Mental Images and the Imagery Debate

Mental Images and the Imagery Debate

• Mental representations are physical states that store information about the world.
• The format and nature of mental representation are debated.
• Mental representation can be likened to the components of a building: knowing the parts (e.g., bricks, steel) doesn't fully explain how it functions (house vs. fire station).
• The way humans store and manipulate information internally involves billions of electrochemical reactions in the brain. This complex process is not simply a matter of the materials, but the intricate architecture.
• Mental imagery includes questions such as: shape of a dog's ears, number of windows in a room, or relative position of body parts (wrist vs. belly button).
• Determining what a combination of shapes (e.g., D on top of J) evokes also represents an act of mental imagery.
• Information representation internally relies on billions or trillions of electrochemical reactions in the brain.

The Imagery Debate

• The imagery debate centers on the nature of mental representations.
• Pictorialism proposes a correspondence relation between mental images and perceived objects (e.g., a mental image of a tree corresponds to the visual features of a real tree).
• Descriptivism proposes an arbitrary relation where mental images are represented by descriptions rather than pictures.
• Examples of pictorialism and descriptivism include maps and diagrams (correspondence relation) versus written descriptions, or a picture of a dog.

Aphantasia

• Aphantasia is an inability to voluntarily create mental images.
• It's a condition.
• https://www.bbc.com/news/health-34039054

Shepard and Metzler (1971)

• Shepard and Metzler's research (1971) measured reaction times for determining whether two shapes were the same but rotated.
• Findings indicated that reaction times increased as the angle of rotation between the shapes increased, suggesting mental rotation occurred.
• This research implies that mental rotation is akin to physically rotating an object.
• Their study also considered different types of figures, such as those presented in two dimensional (2D) vs. three dimensional (3D) formats.

Implications of the Imagery Debate

• The imagery debate challenges behaviorism.
• The complexity of mental imagery raises challenges for the digital computer modeling of the mind.
• Information processing can be viewed as digital computation.
• Representations are described as numerical descriptions or stored in a numerical format.
• Time taken to process information is related to its quantity.
• Digital computation in the mind does not explain the speed and complexity of mental rotation and imagery tasks.

Kosslyn (1973)

• Kosslyn's (1973) study investigated scanning times for mental images.
• Subjects were asked to visualize objects and mentally scan between different parts.
• Results suggested that the time taken to mentally scan between different parts of an image was proportional to the distance between those parts.
• The study suggests a spatial representation within the mind.

Imaging and Perceiving

• Perky's (1910) experiment involved participants trying to visualize objects while dim images were projected on a screen.
• Unbeknownst to participants, the images were subtly influencing their mental imagery. This study suggests a close interplay between perception and imaging. Subtle cues from the environment can affect mental imagery.