A brief overview of the research into cognitive processes related to imagery and cognitive maps

1. Imagery
Syllabus of 2018
Unit 2 Imagery and General Knowledge

2. Syllabus
Part A: Mental imagery:
Visual imagery,
mental rotation,
ambiguous figures and mental imagery,
distance and shape effects on visual imagery
Auditory imagery
pitch
Timbre

3. Syllabus
Part B: Cognitive maps:
Distance and shape effects on cognitive maps
Relative position effects on cognitive maps
Creating cognitive maps

4. Imagery
Part A

5. Meaning of imagery
Imagery or mental imagery is the mental
representation of stimuli when those stimuli are
not physically present in the environment
(Kosslyn et al, 2010)
Imagery
Visual
imagery
Auditory
imagery

6. Overview of mental imagery
Imagery is useful
to perform search operations,
to navigate through spatial areas
in clinical settings to help clients with PTSD,
depression or eating disorders
Spatial ability (includes imagery) is important
in STEM disciplines

7. Imagery and perception
Imagery and perception are related but not
identical
Perception (as most cognitive process)
involves both bottom-up and top-down
processes
For perception, there is an external stimulus
For imagery, only top-down or knowledge-
driven processing happens (a rare case)

8. Research on mental imagery
Focused on visual imagery
Difficult because imagery is hard to access
Behaviourism did much to squash research on
non-observable processes like imagery out of
psychology

9. Research on mental imagery
Two assumptions researchers made while
studying mental imagery:
If a person is able to create a mental image of an
object, they should be able to make judgements
about it in the same way as they make judgements
about real objects (rotate it, interpret it when it is
ambiguous, etc)
We should be able to produce other vision like
effects when we construct a mental image (mental
image should create interference when we try to
perceive a physical object)

10. Mental Rotation
Human being use the information they gather
and the entire purpose of recoding is to enable
the most efficient use of the input.
In order to use information and thus adapt to
the environment – meet its demands and
challenges, many different forms of mental
procedures come into play.

11. Mental Rotation
One of the ways in which mental imagery has
been studied is via mental rotation.
Mental rotation research has looked at two
aspects of cognition:
Mental imagery
Organization of knowledge
Some of the classic research on mental
rotation follows:

12. IN EACH OF THE FOLLOWING TASKS, THERE IS A FIGURE ON
THE LEFT FOLLOWED BY FOUR FIGURES ON THE RIGHT. TWO OF
THE FIGURES ON THE RIGHT ARE IDENTICAL TO THE ONE ON
THE LEFT. IDENTIFY THE TWO CORRECT FIGURES

13. Mental Rotation
Shepard et al (1971) asked college students
to respond AQAP whether members of a pair
were the same for mental rotation problems
They were 8 participants who judged 1600
pairs
They found that the greater the difference in
the orientation of the pairs, the greater the RT

14. IN EACH OF THESE TASKS, DECIDE
WHETHER THE MEMBERS OF EACH
PAIR ARE IDENTICAL OR NOT
An Example of the task by Shepard et. al

15. Mental Rotation
Shepard et al concluded that
Students would first create a mental representation
of one of the forms in the pair
Next they would apply a procedure to the other
form that transformed it into a representation of
what it would look like if it were in the same
orientation as the first object
Then they would check if both the objects were
identical

16. Mental Rotation
Shepard et al called this procedure mental
rotation
They hypothesized that mental rotation was
analogous to physical rotation.
As such, the greater the difference in
orientation between the two objects, the longer
it would take to bring them into congruence

17. Mental Rotation
Much later research also concentrated on
mental imagery, however psychologists have
modified some of the techniques that were
used by Shepard and Metzler.
Some of the factors that seem to influence
mental imagery include:
Angle of rotation (greater the angle, greater the
reaction time) – Kosslyn et al 2006, Newcombe,
2002
Complexity of the figure

18. ARE THE THREE
FIGURES THE
SAME AS THE
FIRST ONE?
WHICH WAS
THE EASIEST
TO COMPARE
AND DECIDE?
An Example of complexity

19. DO THE
COLOURS
MAKE IT
EASIER TO
DECIDE?
An Example of complexity

20. Mental Rotation
The objects in the above example were only
rotated in two dimensional space.
When the rotation is also into the third
dimension, the task complexity increases
greatly.

