scholarly journals Mental Imagery in Bertrand Russell’s Nobel Lecture “What Desires Are Politically Important?”

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Iryna Biskub Biskub ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Special Consideration ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Behavioral Reactions ◽  
Cultural Stereotypes ◽  
Nobel Lecture ◽  
Unique Manner ◽  
Mental Constructs

The article presents the analysis of the mental images of human desires and their verbalization techniques involved in Bertrand Russell’s Nobel lecture delivered in 1950. Human desires are non-material mental constructs that are not clearly defined in the dictionaries, their verbalization being complicated by the issues related to rationality, psychology of thinking, objectivity, and the variability of individual behavioral reactions. The results of the research suggest that the verbalization of desires is essentially complicated by social and cultural stereotypes. It has been noted that storytelling can be applied as one of the most effective techniques to create the required mental imagery of desires in the recipient’s mind. B. Russell’s unique manner of defining such politically important desires as acquisitiveness, vanity, glory, love of power, excitement is carefully analyzed. The use of figurative language as well as conceptual and stylistic metaphors that facilitate the process of shaping mental images of desires have also been the focus of our attention. Special consideration has been given to the analysis of the verbalization means of the politically important desires.

Mental Imagery in Athletes with Visual Impairments

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate A.T. Eddy ◽  
Stephen D. Mellalieu
Keyword(s):  
Visual Impairment ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Visual Impairments ◽  
Psychological Interventions ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Sensory Modalities

The purpose of this study was to investigate imagery experiences in performers with visual impairments. Structured, in-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with six elite goalball athletes regarding the processing and use of mental images in training and competition. Interview transcripts were analyzed using deductive and inductive procedures and revealed four general dimensions describing the athletes’ uses of imagery. Participants reported using imagery for cognitive and motivational purposes in both training and competition. Imagery was also suggested to be utilized from an internal perspective with the processing of images derived from a range of modalities. The findings suggest that visual impairment does not restrict the ability to use mental imagery and that psychological interventions can be expanded to include the use of all the athletes’ sensory modalities.

scholarly journals Profiles of Perfectionistic Ruminations in Undergraduates: Impact on the Spontaneous Use of Mental Images

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 3488
Author(s):  
María Pilar Aparicio-Flores ◽  
José María Esteve-Faubel ◽  
Rosa Pilar Esteve-Faubel ◽  
Lucía Granados-Alós
Keyword(s):  
Analysis Of Variance ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Automatic Thoughts ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Future Teachers ◽  
Cluster Analyses ◽  
Moderate Size ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Mental Imaging

Perfectionistic Automatic Thoughts (PAT) negatively affects people who present it. Hence the importance of their study to determine possible ways of reduction. The current study tried to identify PAT profiles and specify the statistically significant differences in the Spontaneous Use of Mental Imaging in 647 undergraduates. For this the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory and the Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale were used. The cluster analyses showed three groups of PATs; low (LPAT), moderate (MPAT) and high (HPAT). An analysis of variance revealed moderate size differences in the visual-spatial capacity as well as in the total of the Spontaneous Use of Mental Images for MPAT and LPAT. Implications for the training of future teachers related to the use of mental imagery that can reduce maladaptive PAT are discussed.

Motion, space, and mental imagery

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romi Nijhawan ◽  
Beena Khurana
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Spatial Representation ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Representation Of Space ◽  
Imagery Debate

In the imagery debate, a key question concerns the inherent spatial nature of mental images. What do we mean by spatial representation? We explore a new idea that suggests that motion is instrumental in the coding of visual space. How is the imagery debate informed by the representation of space being determined by visual motion?

The Depictive Nature of Visual Mental Imagery

1998 ◽  
pp. 221-227
Author(s):  
Norman Yujen Teng
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Image Representation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Visual Mental Imagery ◽  
Topographic Representation ◽  
The Brain

Tye argues that visual mental images have their contents encoded in topographically organized regions of the visual cortex, which support depictive representations; therefore, visual mental images rely at least in part on depictive representations. This argument, I contend, does not support its conclusion. I propose that we divide the problem about the depictive nature of mental imagery into two parts: one concerns the format of image representation and the other the conditions by virtue of which a representation becomes a depictive representation. Regarding the first part of the question, I argue that there exists a topographic format in the brain but that does not imply that there exists a depictive format of image representation. My answer to the second part of the question is that one needs a content analysis of a certain sort of topographic representations in order to make sense of depictive mental representations, and a topographic representation becomes a depictive representation by virtue of its content rather than its form.

