Chapter 9: Visual Imagery and Spatial Cognition

3. Name a factor that does, and one that does not, affect the speed of mental rotation.

: Does: the angle of rotation required. Does not: direction of rotation, complexity of stimulus, whether rotation is required within the picture plan or out of it.

2. Why does visual imagery enhance memory, according to the relational organizational hypothesis? What evidence exists for this hypothesis?

: Visual imagery is effective because it creates more associations between items to be recalled. Evidence for this point of view is that interactive imagery is more effective than noninteractive imagery in remembering word pairs.

1. Describe the dual coding hypothesis and give examples of words that should be relatively easy and relatively difficult to remember according to this hypothesis.

Information that can be coded by both a verbal label and a visual image should be easier to remember. Easy: cat, dog, fish, tree. Difficult: harmony, honesty, courage. Learning Objective: 9-2: Distinguish between the dual-coding hypothesis and the relational-organizational hypothesis

5. Summarize what neuropsychological research has to say about the nature of visual imagery.

PET scan studies typically show that the same parts of the brain are activated when actually seeing something and when forming a visual image. Similarly, the same parts of the brain are activated when listening to a song and when imagining listening to a song. These data suggest that images are actually processed visually, not processed as abstract propositions.

4. How do Barbara Tversky's studies of mental maps support a propositional view of imagery?

Tversky has shown that heuristics distort our perceptions. For example, when asked, "Which city is farther west—Reno or San Diego?" we are likely to think that California is west of Nevada, so San Diego must be west of Reno. If we had an actual visual map in our heads, we could "see" that Reno is actually farther west.

1. Behaviorists objected to the study of visual imagery because ______. a. it cannot be investigated with sufficient scientific control b. there are too many individual differences in people's abilities to visualize c. behaviorists prefer to study animals and animals have no imagery abilities d. we can only study visual imagery and not auditory images, olfactory images, etc.

a

11. According to the symbolic distance effect, which of the following questions would be answered most quickly? a. Which is bigger, a mouse or a house? b. Which is bigger, a mouse or a rat? c. Which is bigger, a house or a store? d. Which is bigger, a rat or a cat?

a

12. Which of the following questions would take you the LONGEST TIME to answer? a. Which is faster, a snail or a caterpillar? b. Which is faster, a turtle or a cheetah? c. Which is faster, a cheetah or a caterpillar? d. Which is faster, a caterpillar or a cat?

a

14. Cooper's studies of the mental rotation of complex polygons indicated that people ______. a. rotated more complex polygons in the same amount of time as simpler polygons b. took longer to rotate more complex polygons c. actually took less time to rotate more complex polygons d. were unable to mentally rotate a polygon with greater than 10 points with more than chance accuracy

a

19. Research by Chambers and Reisberg on ambiguous figures such as the duck/rabbit showed that ______. a. different people can form different mental images of the same physical stimulus b. mental images are reversed more easily than physical images c. once a mental image is formed, people cannot detect alterations to it d. forming a mental image makes a person unable to later reverse his/her interpretation of a physical stimulus

a

21. Which of the following is NOT one of Finke's principles describing the fundamental nature and properties of visual images? a. Images contain only information that has been intentionally stored. b. Mental imagery uses several of the same internal processes as visual perception. c. The spatial arrangement of parts of a mental image corresponds to the way parts of the actual physical objects are arranged. d. Transformations of visual images obey the same laws of motion as transformations of actual physical objects.

a

25. Images can prime the visual pathway, making it easier to detect a faint stimulus. This is an example of ______ equivalence. a. perceptual b. spatial c. structural d. transformational

a

26. Both blind and sighted participants take longer to "scan" the visual image of a map when the actual distance between two landmarks is greater. This illustrates the idea of ______ equivalence. a. spatial b. perceptual c. transformational d. structural

a

28. One criticism of visual imagery research is that the studies ______. a. may involve demand characteristics b. may be too difficult for most people to perform c. result in too many individual differences in performance d. cannot be statistically tested

a

30. When an experimenter gives subtle cues to participants about how to behave, we say that a(n) ______ has occurred. a. experimenter-expectancy effect b. double-blind design c. implicit error d. external validity

a

35. Neurological studies indicate that processing mental images activates areas of brain ______. a. involved in visual perception b. involved in auditory perception c. involved in verbal memory d. not involved in ordinary sensory perception

a

38. When you imagine hearing a song, which part of your brain is probably active? a. temporal lobes b. parietal lobes c. occipital lobes d. frontal lobes

a

47. The idea that as organisms navigate their environment they must continually revise their representation of the the environment and objects in it is known as ______. a. spatial updating b. spatial awareness c. spatial modification d. spatial reformation

