Cognitive Psychology: Theory, Process, and Methodology - Dawn M. McBride, J. Cooper Cutting 2019
Imagery
Questions to Consider
· What is an image? How do images contribute to cognitive tasks?
· How are visual images represented and manipulated in our minds?
· How do pictures aid memory?
· What effect does bizarre imagery have on memory?
· How is imagery used in mnemonics?
· How do visual images help us navigate in our environments?
· How do nonvisual images aid in cognition?
Introduction: Visual Imagery in Everyday Life
When I am having a bad day, I sometimes close my eyes and imagine I am driving my Jeep up Pacific Coast Highway. The sun is shining, the wind is whipping the loose strands of my hair around, and I can smell the saltiness of the air. I drive past the length of Newport Beach and keep right on going until I hit the Huntington Beach Pier. There I park and watch the waves crash, full of surfers near the pier. I have a clear sensory image of this scene in my head even as I type it out on the page.
I can easily create this visual image because it is a scene I have encountered many times. Driving up Pacific Coast Highway in the places described here was something I did often when I had a bad day while I was in graduate school in Southern California. Living now in Central Illinois, I cannot experience that drive when I have a bad day so instead I imagine it in my head and it is almost as if I am there. I feel calmer and more centered, as I used to when I actually took that drive. But even if I had never been on Pacific Coast Highway before, I could still create an image in my head of what it might be like from pictures I have seen or descriptions I have heard before. In reading my description, you may have created a visual image of yourself in the driving scene, even if you have never been to the California coast.
What is your favorite place to imagine? How do you create that image for yourself? What is the sensory experience of that image—do you “see” objects in the image, “hear” sounds that occur in that place, “feel” the tactile sensation of being in that place? Our ability to imagine a scene plays a part in many cognitive tasks we perform. I access my memory of driving on Pacific Coast Highway when I want to relax by remembering places along the highway I have been and attempting to experience those places as mental images in my mind. As we discussed in Chapter 6, visual images can be useful mnemonics to help us remember information that is not inherently visual. We can also use visual images to help us predict the future in “seeing” how objects and scenes can change over time as we navigate through complex environments. Auditory images can also help us hold information in working memory. In this chapter, the focus is on imagery and how it relates to many of the cognitive processes (e.g., memory, perception, problem solving) covered in other chapters of this text.
Mental Images and Cognition
Imagery has been known as a useful cognitive tool since ancient times. It was used as a mnemonic device by Roman orators and is used today by people who develop their memorization abilities for competition (Foer, 2011). In fact, mental images are important not just in memory but in many of the cognitive processes discussed in this text. We collect images of the world around us as we navigate and interpret information using our perceptual processes. We create images of situations as we attempt to solve problems we encounter in our daily lives. As we communicate with others, we often create images of situations we want to relate through language or situations others are describing to us.
Consider some situations where imagery is useful in your everyday tasks. When you meet a friend in a busy place, you might use a mental image you have of your friend’s face or his or her other features to scan the environment for someone who looks like your friend. You probably also use mental imagery to retrieve facts and knowledge (i.e., semantic memories), such as the location of various mid-Atlantic states in the United States or whose photo is on the U.S. five dollar bill. You probably also convey information to other people about your experiences using mental images of those events, such as who was at a party you were at last weekend or who was the star of a movie you recently saw. In my recent attempts to learn Japanese hiragana language symbols, I have used mental images of objects I am familiar with to memorize the phonemes that correspond to the symbols (e.g., ま creates an image for me of a mother holding a child and equates to the phoneme ma).
Thus far, we have considered examples of images that are primarily visual, but images are mental re-creations of sensory information from the outside world and can be visual, auditory (i.e., sounds), olfactory (i.e., smells), or tactile (i.e., touches). When we re-create in our minds (i.e., an episodic memory) a scene we have experienced, we can access the visual pieces of the scene (e.g., trees and stretches of grass in a park where we had a picnic), the smells that accompanied the scene (e.g., fresh-cut grass in a park), sounds that were present (e.g., laughter of children in the nearby playground), and the tactile sensations we experienced (e.g., the coolness of a breeze on our arms). From these examples, it may be clear that imagery and episodic memory (i.e., memories of our experiences) are closely connected. But imagery can be created without having a memory of the experience, as mentioned in the introduction to the chapter. You can create an image in your mind of what it might be like to stand on the moon with lowered gravity, hearing the sound of your breath in the space suit you would be wearing and seeing Earth from such a distance. You can create these images even though you have no memory of having been on the moon by using the knowledge you have about the moon and your reasoning abilities to make a good guess about what that experience might be like.
The Debate on Propositional and Spatial Representations
Given the importance of imagery for our cognitive abilities, researchers have investigated how images are created and held in our mind. Experiments in the 1970s spawned two primary ideas about how images are held and manipulated in our minds, each of which relies on the representationalist approach to cognition described in Chapter 1. One idea is that mental images are represented spatially, in the same way that objects or scenes are perceived when looking at them. Stephen Kosslyn (e.g., Kosslyn, Ganis, & Thompson, 2006) has been one of the strongest proponents of this view and conducted many experiments to test this idea. He reasoned that subjects asked to do a “mental travel” task, where they have to access different locations of an object or scene, should show longer response times in the task for larger distances across locations if, in fact, they are accessing a spatial representation of the image to complete the task. This type of task is known as mental scanning.
In one study using a mental-scanning task, Kosslyn (1973) asked subjects to consider drawings of objects (e.g., a plane, a lighthouse) like those shown in Figure 8.1. He asked them to create an image of the object they had seen and focus on a part of the object (e.g., the plane’s propeller). The subjects were then asked to review their mental image to verify the presence of another part of the object (e.g., Does the plane have a tail fin?). The time taken to answer the question was recorded on each trial. Results from this study showed that the farther away on the object the verification task was (e.g., the plane’s tail) from the starting point in the image (e.g., the plane’s propeller), the longer it took subjects to complete the task. From these results, Kosslyn argued that mental images exist as spatial representations in the mind that we can access to complete a task.
