scholarly journals Face Imagery Is Based on Featural Representations

Author(s):  
Janek S. Lobmaier ◽  
Fred W. Mast

Abstract. The effect of imagery on featural and configural face processing was investigated using blurred and scrambled faces. By means of blurring, featural information is reduced; by scrambling a face into its constituent parts configural information is lost. Twenty-four participants learned ten faces together with the sound of a name. In following matching-to-sample tasks participants had to decide whether an auditory presented name belonged to a visually presented scrambled or blurred face in two experimental conditions. In the imagery condition, the name was presented prior to the visual stimulus and participants were required to imagine the corresponding face as clearly and vividly as possible. In the perception condition name and test face were presented simultaneously, thus no facilitation via mental imagery was possible. Analyses of the hit values showed that in the imagery condition scrambled faces were recognized significantly better than blurred faces whereas there was no such effect for the perception condition. The results suggest that mental imagery activates featural representations more than configural representations.

2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisien Yang ◽  
Adrian Schwaninger

Configural processing has been considered the major contributor to the face inversion effect (FIE) in face recognition. However, most researchers have only obtained the FIE with one specific ratio of configural alteration. It remains unclear whether the ratio of configural alteration itself can mediate the occurrence of the FIE. We aimed to clarify this issue by manipulating the configural information parametrically using six different ratios, ranging from 4% to 24%. Participants were asked to judge whether a pair of faces were entirely identical or different. The paired faces that were to be compared were presented either simultaneously (Experiment 1) or sequentially (Experiment 2). Both experiments revealed that the FIE was observed only when the ratio of configural alteration was in the intermediate range. These results indicate that even though the FIE has been frequently adopted as an index to examine the underlying mechanism of face processing, the emergence of the FIE is not robust with any configural alteration but dependent on the ratio of configural alteration.


Author(s):  
Markus Krüger ◽  
Horst Krist

Abstract. Recent studies have ascertained a link between the motor system and imagery in children. A motor effect on imagery is demonstrated by the influence of stimuli-related movement constraints (i. e., constraints defined by the musculoskeletal system) on mental rotation, or by interference effects due to participants’ own body movements or body postures. This link is usually seen as qualitatively different or stronger in children as opposed to adults. In the present research, we put this interpretation to further scrutiny using a new paradigm: In a motor condition we asked our participants (kindergartners and third-graders) to manually rotate a circular board with a covered picture on it. This condition was compared with a perceptual condition where the board was rotated by an experimenter. Additionally, in a pure imagery condition, children were instructed to merely imagine the rotation of the board. The children’s task was to mark the presumed end position of a salient detail of the respective picture. The children’s performance was clearly the worst in the pure imagery condition. However, contrary to what embodiment theories would suggest, there was no difference in participants’ performance between the active rotation (i. e., motor) and the passive rotation (i. e., perception) condition. Control experiments revealed that this was also the case when, in the perception condition, gaze shifting was controlled for and when the board was rotated mechanically rather than by the experimenter. Our findings indicate that young children depend heavily on external support when imagining physical events. Furthermore, they indicate that motor-assisted imagery is not generally superior to perceptually driven dynamic imagery.


Author(s):  
Roberto D’Amato ◽  
Anna Donnadio ◽  
Mariolino Carta ◽  
Claudio Sangregorio ◽  
Riccardo Vivani ◽  
...  

Reaction of cerium ammonium nitrate and tetrafluoroterephthalic acid in water afforded two new metal-organic frameworks with UiO-66 [F4_UiO-66(Ce)] and MIL-140 [F4_MIL-140A(Ce)] topologies. The two compounds can be obtained in the same experimental conditions, just by varying the amount of acetic acid used as crystallization modulator in the synthesis. Both F4_UiO-66(Ce) and F4_MIL-140A(Ce) feature pores with size < 8 Å, which classifies them as ultramicroporous. Combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and magnetic susceptibility measurements revealed that both compounds contain a small amount of Ce(III), which is preferentially accumulated near the surface of the crystallites. The CO<sub>2</sub> sorption properties of F4_UiO-66(Ce) and F4_MIL-140A(Ce) were investigated, finding that they perform better than their Zr-based analogues. F4_MIL-140A(Ce) displays an unusual S-shaped isotherm with steep uptake increase at pressure < 0.2 bar at 298 K. This makes F4_MIL-140A(Ce) exceptionally selective for CO<sub>2</sub> over N<sub>2</sub>: the calculated selectivity, according to the ideal adsorbed solution theory for a 0.15:0.85 mixture at 1 bar and 293 K, is higher than 1900, amongst the highest ever reported for metal-organic frameworks. The calculated isosteric heat of CO<sub>2 </sub>adsorption is in the range of 38-40 kJ mol<sup>-1</sup>, indicating a strong physisorptive character.


Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Fridland

AbstractThis paper provides an account of the strategic control involved in skilled action. When I discuss strategic control, I have in mind the practical goals, plans, and strategies that skilled agents use in order to specify, structure, and organize their skilled actions, which they have learned through practice. The idea is that skilled agents are better than novices not only at implementing the intentions that they have but also at forming the right intentions. More specifically, skilled agents are able formulate and modify, adjust and adapt their practical intentions in ways that are appropriate, effective, and flexible given their overall goals. Further, to specify the kind of action plans that are involved in strategic control, I’ll rely on empirical evidence concerning mental practice and mental imagery from sports psychology as well as evidence highlighting the systematic differences in the cognitive representations of skills between experts and non-experts. I’ll claim that, together, this evidence suggests that the intentions that structure skilled actions are practical and not theoretical, that is, that they are perceptual and motor and not abstract, amodal, or linguistic. Importantly, despite their grounded nature, these plans are still personal-level, deliberate, rational states. That is, the practical intentions used to specify and structure skilled actions are best conceived of as higher-order, motor-modal structures, which can be manipulated and used by the agent for the purpose of reasoning, deliberation, decision-making and, of course, the actual online structuring and organizing of action.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 361-362
Author(s):  
Tara Johnson ◽  
Katie Stanko ◽  
Susan Jefferson

Abstract Destination memory errors (inability to remember to whom information was shared) affects all ages, but older adults are particularly vulnerable due to poor source monitoring. Individuals may assume information was already shared when it was not or repeat previously shared information. The current study explored two mental imagery strategies (vivid imagery, visualizing context) to improve destination memory. Using a software program, younger and older adults told randomly generated facts to random celebrity faces. Participants were unaware of the upcoming memory tests. The control group did not use a strategy. The imagery group used vivid imagery to connect the fact and face (e.g., visualize Oprah on a dime to remember Oprah was told that dimes have 118 ridges). The context group visualized a provided context (e.g., grocery store) when telling a fact to a face. Assessments of performance on item memory (facts, faces) as well as destination memory (face-fact pairings) were counterbalanced. Results indicated an associative memory deficit among older adults, which was driven by a higher rate of false alarms. However, across all adults, the vivid imagery condition was more accurate than the control condition, and they demonstrated fewer false alarms. These findings suggest that older adults can use mental imagery to reduce false alarms and improve destination memory performance. Implications include reducing age stereotypes, improving conversations, and decreasing potentially dangerous situations (e.g., withholding important health information thinking it already was shared with a doctor).


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Fakra ◽  
Elisabeth Jouve ◽  
Fabrice Guillaume ◽  
Jean-Michel Azorin ◽  
Olivier Blin

1979 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 1173-1178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktor Krchňák ◽  
Milan Zaoral

A series of solid-phase syntheses of the protected precursor II of DDAVP was carried out. Experimental conditions were developed under which practically pure II can reproducibly be obtained in yields better than 60%. The protected precursors of DDAVP obtained by liquid- and solid-phase synthesis and DDAVP samples obtained from these precursors were undistinguishable by conventional analytical or pharmacological assays.


1982 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Dean Ryan ◽  
Jeff Simons

To investigate the mental imagery aspect of mental rehearsal, 80 male traffic officers from the California Highway Patrol learned a novel balancing task during a single session. Based on a pretest questionnaire, subjects were categorized as imagers, nonimagers, or occasional imagers and assigned to one of six groups accordingly: imagers asked to use imagery in mental rehearsal, imagers asked to try not to use imagery, nonimagers asked not to use imagery, nonimagers asked to try to use imagery, physical practice, or no practice. It was hypothesized that a person's preferred cognitive style would prove most effective for use in mental rehearsal and that using another style would cause a decrement in learning. Improvement scores indicated no differences between subjects who initially reported typically using imagery and those reported typically not using it, but groups asked to use imagery in mental rehearsal were superior to those asked not to (p<.001). Overall, physical practice was better than the grouped mental rehearsal conditions, and both were better than no practice. Subjects reporting strong visual imagery were superior to those with weak visual images (p<.03), and those reporting strong kinesthetic imagery were superior to those with weak kinesthetic images (p<.03). Regardless of one's typical cognitive style, the use of vivid imagery appears quite important for enhancement of motor performance through mental rehearsal.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Bassem Khalaf

There is strong evidence that focussing on the goal of an action improves performance relative to focussing on the concrete motor behaviours. The current study tests whether blind action guided by imagery relies on the same foci of attention. Thirty female participants took part in an experiment. In each condition there were 20 trials, they were asked to close their eyes and draw a straight line between two landmarks on a graphics tablet. We instructed them, in three conditions, to focus on (1) mental imagery of the goal landmark (external focus of attention), (2) drawing a straight line with the fingers (internal focus), or (3) without a specific focus of attention (control). We tested to what extent these attention instructions affected drawing performance, in terms of both deviations of the participants’ lines from an ideal straight line, and the time it took to complete the line. The study revealed that the manipulation specifically affected the deviation measure and that an external focus of attention was better than an internal focus and the control condition. These findings reveal that that mental imagery during blind action relies on same processes as actual performance. These data give perceptual representations of a direct role in motor control. They will be related to current theories of action control (constrained action hypothesis, ideomotor theories, and dual task accounts).


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