a

54. In studying mental rotation of objects, Shepard and Metzler (1971) found that the ______ an object is rotated in space (from zero degrees), participants confirmed the object's identity ______. a. less; faster b. less; slower c. more; faster d. more; as fast as when it was rotated less

a

58. Because of experimenter expectancy effects, Intons-peterson (1983) found that experimenters who had been told imaginal primes would be ______ effective than perceptual primes found that imaginal primes were ______ effective than perceptual primes and vice versa. a. more; more b. less; more c. equally; less d. equally; more

a

65. In Brook's (1968) task involving a capital letter F, participants are able to correctly identify the orientation of particular corners even if they do not consciously remember how they were marked. This is an example of ______. a. implicit encoding b. perceptual equivalence c. spatial equivalence d. transformational equivalence

a

69. According to Finke, the observation that mental images typically have the same arrangments of features as real-world objects is evidence for ______. a. spatial equivalence b. perceptual equivalence c. transformational equivalence d. implicit encoding

a

73. Of the evidence reviewed in this chapter, which type of empirical evidence best supports Finke's principle of transformational equivalence? a. mental rotation studies b. image scannign studies c. neurological studies d. mnemonic studies

a

10. Forming a visual image and then moving from one location on the image to another is known as ______. a. symbolic distance b. imaginal scanning c. mnemonic movement d. heuristic distortion

b

16. Barbara Tversky's research suggests that people's mental maps are ______. a. astonishingly accurate b. systematically distorted by the use of heuristics c. improved through practice d. highly correlated with their travel experience

b

18. Research by Chambers and Reisberg indicated that people ______. a. spontaneously reverse ambiguous pictures (such as the rabbit/duck) and visual images of those pictures equally frequently b. frequently spontaneously reverse ambiguous pictures but not ambiguous visual images c. frequently spontaneously reverse ambiguous visual images but not ambiguous pictures d. almost never spontaneously reverse ambiguous visual images or pictures

b

29. When the experimental task itself "cues" the subject about how to behave, the task is said to have ______. a. internal validity b. demand characteristics c. transformational equivalence d. implicit encoding

b

3. Paivio's ______ hypothesis argues that long-term memory contains two separate systems that represent information in verbal and visual forms, respectively. a. picture-word b. dual code c. visuo-verbal d. relational-organizational

b

37. Your occipital lobe would be activated when you ______. a. perform a mental arithmetic task b. perform a mental rotation task c. imagine the smell of cinnamon d. imagine the taste of chocolate

b

43. Knowledge of where your feet are located right now is part of your cognition of the space ______. a. around the body b. of the body c. within the body d. of navigation.

b

48. Knowledge or beliefs that you have about a task, its outcome, and its underlying mechanisms is known as ______. a. implicit knowledge b. tacit knowledge c. explicit knowledge d. foreknowledge

b

53. Which of the following mnemonic devices involves using imagery to imagine storing pieces of information in particular locations (such as in your house)? a. peg-word b. method of loci c. cognitive map d. analog

b

55. Which classic image from Chambers and Reisberg (1992) shows that although our mental images are in many ways like real images, they are still susceptible to manipulation by our biases and existing understanding? a. goose-otter b. duck-rabbit c. hawk-squirrel d. crane-beaver

b

59. Which image representation would contain a list of descriptive features? a. analagous image b. propositional image c. simultaneous image d. dependent image

b

66. Inherent in Finke's description of implicit encoding is that mental images ______. a. can never be consciously created b. have information that can be used in the future c. are only created from unnattended stimuli d. cannot be created to represent real-world objects

b

75. In studies by Kosslyn and colleagues (1983), participants were generally shown to use ______ parts to create their mental images compared to their real-world counterparts. a. abstract b. similar c. different d. unrelated

b

15. The results from the studies of Kosslyn, Ball, and Reiser indicated that ______. a. roughly one-third of the subjects had to be dropped from the experiment for inability to construct mental images b. subjects' reaction times to mentally "scan" across a map of an island were dependent upon the amount of practice each one had with the task; those subjects who actually lived on the island demonstrated a constant scanning time, regardless of actual distance c. subjects' reaction times to mentally "scan" across a map of an island were strongly correlated with the distance scanned d. subjects' reaction times to mentally "scan" across a map of an island were unrelated to the distance scanned

c

17. Your mental map of your campus is probably ______ than reality. a. larger b. smaller c. more regular, with more straight lines and right angles. d. less regular, with fewer straight lines and right angles.