Spatial representation: the idea that visual information is represented in analog form in the mind
Figure 8.1 Simple Objects Like Those Imagined by Subjects in Kosslyn’s (1973) Experiment
Figure 8.2 Fictional Map Used in the Kosslyn et al. (1978) Study
Source: Kosslyn et al. (1978, figure 2).
Kosslyn further supported his argument with additional experiments. For example, in one study (Kosslyn, Ball, & Reiser, 1978), subjects were asked to study the locations of objects on the map of a fictional island (see Figure 8.2 for an example). They were then asked to imagine the map of the island and go to a specific location on the island. Finally, they were asked to mentally move from that location to another location on the island. You may imagine this task more easily with something familiar to you. Imagine you are standing at your front door. From there, go to your bedroom. This is the task Kosslyn et al.’s subjects were given, but they were asked to mentally “move” around on the island they had studied (seen in Figure 8.2). The time it took them to “mentally travel” between locations depended on the actual distance between the locations on the map, suggesting that subjects were moving around on a spatial representation of the map in their minds. Similar results were also reported by Pinker and Kosslyn (1978) for three-dimensional scenes and by Shepard and Metzler (1971) for the rotation of three-dimensional objects (see Figure 5.8).
Despite the evidence for spatial representations of mental images provided by Kosslyn and colleagues, another researcher suggested a different idea about how mental images are represented in the mind. Pylyshyn (1973) argued that mental images actually represent propositional representation, rather than spatial. An example of a proposition is the way you might think of a sentence. Because you know how sentences are structured, you can assign each word to a part of the structure. For example, for the sentence “The boy flew his kite,” you know that The boy is the subject of the sentence, flew is the verb, and his kite is the object of the verb (see Figure 9.1 for another example of a propositional representation of a scene). Knowing the purpose of each of these parts allows you to interpret the sentence and understand the ideas presented in it. Contrast this with the spatial representation of this sentence seen in Photo 8.1. Both the propositional and spatial representations have the same meaning and represent the same ideas; they just represent those ideas in different ways. The propositional-representation view is consistent with ideas about the way language is represented in the mind (see Chapter 9 for more discussion).
Propositional representation: the idea that visual information is represented nonspatially in the mind
Pylyshyn (1973) argued that mental images that seem spatial might actually be propositions of the objects. He suggested that the phenomenological experience of accessing a spatial mental image did not necessarily mean that this was the mode in which our mind had represented the image. You might think of this like the heat you feel from a light bulb while reading—the heat you feel contributes nothing to the reading process (Kosslyn et al., 2006). It is just a by-product of using a lamp to read by. In this way, the sensory images we experience may be like the heat—we experience them, but they are not part of the process of representing images in our minds. It is possible that the actual representation (a propositional representation) is beyond our conscious experience. Pylyshyn (1981) argued that the task of imagining something happening (like the “mental travel” tasks Kosslyn and colleagues used in their studies) has a temporal sense that the subjects understand and that they mimic this idea of the unfolding of time in the task. He claimed this was why the response times were longer for larger distances, not the idea that images are actually represented spatially within one’s mind.
Photo 8.1 Spatial representation of the sentence “The boy flew his kite.”
Shutterstock.com/Soloviova Liudmyla
Pylyshyn’s argument for propositional representations is compelling, but spatial representation has been the majority view and is supported by more data (e.g., Kosslyn’s studies already described) than the propositional view. To counter Pylyshyn’s suggestion that spatial representation does not occur for mental images, Kosslyn and his colleagues conducted further studies that examined brain activity during mental imaging. For example, Kosslyn et al. (1993) showed that visual mental-imagery tasks activate visual cortex areas in the brain, suggesting that mental imagery activates brain regions that are also activated in perception. Kosslyn, Thompson, Kim, and Alpert (1995) further showed that the size of an object one is imagining is related to the location of brain activation in primary visual cortex areas due to the spatial organization of the visual cortex (see Chapters 2 and 3 for more discussion of the organization of the visual cortex). Slotnick, Thompson, and Kosslyn (2012) more recently reported that brain areas involved in visual-memory tasks are also involved in visual mental-imagery tasks. Zatorre and Halpern (2005) present similar evidence for auditory images—when asked to imagine something auditory (e.g., the tune of a song), brain areas that process sound stimuli in the temporal lobe are active, despite no sound stimuli being presented (see the next section for more discussion of auditory imagery). These results suggest that the memory accessed in the imagery task is perceptual. Thus, recent neuroimaging studies provide additional support for the spatial-representation view of imagery. However, Pylyshyn (2002, 2003) has continued to argue for propositional representation of images, claiming that neuroimaging data do not necessarily illustrate the representational processes that occur for images. Therefore, the debate over how images are represented in the mind is ongoing.
Imagery and Memory
Consider the following words. Read each one to yourself:
house, dream, justice, kite, giraffe, cute, first, whale, trust, paper, hope, clock
Now cover them up, count backward by threes from forty-five, and try to write down all the items you read. It is unlikely that you remembered all of the words, but consider which type of word you remembered the best. House, kite, giraffe, whale, paper, and clock are all concrete objects, whereas dream, justice, cute, first, trust, and hope are more abstract concepts and less easily imagined. Most people remember more of the concrete objects, a result known as the concreteness effect.
From our discussion of imagery so far in this chapter, you might have noticed the strong connection between imagery and some types of memories. For example, images seem to play a role in many episodic memories we recall from events we have experienced in our lives. In fact, many studies have shown that images can aid memory compared with other forms of information (e.g., words): Pictures are better remembered than words, words that are more easily imaged (i.e., concrete objects) are better remembered, and sentences that create bizarre images are better remembered than sentences that invoke more common images. In Chapter 5, the importance of the phonological loop in working memory was described, where auditory images of to-be-remembered information can be held with vocal or sub-vocal auditory rehearsal extending the duration they can be held. Finally, as described in Chapter 6, images play a role in mnemonics (i.e., memory aids for encoding lists of information). Let’s now consider each of these imagery effects on memory.
