Mental Imagery and Cognitive Maps

7 Mental Imagery and Cognitive Maps Chapter Introduction Classical Research on Visual Imagery Overview of Mental Imagery Mental Rotation The Imagery Debate Visual Imagery and Ambiguous Figures Factors That Influence Visual Imagery Distance and Shape Effects on Visual Imagery Visual Imagery and Interference Visual Imagery and Other Vision-Like Processes Gender Comparisons in Spatial Ability Auditory Imagery Auditory Imagery and Pitch Auditory Imagery and Timbre Cognitive Maps Distance and Shape Effects on Cognitive Maps Relative Position Effects on Cognitive Maps Creating a Cognitive Map Chapter Introduction During perception, you rely on knowledge stored in memory to interpret the environmental stimuli registered by your senses. In other words, perception requires both bottom-up and top-down processing (Kosslyn et al., 2001). But, it is possible to have sensory-related experiences without bottom-up input being registered by your sensory receptors. For example, take a moment to close your eyes and create a clear mental image of the cover of this textbook. Be sure to include details such as its size, shape, and color, as well as the photo of the nautilus shell. Now try to create an auditory image. Can you hear the voice of a close friend saying your name? Finally, close your eyes again and create a “mental map” of the most direct route between your current location and the nearest store where you can buy a quart of milk. In each of these example exercises, you were able to create a mental image of something without seeing or hearing it. Thus, the processes that give rise to your ability to create mental images are exclusively top-down in nature (Kosslyn & Thompson, 2000). In other words, mental imagery is knowledge-driven—it involves utilizing the information stored in long-term memory to create internal images of sounds and objects that you have previously experienced. This chapter explores three important aspects of imagery that have intrigued contemporary researchers. First, we examine the nature of visual images, with an emphasis on the way that we can transform these images. We then consider the nature of auditory images, a relatively new topic in cognitive psychology. Our third topic focuses on cognitive maps, which are mental representations of geographic information, including the environment that surrounds us. Classical Research on Visual Imagery Mental imagery (also called imagery) refers to the mental representation of stimuli when those stimuli are not physically present in the environment (Kosslyn et al., 2010). You can have a mental image for any sensory experience. Most of the psychological research on mental images, however, has focused on visual imagery, or the mental representation of visual stimuli. Fortunately, during the past decade, the research has increased for auditory imagery, which is the mental representation of auditory stimuli. In this section, we first examine some key topics and questions related to research on mental imagery before discussing mental rotation, a form of visual imagery. We then consider a controversial debate in the field of mental imagery—namely, a debate about the format of the stored knowledge that we access when creating mental images. Overview of Mental Imagery We use mental imagery for a wide variety of everyday cognitive activities (Denis et al., 2004; Tversky, 2005a). For example, consider a situation in which you can’t find your car keys, although you know that they must be somewhere on your messy desk. You must create and maintain a mental image of your keys while you visually inspect your messy desk to find your keys. If you didn’t maintain some type of mental image while you were searching, then how would you know that the coffee mug sitting on your desk isn’t the thing you’re looking for? Additionally, some professions emphasize mental imagery as a crucial component of performance on the job (Reed, 2010). Would you want to fly on an airplane if your pilot had weak spatial imagery? Imagery is also important in clinical psychology. Therapists often work with clients who have psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or eating disorders. With each of these disorders, individuals sometimes report that they experience intrusive, distressing mental images (Dargan et al., 2015; Mazhari et al., 2015; Moran et al., 2015). Therapists have successfully worked with clients by encouraging them to create alternative, more positive images (Bisby et al., 2010; Brewin et al., 2010; Liu & Chan, 2015). Spatial ability is extremely important in the STEM disciplines, that is, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Ganis et al., 2009). For instance, Albert Einstein is well known as one of the geniuses of the last 100 years. Einstein reported that his own thinking processes typically used spatial images, instead of verbal descriptions (Newcombe, 2010). Unfortunately, elementary school teachers in the United States rarely teach children about spatial skills. In fact, the curriculum may not emphasize spatial skills until students enroll in a geometry class. Psychologist Nora Newcombe (2010) describes some interesting methods for enhancing young children’s spatial skills. A typical task might require students to mentally rotate a picture until it resembles one of five options. Many high school and college students believe that they cannot possibly improve their spatial skills. However, training in spatial skills improves spatial performance for students of any age (Ganis et al., 2009; Reed, 2010; Twyman & Newcombe, 2010). Although imagery and perception share many characteristics, they are not identical. During the act of perceiving an object in the visual world, for example, sensory information is registered by your sensory systems. Early after information has been registered by your senses, features of the sensory stimulus are detected (edges, lines, color, and so forth). This bottom-up information about the properties of an environmental stimulus is then processed in progressively more complex ways until an internal representation of the stimulus arises. As this representation is constructed, it is matched to information stored in your long-term memory. An object is recognized once bottom-up information has been processed enough for this matching process to occur. Just about every topic in this book relies on both bottom-up and top-down processes, working together in concert to provide you with the ability to successfully perform some type of cognitive task. Mental imagery, however, is a rare exception. Indeed, by definition, mental imagery is knowledge-driven. You rely on what you know—and thus, information stored in