Imagery

Question 1

What is imagery?

Answer 1

Detailed mental experience not triggered by direct input
- Perception without sensation

Question 2

Why is imagery difficult to study?

Answer 2

It is personal and subjective

Question 3

Is imagery always visual?

Answer 3

No, can be other sense modalities - e.g., earworms: tune stuck in the head

Question 4

What is hyperphantasia?

Answer 4

Extreme imagery - mental images are extremely detailed and almost photo like ‘like a film in my mind’

Question 5

What does hyperphantasia overlap with?

Answer 5

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory

Question 6

What is aphantasia?

Answer 6

Lack of imagery - inability to form visual mental images when thinking about people, the past, and concepts
- Relies on knowledge and facts rather than mental imagery to access info

Question 7

Is aphantasia a disorder? How many people does it affect?

Answer 7

No, is just a different ~4% of individuals in the world

Question 8

How does imagery impact one’s career?

Answer 8

• Hyperphantasia -> more creative, artistic
• Aphantasia -> math, straight-forward

Question 9

What is the strength of object imagery linked with and how?

Answer 9

Positive relation with PTSD symptoms

Question 10

What is the debate about imagery on?

Answer 10

How imagery can be stored NOT what imagery is being stored

Question 11

What is the dual-coding theory?

Answer 11

Two interconnected ways to process and represent info (verbal and non-verbal systems)

Question 12

What is the verbal system of the dual-coding theory?

Answer 12

Symbolic system that deals with words and their components (letters, syllables, etc.)

Question 13

What is the non-verbal system of the dual-coding theory?

Answer 13

Modality-specific system that deals with images and their components (lines, shapes, etc.)

Question 14

What is propositional representation vs. depictive representation?

Answer 14

• Propositional: verbal, abstract-code, a modal
• Depictive: non-verbal, analog, modality specific

Question 15

What representation does dual-coding use?

Answer 15

Depictive AND propositional representations

Question 16

How does dual-coding vs. propositional handle perceptual and spatial info?

Answer 16

• Dual: preserve all on one stream
• Propositional: does not preserve either

Question 17

How are images portrayed in dual-coding and propositional?

Answer 17

• Dual: mental imagery - bringing representation to mind
• Propositional: images are eiphenomenon

Question 18

What are eiphenomenons?

Answer 18

Mental imagery that is a by-product of accessing info

Question 19

What is the evidence for dual-coding theory?

Answer 19

• Concreteness effect
• Encoding: present participants with concrete and abstract words - we encode concrete faster

Question 20

What is the concreteness effect?

Answer 20

Memory enhancement for imageable items
E.g., chair vs. justice

Question 21

What is the mental rotation task?

Answer 21

Measure time to rotate mental image of figures - determine if it’s the same time as if rotating it irl

Question 22

What was the results of the mental rotation task?

Answer 22

I if it took more rotations in the real world -> also took longer to rotate mentally

Question 23

What was the gender difference in the mental rotation task?

Answer 23

Females were less accurate and took more time than males
- Cause: men may have better spatial ability OR sociocultural influences

Question 24

What is the mental scanning task?

Answer 24

Further scanning distance = longer reaction time
- Tells us that imagery and perception are linked

Question 25

What is mental scaling?

Answer 25

Tests focused on object rather than spatial imagery E.g., participants asked to imagine animals standing next to an elephant or a fly

Question 26

Mental scaling: if a participant is asked to imagine a rabbit next to a fly vs. an elephant, which will the participant say the rabbit has whiskers faster?

Answer 26

Fly - closer to rabbit (in terms of size) vs. elephant

Question 27

What is activated when viewing/imaging faces?

Answer 27

Great Fusiform Face Area

Question 28

What is active when viewing and imagine buildings?

Answer 28

Greater Parahippocampal Place Area

Question 29

What fMRIs tell us about perception and imagery?

Answer 29

Perception and imagery have shared areas

Question 30

Do auditory imagery and perception activate similar brain regions?

Answer 30

Yes - HOWEVER, imagery requires more brain power (top-down) vs. perception (bottom-up)

Question 31

How does imagery look in people with blindsight?

Answer 31

They have much less imagery compared to controls

Question 32

How can imagery guide our perception?

Answer 32

If we are imagining something, and then something falls on it - we are quicker to detect whether that thing fell on the imagined thing rather if it was empty

Question 33

What is sports training imagery?

Answer 33

Pre-game mental visualization has been linked to better performance

Question 34

How can imagery training be used for mental health?

Answer 34

Imagery rescripting in which a person imagines distressing memory and rescripts that image with another scenario to reduce negative emotions

Question 35

Two groups: imagery (imagine visual images of scenario) and meaning (focus on meaning of words) when it comes to a negative event, which had worse mental health?

Answer 35

Imagery group - had higher rates of anxiety

Question 36

What is the Von Restorff effect?

Answer 36

Objects are remembered better when they are bizarre among common objects - what is different stands out in memory

Question 37

What is the difference between the Von Restorff effect and the method of loci?

Answer 37

- Von Restorff: different in common objects - Method of loci: placing things in familiar places