The Picture Superiority Effect
About fifty years of research in memory has shown one fairly consistent result: Pictures are better remembered than words. This effect, known as the picture superiority effect, was most frequently seen in studies conducted by Alan Paivio (1991). For example, in one such study (Paivio & Csapo, 1973), subjects studied pictures or word labels for the pictures and then recalled the items they had studied. In a number of different study conditions, pictures were better recalled than words in the memory test. This result has been replicated many times in the decades since Paivio began his research in this area.
Picture superiority effect: a result showing that memory for pictures is superior to memory for words of the same concepts
Stop and Think
· 8.1. Describe two cognitive tasks that imagery plays a role in.
· 8.2. Explain the difference between spatial and propositional representations of images.
· 8.3. Imagine you are standing outside the building you are in now. In your mind, go to the library on your campus. Now imagine you are once again outside the building you are in now. In your mind, go to the student center on your campus. According to research results reported in this chapter, which “mental travel” task should take longer? Why?
· 8.4. The sentence “The cow behind the fence chewed on the green grass” is an example of which type of image representation?
To explain the picture superiority effect, Paivio (1975, 1986, 1991, 1995) has suggested that pictures produce automatic encoding in two modalities when they are studied, whereas words only produce encoding in one modality, an idea known as dual-coding theory. According to dual-coding theory, words produce only a verbal code (the word itself) when studied, but pictures produce both an image code (the picture itself) and a verbal code (the label for the picture). If you consider the two ways that mental images might be represented in the mind described earlier (i.e., spatial and propositional representations), this would be like having both types of representations stored for each picture item but only the propositional representation stored for each word item. Paivio proposed that both the image code and the verbal code for pictures are automatically encoded into memory when they are studied. This results in two separate and distinct cues (the image code and the verbal code) accessed at retrieval. This provides a better opportunity for one to retrieve a studied picture compared with a studied word that can be retrieved through the verbal code but not an image code.
You may notice that dual-coding theory relies on an important assumption: that pictures will be automatically labeled at study, but words will not be imagined as frequently as pictures are labeled. Snodgrass and McClure (1975) supported this assumption in their research. They instructed subjects to study words and pictures under two conditions: either to memorize the label of the item or to imagine the item. They showed that memory for pictures was similar under these two conditions but that memory for words improved when they were asked to imagine the item. These results are shown in Figure 8.3 and suggest that labeling occurs naturally for pictures (no extra instruction is needed) but that words are not always automatically imagined—an instruction to imagine them is needed to increase their memory to a level similar to that for pictures.
The Concreteness Effect
The effect illustrated in the demonstration at the beginning of this section, where more concrete objects are remembered than abstract ones, is known as the concreteness effect. Paivio and colleagues (e.g., Paivio & Csapo, 1973; Paivio & Madigan, 1968) also showed this effect in their studies with higher recall for concrete item labels (e.g., apple, hotel, pencil) than more abstract item labels (e.g., crime, death, gravity). Dual-coding theory was also suggested as the explanation for this effect. Although words are not automatically imagined in every case, it is likely that some word items may be imagined during encoding or retrieval, with more concrete objects imagined than abstract items (which are more difficult to imagine). Thus, this effect is also consistent with the dual-coding idea that relies on image coding of some items.
Concreteness effect: a result showing that memory for concrete concepts is superior to memory for abstract concepts
Figure 8.3 Results From Snodgrass and McClure’s (1975) Study Showing Improved Memory for Words When Items Are Imagined
The Bizarreness Effect
As described in Chapter 6, the bizarreness effect is shown when any information that evokes an unusual image is better remembered than information that evokes a more typical image. For example, McDaniel and Einstein (1986) found that sentences like “The dog rode the bicycle down the street” were better remembered than sentences like “The dog chased the bicycle down the street.” The first sentence creates an unusual image, whereas the second sentence creates a more common image. An interesting part of their results was that subjects showed the bizarre sentence memory advantage when sentence type was manipulated within subjects (i.e., subjects received both bizarre and common sentences) but not when sentence type was manipulated between subjects (i.e., subjects received only bizarre or common sentences). From this finding, McDaniel and Einstein suggested that the bizarreness effect is caused by the distinctiveness of the bizarre image as compared with the common image. The bizarre sentences seem to stand out when one tries to remember sentences of both types. However, when only one type of sentence is studied, bizarre sentences are less distinct because they are all of the same type. Thus, the bizarre nature of the image only aids memory when it stands out against other studied information.
Bizarreness effect: result showing that memory for unusual images is superior to memory for typical images
Consider the sentences in Table 8.1. Choose one of the columns of sentences to read, and as you read them, try to form a mental image of the scene depicted in the sentence. Then cover up the sentences and try to recall each one. Check your answers when you’re done. How well you remembered them likely depended on the group you chose to read. In Group 1, all of the sentences evoke common images. In Group 2, some of the sentences evoke bizarre images and some evoke common images. In Group 3, all of the sentences evoke bizarre images. According to McDaniel and Einstein’s (1986) research, the bizarreness effect should be strongest for Group 2 where the sentence types are mixed (i.e., manipulated within subjects), as compared to when different sets of subjects are assigned to read either Group 1 or Group 3 sentences of only one type (i.e., manipulated between subjects). Figure 8.4 shows McDaniel and Einstein’s recall results for their first experiment. The mixed lists condition is like Group 2 in Table 8.1 with both bizarre and common images mixed within the list of sentences. This example illustrates how distinctiveness can influence memory: The bizarre sentences in Group 2 stand out against the rest and are better remembered.
Distinctiveness has also been proposed to explain the picture superiority effect described earlier in this chapter (e.g., Mintzer & Snodgrass, 1999). Although the picture superiority effect can be produced with between-subject manipulations of item type (i.e., when different groups of subjects study the words and pictures), pictures seem to be more distinctive from one another than words are, which allows the individual pictures to stand out against the other items.