Introversion–Extra Version, Tempo, and Guided Imagery

2002 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 619-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara R. Strelow ◽  
William B. Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Guided Imagery ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Therapeutic Applications

This research tested the hypotheses that (a) introverts would produce more vivid imagery than would extraverts, and (b) introverts would produce better mental imagery if the background auditory tempo was slow, and extraverts would produce better mental imagery of the background auditory tempo was fast. Participants ( N = 240) were classified as introverts or extraverts and were randomly assigned one of three tempo conditions: slow, fast, or none. They were instructed to form mental images while listening individually to one of two stories Clicks (slow or fast) sounded in the background during the stories. All participants then completed detailed questionnaires about the vividness of their mental imagery. Analysis showed that introverts reported significantly more vividness in their imagery than did extraverts. The hypothesized interaction between personality and tempo was not found. Implications were drawn for therapeutic applications of mental imagery.

scholarly journals Visual Mental Imagery Activates Topographically Organized Visual Cortex: PET Investigations

1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Kosslyn ◽  
Nathaniel M. Alpert ◽  
William L. Thompson ◽  
Vera Maljkovic ◽  
Steven B. Weise ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Anterior Part ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Area 17 ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Imagery Condition ◽  
Posterior Portion ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Positron Emission

Cerebral blood flow was measured using positron emission tomography (PET) in three experiments while subjects performed mental imagery or analogous perceptual tasks. In Experiment 1, the subjects either visualized letters in grids and decided whether an X mark would have fallen on each letter if it were actually in the grid, or they saw letters in grids and decided whether an X mark fell on each letter. A region identified as part of area 17 by the Talairach and Tournoux (1988) atlas, in addition to other areas involved in vision, was activated more in the mental imagery task than in the perception task. In Experiment 2, the identical stimuli were presented in imagery and baseline conditions, but subjects were asked to form images only in the imagery condition; the portion of area 17 that was more active in the imagery condition of Experiment 1 was also more activated in imagery than in the baseline condition, as was part of area 18. Subjects also were tested with degraded perceptual stimuli, which caused visual cortex to be activated to the same degree in imagery and perception. In both Experiments 1 and 2, however, imagery selectively activated the extreme anterior part of what was identified as area 17, which is inconsistent with the relatively small size of the imaged stimuli. These results, then, suggest that imagery may have activated another region just anterior to area 17. In Experiment 3, subjects were instructed to close their eyes and evaluate visual mental images of upper case letters that were formed at a small size or large size. The small mental images engendered more activation in the posterior portion of visual cortex, and the large mental images engendered more activation in anterior portions of visual cortex. This finding is strong evidence that imagery activates topographically mapped cortex. The activated regions were also consistent with their being localized in area 17. Finally, additional results were consistent with the existence of two types of imagery, one that rests on allocating attention to form a pattern and one that rests on activating stored visual memories.

scholarly journals Cortical excitability controls the strength of mental imagery

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Keogh ◽  
Johanna Bergmann ◽  
Joel Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Cortical Excitability ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Causative Role ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Neurophysiological Mechanism ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Sensory Imagery

AbstractMental imagery provides an essential simulation tool for remembering the past and planning the future, with its strength affecting both cognition and mental health. Research suggests that neural activity spanning prefrontal, parietal, temporal, and visual areas supports the generation of mental images. Exactly how this network controls the strength of visual imagery remains unknown. Here, brain imaging and transcranial magnetic phosphene data show that lower resting activity and excitability levels in early visual cortex (V1-V3) predict stronger sensory imagery. Electrically decreasing visual cortex excitability using tDCS increases imagery strength, demonstrating a causative role of visual cortex excitability in controlling visual imagery. These data suggest a neurophysiological mechanism of cortical excitability involved in controlling the strength of mental images.

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