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 CHAPTER 7
The Land s cap e o f M em ory : M e ntal
Image s, M ap s, and Pro po sition s

Psy1213-group3-sec-10
Chapter Outline
 Mental Representation of
Knowledge
INTROSPECTIONIST APPROACH RATIONALIST APPROACH

observation of one's
mental state-asking we try to deduce logically
people to describe their how people represent
own knowledge knowledge.
representations and
knowledge representation
processes
 Two Kinds of Knowledge Structure

Procedural (knowing how)

Refers to knowledge of procedures that
can be implemented.
Two Kinds of Knowledge Structure
INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Declarative (knowing that)
Refers to facts that can be stated, such
as the date of your birth, the name of
your best friend, or the way a rabbit
looks.
 Two Main Sources of Empirical Data on
Knowledge Representation

Standard Laboratory Neuropsychological Studies- researchers

typically use one of two methods:
Experiments
(1) they observe how the normal brain responds
They observe how people handle various to various cognitive tasks involving, knowledge
cognitive tasks that require the representation, -or
manipulation of mentallyrepresented
knowledge. (2) they observe the links between various
deficits in knowledge representation and
associated pathologies in the brain.
 Two Main Sources of Empirical Data on
Knowledge Representation

we use abstract form of knowledge encoding that

makes use of neither words nor mental images.
 Communicating Knowledge: Pictures
versus Words

"Some ideas are better and more easily

represented in pictures whereas others
are better represented in words".
Communicating Knowledge: Pictures versus Words

VS
 SYMBOLIC
REPRESENTATION
the relationship between the word and what it represents
is simply arbitrary

Because symbols are arbitrary, their use requires the

application of rules. For Example, in forming words, the
sounds or letters also must be sequenced according to
rules
word: C-A-T not "A-C-T", "T-A-C"

 PICTURE
Capture concrete and spatial
information in manner similar to what
they represent

WORD
Capture abstract “mentalese” and
categorical information in a manner
that is symbolic of whatever the word
represent.
Has sequential representation due to
arbitrary rules.
 PICTURE
the cat is color black, the cat is sitting,
the cat is cute etc.

WORD
The dictionary defines cat as “a
carnivorous mammal (Felis catus) long
domesticated as a pet and for catching
rats and mice” (Merriam-Webster’s Online
Dictionary, 2010).


IMAGERY
It is the mental representation of things that
are not currently seen or sensed by the sense
organs.

Pictures in Your

MENTAL IMAGERY
Mind: Mental can represent things that you have never
experienced

Imagery
VISUAL IMAGES
used to solve problems and to answer
questions involving objects
 Allan Paivio
"Dual- Code Theory"
 Dual-Code Theory: Images and
Symbols
we use both pictorial and verbal codes for representing
information in our minds

Pictures are better recalled in random order and words in

sequential order.
 ANALOG CODES

-mental images are analog

codes.
-Analog codes resemble the
objects they are
representing.
 SYMBOLIC CODE

-form of knowledge
representation that has been
chosen arbitrarily to stand for
something that does not
perceptually resemble what is
being represented.

Storing Knowledge as
Abstract Concepts:
Propositional Theory

 Propositional Theory
Do not store in form of images instead have
a “generic” code or “propositional”
Using Propositions
Propositions may be used to describe any kind of relationship. Examples of
relationships include actions of one thing on another, attributes of a thing,
positions of a thing, class membership of a thing, and so on


Mental images are results of a

stimulus and when asked to distort or
Limitations of Mental Images manipulate the image at hand, it is
hard to do so unless we see a visual
representation of it

Limitations of Propositional Theory

MENTAL REALIGNMENT
This realignment would involve a shift in the
positional orientations of the figures on the
mental “page” or “screen” on
which the image is displayed.

MENTAL RECONSTRUAL
This reconstrual would be of
the duck’s bill as the rabbit’s ears.

1. Implicit reference- Frame hint—show similar images, no instructions

2. Explicit reference- Frame hint—give direct verbal hint.

3. Attentional hint—look at a part of the image, what does it look like?

4. Construals from “good” parts—look at the “good” part of the

image.
FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE

HYPOTHESIS Mental

Visual imagery is not identical

Manipulation

to visual perception, it is of Images

functionally equivalent.