Auditory Imagery
Auditory images, like visual images, can be held for auditory stimuli. Memory for a piece of music or your inner speech when you “talk to yourself” or memories for distinctive sounds (e.g., a wind chime or crashing waves) can all involve auditory images (Hubbard, 2010). As visual images extend across space, auditory images extend over time, showing similar effects in time (rather than space) when people are asked to manipulate those images in research studies. For example, Halpern (1988) found that when participants were asked to verify if two lyrics came from the same song, reaction times for responses were longer if the lyrics were farther apart in the song than when they were closer together. These results are similar to those in Kosslyn’s (1973) study of visual images over spatial distance.
Figure 8.4 Results From McDaniel and Einstein’s (1986) Experiment 1 Comparing Recall for Sentences With Bizarre and Common Images
As described in Chapter 5, auditory codes are used for holding information in working and short-term memory. The phonological loop stores information in verbal codes that allow for verbal rehearsal. Although long-term memory does not seem to show the same verbal code dominance that is seen in short-term memory, auditory information is also stored in long-term memory and can be used to create auditory images through long-term memory retrieval. Tracy and Barker (1993) compared the roles of visual and auditory images in recalling words. Students were asked to imagine a future trip to the beach and rate the vividness of visual (e.g., How easy is it to “see” the waves?) and auditory (e.g., How easy is it to “hear” the waves?) images. After a brief delay, participants completed an unexpected recall test for the objects (e.g., waves) that they had been asked about in the earlier rating task. Overall, recall rates were similar for words rated according to visual and auditory images. However, the correlation between image ratings and recall rates differed for the visual and auditory images: Recall increased as visual image ratings increased, but recall was highest for words with high and low auditory image ratings as compared with words with intermediate auditory ratings. Thus, both strong and weak auditory images aided memory, but only strong visual images aided memory. In other words, strong images helped for both auditory and visual images, but for auditory images only, when it was difficult to imagine a sound, this made the image more distinct in memory. These results suggest that memory is influenced by both types of images, but the effects can differ depending on whether the image is visual or auditory in nature.
There is also some evidence for an auditory version of the picture superiority effect. Crutcher and Beer (2011) compared memory for sounds (e.g., the sound of dogs barking) and the spoken labels of those sounds (e.g., the word “barking”) in several experiments. Their results suggested that there is an “auditory superiority effect” with sounds better recalled than the labels of sounds. Their last experiment further showed that when participants were asked to label the sounds during study, the sound advantage was strengthened with an even larger recall advantage for the sounds than the spoken labels they studied.
Imagery and Mnemonics
In Chapter 6, we described some techniques for improving memory for lists of items called mnemonics. As you may recall, some of the best mnemonics rely on images of the objects one wishes to remember placed in familiar locations along a known route (e.g., your drive or walk home or the entrance to your house). This technique is known as the method of loci, and, as described by Foer (2011), the more bizarre the images created when using the technique, the better they are remembered. In other words, the bizarreness effect can help one remember lists of items when applied as a mnemonic. In Photo 8.2 you can see some items placed along the walkway to a front door that someone might imagine in order to use the method of loci to remember a grocery list of peanut butter, milk, cheese, and grapes.
Method of loci: a memory aid where images of to-be-remembered information are created with locations along a familiar route or place
Pegword mnemonic: a memory aid where ordinal words (e.g., one, two) are rhymed with pegwords (e.g., bun, shoe) to create images of pegwords and to-be-remembered items interacting
Flashbulb memories: vivid memories for hearing about a significant event that are not always accurate
Another technique, known as the pegword mnemonic technique, also involves the connection of different words with images. In the pegword mnemonic, specific words that rhyme with numbers are used as place holders in an ordered list (e.g., one—bun, two—shoe, three—tree). These pegwords are then associated with items you wish to remember in order. For example, suppose you needed to memorize a speech on the lobes of the brain. If the first topic in your speech is the frontal lobe, you might imagine a hamburger bun sitting at your front door to connect the bun (meaning one) with the “frontal” topic in your speech. If the next topic in your speech is the occipital lobe that involves processing of visual information, you might imagine a shoe with eyes to connect the pegword shoe (for two) with the visual processing task of the occipital lobe. In this way, images are used to connect the pegwords that indicate order of the list with the items you wish to remember. Use of mnemonics will not improve your general memory abilities, but it can help you remember lists of information for exams, remember sections of a speech you need to give, or help you remember names of people you meet. The creation of images, especially bizarre images, can help you more easily remember this information.
Flashbulb Memories
There is a type of memory that people report for when they heard about an event that can have vivid imagery associated with it. These are typically memories that have a strong emotional content. Memories for where we were and how we heard about a significant event are called flashbulb memories, where we feel like we have frozen time in our memories for a particular occurrence. Older Americans often report flashbulb memories for significant events in U.S. history, like where they were when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot and killed. You may have a flashbulb memory for when you heard about a significant event in your country’s history (e.g., the Boston Marathon terrorist bombings in 2013, the 2011 earthquake in Japan, or the 2005 London bus and Underground bombings). Although flashbulb memories seem very accurate to us, studies have shown that they can be as inaccurate as other episodic memories (Talarico & Rubin, 2003). Thus, even flashbulb and autobiographical memories can contain errors.
Photo 8.2 The method of loci involves the creation of images where meaningful items are imagined in different locations of a common route, such as the entrance to one’s home.
House: ©iStockphoto.com/TerryJ; Grapes: ©iStockphoto.com/anna1311; Peanut butter: ©iStockphoto.com/bonchan; Milk: ©iStockphoto.com/PrairieArtProject; Cheese: ©iStockphoto.com/Azure-Dragon
Stop and Think
· 8.5. Describe each of the following effects: the picture superiority effect, the concreteness effect, and the bizarreness effect.
· 8.6. In what way can each of the effects listed in Stop and Think 8.5 aid in the use of mnemonics to improve memory for information?
· 8.7. Describe how you might use the pegword mnemonic technique to remember a grocery list of items you need to buy.
