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Understanding Mental Imagery and Cognitive Maps

This lecture explores the concept of mental imagery and cognitive maps, discussing their characteristics, theories, and neuroscience connections. It also examines the smart errors commonly made in cognitive maps and how geographic attributes, such as distance and shape, affect our perception. Various studies and experiments are presented to highlight these concepts.

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Understanding Mental Imagery and Cognitive Maps

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  1. Cognition: Lecture 5 Chapter 7: Mental Imagery and Cognitive Maps

  2. Last Class • Chapter 7: Mental Imagery and Cognitive Maps • Visual Imagery • Characteristics of visual imagery • Theories of visual imagery • Neuroscience and Visual imagery • Audio imagery • Cognitive Maps

  3. Today’s Class • We will begin iclicker questions • We should have our final class now! • Registration • myconcordia.ca> student Services > iclicker registration • Any troubles with myconcordia, iclicker, etc. let me know • I will post student ID and clicker number tonight

  4. Cognitive Maps

  5. Cognitive Maps • Can I get a volunteer? • How do I get to Second Cup? • How do I get to Guy Concordia Metro? • Etc. • How were you able to give me these directions? Cognitive Map(s): A mental representation of geographic information including the surrounding environment http://www.accessmagazine.org/articles/fall-2013/going-mental-everyday-travel-cognitive-map/

  6. Characteristics of Cognitive Maps • I am going to show you a simple map • Study this map • Make a cognitive map/mental image • I will then read you a couple of questions • Why will I read them? • For your answers raise your hand • Turn left= Left Hand = A • Turn right = Right Hand = D

  7. 4 5 2 3 1

  8. Cognitive Maps • Cognitive maps typically include survey knowledge • Knowledge about locations acquired by map learning or repeated exploring • Which question was easier? • Judgments from a cognitive map will be easier and more accurate when cognitive and physical map are in the same orientation

  9. Cognitive Maps: Smart Errors • Generally our judgments are accurate • Mistakes made generally are ‘smart’ in nature (rational strategy) • Systematic distortions of reality • Based on variables that at are usually relevant • Tendency to judge our environment as organized and orderly

  10. Cognitive Maps: Smart Errors • Generally our judgments are accurate • Mistakes made generally are ‘smart’ in nature (rational strategy) Heuristic: A general problem-solving strategy that usually produces a correct solution I.e., Rule of thumb

  11. Cognitive Maps and Geographic Attributes • Cognitive maps represent three geographic attributes: • Distance • Shape • Relative position • Distance estimates are often distorted by factors such • Number of intervening cities • Category membership • Whether destination is a landmark

  12. Distance and Intervening Cities • Thorndyke (1981) • Asked part. to study hypothetical geographic map • Cities distributed throughout the map (varied distance 100-400 miles, scaled map) • Varied the number of cities between the two target cities • 0,1,2 or 3 cities along the route

  13. Distance and Intervening Cities • Thorndyke (1981) • Asked participants to judge the distance between cities from cognitive map • IV: # of intervening cites • DV: Estimate of distance b/t cites Clear influence of intervening cities

  14. Distance and Category Membership • Hirtle & Mascolo (1986) • Learn locations on a hypothetical map of a town • Estimate distance between locations • Tendency to shift locations closer to locations that are similar • E.g., government buildingsest. to be closer together

  15. Distance and Category Membership • Friedman et al. (2005, 2006) • North American students asked to est. distance between North American cities • Distances judged as greater if separated by international border • Border Bias: People est. that the distance between two specific locations is larger if they are on different sides of a geographic border

  16. Distance and Category Membership • Border Bias: Mishra & Mishra (2010) • Participants asked to chose vacation home • Two conditions: • Earthquake 200 miles away in Wells, Oregon • Earthquake 200 miles away in Wells, Washington

