1 Why is the topic of mental imagery important and interesting to study o Mental imagery is knowledge driven it utilizes information stored in long term memory to create internal images of sounds and objects o It is highly associated not only with everyday life but also with other cognitive processes o Mental representation of stimuli that are not physically present o Understanding mental imagery process provides connections to other cognitive phenomena such as perception memory and thinking 2 Know why it is challenging to study and understand a basic assumption for studying it o Two different types Visual imagery and auditory imagery Elusive and inaccessible not directly observable fades quickly o How to study mental imagery Based on assumption If a mental image resembles a physical object then people should make judgments about the corresponding physical object We should be able to rotate a mental image in the same way that we can rotate a physical object 3 Know Mental Rotation Task and the finding in Shepard and Metzler s study o Same different task using pairs of line drawings o Two vs three dimensions o Reaction time to decide same different o Reaction time was a function of the amount of rotation 3 1 Know the findings in subsequent studies Research with other stimuli also finds clear relationship between amount of rotation and reaction time Older people perform more slowly on a metal rotation task o But other imagery skill were not consistently correlated with age Deaf individuals fluent on American Sign language showed better performance for 180 degree rotation task o Because they have extensive experience in watching a narrator produce a sign People could use motor cortex in the mental rotation tasks 4 Be able to explain how mental imagery can be stored using the two different perspectives Analog code vs Propositional code o Analog code a representation that closely resembles the physical object Not a perfect representation that closely resembles the physical object Not a perfect representation and can be prone to errors Strong empirical support the mental rotation task o Propositional code an abstract language like representation does not physically resemble the original stimulus 4 1 Know the debates on them what s the evidence of Analog code what s the evidence of Propositional code and what s the current conclusion Many researchers support the analog code but there seems to be some evidence supporting the propositional code in some circumstances Seems that both are partially correct The imagery debate o Mental rotation supports analog coding It takes longer to perform a large rotation than a small one thus activating visual properties of the objects o Whereas a propositional code would predict similar reaction times for these two conditions o Primary visual cortex activation occurs when people perceive objects as well as work on tasks that require detailed visual imagery o Behavioral and cognitive neuroscientific data support an Analog code analog code o However the effect of ambiguous visual images is difficult for the analog account to accommodate We often use analog code But if it s necessary people create mental images using both propositional and analog codes 5 How do people make judgments about distance and shape in mental imagery o People make distance judgments in a similar fashion for mental images and physical stimuli o People make decisions about shape in a similar fashion for mental images and physical stimuli this conclusion holds true for both simple shapes angles formed by hands on a clock and complex shapes geographic regions like Colorado or West Virginia 6 Know gender differences in ability of mental imagery spatial ability o There is zero to little gender differences is verbal and mathematical ability o There are effect sizes ranging from small to large for gender differences in spatial ability Spatial ability represents several different skills Spatial visualization small gender differences o E g look at a sketch of a busy street to find hidden Spatial perception moderate gender differences o E g adjusting an illuminated rod as a perfect vertical position in a dark room Mental rotation moderate to large gender differences Gender effects on spatial ability vary as they type of skill human faces 7 Know what is heuristics and how it affects judgements about cognitive maps o Cognitive map mental representation of geographic information including the environment that surrounds us o Heutistics General rule that is usually correct A mental shortcut An advantage of using heuristics quick decisions A disadvantage of using heuristics sometimes they lead to bad decisions 7 1 Know how distance estimates would vary with various factors e g number of intervening cities category membership landmarks Estimating the distance between two known points Often distorted by o Number of intervening cities Had a clear cut influence on distance estimates E g 300 miles apart on the map o People estimated as 280 miles apart with no intervening cities and 350 miles apart with three intervening cities o Category membership The categories we create can have a large influence on our distance estimates People tended to shift each location closer to other sites that belonged to the same category E g distance between the courthouse and the police station considered closer but not the courthouse and the golf course o Landmarks Landmark effect general tendency to provide shorter distance estimates when traveling to a landmark rather than a nonlandmark E g o From the non landmark to the o From the land mark to the non landmark landmark o Tended to estimate traveling distance is shorter from the non landmark to the landmark 7 2 Know the rotation heuristic and the alignment heuristic in judgements about cognitive maps Rotation heuristic o We remember a slightly tilted geographic structure as being either more vertical or more horizontal than it really is Alignment heuristic o We remember a series of geographic structures as being arranged in a straighter line than they really are Both heuristics encourage the construction of cognitive maps that are more orderly and schematic than geographic reality 8 Why is the topic of general knowledge semantic memory important and interesting to you considering the role of it o Semantic memory includes general knowledge lexical or language knowledge and conceptual knowledge Allows us to Organize objects according to concepts Make inferences going
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