· 8.8. Mnemonics can aid memory for specific lists of information, but they do not improve general memory abilities for all information. Why do you think mnemonics have this limited effect on memory?
The Dark Side of Imagery
Although many of the effects of imagery on memory are positive, imagery can also hurt memory in some cases. In Chapter 7, we discussed the types of memory errors that can occur, along with the conditions that contribute to those false memories. One thing that contributes to false memories that we have not yet discussed is imagery. Several studies have now shown that when one is asked to imagine an event that never occurred, this can sometimes create a false memory for the event as if it actually happened.
Elizabeth Loftus and others have shown the effects of imagining events on memory for the events in numerous studies. For example, Loftus (1993) has shown that subjects who are asked to “remember” the time they were lost in the mall when they were a child are able to recall details of the event, even though every subject in these studies was never actually lost in a mall as a child (as verified by their family members). Thomas and Loftus (2002) showed that just imagining an event a few times can create false memories for having experienced the event. In this study, subjects were asked to perform or imagine either common tasks (e.g., roll a pair of dice, flip a coin) or bizarre tasks (e.g., sit on a pair of dice). After imagining the tasks they did not perform a few times, many of the subjects reported having performed both the common and the bizarre tasks. Thus, imagining events that never happened can have the unintended effect of creating a false memory for those events. These studies show that although in most cases imagery can aid memory retrieval, it can also create memory errors that could be damaging if one is asked to imagine a negative event, such as a crime.
Imagery in Problem Solving and Wayfinding
Imagery is useful in remembering information, but it can also be useful in other cognitive tasks such as problem solving and navigating in the environment. Consider the following problem: You have a deck of fifty-two playing cards. You choose a card at random from the deck. What is the probability that the card is a spade (see Photo 8.3)? While considering this problem, did you imagine the deck and the different suits of cards that are in a deck? If so, then you used imagery to help solve the problem. Imagery is not necessary to solve this problem, but it can be helpful if you are not very familiar with playing cards. (The answer is 25 percent, because there are four suits in the deck, giving you a one-in-four chance of choosing a spade.)
Imagery in Problem Solving
In fact, recent research has shown that reasoning abilities can be aided by mental imagery. Consider another problem involving the gears seen in Photo 8.4. If the gear on the right is turned clockwise, which direction would the gear on the left turn? Research suggests that creating a mental image of this gear system and moving the image in your mind can help you solve the problem. Hegarty (2004) reviewed research studies showing that when subjects attempt to solve problems like the gear system problem shown in Photo 8.4 or a pulley system problem, the reaction time in solving the problem depended on the amount of movement required by the system in the problem. Further, asking subjects to mentally imagine the problem did not change their reaction times, suggesting that mental imaging is something they will do on their own to solve the problem.
Hegarty (1992) also showed that in solving complex problems, the mental simulation is done in parts to arrive at the final solution. Try to solve the problem in Figure 8.5. Which direction will the top left wheel move? In order to solve this problem, you might think through each part of the system’s movement (e.g., pulling the rope on the right will make the top right wheel move clockwise, which will then move the bottom wheel counterclockwise, which then moves the top left wheel counterclockwise). Hegarty gave subjects pulley systems like the one shown in Figure 8.5. She then gave them statements to verify (e.g., True or false? If the block on the bottom is pulled, the bottom wheel will turn clockwise) and recorded the reaction time to verify the statements. The reaction time results are shown in Figure 8.6. As can be seen in the graph, subjects took longer to verify statements that involved more parts of the pulley system. This result suggests that subjects are not moving all the parts of the mental image of the system simultaneously. Adding more parts to the problem adds more time for subjects to imagine a solution.
Photo 8.3 Imagery can aid in problem solving, such as determining the probability of choosing a spade at random from a deck of cards.
©iStockphoto.com/zoom-zoom
Photo 8.4 Research shows that mental imagery can aid in the solution of problems, such as with this gear system. If the gear on the right is turned clockwise, which direction would the gear on the left turn?
©iStockphoto.com/StillFX
Moulton and Kosslyn (2009) argued that imagery serves a primary role in prospective cognition—our ability to make predictions about how things will occur in the future. They suggest that imagery allows knowledge to be generated about specific events, which then allows for predictions to be made about those events. In other words, imagery allows for the prediction of various solutions to problems from the knowledge gained in the mental simulation of the problem. However, visual imagery is not the only strategy used in problem solving. Rule-based strategies are also used in many problems. For example, in the gear system problem in Photo 8.4, you might know a general rule about gears—that they move in opposite directions where they are connected. This rule could be used to answer the question posed in Photo 8.4 without creating a mental image of the system and moving it in your mind. Using a mental imagery strategy is an example of a spatial representation of the problem. Using a rule-based strategy would involve a propositional representation of the problem. Thus, imagery seems to play a role in problem solving, regardless of the type of representation (spatial or propositional) from which the imagery is formed.
Figure 8.5 Pulley System Problem Similar to Those Used in Hegarty (1992)
Figure 8.6 Results From Hegarty’s (1992) Experiment 1 for Pulley System Statements That Involved Movement (collapsed across the two pulley systems used)
Imagery in Wayfinding
Imagery seems to be helpful as well in another type of problem-solving task: navigating our environment. Foley and Cohen (1984) argued that in making judgments about a large-scale environment (e.g., a large building) subjects who made accurate judgments constructed a “working map” of the environment. They found that two types of imagery contributed to the “working map” representation subjects created: scenographic and abstract imagery. Scenographic imagery is what one would see walking through the environment. Abstract imagery is a maplike image overview of the environment (see Figure 8.7 for examples). Their study showed that both types of imagery contributed to subjects’ knowledge of the environments they were asked to judge.