21. Whole or Part images?
In mental rotation tasks, are people rotating
the entire image or only a part of it?
Cooper (1975) presented participants with
irregular polygons
Participants were trained to discriminate the
original from the mirror image

24. Part or Whole image?
Participants were shown either the original
polygon or the reflections at different angles of
rotation.
They had to deterime whether the object was
the original or a reflection of the original
The reason to use complex polygons was on
this logic: if people were using only parts of the
object, then performance should differ based
on the complexity of the polygon

25. Part or Whole image?
Cooper found that RT increased linearly with
angle or rotation
RT did not increase in relation to polygon
complexity
Therefore, people were rotating whole images,
not parts of it.

26. Perception and Mental Rotation
Cooper (1976) also showed that mental
rotation was a continuous process like physical
rotation of an object
She asked people to mentally rotate a polygon
clockwise. Then she would depict a test shape
(the same polygon oriented differently)
RTs were shorter if the orientation was closer
to the original and longer if the orientation was
very different.

27. Factors affecting mental rotation
Age – elderly process more slowly (Beni et al,
2006; Dror & Kosslyn 1994)
Knowledge of ASL – knowing ASL helps since ASL
involves rotating images 180 degrees (Emmorey et
al, 1998)
Handedness? – right-handed people recognized
right hands faster while left-handed people
recognized both hands equally fast; on other
parameters such as upright pictures, both groups
were the same (Takeda et al 2010)

28. Mental Rotation
Carpenter and Eisenberg (1978) wondered
whether the mental rotation task could be
applied to only a visual code or a more
generalized spatial code
In one study, they asked congenitally blind
subjects whether a letter’s orientation was
normal or its mirror image by the sense of
touch!

29. Mental Rotation
As the angle of rotation departed
from vertical, the time for judgment
increase
It is highly unlikely that congenitally
blind subjects could be using a visual
code
Thus, the code for mental rotation is
described as visuospatial, rather
than visual
J
E

30. Cognitive neuroscience research
Do people use motor cortex when involved in
mental rotation tasks?
PET scans and Shepard & Metzler (1971) task
Gp1: Rotate it physically; Gp2: watch while an
electric motor rotates the figure
Then both groups do a mental rotation task
Results: Gp 1: use primary motor cortex; Gp 2: no
activity in the PMC
Conclusion: need hands-on experience for PMC to
work

31. Cognitive neuroscience research
In other research (Wraga et al, 2005; Zacks et
al, 2003); effect of instructions was studied
Gp 1: standard instructions to rotate the figure
(right frontal and parietal lobes were activated)
Gp 2: imagine you are rotating yourself to see
the figure from different angles (activity in the
left temporal lobe and motor cortex)

32. What Code?
Analog or Propositional?
Tversky (2005), Ganis et al (2009), Kossly et
al (2006) argue for an analog code
Pylyshyn (2006) argues for a propositional
code; arguing that it would be awkward and
even unworkable to store information in terms
of mental images, it would need more space
than available; mental images are different
from perceptual images

33. What Code?
Most evidence though, even neuroscience
research seems to support an analogue code
at the moment
Kosslyn et al (2010) surveyed a large number
of studies and conclude that visual imagery
activates 70% to 90% of the same brain areas
that are activated during visual perception
People who have damage to the PVC have
difficulty processing both perceptual and
imagery information

34. Ambiguous figures and visual imagery
Whether we use a propositional or analogue
code was also asked by Reed (1974, 2010)
Let us try a demonstration

35. Look at this picture and form a clear
mental image of this picture

36. Now, consult your mental image
does it contain this figure?

37. Now, consult your mental image
does it contain this figure?

38. It does contain that irregular polygon!

39. It does contain that parallelogram!

40. Ambiguous figures
Reed found 14% accuracy for
star/parallelogram example
Across all stimuli, only 55% accuracy (hardly
better than chance)
Reed concluded that we could not be using a
visual image given the high error rate
We must be using a propositional code (a
verbal description such as “star of David” or
“two triangles forming a star” etc.

41. Ambiguous figures
Chambers and Reisberg (1985)
used ambiguous figures
Create a clear mental image of it
Now give an alternate interpretation
of it
None of them could; apparently
they could not consult a stored
mental image!

