Can Theories of Mental Representation Adequately Explain Mental Imagery?

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Issajeva
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Mental Representation

scholarly journals The Use of Kinetic Imagery by Children and Adults

1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Linda J. Anooshian ◽  
Katryn Wilson ◽  
Alice A. D'Acosta
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Horizontal Movement ◽  
Performance Levels ◽  
Task Administration ◽  
Better Than

In this study, we examined developmental improvement in kinetic imagery skills as related to differences in the utilizability vs. evocability of those skills. Analyses were conducted on performance levels and response times for task trials in which participants were required to determine which of 3 larger blocks could be "made" by combining (through imagery) 2 smaller blocks. Adults performed better than did 9- or 11-year-olds, especially for trials that required mental representation of rotation as well as horizontal movement. Examination of the effects of 2 conditions of task administration indicated no developmental changes in the adjustment of methods of task solution to specific instructions. However, analyses of response times suggested that age differences in performance levels could be attributed to differences in the degree to which possibilities of ways in which blocks could be combined through mental imagery were exhaustively examined.

scholarly journals Implicit Bias as Mental Imagery

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
BENCE NANAY
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Propositional Attitude ◽  
Implicit Bias ◽  
Perceptual Processing

Abstract What is the mental representation that is responsible for implicit bias? What is this representation that mediates between the trigger and the biased behavior? My claim is that this representation is neither a propositional attitude nor a mere association (as the two major accounts of implicit bias claim). Rather, it is mental imagery: perceptual processing that is not directly triggered by sensory input. I argue that this view captures the advantages of the two standard accounts without inheriting their disadvantages. Further, this view also explains why manipulating mental imagery is among the most efficient ways of counteracting implicit bias.

scholarly journals Verbal vs. visual coding in modified mental imagery map exploration task

Psihologija ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Cirovic ◽  
Suncica Zdravkovic
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Distance Effect ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
Visual Coding ◽  
Symbolic Distance ◽  
Exploration Task

We modified classical mental exploration task introducing verbal modality. Consequently, we could test robust effects from lexical processing in an attempt to understand whether the underlying mental representation is strictly propositional. In our three experiments, in addition to map modality (visual or verbal), lexical frequency, concreteness and visual frequency were also varied. The symbolic distance effect was replicated, regardless of map modality. Exploration of distances was regularly faster on pictorial maps. Effects of lexical frequency and concreteness were not significant for verbal maps. However, when visual frequency was introduced on pictorial maps both type of frequencies generated measurable effects. Our findings directly contradict the assumptions of propositional theories (1) subjects were faster in the visual modality, which would be difficult to explain if the perceptual code had to be transformed into propositional, (2) word frequency and concreteness did not contribute as would be expected if propositional code were a default.

Mental Imagery in Congenitally Blind Children

1984 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 206-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Educational Needs ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Blind Children ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
The Common ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Development Of Language

Ten totally and congenitally blind children, aged 3–9, and a matching group of 10 sighted children were asked to describe, first from memory and then through tactual exploration, selected common objects. The aim was to examine the children's mental representation of the objects. Through a statistical and qualitative analysis of the number and types of attributes that the children assigned to the objects, the author was able to compare the similarities and differences between the blind children's tactually based conceptualization of objects and the sighted children's visually guided conceptualization. The findings led to conclusions about the nature and development of language in blind children, the educational needs of congenitally blind children, and the common linguistic experiences of blind and sighted children.

Above and beyond the content: Feelings influence mental simulations

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kellen Mrkva ◽  
Luca Cian ◽  
Leaf Van Boven
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Mental Simulation ◽  
Past Experience ◽  
Prediction Errors

Abstract Gilead et al. present a rich account of abstraction. Though the account describes several elements which influence mental representation, it is worth also delineating how feelings, such as fluency and emotion, influence mental simulation. Additionally, though past experience can sometimes make simulations more accurate and worthwhile (as Gilead et al. suggest), many systematic prediction errors persist despite substantial experience.

