Chapter 10: Visual Imagery (Mental Imagery)

Perky (1910) studied how

percpetion and imagery interact

the findings of Perky (1910)'s study was that

people described the object matched details from the subliminal image projected on the screen, but no one noticed that were was a picture on the screen

the conclusion of Perky (1910)'s study in the interaction of perception and imagery was that

perfection affects imagery

the letter visualization experiment (Farah, 1985) found that

correct detection increased when image was the same as target and decreased when image was different than target

the conclusion of the letter visualization experiment (Farah, 1985) is that

imagery affects perception

ample evidence exists in support of the

spatial nature of mental imagery

most experiments use _______________ as the dependent measure

reaction times

some neurons can respond to seeing certain

objects

neurons that fire when one sees or imagines a certain object are called

imagery neurons

LeBihan et al. (1993) compared brain activity during fMRI during

perception of images , imagery (imagine images), and baseline (no images)

LeBihan et al. (1993)'s results were that

brain activity in the primary visual cortex

visual cortex is active in both

perception and imagery

there is topographic organization of the visual cortex, meaning that

bid/small things int he visual field will use more/less of the brain area

small objects in the visual field activate _________ neurons than large objects

less

imagery for faces in the brain is found in what area?

face-fusiform area (FFA)

imagery for places in the brain is found in what area?

Parahippocampal place area (PPA)

the PPA and FFA are both active during

percpetion and imagery

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is

Applying a magnetic field to stimulate a brain area by disrupting the activity of neurons in the brain region

the results of Kossltn et al. (1999)'s TMS study was that

people were slower at the task with TMS to visual area in both perception and imagery conditions but not when TMS was applied to other areas

Farah (2000) studied Patient M.G.S, who had their ____________ removed

right occipital cortex (visual cortex)

Farah (2000) gace Patient M.G.S a __________ before and after the surgery

mental walk

image overflow in Patient M.G.S before the operation was _______ and after the operation was _____

15; 35

the results of Farah (2000)'s study of Patient M.G.S was

smaller visual field after the operation

visual cortex is important for imagery

in other cases, people who lost the ability to see colors due to brain damage, resulted in the

inability to see colors in imagery

in another case, people with unilateral neglect (hemineglect) will result in

unilateral neglect in imagery

imagery and perception share a

mechanism

the level of visual cortex activation is directly related to

the level of vividness of the image

the individual differences from vivid-imagers to non-imagers could be related to

how much of visual cortex is involved in coding visual memory

Patient R.M (Farah et al., 1988) had damage in the _________

occipital and parietal lobes

Patient R.M (Farah et al., 1988) had the ability to

perceive objects and draw objects

Patient R.M (Farah et al., 1988) could not

draw objects from memory

Patient C.K. (Behrmann et al. 1994) had

visual agnosia

Patient C.K. (Behrmann et al. 1994) could not

recognize objects

Patient C.K. (Behrmann et al. 1994) could

draw objects from memory

Patient C.K. and Patient R.M show

double dissociation

blind people can perform which tasks?

mental rotation and mental scanning tasks (must touch blocks first)

blind people's performances were similar to

normal controls

blind people, when given longer distance to scan/rotate, do it

slower

based on what we have seen in blind participants, we retain spatial information but not

visual

spatial imagery is focused to what area of the brain?

parietal lobes

the conclusions of the imagery debate are:

imagery and perception are closely related, but do not share all the same mechansims (some though)

neural evidence, but brain activation is not complete

differences between perception and imagery is

stability

perception is very

stable

imagery is very

fragile

imagery needs continued

refreshing

it is harder to manipulate

mental images

mental imagery helps code information for

memory

memory mnemonics are

devices or techniques to help memory

examples of memory mnemonics are

conceptual peg and method of loci

the function of imagery in reasoning is

can stimulate perceptual information during problem solving

the function of imagery in learning & comprehension is

mental practice and mentally imagining playing an instrument

the method of loci involves

associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations

the conceptual peg is

concrete words allow forming visual images that other words/items can 'hang onto'