c

2. Several mnemonic devices, including the method of loci, the pegword method, and the method of interacting images, have in common their reliance on ______. a. verbal rehearsal b. creating a stor. c. visual imagery d. connecting new information to well-known information

c

20. When comparing people's speed at reasoning with abstract concepts (smarter- dumber), spatial concepts (above-below), and visual relationships (cleaner-dirtier), Knauff and Johnson found that ______ relationships had the slowest performance. a. abstract b. spatial c. visual d. abstract and visual

c

23. Finke's principle of ______ states that mental imagery allows us to retrieve information that was not intentionally stored. a. perceptual equivalence b. transformational equivalence c. implicit encoding d. structural encoding

c

24. Which is NOT one of Finke's principles of visual imagery? a. perceptual equivalence b. spatial equivalence c. temporal equivalence d. structural equivalence

c

31. Nickerson and Adams showed that when it comes to memory for commonly seen objects like pennies, ______. a. people's visual memory is extremely accurate b. people can recognize a penny, but cannot recall it well enough to draw it c. people are not very good at recognizing a penny even though they see it frequently d. 75% of people can recognize common logos out of context

c

34. Kosslyn compared people's verification times for statements like "Cats have claws" (high association, small visual part of a cat) to "Cats have heads" (low association, large visual part of a cat). He found that people were faster at verifying ______. a. "claws" whether or not they used visual imagery b. "heads" whether or not they used visual imagery c. "heads" when they used imagery, "claws" when they did not d. "claws" when they used imagery, "heads" when they did not

c

41. How do people represent and navigate in and through space? This is a question of ______ cognition. a. navigational b. representational c. spatial d. visual

c

49. In a mental rotation task, you'd fastest to match a target object to its rotated counterpart if the target and its counterpart were ______. a. 180 degrees apart b. not identical c. only 10 degrees apart d. mirror images of each other

c

5. The dual-coding hypothesis states that recall will be best when items are coded ______. a. visually b. verbally c. both visually and verbally d. with two distinct visual images

c

50. When creating a mental image of a location, you would most likely to see brain activation in which of the following areas? a. brainstem b. fusiform face area c. hippocampus d. occipital lobe

c

56. Demand characteristics are a problem for psychological experiments because ______. a. participants must follow instructions in order to complete a task b. researchers cannot currently create appropriate demand stimuli c. the demands change how a cognitive process normally works d. demand characteristics cannot be studied in the context of the lab

c

6. According to the dual-coding hypothesis, which of the following word pairs would be easiest to remember? a. cat-liberty b. freedom-honesty c. ferret-catalog d. fear-door

c

60. Which image representation would be similar to a (possibly distorted) snapshot of an actual real-world image? a. propositional image b. dependent image c. analagous image d. simultaneous image

c

63. Which of the following is NOT a criticism often directed at imagery research? a. Experimenters may give unconscious hints about the expected outcome of the study. b. Real-world images may not be stored analagously in memory. c. Imagery research cannot be conducted in a neuroscience paradigm. d. Descriptions and details of images can be used as imagery representations.

c

67. Because similar visual systems are active for both mental imagery and visual perception, Finke argues that mental images have ______. a. implicit encoding b. spatial equivalence c. perceptual equivalence d. transformational equivalence

c

7. The relational-organizational hypothesis is supported by ______. a. the effectiveness of the method of loci b. the fact that concrete words are recalled better than abstract words c. the fact that noninteractive images do not facilitate recall, whereas interactive images do facilitate recall d. the effectiveness of the pegword method

c

70. Of the evidence reviewed in this chapter, which kinds of empirical findings best support Finke's notion of spatial equivalence? a. mental rotation studies b. image scanning studies c. neurological studies d. mnemonic studies

c

72. Both mental images and real world objects are expected to conform to a set of physical principles. According to Finke, this demonstrates ______. a. implicit encoding b. spatial equivalence c. transformational equivalence d. structural equivalence

c

74. The observation that we appear to construct our mental images out of similar kinds of parts as their real world-counterparts would be described by Finke as ______. a. implicit encoding b. strucutral equivalence c. spatial equivalence d. perceptual equivalence

c

8. Which of the following methods would most help you to remember the word pair "elephant-cigar"? a. repeating the word "elephant" over and over while visualizing a cigar b. repeating the word "cigar" over and over while visualizing an elephant c. visualizing an elephant smoking a cigar d. visualizing an elephant and a cigar, not touching each other

c

9. When participants in an experiment were asked to imagine a letter and mentally move clockwise around the letter's corners, ______. a. they could respond more accurately by pointing than by responding verbally b. only about half of the participants could complete the task at all c. they could respond more quickly in verbal form than by pointing d. most could not complete the task, but those who did preferred to point