  17. Distance and Landmark • McNamara & Diwadkar (1997) • Memorize map containing pictures of objects • Some objects described as landmarks and some non-landmarks • Asked to estimate distance between various pairs of objects • Est. distance of 1.7 cm when traveling from landmark to non-landmark; 1.4 cm when traveling from same non-landmark to landmark • Landmark effect - general tendency to provide shorter distance est. when traveling to a landmark, rather than a non-landmark

  18. Cognitive Maps and Shape • Cognitive Maps and Shape • We tend to construct cognitive maps in which the shapes are more regular than they are in reality • Think of our cat’s map

  19. Cognitive Maps and Shape • Moar & Bower (1983)-Angles • Create a cognitive maps of Cambridge, England • Part. lived in city for 5 yrs. • Asked part. to est. angles formed by the intersection of two streets from memory • Tendency to ‘regularized’ angles to 90 degrees • Real angles: 67, 63 and 50 degree angles • Est. angles or 84, 78 and 88 degrees Street 1 Street 2

  20. Cognitive Maps and Relative Position • Heuristics Related to Relative Position • Rotational Heuristic: slightly tilted geographic structure remembered as more vertical or horizontal • California coastline • San Francisco is west of Reno • With vertical rotation San Diego must also be west • Alignment Heuristic: Geographic structures remembered as being arranged in a straighter line than they really are • US and Europe mentally misaligned to be at same latitude • Philadelphia v Rome

  21. Creating a Cognitive Map • Cognitive maps are not perfect “map in the head” replicas • Not simply passively stored statements (or images) • People actively create cognitive map(s) that represent relevant environmental features • Combination of information from separate statements/sources combine to form an integrated cognitive map

  22. Creation of a Cognitive Map • Franklin and Tversky's (1990) • Part. instructed to read descriptions and imagine turning to face each object • 10 scenes (E.g., Barn, Hotel Lobby) • 5 objects located in plausible positions relative to the observer (Above, below, in front, behind, right, left)

  23. Creation of a Cognitive Map • Franklin and Tversky's (1990) cont. • Ask to identify which object was in each position • Reaction time measured • Rapid identification of objects above or below • Longer for objects ahead or behind • Longest for objects to the right or left

  24. Creation of a Cognitive Map: Spatial Framework Model • The spatial framework model (Franklin & Tversky)emphasizes • above-below spatial dimension is especially important in our thinking • front-back dimension is moderately important • right-left dimension is least important • Since we are typically in a vertical upright position the above-below dimension is most important: • The vertical dimension is correlated with gravity. • The vertical dimension on an upright human’s body is physically asymmetric

  25. Creation of a Cognitive Map: Spatial Framework Model • Support for the Spatial Framework Model • On a physical map, people make north-south (above-below) decisions significantly faster than east-west (right-left) decisions • Cognitive maps reveal biases based on interactions with our bodies and with the physical properties of the external world

  26. The Situated Cognitive Approach • Situated cognition approach helps us understand many cognitive tasks (e.g., mental maps, concepts, solve problems) • Idea that people make use of helpful information in the immediate environment • Knowledge depends on the surrounding context • Focus on the importance of spatial thinking • Vitally important to locate objects within the context of the environment • Can be see in our choice of language

  27. Individual Differences in Spatial Abilities

  28. Individual Differences in Spatial Abilities • Spatial ability represents several different skills: • spatial visualization • spatial perception • mental rotation • Large gender differences only observed for mental rotation • What do these differences mean? • some studies report no gender differences • effects of task instructions • effects of training • experiences with toys and sports that emphasize spatial skills

  29. Next Class • For next class read Ch. 3: Perceptual Processes II: Attention and Cognition

  30. Are you ready for a little fun? Get your iclickers ready

  31. Summary/Review of Last class • Frederic Bartlett is best known for his research employing lists of words and non-sense syllables? • A. True • B. False

  32. Summary/Review of Last class • The image below can be described as having ____________ an overall quality that transcends the individual components. • A. Perceptual completeness • B. Gestalt • C. Relativism • D. Insight

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