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Explore the evidence supporting mental imagery, from classic experiments like mental rotation to understanding the Mind's Eye hypothesis. Discover how our minds conjure actual images without visual input using internal processes. Delve into studies using fMRI and single-cell recordings to delve into the brain's visual areas. Unravel the mysteries of how our minds perceive relative size, image scaling, and image scanning. Could mental imagery truly parallel vision? Join the exploration of the fascinating realm of the mind's eye.
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Mental Imagery The evidence in favor of us seeing actual pictures in our mind.
Mental Rotation • Shepard & Metzler (1967) did the classic mental rotation experiment. • Show people two arbitrary, 3-D objects at different orientations. • Ask people to judge whether the objects are mirror images of each other or not. • The amount of time it takes people to answer is directly proportional to the degrees of rotation by which the objects differ.
Relative size & Image scaling • When asked to imagine two objects, it takes longer to make judgments about the smaller object • It also takes longer to make judgments about smaller features of objects
Image scanning • Give people a picture of something, such as a map of a simplistic island and have them memorize it. • Ask people to scan the image from one point on the map to another. • The time it takes to do this is proportional to how far apart the two points are.
The Mind’s Eye hypothesis • Kosslyn proposed that mental imagery is functionally equivalent to vision. • What he means by this is that mental imagery uses the same internal representations and processes that vision does, but without visual input.
Could it be true? • fMRI experiments indicate that the occipital lobe and other early visual areas are active during imagery tasks. • Single-cell recording in monkeys shows that areas activated during training for a task also become activated when the monkey simply “imagines” performing the task.