your long-term memory—to create internal mental images. For example, when you create a mental image of the shape of Colorado, no one would suggest that the rods and cones in your retina are registering a Colorado-shaped pattern of stimulation. The subjective experiences for visual imagery and visual perception are obviously different, and it takes about one-tenth of a second longer to create a visual image (Reddy et al., 2010). Sometimes, these internal mental images are created while you are laying in bed trying to fall asleep, or when you’re daydreaming. In these cases, mental images arise as a result of general thought processes. In fact, the ability to create and manipulate mental images has often been considered a hallmark of creativity and imagination (Brann, 1991; Thomas, 1999). Note, however, that internal mental images are often necessary to perform some cognitive task. In the visual search example above, in which someone must find their keys on a messy desk, a mental image of the keys is necessary in order to successfully search. In this sense, mental imagery is not a form of perception, per se, but is a close relative of perception. Chapter 1 of this textbook provided an overview of the history of psychology. You may recall that Wilhelm Wundt is often described as the founder of psychology. Wundt and other early psychologists considered imagery to be an important part of the discipline (Palmer, 1999). In contrast, behaviorists such as John Watson strongly opposed research on mental imagery because it could not be connected to observable behavior. In fact, Watson even argued that imagery did not exist (Kosslyn et al., 2010). As a result, North American psychologists seldom studied imagery during the behaviorist period between 1920 and 1960 (Ganis et al., 2009; Kosslyn et al., 2010). For example, I used PsycINFO to search for the term “mental imagery” in any part of every journal article published during the decade from 1950 through 1959. The search identified only 34 articles. As cognitive psychology gained popularity, however, researchers rediscovered imagery. The topic continues to be important in contemporary cognitive psychology, especially with the development of more sophisticated techniques in cognitive neuroscience (Ganis et al., 2009; Reed, 2010). Mental imagery is a challenging topic to study. Compared with a topic such as verbal memory, the topic of mental imagery is elusive and inaccessible. Researchers have attacked this problem by using the following logic: Suppose that a mental image really does resemble a physical object. Then people should be able to make judgments about this mental image in the same way that they make judgments about the corresponding physical object (Hubbard, 2010). For example, we should be able to rotate a mental image in the same way that we can rotate a physical object. Judgments about distance in a mental image should also be similar, as well as judgments about shape. In addition, a mental image should create interference when we try to perceive a physical object. Furthermore, we should be able to discover two interpretations of a mental image of an ambiguous figure, and we should be able to produce other vision-like effects when we construct a mental image. Mental Rotation As you might expect, research on mental imagery is difficult to conduct, especially because researchers cannot directly observe mental images and because they fade so quickly (Kosslyn et al., 2006). However, psychologists have modified some research techniques that were originally developed for studying visual perception so that they can now be applied to the study of mental images (Allen, 2004). As a result, the investigation of imagery has made impressive advances. Try Demonstration 7.1, which illustrates an important research technique that we’ll examine shortly. Suppose that you are a researcher who wants to study whether people rotate a mental image in the same way that they rotate a physical object. It’s tempting to think that you could simply ask people to analyze their mental images and use these reports as a basis for describing mental imagery. However, consider why these introspective reports could be inaccurate and biased. We may not always have conscious access to the processes associated with our mental imagery (Anderson, 1998; Pylyshyn, 2006). Demonstration 7.1 illustrates a classic experiment by Roger Shepard and his coauthor Jacqueline Metzler (1971). Researchers have explored the mental-rotation issue more than any other topic connected with imagery. Here was their reasoning. Suppose that you are holding a physical, geometric object in your hands, and you decide to rotate it. It will take you longer to rotate this physical object by 180 degrees than to rotate it only 90 degrees. Now suppose that our mental images operate the same way that physical objects operate. It will take you longer to rotate this mental image 180 degrees, instead of 90 degrees. Again, remember that this entire Demonstration 7.1 Mental Rotation For the top pair of objects, labeled A, look at the object on the left. Try rotating it in any direction you wish. Can you rotate it so that it matches the object on the right? Which of these three pairs of objects are the same, and which are different? Record your answers; we’ll discuss this study shortly. Source: Shepard, R. N., & Metzler, J. (1971). Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science, 171, 701–703. Copyright 1971 American Association for the Advancement of Science. question was quite daring during this era. No genuine behaviorist would ever consider research about mental images! In Demonstration 7.1, notice that, in the top pair of designs (Part A), the left-hand figure can be changed into the right-hand figure by keeping it flat on the page and rotating it clockwise. Suddenly, the two figures match up, and you conclude “same.” You can match these two figures by using a two-dimensional rotation. In contrast, the middle pair (Part B) requires a rotation in a third dimension. You may, for example, take the two-block “arm” that is jutting out toward you and push it over to the left and away from you. Suddenly, the figures match up, and you conclude “same.” However, in the case of the bottom pair (Part C), you cannot rotate the figure on the left so that it matches the figure on the right. Therefore, you must conclude “different.” Shepard and Metzler (1971) asked eight extremely dedicated participants to judge 1,600 pairs of line drawings like these. They were instructed to pull a lever with their right hand if they judged the figures to be the same, and to pull a different lever with their left hand if they judged the figures to be different.