Imagery and Foresight: Defining the Mind and Representations

Flashcards covering the definitions of mind, types of mental representation, neurological evidence for imagery, and the mechanisms of mental time travel (foresight) based on lecture notes.

Mind (Oxford Dictionary)

The element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel.

Localization History

The historical concept that the mind is localized to the brain rather than the body parts where sensations appear to occur.

The Ghost in the Machine

Deep questions regarding the nature of consciousness and how the "mind's eye" projects images of the external world.

Phantom Limbs

A phenomenon used by Rene Descartes to demonstrate that the brain represents a limb even if the physical limb is no longer present.

Representation

Something that stands for something other than itself, such as words, maps, or symbols.

Referent

The actual object in the physical world, such as a specific house.

Sense

The way in which an object is represented, such as a verbal description or a photograph.

Analogue Representations

Representations that share a physical or functional similarity (isomorphism) with what they represent, maintaining a $1$ to $1$ relationship.

Propositional/Allegorical Representations

Representations that use abstract symbols or arbitrary rules and do not have a $1$ to $1$ physical relationship with the referent.

Imagery

The mental representation of sensory experiences without direct external stimuli.

Mental Maps

Internal representations used for spatial navigation and orientation, primarily involving the hippocampus.

Paivio’s Dual Coding Hypothesis

The theory that information is represented through two distinct codes: a verbal code and an imaginal (visual) code.

Concrete Word Advantage

The phenomenon where concrete words (e.g., "table") are remembered better than abstract words because they can be stored in both visual and verbal codes.

Conceptual-Propositional Hypothesis

The argument by Anderson and Bower that true analogue storage is impossible and information is stored as interpretations or "gist."

Predicate Calculus Format

The format in which "gist" information is stored, represented as: $\text{{relationship (subject, object)}}$, such as $\text{{kissed (boy, girl)}}$.

Size Effect (Kosslyn)

The finding that reaction times to questions about an object (e.g., a frog) are faster when it is imagined as large rather than small.

Image Scanning

A study demonstrating that the physical distance between points on a memorized map correlates linearly with the time taken to travel between them mentally.

Functional Equivalence Hypothesis

The argument by Shepard and Kosslyn that mental imagery uses the same cognitive and neural mechanisms as perception.

Mental Rotation (Shepard & Metzler)

A study showing a linear relationship between the angle of rotation ($0$, $20$, $60$, $100$, $140$, $180$ degrees) and reaction time.

Demand Characteristics

Cues in a study that allow participants to guess the researcher's expectations, potentially altering their behavior.

Rotation Aftereffects

A phenomenon where looking at a spinning disk creates an opposite aftereffect that interferes with or facilitates mental rotation tasks.

Symons’ Interference Hypothesis

The theory that dreams are primarily visual/kinesthetic because other senses (hearing, smell, touch) must remain unimpaired for environmental vigilance during sleep.

Visual Neglect Syndrome

A condition resulting from damage to the right parietal lobe where patients ignore one side of their visual field in both physical and imaginary space.

Occipital Lobectomy (Farah)

A surgical removal resulting in "tunnel vision" and "tunnel imagery," reducing the size of the mental stage.

Hyperphantasia

A condition where individuals have extremely vivid mental imagery, showing stronger occipital ERP effects.

Aphantasia

The lack of mental imagery capability.

Mental Time Travel (MTT)

The ability to link events across minutes, days, and years to reliving past events or pre-living future scenarios.

Episodic Foresight

The ability to pre-live future events in imagination to evaluate their likelihood and desirability.

The Tube Task

A developmental test where children by age $4$ cover both exits of a tube to ensure catching a reward, demonstrating foresight.

Broadcasting

The use of language to share mental time travel scenarios, which improves the accuracy of foresight and enables cooperation.

The Director (Theatre Metaphor)

The aspect of the mind responsible for meta-representation and evaluation of mental scenarios.

The Executive Producer (Theatre Metaphor)

Executive functions that decide which mental plan or scenario to act upon.

Place Cells

Cells in the hippocampus that encode mental maps, discovered by John O'Keefe.

The Knowledge

The spatial mapping training undertaken by London cab drivers, which results in a larger hippocampus.