Scenographic imagery: the image of an environment based on landmarks encountered in that environment along a navigated route
Abstract imagery: an image of an environment based on an overview of the environment
Some studies have shown that, although both types of imagery contribute to wayfinding, abstract imagery is more helpful in navigating an environment (e.g., Abu-Obeid, 1998; Foley & Cohen, 1984). However, in a study comparing a route perspective (directions are given in terms of what the person following them will see on the route, allowing for scenographic images) and a survey perspective (directions are given as if following a map overview of the route, allowing for abstract images), Padgitt and Hund (2012) found that the route perspective resulted in better wayfinding performance in a university building. Thus, the effectiveness of the two types of imagery may depend on the complexity of the environment, the means of following the instructions (i.e., step-by-step or from memory), individual differences in sense of direction, or other factors.
From the research reviewed here, it is clear that imagery is related to several important cognitive tasks necessary for daily activities. Memory, problem-solving, and navigation abilities all include some role for imagery in tasks relying on these abilities, with imagery as a key component in superior performance on these tasks. However, most of the imagery helpful in these cognitive tasks is visual. In the next section, we consider how nonvisual imagery can aid in motor tasks such as sports performance.
Figure 8.7 Examples of Scenographic Images (Panel A) and an Abstract Image (Panel B) of a University Building
Nonvisual Imagery
Paivio’s dual-coding theory, described earlier in this chapter, suggests that imagery has two inherent codes, a verbal code (as in the word label for pictures) and a nonverbal code (as in the visual image of a picture). The nonverbal code can include visual information or information from other modalities, such as auditory, olfactory, or tactile information. Some researchers have investigated these nonvisual codes as they pertain to motor tasks, such as grasping an object, hitting a baseball, or running. In some cases, these nonvisual codes can be easily translated into a verbal code (Klatzky, McCloskey, Doherty, Pellegrino, & Smith, 1987), but in other cases, verbal translation is more difficult (e.g., explaining verbally what is involved in running). But kinesthetic imagery, regardless of the verbal access to the imagery, has been shown to influence the way we perform motor tasks. Such imagery has been called internal imagery (Jeannerod, 1995), as it is experienced from within as if one were performing the action with one’s body (i.e., “muscular imagining”; Epstein, 1980).
Stop and Think
· 8.9. Describe how imagery can aid in problem solving and navigating an environment.
· 8.10. In what way are the results of Hegarty’s studies involving pulley problems similar to the results of Kosslyn et al.’s studies in navigating a fictional island from a studied map?
· 8.11. Describe the difference between scenographic imagery and abstract imagery in navigating an environment. Which of these seems to be more helpful in successful navigation?
In some early work in this area, Klatzky et al. (1987) showed that subjects could report the correct hand shape for grasping different objects (see Photo 8.5) without actually grasping those objects, suggesting that the subjects had access to a motor image for the task. In this case, the image was also available in their minds as a verbal description, as subjects could make a verbal report of the appropriate hand grasp. In another study by Klatzky, Pellegrino, McCloskey, and Doherty (1989), these researchers showed that when asked to judge whether an action could be performed (e.g., crumple a newspaper versus climb a grape), subjects more quickly identified performable actions when they were preceded by an appropriate hand configuration for the action. This suggests that subjects benefitted in judging the actions from the motor imagery provided by the hand configuration cues.
Photo 8.5 Subjects in Klatzky et al.’s (1987) experiments could identify the correct hand configuration for grasping specific objects.
Shutterstock.com/donatas1205
In other studies, researchers have considered the benefit of motor imagery to sports performance (see Photo 8.6). A long line of studies has shown that motor imagery, in the form of muscular rehearsal within one’s mind, can benefit performance in sports such as skiing, gymnastics, and basketball (Epstein, 1980). Different types of imagery have been found to impact different aspects of performance. Imagery has been classified as either cognitive (imagery for specific sports skills or strategies) or motivational (imagery for goals, coping, or emotions that accompany the sport competition). The motor imagery described earlier in this section is consistent with the cognitive type of imagery. For increasing performance of motor skills, cognitive imagery that focuses on specific skills seems to be the most effective (Martin, Moritz, & Hall, 1999). However, motivational forms of imagery can enhance an athlete’s confidence in his or her abilities (Martin et al., 1999). Thus, the best form of motor imagery in enhancing sports performance may depend on the desired outcome (e.g., increasing performance of a specific motor skill versus increasing one’s emotional perspective on the task).
Motor imagery: a mental representation of motor movements
Motor imagery may also be related to social skills and interactions. Decety and Grèzes (2006) suggest that the type of imagery used to enhance motor performance is related to imagery that can enhance social interactions. They review evidence from neurophysiological studies showing connections between brain areas involved in producing actions and in imagining actions. They further suggest links between perceiving one’s own actions and another’s actions and between imagining emotions and correctly identifying another’s emotional state, which illustrates similarity between imagery and social behaviors. Similar links exist between imagining pain and perceiving pain in others. Thus, motor imagery may be important in producing active interactions with others (e.g., coordinated movements and synchrony) and in understanding others’ emotional states. These ideas are consistent with the embodied cognition perspective described in Chapter 1.
Photo 8.6 Research suggests that imagining yourself performing a free throw shot using motor imagery can improve your performance.
©iStockphoto.com/GoodLifeStudio
Imagery and Simulation
The neurophysiological results described by Decety and Grèzes (2006) suggest that imagery may play a role in social interactions. In fact, imagery may precede many social interactions as we consider what we might say to someone in certain situations before we encounter them, what emotions specific social situations might elicit in us before we experience them, or what movements we must make to navigate a social environment without tripping and embarrassing ourselves. In other words, social interaction often requires simulation of these actions and emotions in order to determine the best way to handle a social situation. Thus, imagery may be part of the broader process of simulation that we do every day as we interact with our environment.
This idea was suggested by Barsalou (2008) in describing the role of cognitive processes in our goals for perception and action in our environment. He calls this perspective “grounded cognition,” as it involves considering cognition as a means for achieving goals that may be bodily, social, or simulative. Barsalou presents evidence to support the argument that simulation is the way in which information is represented in the mind. He argues that imagery plays a primary role in such simulation, suggesting that the imagery we have described in this chapter is not a compartmentalized cognitive process on its own. Instead, it is an important process in grounded cognition, where cognition involves simulation and the interaction of the body and the environment. Thus, cognition is a broad interactive process rather than the accumulation of different operations from independent processes of perception, memory, and language. This way of viewing cognition is becoming more popular as research areas of cognition have interacted and overlapped more in the past few decades.