42. Alternate interpretations

43. Conclusions
People use an analogue code for fairly simple
figures
Use propositional code for complex figures;
Verbal labels may be helpful in such cases

44. Factors that influence mental imagery
Distance and shape
Interference
Other vision like processes

45. Distance and shape effects
Kosslyn (1999, 2006) showed that participants
take longer to scan the distance between two
points on a (mental visual) map when the
points are far apart and take a shorter time to
scan the distance between closer points
Countering experimenter expectancy –
research using assistants and the U shape
expectation

46. Distance and shape effects
Paivio (1978) demonstrated that people take
longer to decide which angle made by the
hands of a mental clock if the difference
between the two angles was smaller; they
made the decisions faster if the two angles
were very different in size

47. Distance and shape effects
Shepard and Chipman (1970) found that when
making judgements about shape similarity of
states, they took more time when the shapes
were very similar
Let us try a demonstration: do you think the
following states have similar shapes:
Himachal Pradesh and Punjab
Chhattisgarh and Gujrat
Arunachal Pradesh and Assam

49. Visual imagery and interference
Segal & Fusella (1970) found that:
When participants are scanning a mental image,
they had difficulty detecting a physical image if both
images were in the same sensory mode:
Image of a tree, detect a blue arrow
However, if the sensory modes were different, then
there was not problem in detection
Image of the sound of an oboe, detect a blue arrow

50. Visual imagery and interference
Mast et al (1999) asked participants to create
a visual image of a set of narrow parallel lines
Then they asked the participants to rotate the
lines so that they were diagonally oriented
Then they presented them with a physical
stimulus –a line segment and asked them to
judge whether it was exactly vertical while
retaining the mental image
Found that the mental image caused
distortions in judgement

51. Visual imagery and other vision-like
processes
Masking effect (Ishai & Sagi, 1995) –
perception is better when the target is
presented with two vertical lines on either side
of it.
Even for mental imagery this is true – this
actually ensures that there are no demand
characteristics during experimentation
(Kosslyn et al 1983, 2001, 2006)

52. Auditory Imagery

53. Auditory Imagery
The ability to create a mental representation of
various sounds
Two factors that seem to influence auditory
imagery include:
Pitch and
Timbre

54. Pitch
Pitch is the characteristic of sound that can be
arranged from low to high
Intons-Peterson et al (1992) examined how
quickly people could travel the distance
between two sounds that differ in pitch.
In this study Intons-Peterson asked students
to create an auditory image of a low-pitched
such as a cat purring; then asked them to
create a higher-pitched sound like a slamming
door.

55. Pitch
On other occasions, it would involve sounds
like a howling dog to a screeching owl or a car
purring to a pneumatic drill.
Results showed that participants needed less
time to “travel” shorter distances (when the
pitch was not much higher or lower than the
first one) and more time to “travel” longer
distances.
The RT was correlated with distances
between the actual tones

56. Pitch
An unpublished study on music students Sree
Vadrevu and Buddhavarapu (1997) used pure
tones (piano sounds)
The results indicated that:
When the notes were far apart on a scale, the
reaction time was longer
There were no differences between music students
and non-music students in RT for pitch
However, music students were able to create
mental images for tones more easily than non-
music students

57. Timbre
Timbre is the quality of sound:
Imagine twinkle twinkle being sung by a group of
grown men
Now imagine it being sung by frogs
Now imagine it being sung opera style
Now played on a flute
Now played on a trumpet
Even when the pitch is the same, the quality
of the song will be different in each of these
cases.

58. Timbre
A study by Halpern et al (2004) focused on
auditory imagery for the timbre of musical
instruments.
The participants had completed at least 5
years of training in music
This ensured that participants could recognize
the sounds of 8 different instruments easily
(bassoon, flute, trumpet, violin, etc)

59. Timbre
The study had two conditions:
Perception condition: participants listened to 1.5
second segment of one instrument followed by a
1.5 second segment of another instrument
They had to rate the similarity of the instruments
Imagined condition: participants heard the name of
the two instruments
They had to rate how similar the instruments
sounded
Both groups were exposed to all possible pairings
of the 8 instruments

60. Timbre
Results showed that the ratings for timbre
perception and timbre imagery wre highly
correlated
Thus, auditory imagery is highly correlated to
auditory perception

61. Cognitive Maps

62. Cognitive Maps
Mental representations of geographical
information
Spatial Cognition is the overarching
multidisciplinary field that studies:
Our thoughts about cognitive maps
How we remember the world we navigate
How we keep track of objects in a spatial array

63. Spatial Cognition
It is a multidisciplinary field because:
AI – models of spatial knowledge
Linguistics – descriptions of spatial arrangements
Anthropology – cultural differences in cognitive
frameworks about locations
Cartography – creating effective maps
Urban planning – planning space effectively for
human habitation
Gaming – games that use spatial knowledge
Radar and communication – communication of
spatial knowledge during war/ exploration, etc
(even Google maps)

64. Activity
For this activity, pair up in such a way that two
of are not familiar with each other’s location.
One of you describe how to get to your place
(it could be a coffee shop near your current
residence if you are say, staying in the hostel)
in as great detail as possible
During this time, neither of you is writing or
drawing anything
Immediately after, both of you create a road
map to the same location but independently

65. Discuss
For the person who learnt the location:
How much details were you able to recall
Which descriptions proved more useful to create
the map
For the person who gave the location:
How closely did your partner’s map match your
own?
How accurate do you think your partner’s map is –
will it suffice to get to your place
For both: what is your overall learning from
this exercise?

