
epiphenomenon, that is, something that is accompanying the real mechanisms
but is not really a part of the mechanism.
Propositional representations are the ones in which the relationships are
represented by means of symbols that are abstract, like equations. On the other
hand, spatial or depictive representations are the representations which are like
pictures that are realistic and resemble a particular object, such that the various
parts of the representation correspond to parts of the object.

Step 3 of 3
The results of the experiments done by Kosslyn of image-scanning of the island
and boat can be explained by the propositional approach as when one starts at
the motor of the boat, then it would take them longer to reach the anchor than
the porthole as in order to reach the porthole they would require to travel across
three links than across four links in the case of the anchor. This can be understood
from the figure given as follows:

Figure 1: the paths shows between the anchor and motor and the porthole and
motor indicate the number of nodes that one would have to transverse in order
to get to these parts of the boat.
5. What is the tacit knowledge explanation of imagery experiments? What
experiment was done to counter this explanation?

Answer:

Step 1 of 3
According to the explanation of tacit knowledge, Pylyshyn states that the various
participants of the experiments use the knowledge that they have about the
world unconsciously for making their judgments. For example, in the real world
people know that one takes more time to travel between distances that are
longer and this is the reason why the results that are obtained in the experiments
of Kosslyn are such.

Step 2 of 3
The experiment that was done in order to counteract the tacit knowledge
explanation was the one done by Pinker and Finke in the year 1982. The
experiment includes showing the participants a display of four-dots for a brief
amount of time, and then after a delay of around two seconds, an arrow. The task
of the participants was to tell whether the arrow that they were shown pointed to
any of the dots that they were shown previously.

Figure 1: Figure showing the stimuli in the experiment done by Pinker and Finker
for counteracting the explanation of tacit knowledge.
Step 3 of 3
The participants took more time in responding to the distances that were more in
between the dot and the arrows. The researchers explained that as the
participants would not have had time for memorizing the distances between the
dots and the arrow for making their judgment, they would not have used tacit
knowledge.
6. How have experiments demonstrated interactions between imagery and
perception? What additional evidence is needed to help settle the imagery
debate, according to Farah?

Answer:

Step 1 of 4
The basic concept behind interaction of perception and imagery is that if
perception is affected by imagery, or imagery is affected by perception, then this
means that both these have access to same mechanisms.

Step 2 of 4
The interaction was first demonstrated by Cheves Perky in 1910. The participants
of the experiment were asked by Perky to project visual images of objects that are
common onto the screen and then give a description of the images.
Perky was back-projecting dim images of the objects on the screen without the
knowledge of the various participants. Each of the participants described the
image exactly as was projected by Perky and surprisingly none of the participants
noticed that they had mistaken a real for an image that they had visualized.

Step 3 of 4
Another experiment to demonstrate the same was performed by Martha Farah in
1985. She asked the participants to visualize the alphabets T or H on the screen.
After the participants had formed images that were clear on the screen, they
were asked to press a button which caused the flashing of two squares, one after
other.
The target alphabet was present in one of the squares, which was either T or H.
The task of the participants was to indicate whether the alphabet was in the
second or first square. According to the results, detection of the target alphabet
was more accurate when the same alphabet was been imagined by the
participant rather than the different alphabet.
Both these experiments proved that the same mechanisms are shared by
perception and imagery.

Step 4 of 4
According to Farah, in order to settle the debate of imagery, one should not solely
rely on behavioral experiments but we need to find out how one’s brain responds
to imagery that is visual. She felt that it was always possible that past experiences
of the participants were influencing their perception which could lead to them
stimulating responses that are perceptual in experiments of imagery without even
realizing.
Test yourself 10.2
1. Describe how experiments using the following physiological techniques have
provided evidence of parallels between imagery and perception: (a) brain
imaging; (b) deactivation of part of the brain; (c) neuropsychology; and (d)
recording from single neurons.

Step 1 of 4
(a)
Le Bihan and coworkers in 1993 showed that the visual cortex is activated by both
imagery and perception. From the graph given below we can see that activity
increased in the striate cortex in both the cases, that is, when imagery or
imagining of a stimulus occurred by the person or when perception occurred.
Figure 1: Brain activity which is measured using functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (fMRI) increases when participants are presented with a visual stimulus.
Step 2 of 4
(b)
Amir Amedi and coworkers in 2005 performed an fMRI experiment which showed
overlap but also showed that when images were created using visuals by
participants, some of the areas were deactivated that were associated with
nonvisual areas like touch or hearing. They suggested that this may be because
mental images that were visualized are weaker than perception that is real
therefore, activities that are irrelevant are reduced due to this deactivation as it
might interfere with mental images.
Step 3 of 4
(c)
In lots of cases it has been seen that patients with brain damage have a problem
in perception and they also have the same problem in creating images. Unilateral
neglect occurs as a result to damage to parietal lobes, where the patients ignores
things that they visualize in one half of their visual field. This can be to the extent
that may only eat food on one side of their plate or shave only half their head.
In brain scans of participants who are normal and participants who had brain
damage and showed neglect, correspondence between physiology of perception
and mental imagery shows that physiological mechanisms are shared by
perception and imagery.
Step 4 of 4
(d)
Gabriel Kreiman and coworkers in 2000 studied patients having electrodes
implanted in different areas of the medial temporal lobe for the determination of
the source of the epileptic seizures that only medication could control. The result
of was that they found neurons which responded to some neurons but not
others. These neurons were termed as imagery neurons.
The main feature of these neurons is that they respond to imagining as well as
perceiving an object.