Stop and Think
· 8.12. Explain what is meant by motor imagery. Describe an example from your life for this concept.
· 8.13. What is the difference between cognitive imagery and motivational imagery? Which one seems to enhance performance more in a specific sports skill (e.g., making a free throw)?
· 8.14. Describe what is meant by Barsalou’s concept of “grounded cognition.” How does this approach to cognition differ from the representationalist approach with which the chapter started?
Thinking About Research
As you read the following summary of a research study in psychology, think about the following questions:
1. In what ways is this study similar to studies examining the role of visual imagery in cognitive tasks presented in this chapter?
2. What was the manipulated variable in this experiment? (Hint: Review the Research Methodologies section in Chapter 1 for help in answering this question.)
3. What was the purpose of the control condition? In what way would the researchers’ conclusion have been limited if the control condition had not been included?
4. If the researchers had chosen to look at brain activity during the moral judgment task instead of looking at inhibition due to the type of interference task, what results would you expect for this study?
Study Reference
Amit, E., & Greene, J. D. (2012). You see, the ends don’t justify the means: Visual imagery and moral judgment. Psychological Science, 23, 861—868.
Note: Experiment 2 of this study is presented.
Purpose of the study: The study was conducted to investigate the role of visual imagery in moral judgments. The researchers considered two possible contributions to moral judgments: favoring the rights of an individual (e.g., it is wrong to harm a single individual, even if doing so would save others) and favoring the greater good (i.e., it is better to harm a single individual than many). The authors predicted that, due to its connection to emotional content, visual imagery contributes to judgments favoring the individual (a more emotional choice), whereas verbal processing contributes to favoring the greater good (a more logical, less emotional choice). They tested this hypothesis by adding interference to a moral judgment task that would inhibit either visual or verbal processing in the judgments.
Method of the study: Subjects were given a number of moral dilemma scenarios that produced a conflict where killing a single person would save several other people. Subjects rated the acceptability of killing the single person (resulting in saving several others) on a scale of 1 (completely unacceptable) to 7 (completely acceptable). During the moral judgment task, they also performed a visual or verbal task to manipulate the type of processing (visual imagery or verbal processing) required in the second task. The visual task involved judging whether a specific shape had been presented 2 shapes earlier within a series of 10 shapes shown to the subject. Thus, subjects had to access visual images of the presented shapes to make their response. The verbal task was the same, but the names of the shapes (e.g., circle, square) were presented instead of the actual shapes. By requiring the subjects to complete two tasks at once, the researchers created a situation where the secondary task could interfere with the judgments about acceptability of the choice to kill one person (and save several others) in the moral judgment task. Thus, in the visual task condition, subjects were inhibited in their visual imagery abilities in the moral judgment task. In the verbal task condition, they were inhibited in their verbal processing in the moral judgment task. Finally, some scenarios were presented without a second task to create a control condition.
Results of the study: The visual task condition resulted in higher mean acceptability rating (subjects were more likely to allow the single individual to be killed) than in the verbal processing condition or the control condition. This result indicates that visual imagery inhibited by the visual interference task is important in making judgments that would favor saving the individual in the moral scenarios presented. Because subjects were less able to create visual images in the moral judgment task (due to the interfering visual task), they favored killing the individual more than in the verbal or control task conditions.
Conclusions of the study: In this experiment, the researchers’ hypothesis was partially supported by the result that a visual interference task inhibited favoring the individual. However, a verbal interference task did not influence moral judgments as compared with the control condition. But from the results the researchers did obtain, they concluded that visual imagery contributes to the favoring of individuals in moral judgments.
Chapter Review
Summary
· What is an image? How do images contribute to cognitive tasks?
An image is a representation of something (e.g., an object, a scene, a movement, a sound) in your mind. Images contribute to many cognitive tasks including memory, perception, problem solving, and environment navigation by aiding in the processes that accompany these tasks.
· How are visual images represented and manipulated in our minds?
There are two ideas about how images are represented in our minds: spatial and propositional. Spatial images represent things in their original form, whereas propositional images represent the meaning and associations of the thing being represented. It is still debated as to whether images are represented spatially or propositionally.
· How do pictures aid memory?
The picture superiority effect has shown that pictures are generally better remembered than words. One idea about why this is the case is dual coding of pictures where both the visual and verbal information is stored for pictures but only verbal information is stored for words. More stored codes generally produce better retrieval. Pictures may also be more distinctive than words and thus more easily retrieved.
· What effect does bizarre imagery have on memory?
Bizarre imagery aids memory. It has been proposed that bizarre images are more distinctive and thus more easily retrieved.
· How is imagery used in mnemonics?
Imagery is useful in mnemonic techniques in associating something meaningful to information we wish to remember. Bizarre images can aid in making that information more distinctive in memory.
· How do visual images help us navigate in our environments?
Visual images can aid navigation in providing landmarks to follow (e.g., retrieving these images from memory) or in providing an overview image of an environment to follow in navigating that environment.
· How do nonvisual images aid in cognition?
Nonvisual images aid cognition as well. For example, motor images can enhance sports performance through the mental practice of muscle movements.
Chapter Quiz
1. The sentence “Twelve blackbirds flew through the cloudless blue sky and landed at the top of a large oak tree” is an example of what type of imagery?
1. spatial imagery
2. propositional imagery
3. motor imagery
4. all of the above
2. A video showing twelve blackbirds flying and landing on the top of a large tree is an example of what type of imagery?
1. spatial imagery
2. propositional imagery
3. motor imagery
4. all of the above
3. Imagining yourself jumping over a small fence is an example of what type of imagery?
1. spatial imagery
2. propositional imagery
3. motor imagery
4. all of the above
4. The description of images as spatial proposed by Kosslyn and others illustrates the ___________ perspective of cognition.
