Cognitive exam 3 Visual Imagery

visual imagery

“seeing” in the absence of a visual stimulus, visual imagery may involve visual information in working memory or long term memory

LTM: how many drawers are there in ur kitchen

WM: B to heart example

more important notes

• some people have exceptional visual imagery abilities

• ex: albert einsten, thots in a stream of pictures

• visual imagery can be used to recall landmarks or imagine alternative routes during spatial navigation

• ex: “what other route can I take”

• visual imagery can be used to plan future actions

• ex: planning room layout

• visual imagery can be used to improve memory

• ex: picturing a tree growing out of a boat to remember the word pair “boat–tree.”

• visual imagery can help when reasoning and problem solving

• ex: weird riddle abt the son/father

• visual imagery can help when reasoning and problem solving

• ex: which glass needs to be tilted more to pour water

imagery vs. perception

• visual imagery is less vivid than perception

• visual imagery is effortful and fragile, whereas perception is automatic and stable

• perception you instantly recognize a red apple on a table without trying—it’s stable and detailed because it’s based on sensory input

• Visual imagery, on the other hand, is internally generated—you’re imagining something (like a red apple) without seeing it.

• ex: Looking at a tree gives you a rich, continuous perception. Imagining that same tree takes mental effort and the image may blur or fade quickly.

• visual imagery can be confused with perception

• ex: You might think you saw your friend put their keys on the counter when you actually just imagined it happening—this is a source monitoring error, where your brain confuses imagined events with real ones.

• visual imagery can prime perception

• ex: when you imagine the same object you'll later see (image-same task), you're faster and more accurate at recognizing it because the visual system is pre-activated.

spatial representation (imagery and perception)

different parts of an image correspond to specific locations in space

• perception definitely uses spatial representation (and this is not controversial)

• imagery may also use spatial representation

mental scanning: we create mental images and then scan them in our mind

• ex: takes longer to imagine finding part of an image that is further away (motor) from the point of focus (anchor)

• ex: takes longer to find part of an image that is further away (mountain) from the point of focus (tree)

mental rotation: takes longer to imagine rotating an image that is further away from the original image

symbolic distance effect: we detect more details when we are closer to a stimulus

• detect more details when we imagine viewing a closer (larger) stimulus

• ex: elephant and rabbit (does it have whiskers

propositional representation

linguistic aspect compared to spatial

• imagery may use spatial (map) and propositional (directions) representation

propositional representation: semantic networks

takes longer to imagine finding parts of an image that are further away in a semantic network

pegword technique

“hang” to-be-remembered words to “pegs” of concrete nouns that you use to create images

ex:

• 1 = bun → imagine a bun soaked in milk

• 2 = shoe → cracked eggs in a shoe

• 3 = tree → apples hanging from a tree

Uses visual memory and elaborative encoding to create strong mental associations. The fixed pegword list provides a structured retrieval cue, making it easier to recall the correct order of items.