Mental Imagery - Theories and Experiments.
(In no particular order. A listing here does not necessarily
imply any endorsement of the views expressed at the destination sites. - N.J.T.T.)
- Definitions or brief discussions of "mental
imagery" from the numerous reference books available at xrefer.com.
- Image
- from the "great" 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
[Note: You will need to scroll down the page to find the beginning of the
relevant entry.]
The contemporary
version of Encyclopedia Britannica now requires a subscription to access
articles, but the 1911
Encyclopedia Britannica, acknowledged by the cognoscenti as the best ever
Britannica (even, perhaps, the best ever encyclopedia!) is now available free
online. Unfortunately the content pages have been created from scans, which
gives rise to some errors and formatting problems, and navigation can be awkward,
because articles frequently begin part way down a (web) page and may cut off
before the end without a forward link to the next page, where the article
continues.
- Student pages from Elizabeth Johnston's "Investigating Minds" course at
Sarah Lawrence College.
- Some notes on The Philosophy of Cognitive Science by Jesse Prinz.
- From 1904: A controversy (in a series of short articles) from the
age of introspectionist psychology about the existence of "organic
images" (i.e. imagery of bodily sensations, touch, taste, smell, and the
kinaesthetic sense ).
- A Computer Model of Creativity Based on Perceptual Activity Theory. Doctoral
dissertation of Peter J. Blain of Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.
Demonstrates the computational viability of the Perceptual Activity Theory of
imagery, and throws much light on the theory as well as demonstrating its
relevance to understanding imaginative creativity.
- "The
Relationship Between Visual Perception and Visual Mental Imagery: A Reappraisal
of the Neuropsychological Evidence." From the journal
Cortex, a 2002 review article by neuroscientist Paolo Bartolomeo.
Argues that the Perceptual Activity theory of imagery
best fits the full range of neurological evidence. [PDF
file]
- "Eye
Scanpaths During Visual Imagery Reenact Those of Perception of the Same Visual
Scene." By Bruno Laeng & Dinu-Stefan Teodorescu.
Published in the journal Cognitive Science. A direct demonstration
of the involvement of exploratory perceptual activity in imagery.
[PDF
file]
- "The
Picture theory of Reason." Hungarian philosopher J.C.
Nyíri defends imagery theories of thought and meaning in the light
of their history and their 20th century eclipse at the hands of Wittgenstein
and his successors. (Slow to load, especially the graphics, but worth it.)
- Articles
on "Philosophy of Psychology, Imagery, & Mental Representation
- by Dr. Peter
Slezak, Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Cognitive Science and Senior
Lecturer in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University
of New South Wales. After Pylyshyn, Slezak is perhaps
the leading supporter of the description theory of imagery, and one of the
most incisive critics of picture theory. [Slezak's imagery
page may not load properly in Internet Explorer™. I have alerted him
to the problem and he may have fixed it by the time you read this, but if
not, try Mozilla or
Opera or some other superior
browser.]
- "Time
resolved fMRI of Mental Rotation." Published article
by Richter et al. (1997) showing involvement of brain motor (as
opposed to visual) areas in mental rotation tasks.
- "Motor
Area Activation During Mental Rotation Studied by Time-Resolved Single Trial
fMRI." Another published article by Richter et
al. (2000) showing brain motor area involvement in mental rotation tasks.
- "How
Well Do We Know Our Own Conscious Experience? The Case of Visual Imagery."
Published article by Eric Schwitzgebel, arguing that we do
not have a very clear knowledge of our own conscious imagery experience.
- Statistics
of Mental Imagery. Francis Galton's classic 1880 paper
that inaugurated the study of individual differences in imagery vividness;
said to be the first ever psychological questionnaire. Precursor of the VVIQ.
- The
Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ). David
Marks' VVIQ, made available here, is probably the best studied measure of
individual differences in the subjective experience of imagery.
- The
Imagery Questionnaire: An Investigation of its Validity. A
study critical of the validity of the VVIQ. By Paul J. Chara Jr. (Oral Roberts
University) & William S. Verplanck (University of Tennessee).
- "Perceptual
Symbol Systems." A 1999 Behavioral
and Brain Sciences target article by distinguished cognitive psychologist
Lawrence Barsalou. Argues that mental representation in general (whether or
not experienced as conscious imagery) is perceptual in character.
- Photographic
memory - eidetic hoax. A discussion (initiated
by me) about the validity of a famous experiment on eidetic imagery.
"Elizabeth", who could supposedly fuse a random dot stereogram via
eidetic imagery, and thus see the resultant 3-D figure, was probably a hoaxer.
From the message board of the Cecil Adams'
The Straight Dope
column.
- Images
in Practice - Visualization. A collection of definitions
and quotations.
- A
Model of Mental Image Generation and Manipulation. Brief
abstract of Bryant A. Julstrom's doctoral thesis describing a connectionist
computer simulation of imagery (essentially a version of pictorialism).
- Sketching
As Mental Imagery Processing. A series of PowerPoint™
slides from a seminar by Manolya Kavakli & J.S. Gero of the Key Centre
of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney.
- The
Imagery Debate. A brief entry, by C.P. Watling, from The
University of Alberta's Cognitive
Science Dictionary. As usual, the "imagry debate" refered to
here, is the so-called analog-propositional debate that originated, and was
at its most heated, during the 1970s. Of course, there are many other things
about imagery that can be and have been debated. For my very different take
on the analog-propositional debate, and for my assessment of its significance
for us today, click here.
- The Problem of Mental Images. From "More
than Meets the Eye: Aristotle on Sense Perception," by Thomas A. Fowler (student
paper from Tufts University).
- American
Association for the Study of Mental Imagery. Focused mainly
on clinical applications and personality issues. Publishes the journal Imagination,
Cognition, and Personality.
