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.)
Once upon a time this page provided a fairly comprehensive listing of imagery material available on the web. However, with the speed at which the web now grows and changes, it is not really possible to keep up any more. Some of the sites listed here are listed because they were around when this page was first made, some because I think they are particularly interesting, and some by sheer chance. They vary very widely in quality, and almost certainly there are many better sites that I either do not know about or have not found the time to include.
N.J.T.T.

• Image - from the "great" 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
  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.

• A Computer Model of Creativity Based on Perceptual Activity Theory. 2007 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.

• Student pages from Elizabeth Johnston's "Investigating Minds" course at Sarah Lawrence College.

  Eidetic Imagery.

  Visual Thinking.

  Mnemonics.

• Excerpts from Movement and Mental Imagery: Outlines of a Motor Theory of the Complexer Mental Processes, by Margaret Floy Washburn. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1916). Washburn's motor theory of imagery, presented here, is an important forerunner of the modern perceptual activity or enactive theory. Several large HTML extracts (which may be more convenient to use than the Google Books version linked to above) are also available online:

  Preface

  Introduction

  Chapter 3: Movement and the Image or Centrally Excited Sensation

  Chapter 7: Simultaneous Movement Systems

  Chapter 8: The Problem or Purpose

  Chapter 9: The Formation of New Movement Systems Under the Influence of Problems

  Chapter 10: Imageless Processes

  Chapter 11: Dissociation.

  References

  For an earlier, briefer presentation of the main theory see: M.F. Washburn (1914). The Function of Incipient Motor Process. Psychological Review (21) 376-390. (Listed as one of the most significant articles published in the Psychological Review during its first fifty years.)

• John E. Boodin. "Sensation, Imagination and Consciousness," Psychological Review, 28 (1921): 425-452. This is a somewhat similar theory to Washburn's, and can also be considered a forerunner of the modern perceptual activity or enactive theory.

• James Rowland Angell: "Imagination", Chapter 8 (pp. 161–183) from his Psychology: An Introductory Study of the Structure and Function of Human Consciousness (3rd edn.), New York: Henry Holt and Company, (1906): 161-183. To all intents and purposes, "imagination" as used here means the faculty of mental imagery. Angell, who was professor of philosophy at Chicago (and J.B. Watson's doctoral supervisor), provides a useful insight into scientifically informed beliefs about imagery from the pre-Behaviorist era of "introspective" psychology.

• 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 ).

  1. Organic Images, by E.B. Titchener.
  2. Organic Images, by W. Lay.
  3. Image or sensation? by Willard C. Gore.
  4. Image or Sensation, by George Herbert Mead.
  	[Although the articles are listed in order of publication, you may find it helpful to read the "Editor's Note" provided with this last paper, by Mead, first. - N.J.T.T.]

• "The Relationship Between Visual Perception and Visual Mental Imagery: A Reappraisal of the Neuropsychological Evidence." From the journal Cortex (vol. 38 pp. 357-378), a 2002 review article by neuroscientist Paolo Bartolomeo. Argues that the Perceptual Activity theory of imagery best fits the full range of neurological evidence. [Alternative source] [PDF files]

• Paolo Bartolomeo's publications. Bartolomeo is an Italian neurologist based in France, and has a particular interest in the ways that mental imagery can be impacted by various forms of brain damage. He has worked extensively on the phenomenon of "representational neglect" wherein certain brain damaged patients fail to notice features to the left side of their mental images (as well as the related perceptual deficit known as unilateral neglect or hemineglect, wherein some patients fail to notice things in the space to their left). Bartolomeo's home page is here.

• Brandt, S.A. & Stark, L.W. (1997). Spontaneous Eye Movements During Visual Imagery Reflect the Content of the Visual Scene. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (9) 27-38.

• "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.)

• "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.

• Bibliography of the writings of Akhter Ahsen, Ph.D. Ahsen is a clinical psychologist who has been a leading figure in the "imagery movement", both through his practice and writings, and because he was instrumental in founding the International Imagery Association and the Journal of Mental Imagery.

• 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: Chara, Paul J., Jr. and Verplanck, W.S. (1986), Perceptual and Motor Skills, 63, 915-920.
  A study critical of the validity of the VVIQ.

• "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.

• No One has a Photographic Memory, by Joshua Foer. More about the incredible eidetic imagery powers claimed by "Elizabeth" (from the online magazine Slate - April 27, 2006) . Foer interviewed the original experimenter, Stromeyer, who is now apparently married to "Elizabeth". However, since the original experiments "Elizabeth" has steadfastly refused to be re-tested. Foer does not explicity say that he thinks this case was a hoax (and Stromeyer, probably the original "victim," refuses to admit it), but he strongly implies it.

• 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. Publishes the Journal of Mental Imagery.

• Imagination Can Enhance Visual Perception. News report of an experiment.

• Mental Imagery. Lecture handout from Brazil (in English).

• 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.

• "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.

• The Laboratory of the leading imagery researcher Stephen Kosslyn. Unfortunately there is not a lot of content here, but there is a list of Kosslyn's (many) publications, and you are invited to email him to request reprints.

• Zenon Pylyshyn's Home page. Pylyshyn has, since 1973, been the leading critic of "pictorial" theories of imagery (such as Kosslyn's), and important new material is now to be found here, including, but not limited to:
  • "Mental Imagery: In Search of a Theory." Pylyshyn 2002 critique of the picture theory of imagery. Published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2002 - vol.25) 157-237. My published commentary on on this is The False Dichotomy of Imagery.
  • Is the imagery debate over? If so, what was it about? (also PDF version). From: Language, brain, and cognitive development: Essays in honor of Jacques Mehler, E. Dupoux (Ed). Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2001.
  • "Stalking the Elusive Mental Image Screen." Pylyshyn's reply to the commentators on the above article. Well worth reading even if you have not read the commentaries themselves. From Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2002 - vol. 25) 216-237.
  • "Return of the Mental Image: Are There Really Pictures in the Head?" Essentially a more concise restatement or abstract of the argument of the two articles above. Published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2003 - vol. 7) 113-118. [PDF file]
  • Seeing and Visualizing : It's Not What You Think. Draft version of Pylyshyn's book of this title, that was published by MIT Press in 2003. [PDF file] [Also the most relevant chapters (6, 7, & 8) as HTML.]
  • Mental Imagery. Entry written by Pylyshyn for The Oxford Companion to the Mind (2nd ed., edited by R.L. Gregory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). A succinct restatement of Pylyshyn's main objections to pictorialism. [PDF file]

• "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.

• "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. A very old 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.

• 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 Imagery in Philosophy of Mind, and Visual Imagery and Imagination in the Science of Consciousness. From Dave Chalmers' Mind Papers: A Bibliography of the Philosophy of Mind and the Science of Consciousness - 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 (above) 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 founding 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.

• "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.)

Return to Home Page:
Imagination, Mental Imagery, Consciousness, Cognition:
Science, Philosophy & History.