1. embodied cognition
2. representational
3. biological
5. The description of images as important in simulations that help aid the fulfillment of perceptual goals illustrates the ___________ perspective of cognition.
1. embodied cognition
2. representational
3. biological
6. Remembering words like book, tree, and butterfly better than words like justice, meaning, and life illustrates the ______________ effect.
1. bizarreness
2. picture superiority
3. concreteness
7. Spatial images preserve ______ relationships for visual stimuli and auditory images preserve _______ relationships for auditory stimuli.
1. verbal; visual
2. spatial; temporal
3. analog; propositional
4. both (b) and (c)
8. Explain the difference between spatial and propositional representations.
9. How have studies of brain activity helped support the spatial representation view of imagery?
10. Provide some examples of the bizarreness effect from your life.
11. When finding a place you have never been, do you rely more on scenographic or abstract images? Provide some examples that illustrate this.
12. Explain how motor imagery is different from other forms of imagery discussed in this chapter. Provide an example of motor imagery from your life.
Key Terms
· Abstract imagery 209
· Bizarreness effect 202
· Concreteness effect 201
· Flashbulb memories 205
· Method of loci 205
· Motor imagery 212
· Pegword mnemonic 205
· Picture superiority effect 201
· Propositional representation 199
· Scenographic imagery 209
· Spatial representation 197
Stop and Think Answers
· 8.1. Describe two cognitive tasks that imagery plays a role in.
Answers will vary, but many cognitive tasks in the areas of memory, problem solving, perception, and language seem to rely partly on imagery of some form.
· 8.2. Explain the difference between spatial and propositional representations of images.
Spatial representations are essentially representations of an object or scene as it appears in reality. You can “map” each portion of the actual object or scene onto the image. Propositional representations do not retain the physical properties of the object or scene in the image as they appear in reality. Instead, these properties are recoded into a form with the same meaning but not the same analogical content.
· 8.3. Imagine you are standing outside the building you are in now. In your mind, go to the library on your campus. Now imagine you are once again outside the building you are in now. In your mind, go to the student center on your campus. According to research results reported in this chapter, which “mental travel” task should take longer? Why?
Whichever route is longer should take longer to travel in your mind because most studies have shown that individuals take longer to complete mental travel tasks when the travel is farther in reality.
· 8.4. The sentence “The cow behind the fence chewed on the green grass” is an example of which type of image representation?
This is a propositional representation. It retains the meaning of an image but not the physical properties of the image. A picture of a cow behind a fence eating green grass would be a spatial image of this scene.
· 8.5. Describe each of the following effects: the picture superiority effect, the concreteness effect, and the bizarreness effect.
The picture superiority effect is a common result showing higher memory for studied pictures than studied words. The concreteness effect is shown by higher memory for concrete objects than for abstract concepts. The bizarreness effect is the finding that information containing unusual images (e.g., the blue cow danced in the field) is better remembered than information containing common images (e.g., the brown cow ate in the field).
· 8.6. In what way can each of the effects listed in Stop and Think 8.5 aid in the use of mnemonics to improve memory for information?
Distinctiveness seems to be important in each of these effects. Items better remembered tend to be more distinct from other items. Dual coding (e.g., verbal and pictorial image codes) may also play a role in these effects.
· 8.7. Describe how you might use the pegword mnemonic technique to remember a grocery list of items you need to buy.
Answers will vary, but the key is to create an image of each item interacting with the images created in the rhymes (e.g., for “one is a bun” imagine a box of cereal sandwiched within a hamburger bun).
· 8.8. Mnemonics can aid memory for specific lists of information, but they do not improve general memory abilities for all information. Why do you think mnemonics have this limited effect on memory?
Mnemonics rely on images. Thus, the specific images created are tied to specific material to be remembered. These images aid memory for this specific material but will not help you remember other information that is not part of the image.
· 8.9. Describe how imagery can aid in problem solving and navigating an environment.
Studies have shown that imagining a place (e.g., with an overview map or landmarks in that place) can aid in navigation.
· 8.10. In what way are the results of Hegarty’s studies involving pulley problems similar to the results of Kosslyn et al.’s studies in navigating a fictional island from a studied map?
The Hegarty studies suggest that individuals are solving problems through the manipulation of a spatial image. It takes longer to respond when the image must be manipulated more. This is similar to the Kosslyn et al. studies where subjects took longer to mentally travel from one location to another on a map when the distance was greater.
· 8.11. Describe the difference between scenographic imagery and abstract imagery in navigating an environment. Which of these seems to be more helpful in successful navigation?
Scenographic imagery involves landmarks along a route. Abstract imagery involves an overhead view (like a map) of a place. Some studies have shown that scenographic information is more helpful; however, the influence of these two types of imagery may also depend on the factors surrounding the task (e.g., complexity of the environment).
· 8.12. Explain what is meant by motor imagery. Describe an example from your life for this concept.
Motor imagery is a nonvisual form of imagery that involves mental practice of motor movements. Examples will vary but should involve some kind of motor movement you can imagine yourself performing.
· 8.13. What is the difference between cognitive imagery and motivational imagery? Which one seems to enhance performance more in a specific sports skill (e.g., making a free throw)?
Cognitive imagery involves imagery for specific sports skills or strategies (e.g., a movement involved in performing some type of sports skill). Motivational imagery involves imagery for goals, coping, or emotions that accompany sports competition. Current research suggests that cognitive imagery is more helpful in improving specific sports skills.
· 8.14. Describe what is meant by Barsalou’s concept of “grounded cognition.” How does this approach to cognition differ from the representationalist approach with which the chapter started?
Barsalou’s concept of grounded cognition posits that cognition aids us in tasks, like navigating our environment and achieving specific perceptual goals. He discusses the importance of imagery and simulation in such cognition. This view illustrates the embodied-cognition perspective, whereas Kosslyn’s spatial imagery argument illustrates the representationalist view of the study of cognition.
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