2. Some of the neuropsychological results demonstrate parallels between imagery

Answer:

Step 1 of 3
Neuropsychological results show contradictions to each other in regard to
perception and imagery. Some results show that both these methods run parallel
to each other thereby leading to the belief that they share same mechanisms
while some results show disassociation between the two. Such results show that
imagery may be poor even when perception is normal or imagery may be normal
but perception is poor.

Step 2 of 3
Behrmann and coworkers in the year 1994 explained this paradox by saying that
only partial overlap is seen between the mechanisms of imagery and perception,
where the mechanism for imagery is located generally in the visual centers
present higher and the mechanisms for perception are present in both the higher
and lower visual centers.
Bottom up processing is the concept that is present in visual processing according
to the given idea. This means that this process starts when an image is focused
onto the retina after light enters ones eye, and then this continues as signals get
sent along the visual pathways to the higher visual centers via the visual cortex.
Therefore, mental images are preassembled as they do not rely on activation of
cortical areas like the visual cortex as no input requires to be processed.

Step 3 of 3
According to the explanation by Behrmann and coworkers, C.K’s difficulty in the
perception may be caused by damage in the processing stream early and the
reason he can create images is because the higher level areas of the brain are still
intact. In the same manner, the difficulty faced by R.M in the creation of mental
images can be explained due to damage of the higher level areas and that he is
able to perceive the objects as areas present in the processing stream are still
functional.

3. What are some differences between imagery and perception? What have most
psychologists concluded about the connection between imagery and perception?

Answer:

Step 1 of 3

Imagery is defined as descriptive language, which functions in a way that the

Step 2 of 3
Examples of an imagery is described as the sense of touch where one feels that
something like a tree bark is rough whereas the perception for weather signifies
example of perception. Perception is found to be stable but imagery is fragile in
nature.

Step 3 of 3
The information of the shared mechanisms shows that there is parallel interaction
between imagery as well as perception. All of the mechanisms follow the same
outcome; it shows the overlap within the activation of brain, which is not
complete. It is very hard to manipulate image in mind as compared to those,
which are created in someone’s perception.
4. Under what conditions does imagery improve memory? Describe techniques
that use imagery as a tool to improve memory. What is the basic principle that
underlies these techniques?

Answer:

Step 1 of 3

Memory is improved by imagery due to the reason that it can create locations
that are organized where memories from for the specific items can get placed.
Memories can be retrieved later on by placing the images at various locations.

Step 2 of 3
The method of loci is used for remembering something from one’s personal
experience. An example can be of a person placing a huge set of teeth in his
drawing room in order to remind him visually about the appointment he has with
the dentist later in the day.
Another method is the pegword technique which involves imagery in the same
way as the method of loci. The difference lies in the fact that in this technique the
various items are associated with words that are concrete instead of visualizing
the items at various locations. An example includes first creating a list of nouns
that can be remembered easily as they are rhymed with various numbers. Also,
retrieval cues are provided by this rhyming. Then each of these things that need
to be remembered need to be paired with each of the pegword by the creation of
an image that is vivid with the object that is represented by the word.

Step 3 of 3
The concept behind the books which say that they provide the key for improving
one’s memory are these different techniques of imagery.
5. What is the evidence that solving mechanical problems can involve mental
simulation? How is this evidence related to visual imagery?

Answer:

Step 1 of 3
In scientific theories, such as Einstein’s theory of relativity and determination of
benzene’s structure, an important role has been played by visual imagery.
Mechanical problems can also be solved by this important mechanism of visual
imagery.
Mechanical problems can be solved by using an approach called mental
stimulation. In this approach, there occurs a mental representation of the
operation of mechanical system. Any problem can also be solved by using another
approach which is rule-based. In this approach, application of rule is involved.

Step 2 of 3
Considering a five-gear problem in which there is a meshing of each gear with the
next gear. If the turning of gear #1 is clockwise, to know the direction of turning
of gear #5 mental stimulation approach can be used. It can be imagined that the
turning of gear #2 would be counterclockwise; of gear #3 would be clockwise, and
so on.
This five-gear problem could also be solved by rule-based approach. A rule could
be applied, that is, the turning of a gear causes the rotation of the gear next to it
in an opposite direction.

Step 3 of 3
There is an analogy between the idea of involvement of a spatial
representation in visual imagery and the mental stimulation approach. Also, there
is an analogy between the idea of involvement of a propositional
representation in visual imagery and the rule-based approach. Spatial
representations are favored by many evidences. However, for solving a
mechanical problem both rule-based approaches and spatial representations can
be used.