Functionally equivalent things

are strongly analogous to one
another. Can perform the
same fucntion/s, can give the
same or better utility, and has
the same goal.
PRINCIPLES OF
PRINCIPLES OF VISUAL
VISUAL IMAGERY
IMAGERY

1. Our mental transformation of

images and our mental movements

across images correspond to those

of physical objects and percepts.

 2. The spatial relations among

elements of a visual image are

analogous to those relations in actual

physical space.

3. Mental images can be used to

generate information that was not
explicitly stored during encoding.
4. the construction of mental images
is analogous to the construction of
visually perceptible figures

5. Visual imagery is functionally

equivalent to visual perception in

terms of the processes of the visual

system used for each.

 Neuroscience and

Functional Equivalence
NEUROIMAGING

STUDIES

Evidence for functional equivalence.

Participants viewed or imagined an

image.
SCHIZOPRENIA

People suffering from schizoprenia

suffer auditory hallucinations without

the actual stimuli and is a result of

internally generated material.

 Mental

Rotation
ability to transform a
mental representation
of an object so as to
accurately predict how
the object would look
from a different angle
mentally.
Mental Rotation Test

1 2 3 4
DEGRADED STIMULI

blurry, incomplete, or less informative stimuli

PRACTICE EFFECTS
improvements in performance along with

increased practice.
RESPONSE TIME FOR MENTAL ROTATION

VS
INTELLIGENCE AND MENTAL ROTATION

SHEPEARD AND HIS

COLLEAGUES
Direct link between research in cognitive psychology
and research on intellegence. Identifying the mental
representations and cognitive processes that underlie
adaptationsto the enviornment and ultimately constitute
human intelligence.
NEUROSCIENCE AND MENTAL ROTATION
GENDER AND MENTAL ROTATION
 GENDER AND MENTAL ROTATION

NO GENDER DIFFERENCE IN PERFORMANCE OR IN

NEUROLOGICAL ACTIVATION FOR CHILDREN.
DIFFERENCE IN THE ACTIVATION OF THE PARIETAL REGIONS
BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN. LESS IN WOMEN AND MORE IN
MEN. HOWEVER, WOMEN EXHIBIT ADDITIONAL INFERIOR
FRONTAL ACTIVATION.
MEN=RIGHT BRAIN
WOMEN= LEFT AND RIGHT BRAIN
Zooming in on
Mental Images:
Image Scaling
 We use mental images the
same way we use our actual
perceptions.

(Functional Equivalence)

 OUR RESOLUTION IS LIMITED

In general, seeing details of large objects is easier than
seeing such details of small ones.

When we ZOOM IN CLOSER to an object to see its

detail, we can no longer see the entire object.
On visual perception....
it is easy to control the
sizes of the objects you
see.

controlling the sizes of

people’s mental images is
more difficult.
 How do you know that the image in
your head is the same size as the
image in someone else’s head?

Relative size
a means of manipulating image size

 Participants imagine four pairs of animals

an elephant and a rabbit
a rabbit and a fly
a rabbit and an elephant-sized fly
a rabbit and a fly-sized elephant

findings support the functional-equivalence hy-pothesis

and dual-code view.

For both children and adults, When we see something in

front of our “mental eye,” it takes the same amount of time
to perceive it, just as it would if we saw something in real
life.

But the difference was much greater for the nonimagery

condition than for the imagery condition
children in the first and fourth grades and adult college
undergraduates were asked whether particular animals can be
characterized as having various physical attributes
1st and 4th grade children, and adult college participants were asked to
visualize each animal and to use their mental image in answering the
questions.

In another condition, they used verbal-propositional knowledge to

respond to the verbal questions.