Mental imagery and intraoral local anesthesia

1984 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 653-658
Author(s):  
MM Walsh ◽  
R Hannebrink ◽  
B Heckman
Keyword(s):  
Local Anesthesia ◽  
Mental Imagery

Mental representation of economic crisis in Italian and Swiss samples 1The authors would like to thank Maurizio Mistri for his help in the construction of items. This research was supported by a grant from the Italian Murst (ex 40%).

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Savadori ◽  
Eraldo Nicotra ◽  
Rino Rumiati ◽  
Roberto Tamborini
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
National Context ◽  
Cluster Procedure ◽  
Total N ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Important Symptom

The content and structure of mental representation of economic crises were studied and the flexibility of the structure in different social contexts was tested. Italian and Swiss samples (Total N = 98) were compared with respect to their judgments as to how a series of concrete examples of events representing abstract indicators were relevant symptoms of economic crisis. Mental representations were derived using a cluster procedure. Results showed that the relevance of the indicators varied as a function of national context. The growth of unemployment was judged to be by far the most important symptom of an economic crisis but the Swiss sample judged bankruptcies as more symptomatic than Italians who considered inflation, raw material prices and external accounts to be more relevant. A different clustering structure was found for the two samples: the locations of unemployment and gross domestic production indicators were the main differences in representations.

Reading About Persons: The Effects of Conjunctions on the Mental Representation of Person Descriptions

2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Krolak-Schwerdt ◽  
Margret Wintermantel ◽  
Nadine Junker ◽  
Julia Kneer
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Person Memory ◽  
Causal Connections ◽  
Single Person ◽  
On Line

Three experiments investigated the processing of person descriptions that consisted of a number of statements about the characteristics of a person. In one condition, each statement referred to a single person attribute and in the other condition, causal and additive conjunctions to verbally link the statements were introduced. Evidence was found that the introduction of verbal links enhanced participants’ memory about the characteristics of the described person. On-line measures of processing showed that the comprehension of person information was strongly facilitated by the introduction of verbal links. Furthermore, the results were due to the introduction of causal connections between person attributes. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for models of person memory and representation.

Cognitive Components of Ingroup Projection

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Machunsky ◽  
Thorsten Meiser
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Cognitive Representation ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Projection Model ◽  
Minimal Group ◽  
Model Experiments ◽  
Superordinate Category ◽  
Cognitive Components ◽  
Per Se

This research investigated whether relative ingroup prototypicality (i.e., the tendency to perceive one’s own ingroup as more prototypical of a superordinate category than the outgroup) can result from a prototype-based versus exemplar-based mental representation of social categories, rather than from ingroup membership per se as previously suggested by the ingroup projection model. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that a prototype-based group was perceived as more prototypical of a superordinate category than an exemplar-based group supporting the hypothesis that an intergroup context is not necessary for biased prototypicality judgments. Experiment 3 introduced an intergroup context in a minimal-group-like paradigm. The findings demonstrated that both the kind of cognitive representation and motivational processes contribute to biased prototypicality judgments in intergroup settings.

Exploring the Boundaries of the Number–Temporal Order Association

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Ganor-Stern
Keyword(s):  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Numerical Comparison ◽  
Negative Number ◽  
Comparison Task ◽  
Negative Numbers ◽  
The Past

Past research has shown that numbers are associated with order in time such that performance in a numerical comparison task is enhanced when number pairs appear in ascending order, when the larger number follows the smaller one. This was found in the past for the integers 1–9 ( Ben-Meir, Ganor-Stern, & Tzelgov, 2013 ; Müller & Schwarz, 2008 ). In the present study we explored whether the advantage for processing numbers in ascending order exists also for fractions and negative numbers. The results demonstrate this advantage for fraction pairs and for integer-fraction pairs. However, the opposite advantage for descending order was found for negative numbers and for positive-negative number pairs. These findings are interpreted in the context of embodied cognition approaches and current theories on the mental representation of fractions and negative numbers.

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