- International
Imagery Association. Association. Seems now to exist mainly
to promote the thought of founder Dr. Akhter Ahsen. Publishes the Journal
of Mental Imagery (edited by Ahsen).
- Imagination
Can Enhance Visual Perception. News report of an experiment.
- Mental
Imagery. Lecture handout from Brazil (in English).
- Mental
Imagery. Course notes from Dr. Sandra Willis of California
State University, Fullerton.
- Mental
Imagery. Cognitive Psychology crib notes.
- "A laboratory-based experimental methodology is inappropriate
for the study of mental imagery." Abstract of 1985 Journal
of Mental Imagery article by John C. Yuille.
- "The role of imagery in memory: On shared and distinctive information."
Abstract of 1987 Psychological Bulletin article
by Marschark, Richman, Yuille, & Hunt.
- "Spatial Representation and Haptic Mental Rotation." Abstract
of a paper by Christer Garbis, graduate student at Linköping University,
Sweden. (Full version available as PostScript file.)
- "Motor processes in mental rotation." By Mark
Wexler, Stephen M. Kosslyn & Alain Berthoz (from the CogPrints archive). [Published
in 1998 in Cognition (68) 77-94.]
- Mental
Rotation Experiment Software. By Richard Abrams of Washington
University, St. Louis. Available for download.
- "A
New Spin on Mental Rotation." An attempt at a computer simulation
of the phenomenon, by Peter Yule.
- Imagery
and Self-Awareness: A Theoretical Note. By Alain Morin, Ph.D.
From the ejournal Theory
and Review in Psychology.
- "Imageries
and Concepts." By seminal Polish philosopher Kazimerz
Twardowsky (1866-1938). Courtesy of Axiomathes.
- The Laboratory
of the leading imagery researcher Stephen Kosslyn.
- Zenon
Pylyshyn's Home page. Pylyshyn has long been the
leading critic of "pictorial" theories of imagery (such as Kosslyn's), and
important new material is now to be found here. See also these notes for his
Cognitive
Science Seminar on Mental Imagery.
- "The
Representing Brain: Neural Correlates of Motor Intention and Imagery", by
Marc Jeannerod. This article was published in the prestigious
journal Behavioral
and Brain Sciences. Jeannerod is a distinguished French neuroscientist.
- "Consciousness
After Postmodernism," by Ralph Ellis. This is not so much
about postmodernism as about a view of consciousness that gives a central
place to imagery and perceptual activity. See also my
review of Ellis' book Questioning Consciousness.
- Eye
movement and visualisation links. From Swedish Cognitive
Scientist Kenneth Holmqvist.
- Språk och Visualisering, by Kenneth
Holmqvist (in Swedish).
- "Mental
Images", by Clive Leddy. Seems to be an essay by a Cognitive
Science (graduate?) student in Sweden.
- Imagery
--- Creativity
--- Paivio's
'Dual Coding' (i.e. imaginal and verbal) theory of memory. From
Greg Kearsley's TIP
(Theory Into Practice) database: "a tool intended to make learning and
instructional theory more accessible to educators". This consists mainly of
succinct introductory essays and brief bibliographies on theories, concepts,
and (pedagogical) applications of behaviorist and cognitive psychology.
- Philosophical writings
on mental imagery (and other topics) by Tony Birch.
- Connecting Visual and Verbal Space: An Interdisciplinary Study
on the Foundation and Use of Mental Images in a Listener Model. Doctoral
thesis by German Artificial Intelligence researcher Jörg R.J. Schirra.
- "The
Depictive Nature of Visual Mental Imagery." A paper by Taiwanese
Philosopher Norman Y. Teng. (Presented at the Twentieth
World Congress of Philosophy, August 10-16, 1998, Boston, Massachusetts,
U.S.A.) Essentially a critique of Tye's view of imagery.
- Janice
L. Flake's Mental Imagery Links Page.
- Sound-Induced
Mental Imagery for the Blind, by Peter Meijer. Meijer is
a Dutch engineer who has invented a device, the
vOICe, that encodes a visual scene as sound, and that he hopes will be
useful to blind people. His impressive site (lots of sound, Java etc.) includes
online demonstrations of his technology, as well as this page on imagery.
[mirror
site]
- A
Bibliography of 'Visual mental imagery (the "mind's eye"), especially as it
applies to inference.' Compiled in 1994. From Paul Thagard's
"Computational
Epistemology" site.
- Bibliographies on Mental
Imagery in Cognitive Science, and Consciousness
and Imagery. From Dave Chalmers' Bibliography
of the Philosophy of Mind - more extensive
imagery bibliographies may be found in my stuff,
listed above, especially my Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Mental Imagery, but Chalmers and Thagard
both do include things I omit - N.J.T.T.
- "Exorcizing
the Ghost of Mental Imagery," by Stevan Harnad, professor
of Psychology, University of Southampton, U.K., and editor of Behavioral
and Brain Sciences.
- Research
on Recognition and Spatial Processing in Perception and Imagery by Dr. Itiel
E. Dror of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department
of Psychology, University of Southampton, U.K.
- "Imagery:
A Meandering Review Of The Literature," by James Sempsey. Mainly
with an eye to the pedagogical relevance of mental imagery - personal, subjective
and discursive.
- "Psychology
as the Behaviorist Views it," by John B. Watson. The classic
1913 paper instigating Behaviorist psychology, and denying the existence of
imagery. (See especially footnote 7, but also see this.)
- Abstracts from the Tucson Toward a Science of Consciousness
Conferences:
Return to Home Page:
Imagination, Mental Imagery, Consciousness, Cognition:
Science, Philosophy & History.
Eidetic Imagery.
Mental
Imagery 1: Descriptionism.