c

Studies of mental rotation have shown all of the following EXCEPT ______. a. the amount of time taken to decide if two drawings are the same or a mirror image reversal is proportional to the angle of rotation required b. the time taken to decide if two drawings are the same is equal for rotations within the picture plane (two-dimensional rotations) and rotations in depth (three-dimensional rotations "forward" or "backward") c. mental rotations are faster when done in a clockwise direction than in a counterclockwise direction d. the rate of mental rotation is the same for simple and complex geometric figures

c

22. Finke theorized that there are ______ principles of mental imagery. a. two b. three c. four d. five

d

27. Visual images are formed in pieces that are assembled into a final product. This is a statement of the principle of ______ equivalence. a. spatial b. transformational c. perceptual d. structural

d

32. A propositional representation is thought to be ______ in nature. a. verbal b. visual c. both verbal and visual d. neither verbal nor visual

d

33. Some theorists believe that there is a single code for all types of information; this code is known as a ______ representation. a. visual b. pictorial c. verbal d. propositional

d

36. Participants doing mental imagery tasks tend to show brain activity in the ______ lobe. a. temporal b. parietal c. frontal d. occipital

d

39. The temporal lobes would be most active when you ______. a. visualize the Mona Lisa b. form a mental map of your campus c. think about a sad event d. imagine listening to your favorite song

d

40. Which of the following studies is least susceptible to demand characteristics? a. mental rotation b. mnemonic usage c. image scanning d. PET scan studies

d

42. According to Barbara Tversky, there are three types of "space" that result in different types of spatial cognition: space of the body, space around the body, and ______. a. space within the body b. space around the world c. space of imagination d. space of navigation

d

44. Tversky's work suggests that people localize objects along which of these axes? a. inside-outside and front-back b. left-right and front-back c. up-down and inside-outside d. left-right, up-down, and front-back

d

45. The process of ______ occurs when we move through space and revise our mental representations of where things are in the environment. a. visual updating b. visual editing c. spatial editing d. spatial updating

d

46. Of the following, which is NOT one of Barbara Tversky's spaces of spatial cognition? a. space of the body b. space around the body c. space of navigation d. space of projection

d

51. Based on Bower's (1970) findings, you are most likely to remember the word pair "elephant-cigar" best when you visualize an elephant smoking a cigar compared to visualizing either the elephant or the cigar separately. This is because ______. a. only humanzing information will improve memory recall b. imagery must be paired in order to be effective c. imagery is distracting for individual objects d. this creates more memory links between the two concepts

d

52. Cognitive maps can be built from what kind of information? a. survey information b. route information c. spatial information d. all of these

d

57. Neurological results avoid demand characteristics because ______. a. demand characteristics are negated by the magnetic field of an MRI b. participants only try to change their cognitive processes in behavioral experiments c. neuroscientists create better experiments than behavioral scientists d. participants are unable to change their brain activation patterns

d

61. Spence and Feng (2010) demonstrate that video games like Call of Duty may result in ______ in spatial cognition performance. a. narrow benefits b. general deficits c. narrow deficits d. general benefits

d

62. Spatial cognition involves which of the following? a. representing space b. navigating through space c. reasoning about space d. all of these

d

64. Implicit encoding involves storing information ______. a. that you never paid atttention to in the first place b. retrieving information from the unconscious c. that you wanted to specifically use to create a mental image d. that you did not intend to

d

68. Inherent in Finke's description of perceptual equivalence is that mental images and perceptions use ______ mental processes. a. different b. all c. zero d. similar

d

71. In Kerr's (1983) study, she had blind participants acquire map and feature information through touch. She found that when asked to imagine moving a dot from one feature to another, blind participants ______. a. could not complete the task because they were unable to acquire spatial information b. completed the task faster than sighted participants suggesting that mental imagery is detrimental c. were fastest when they had features described to them instead of having touched the map d. performed similarly to sighted participants suggesting that both groups had mental representations

d

3. Mental rotations are more accurate when done in two dimensions than when done in three dimensions.

f

4. Clockwise mental rotation is easier than counterclockwise mental rotation.

f

7. Visual images typically do not preserve spatial relationships among objects.

f

8. Research on visual imagery has sometimes been criticized because it does not allow for any demand characteristics.

f

1. According to the dual code hypothesis, memory is better when we can create both a verbal code and a visual image of the thing that we are trying to remember.

t

10. Looking at a real picture of a dog, and creating a visual image of a dog, activate the same parts of the brain.

t

2. Imagery is more effective when it is interactive.

t

5. Studies of imaginal scanning suggest that visual images are very much like physical pictures or maps.

t

6. People often spontaneously reverse ambiguous pictures like the duck/rabbit, but they rarely spontaneously reverse mental images of such pictures.

t

9. Very few people can accurately draw a penny, or even recognize a correct drawing of one, although we see pennies every day.

t