The demands of mental travel: demand characteristics of mental imagery experiments (original) (raw)
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Matters of definition in the demystification of mental imagery
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1979
What might a theory of mental imagery look like, and how might one begin formulating such a theory? These are the central questions addressed in the present paper. The first section outlines the general research direction taken here and provides an overview of the empirical foundations of our theory of image representation and processing. Four issues are considered in succession, and the relevant results of experiments are presented and discussed. The second section begins with a discussion of the proper form for a cognitive theory, and the distinction between a theory and a model is developed. Following this, the present theory and computer simulation model are introduced. This theory specifies the nature of the internal representations (data structures) and the processes that operate on them when one generates, inspects, or transforms mental images. In the third, concluding, section we consider three very different kinds of objections to the present research program, one hinging on the possibility of experimental artifacts in the data, and the others turning on metatheoretical commitments about the form of a cognitive theory. Finally, we discuss how one ought best to evaluate theories and models of the sort developed here.
On the demystification of mental imagery
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1979
What might a theory of mental imagery look like, and how might one begin formulating such a theory? These are the central questions addressed in the present paper. The first section outlines the general research direction taken here and provides an overview of the empirical foundations of our theory of image representation and processing. Four issues are considered in succession, and the relevant results of experiments are presented and discussed. The second section begins with a discussion of the proper form for a cognitive theory, and the distinction between a theory and a model is developed. Following this, the present theory and computer simulation model are introduced. This theory specifies the nature of the internal representations (data structures) and the processes that operate on them when one generates, inspects, or transforms mental images. In the third, concluding, section we consider three very different kinds of objections to the present research program, one hinging o...
A Journey Through the Concept of Mental Image
This article defines the mental image (MI) as an operative synthesis that allows us to act in a dynamic cognitive context that can be a real or imaginary situation, making a distinction between perception and MI. A dynamic cognitive context is the confluence of several mental capacities acting simultaneously to create products: perceptual, imaginary, affective, proprioceptive,
Content, characteristics and function of mental images
Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 2008
Objectives: The goal of this article is to better understand the use of mental imagery by athletes. Design: Exploratory qualitative study followed by interviews with multimedia assessment tool. Method: A first qualitative study was completed with two expert skydivers. The model obtained by the first study was tested in a second quantitative study with 32 skydivers. A multimedia tool was programmed to test the model so that films representing various content (internal or external views), characteristics (e.g., speed) and functions (e.g., to learn, to manage stress) was displayed during interviews in the second study. Results: Results of the first study suggested that the use of imagery can be functionally explained by three related elements: content (what is visualized), characteristics (how it is visualized) and functions (why it is visualized) of mental images. Results of the second study showed that the content and the characteristics of imagery are linked to the function sought. Moreover, we found that the mental images used (content, characteristics and functions) varied according to the level of expertise (novice, confirmed or experts) and with the situation (when preparing for the jump, before jumping out of the plane or after the jump). Conclusions: These results supplement the current stream of study, which has emphasized structural description of mental imagery since 1985. Our findings suggest that future research should build on structural dimensions of mental imagery and examine functional issues, because functional aspects have proved useful for understanding imagery use and for counseling athletes.
Perception & Psychophysics, 2000
A series of experiments considers the extent to which the interrelations among subjective magnitudes aroused by images corresponds to those for subjective magnitudes aroused by physical stimuli. In Experiment 1,68 undergraduates typed phrases in response to graded categories regarding the imagined magnitude of lights, sounds, and smells. In Experiment 2, 5 undergraduates and, in Experiment 3, 3 graduate students then magnitude estimated the image intensity aroused by each of these stimulus phrases. In Experiments 4 and 5, the same subjects performed cross-modality matches between phrases arousing images for different attributes (light, sound, and smell). Statistical analysis indicates that estimates based on images display many of the same patterns as those based on physical stimuli. The major exception involves sequence effects, present for actual stimuli but not for images. An outstanding issue in cognitive psychology centers on the degree to which the subjective magnitude aroused by an image corresponds to that aroused by the physical stimulus itself (Finke, 1985; Kosslyn, 1987; Shepard & Cooper, 1982). Empirical evidence supports the view that many of the brain structures underlying perceptual, primarily visual, processes are the same as those responsible for imagery (
Enacting Visualization. Mental Imagery and the Role of Pictures
Recasting Aesthetic Experience: Emotions and the “Continuity Principle”, 2018
It's a quite widespread idea that the devices surrounding us shape the way we relate to the environment. In this contribution, I will discuss the hypothesis that pictures are responsible for both extension and constitution of some of our visualization abilities and skills. Visualization refers here to the ability of human beings to figure out the world during both imaginative and perceptive practices. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that pictures are devices which are able to constitute cognitive processes: pictures are not simply the outcome of a representational act generated into the mind, but constitutive elements of a media feedback. This definition indicates the process by which a device creates the conditions of possibility for a specific cognitive act: if human beings enact pictures, then the pictures themselves must be conceived as physical constitutive extensions of some aspects of our cognition.
The heterogenous and dynamic nature of mental images: An empirical study
Belgrade Philosophical Annual
This article addresses the problem of the nature of mental imagery from a new perspective. It suggests that sign-theoretical approach as elaborated by C. S. Peirce can give a better and more comprehensive explanation of mental imagery. Our empirical findings follow the methodology of cognitive semiotics and they show that (i) properties of mental images are heterogenous in nature; (ii) properties of mental images are dependent on the characteristics of object-stimulus; (iii) properties of mental images are dependent on individual differences in imaginary capacities. This suggests that, contrary to representational accounts, mental imagery is not based on one dominant representational format. Imagery constitutes a complex system of signs consisting of several sign elements and dynamic relations. A sign-theoretical account may give a better explanation of the nature of mental imagery, as it accommodates heterogenous evidence from this experiment.