No effect on physical size

Examining objects:
Image Scanning
 Stephen Kosslyn has found additional support for his
hypothesis that we use mental images in image scanning.

images can be scanned in

much the same way as Kosslyn’s experiments

physical precepts can be

scanned.
Imaginary
in perception, to scan
across longer distances island
takes longer than to scan
across shorter ones
 articipants were shown a
map of an imaginary
island, Participants studied
the map until they could
reproduce it accurately
from memory.

the experimenter kept

track of the participants’
response times, indicating
the amount of time it took
them to scan from one
object to another.
 Kosslyn’s experiments

Borst and Kosslyn (2008)

presented participants
with dots on a screen for a
short time.

the distance between the points and the arrow should

not have influenced reaction time, but it did.
Recall that the experiment by Shepard and Metzler
(1971) found linearly increasing reaction times for
mental rotations as the angle of rotation increased.
Representational Additional evidence for the
similarity between perception
Neglect and mental imagery

Many patients suffering from
spatial neglect also suffer
from a related impairment
called representational
neglect
 SPATIAL NEGLECT

a person ignores half

of his or her visual when presented with an image, they
field. described the entire image.

However, when the image was removed

and they were asked to describe the
image from memory, they failed to
REPRESENTATIONAL NEGLECT describe the left portion.
a person is asked to It is likely that there exists complete
imagine a scene and knowledge of the scene, but that
then describe it ignores knowledge sometimes is not accessible
half of the imagined when the patient generates a mental
scene. image.

SYNTHESIZING IMAGES AND

PROPOSITIONS
Do Experimenters’ Expectations
Influence Experiment Outcomes?
 some of the confirmatory results found in image research could be
the result of demand characteristics

She found that

experimenter
expectancies did
influence participants’
responses in three
tasks:
image scanning, participants
mental rotations, performing
Intons-Peterson and another task visualization tasks
(1983) set out to comparing may be responding in
perceptual part to the demand
investigate just that performance with characteristics of the
imaginal
question performance.
task
 Johnson-Laird’s
Mental Models
An alternative mental propositions - are
synthesis of representations fully abstracted
the literature may take any of representations of
three forms: meaning that are
propositions, verbally expressible.
images, or mental (unique about this
models model)

 Johnson-Laird’s
Mental Models
Mental models - are individuals’ implicit theories
1
knowledge structures that about these experiences,
individuals construct to which can be more or less
understand and explain accurate.
their experiences

 Is there any proof for

the use of mental
models?
An experiment by Mani K. & Johnson-Laird (1982)

When participants were given detailed (determinate)

descriptions for the spatial layout of objects, they inferred
additional spatial information not included in the descriptions,
but they did not recall the verbatim details well.

 Is there any proof for

the use of mental
models?
An experiment by Mani K. & Johnson-Laird (1982)

They relied on the mental models. They did not rely on the
verbal descriptions for their mental representations. when
participants were given ambiguous (indeterminate)
descriptions for the spatial layout of objects

 Is there any proof for

the use of mental
models?
An experiment by Mani K. & Johnson-Laird (1982)

They seldom inferred spatial information not given in the

descriptions, but they remembered the verbatim descriptions
better than did the other participants. The authors suggested
that participants did not infer a mental model.

 Is there any proof for

the use of mental
models?
participants appear to have mentally represented the
descriptions as verbally expressible propositions.

The notion of mental models as a form of knowledge

representation has been applied to a broad range of cognitive
phenomena: phenomena include visual perception, memory,
comprehension of text passages, and reasoning

 Is there any proof for

the use of mental
models?
Kerr's blind participants still showed similar response patterns
to those of sighted participants.
 Faulty mental models are
responsible for many errors
in thinking.

Experience
is a useful tool for the repair of faulty mental models
can help correct faulty mental models. However, it is most
helpful when the faulty models are made explicit.

Neuroscience:
Evidence for Multiple
Codes:

Presented by
Redson Zaire Tungpalan
 EVIDENCE

Participants involved in a research

project involving cognitive tasks can be
influenced by the expectations of the
researcher. But it seems implausible that
such factors would equally influence the
results of neuropsychological research
 EVIDENCE

brain-damaged patients do not know that

particular lesions are supposed to lead
to particular kinds of deficits. Indeed,
the patients rarely know where a lesion
is until after deficits are discovered.
 EVIDENCE

Neuropsychology proposes to address the

problem of bias in experience, based on
the principle that a subject can alter
his behavior, but cannot alter the
functioning of his brain as an organ.

