MENTAL IMAGERY

MENTAL IMAGERY

1. Classic Research

   • Amount of time it takes to rotate a mental image depends on the extent of the rotation
   • Controversy has focused on mental imagery, specifically whether information is stored in picture-like analog codes or language-like propositional codes
   • Several studies, participants are instructed to create a mental image for an ambiguous figure. They may have difficulty reinterpreting the mental image so that they see a different image
   • People with prosopagnosia cannot recognise human faces visually, nor create a mental image

2. Influences on visual imagery

   • Takes longer to 'travel' a long mental distance than short
   • Can take longer to make decisions about two similar shaped stimuli
   • Visual images can interfere with visual perception
   • Meta-analyses on spatial ability show small to moderate gender differences in spatial visualisation and spatial perception.

3. Auditory Imagery

   • Lack of research on auditory imagery due to no clear-cut evidence for it
   • Mental 'travel' time is longer when two tones are different in pitch rather than similar
     • Timbre perception and timbre imagery are highly correlated

4. Cognitive Maps

   • Mental representation of the surrounding environment. Emphasises real-world settings and is interdisciplinary. Quite accurate
     • Can make systematic errors, reflecting a tendency to base judgements on heuristics. Errors are typically based on variables that are relevant and represent the environment as more regular than it is
   • Spatial cognition: individual differences are large and correlated with mental rotation ability. Make judgements more easily when the cognitive map matches the orientation of a physical map
   • Cognitive maps can be distorted by 1) number of intervening cities/category membership, 2) angles formed by two intersecting streets, 3) geographical structures are slightly tilted or lined up than they really are
   • Often create cognitive maps based on verbal descriptions (make up-down dimension quickly but right-left dimensions are more difficult)