If visual imagery and visual perception shared many of the same processes, then much of what is known to date about perception may be used and adapted to be able to understand the more internal and ambiguous process of visual imagery. The question is how much of mental imagery is actually a part of visual perception?
The concept of a ‘unitary mechanism’ has been recurrently mentioned in the text, although little has been said about what it means and implies. This is a term coined by Stephen Kosslyn (2005), he provided a model of visual imagery in which a single visual buffer is used “bottom-up” to display visual percepts and “top-down” to display internally generated images. The main claim is that the brain areas that implement the ‘visual buffer’ are also central during ‘visual mental imagery’. The ‘attentional window’ depicted in the model refers to covertly shifting one’s attention to scan over entire images without moving one’s eyes. ‘Information shunting’ refers to the concept that one sometimes cannot identify an object when only part is viewed and may rely on stored representations to hypothesis the nature of the object.
Despite the logic of the model, research has gravely challenged this idea of a single mechanism, bouncing back and forth with no definitive conclusion. Several neuroimaging studies have shown overlapping activation in the brain when perceiving and imagining. O’Craven and Kanwisher (2000) investigated brain activations of faces and places during perception and during mental images of faces and places. Similarities between regions activated during imagery and perception for the corresponding task emerged although showing differences in magnitude for imagined and perceived faces and places. Thus, q...
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...nformation processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 372-422.
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The ultimate goal for a system of visual perception is representing visual scenes. It is generally assumed that this requires an initial ‘break-down’ of complex visual stimuli into some kind of “discrete subunits” (De Valois & De Valois, 1980, p.316) which can then be passed on and further processed by the brain. The task thus arises of identifying these subunits as well as the means by which the visual system interprets and processes sensory input. An approach to visual scene analysis that prevailed for many years was that of individual cortical cells being ‘feature detectors’ with particular response-criteria. Though not self-proclaimed, Hubel and Wiesel’s theory of a hierarchical visual system employs a form of such feature detectors. I will here discuss: the origins of the feature detection theory; Hubel and Wiesel’s hierarchical theory of visual perception; criticism of the hierarchical nature of the theory; an alternative theory of receptive-field cells as spatial frequency detectors; and the possibility of reconciling these two theories with reference to parallel processing.
Another speaker, Margaret Livingstone delves into the visual aspect of our senses. Livingstone mentions how artists recognize things about vision that neuroscientists are not privy to until years later. Livingstone discussed the differentiation between color and lightness, and how the two contribute differently to a work of art. Color is thought of as “comparing activity” whereas light is thought of as “summing them.” Livingstone indicates that the visual system is subdivided into a ventral system and a dorsal system.
One of the most common American proverbs is the expression to “never judge a book by its cover”. This saying, used for more than just books, is commonly used to express that what is on the appearance of something might not always show that things true nature or content. Even so people will often forget this fact and rely on their own perception. So what does this say about perception? To Victor Hugo author of the novel Les Misérables this would probable show that human perception is flawed and that people trust it more than they should. In Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables he suggests that by following only our perception will not always lead to the truth, with the characters of Thénardier, Jean Valjean, and Inspecter Javert.
Classical theories demonstrating the inattentional blindness paradigm are (1) the perceptual load, (2) inattentional amnesia and (3) expectation.
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McKone, E., Kanwisher, N. & Duchaine, B. C. (2007). Can generic expertise explain special processing for faces?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol 11, pp.8-15.
The other main method in cognitive neuroscience is functional brain imaging. We have already learned in Chapters 10 and 11 that areas in right frontal and auditory cortex are activated during melodic tasks, and that activity in rostromedial prefrontal cortex is cor- related with tonality. Are these areas also involved in musical imagery? What about the regions involved in visual imagery, like SMA?
Memory has been and always will be associated with images. As early as 1896, leading psychologists were arguing that memory was nothing more than a continuous exchange of images. (Bergson) Later models of memory describe it as more of an image text; a combination of space and time, and image and word. (Yates) Although image certainly is not the only component of memory, it is undoubtedly an integral and essential part of memory’s composition.
Donovan, W. L. & Leavitt, L. A. (1980). Physiologic correlates of direct and averted gaze. Biological Psychology, 10, 189-199.
Children’s processing of information is elementary and so the “copying” of pictures in one’s head is just a crude system of percepti...
What is mental imagery? In The Effects of Mental Imagery on Athletic Performance, Anne Plessinger describes mental imagery as the imagining of the execution of an action without actually performing the action. Plessinger also explains that mental imagery not only includes visual senses, but also auditory, olfactory and kinesthetic senses (4). Studies have demonstrated that mental imagery prior to athletic performance leads to better results than the execution of the action alone. Plessinger describes an experiment that consisted of a control group and an imagery group who were told to complete specific golf skills. It was concluded that the imagery group performed better because they had higher goals and expectations of themselves (4). Perhaps the mental preparation helped the imagery group’s brains acquire the right skills needed. Also, other studies have shown specific physiological differences (breathing, heart rate...etc.) with the addition of mental imagery before performance (1).
Perception is a mysterious thing; it faces a lot of misconception, for it can merely be described as a lens, as it decides how someone views the events happening around them. Perception is the definition of how someone decides to use their senses to observe and make conceptions about events or conditions they see or that are around them. Perception also represents how people choose to observe regardless if it’s in a negative or positive way. In other words, perception can be described as people's cognitive function of how they interpret abstract situations or conjunctures around them. All in all, perception can do three things for someone: perception can change the way someone thinks in terms of their emotions and motivations, perception acts
There are many different Visual Perception principles in perception. The main principles are Gestalt. Gestalt is a German word meaning 'form' or 'shape'. Gestalt psychologists formulated a series of principles that describe how t...
Blakslee, S. (1993, August 31). The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2014, from www.nytimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/31/science/seeing-and-imagining-clues-to-the-workings-of-the-mind-s-eye.html