Left Brain or Right Brain: Where Is

Information Manipulated?
.
Left Brain or Right Brain: Where
Is Information Manipulated?

LEFT HEMISPHERE RIGHT HEMISPHERE

appears to be more appears to represent and

proficient in representing manipulate visuospatial
and manipulating knowledge in a manner
verbal and other symbol- similar to perception
based knowledge.
Evolutionary origins of cerebral
asymmetry

LEFT HEMISPHERE RIGHT HEMISPHERE

has the ability to manipulate
represents knowledge in a
imaginal components and
manner that is analogous to
symbols and to generate
our physical environment.
entirely new information

same case with the brains of

example: vowel & consonant
sounds, geometric shapes, the other animals
word "text"
Two Kinds of Images:
Visual versus Spatial
.
Two Kinds of Images: Visual
versus Spatial

VISUAL IMAGERY SPATIAL IMAGERY

use of images that images that represent spatial

features such as depth
represent visual
dimensions, distances, and
characteristics such as orientations.
colors and shapes
 EXAMPLE OF AN INJURY

Case of L. H., 36-year-old who had head injury at age 18.

Injury resulted to lesions in right and left temporo-occipital

regions, temporal lobe, and right inferior frontal lobe.

the injuries implicated possible impairment of his ability to

represent and manipulate both visual and spatial images.
 damage to
temporal lobe

right temporal lobe and right inferior frontal

lobe temporo-occipital region
 L. H.'s
performance
 Spatial

Cognition

and

Cognitive

Maps
 Spatial cognition

examines how people

acquire, use, and

understand their

knowledge about their

surroundings to

determine where they

Spatial
are, how to access

resources, and how to

Cognition get home.

Two major systems of

spatial cognition are self-

mapping and navigation

(Proulx et al., 2016).

(Proulx et al., 2016).

 Cognitive Maps
A cognitive map is a representative expression of

an individual's cognitive map knowledge, where

cognitive map knowledge is an individual's

knowledge about the spatial and environmental

relations of geographic space.

 Examples

Not using a GPS when

When someone asks for

driving home. directions, you can

visualize it in your mind
 Latent

Learning
Latent learning is a

type of learning in

which is not apparent

in the learner's

behavior at the time

of learning, but

which manifests later

when a suitable

motivation and

circumstances

appear.
Group 1: Rewarded
Day 1 – 17: Every time they

got to end, given food (i.e.

reinforced).

Group 2: No Reward
For the duration of the entire

experiment, rats in this group

were not awarded upon

completion and were simply

removed from the maze.

Group 3: Delayed Reward

Day 1 - 10: Every time

they got to end, taken

out.
Day 11 -17: Every time

they got to the end,

given food (i.e.

reinforced). (Ferrari, 2022)

 What are

Heuristics?
Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow

people to solve problems and make

judgments quickly and efficiently.

(Cherry, 2022)
 Why do we use heuristics?

01 02 03

Effort
Attribute

Fast decision
reduction substitution
 Example

Rather than spending time deciding

When we are face with a menu with too

what to wear every day, we might have

many options, we might opt for what

some default outfits. we have enjoyed in the past.

CHAPTER 7 - Group 3-sec10

Thank
You
References:
https://stuckonthis.com/icon-pop/quiz/tv-and-films.html

Proulx, M. J., Todorov, O. S., Aiken, A. T., & de Sousa, A. A. (2016, February 11). Where

am I? Who am I? The Relation Between Spatial Cognition, Social Cognition and

Individual Differences in the Built Environment. Frontiers. Retrieved October 4,

2022, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00064/full

Ferrari, J. (2022, January 31). Latent Learning. PsychBite. Retrieved October 4,

2022, from https://psychbite.com/study-guides/approaches/cognitive-

psychology/latent-

learning/#:%7E:text=In%20their%20famous%20experiments%2C%20Tolman,a%2

0behaviourist%20stimulus%2Dresponse%20relationship.