66. Cognitive maps
Individual differences in spatial knowledge
influences the quality of cognitive maps
created
Ability to create cognitive maps also
influences it
(both can improve with practice)
Normally, errors that occur in creating
cognitive maps are due to some heuristics we
use… discussed below

67. Factors that influence cognitive maps
Number of intervening cities
Category membership
Border bias
Landmarks
Shape
Relative position effect
Let us look at each one…

68. Number of intervening cities
Thorndyke (1981) showed that the distance
estimates by people when using cognitive
maps was influenced by the number of
intervening cities.
When trying to estimate the distance between
two cities (of the same distance in reality), if
there were more cities between these two,
people overestimated the distance

69. Category Membership
Hirtle and Mascolo (1986) got people to create
a cognitive map of a hypothetical town by
giving them verbal descriptions
Then they asked them to identify the relative
position of one location from another
The category to which the location belonged
determined the responses…

70. Category Membership
If both buildings belonged to the same
category (say courthouse and police station),
they estimated that the buildings were closer
(even if they were not in reality)
If the buildings belonged to two different
categories (school, theatre), they estimated the
buildings to be further apart that they actually
were.

71. Activity
Let us try to estimate the distance between
cities in kilometres (aerial distance only):
Jaffna and Pune
Karachi and Delhi
Bangalore and Mangalore
Karachi and Islamabad
Bhubaneshwar and Delhi
Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar

72. Activity
Gulbarga to Hyderabad
Islamabad to Delhi
Delhi to Mandalay (Myanmar)
Bangalore to Delhi
Gulbarga to Hubli
Delhi to Pune
Kolkata to Dhaka

73. Activity
So, let us see how we have performed… the
distances are aerial distances
Jaffna and Pune – 1186 km
Karachi and Delhi – 1089 km
Bangalore and Mangalore – 298 km
Karachi and Islamabad – 1137 km
Bhubaneshwar and Delhi – 1274 km
Koltakata and Bhubaneshwar – 370 km

74. Activity
Gulbarga and Hyderabad – 171 km
Islamabad to Delhi – 674 km
Delhi to Mandalay (Myanmar) – 2032 km
Bangalore to Delhi – 1740 km
Gulbarga to Hubli – 279 km
Delhi to Pune – 1173 km
Kolkata to Dhaka – 245 km

75. Border Bias
Friedman and Montelllo (2006) asked people
to estimate the difference between two cities
and discovered an interesting phenomenon:
If the cities were separated by an international
border, then they were estimated as being further
apart
The estimated a difference (on average) of 354
miles between two cities if there was an
international border when in reality the actual
difference was only 63 miles!

76. Landmarks
In one classic study Mc Namara and Diwadkar
(1997) found that when people had to estimate
the distance while travelling towards a
landmark, they tended to underestimate it, but
when travelling away from the landmark, they
would overestimate the distance.
Shelton & Yamamoto (2009), Tversky (2009),
Wagner (2006) confirmed the landmark effect:
the tendency to give shorter estimates while
travelling towards a landmark than away from
it

77. Shape
Moar and Bower (1983) found that participants
tend to regularize cognitive maps (especially
road maps)
When recreating road maps, people tend to
create roads that were closer to 90º.
Check the map you created of your location
together to see if this heuristic played a role in
your own creation (check with an online map
app)

78. Relative position effect
Research has shown that people estimate the
position of cities based on position of states.
If state K is to the south of state N, then
people estimate a city in state K is also to the
south of city in state N
For example people may presume that
Chennai is to the south of Mysuru because
Tamil Nadu is to the south of Karnataka (this is
not the case in reality though, Mysuru is more
south than Chennai).

80. Relative position effect
Tversky (1981, 1998) explain this effect as the
combination of two heuristics:
The rotation heuristic – we tend to remember a
slightly tilted georgraphic structure as being more
vertical or horizontal than it really is
The alignment heuristic – we tend to remember a
series of geographic structures as being arranged
in a straighter line than they really are.
Thus, we tend to make errors in estimating
relative position

81. That’s all!