Working memory components and imagery instructions in the elaboration of a spatial mental model

The paper investigates the involvement of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory during the processing of spatial texts via a dual-task paradigm. Subjects were presented with three texts describing locations from a route perspective, and had either to imagine themselves moving along a route in surroundings or to rehearse verbal information. Concurrently they had to perform a spatial tapping task, an articulatory task, or no secondary task. Performance on a verification test used to assess the product of comprehension showed that the concurrent tapping task impaired performance in the imagery instructions group but not in the repetition instructions group, and caused the beneficial effect of imagery instructions to vanish. This result was not observed with the articulatory task, where interference effects were similar in both instructions groups. Performance on the concurrent tasks confirmed the pattern obtained with the verification test. In addition, results seem partly dependent on the capacity of spatial working memory as measured by the Corsi Blocks Test. We argue that these results clarify the processes of the construction of a spatial mental model, and confirm that the visuo-spatial working memory is involved in mental imagery.     

Dissociating cognitive and motor interference effects on kinesthetic short-term memory

In two experiments, we investigated how short-term memory of kinesthetically defined spatial locations suffers from either motor or cognitive distraction. In Exp. 1, 22 blindfolded participants moved a handle with their right hand towards a mechanical stop and back to the start and then reproduced the encoded stop position by a second movement. The retention interval was adjusted to approximately 0 and 8 s. In half of the trials participants had to provide a verbal judgment of the target distance after encoding (cognitive distractor). Analyses of constant and variable errors indicated that the verbal judgments interfered with the motor reproduction only, when the retention interval was long. In Exp. 2, 22 other participants performed the same task but instead of providing verbal distance estimations they performed an additional movement either with their right or left hand during the retention interval. Constant error was affected by the side of the interpolated movement (right vs. left hand) and by the delay interval. The results show that reproduction of kinesthetically encoded spatial locations is affected differently in long- and short-retention intervals by cognitive and motor interference. This suggests that reproduction behavior is based on distinct codes during immediate vs. delayed recall.     

表象建构的面积评估

通过视觉或触觉给被试呈现完整的三角形,或呈现构成一个三角形所必要而又充分的一组部件以在表象上形成一个三角形,并评估其大小。结果发现,被试在表象中利用部件建构起来的三角形面积的增长,与实际知觉的三角形一样,均遵从幂函数定律,且幂函数指数均小于１,显示出表象与知觉的机能等价。     

Influence of cognitive style on an incidental memory task.

The present study investigated the interaction between cognitive style, imagery, and memory. The Tactual Performance Test Location Score from the Halstead-Reitan battery was used as a measure of incidental tactual memory and mental imagery. The Group Embedded Figures Test was used to assess cognitive style. Results for 38 Caucasian males of mean age 49.9 yr. suggest that cognitive style is related to an individual's ability to perform a non-verbal, non-visual memory task. Further, cognitive style may be an important mediating variable influencing intrapersonal behaviors such as non-verbal memory and mental imagery.     

Individual differences in visual imagery determine how event information is remembered

Individuals differ in how they mentally imagine past events. When reminiscing about a past experience, some individuals remember the event accompanied by rich visual images, while others will remember it with few of these images. In spite of the implications that these differences in the use of imagery have to the understanding of human memory, few studies have taken them into consideration. We examined how imagery interference affecting event memory retrieval was differently modulated by spatial and object imagery ability. We presented participants with a series of video-clips depicting complex events. Participants subsequently answered true/false questions related to event, spatial, or feature details contained in the videos, while simultaneously viewing stimuli that interfered with visual imagery processes (dynamic visual noise; DVN) or a control grey screen. The impact of DVN on memory accuracy was related to individual differences in spatial imagery ability. Individuals high in spatial imagery were less accurate at recalling details from the videos when simultaneously viewing the DVN stimuli compared to those low in spatial imagery ability. This finding held for questions related to the event and spatial details but not feature details. This study advocates for the inclusion of individual differences when studying memory processes.     

The relationship between self‐reports of imagery and spatial ability

A puzzling question arising from imagery research is why no relationship has been found between self‐reports of imagery and performance on spatial tests thought to require the use of imagery. To investigate this, spatial ability, measured by performance on two spatial tests, was compared with performance on the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ; Marks, 1973) and a newly constructed imagery questionnaire. The choice of items and ratings for the new questionnaire was based on Kosslyn's (1980, 1994) theories of the imagery system. Ratings on the new questionnaire consistently correlated significantly with performance on the spatial tests, whereas ratings from the VVIQ did not. The new ratings captured more of the imagery process than ratings of vividness alone, but the largest change depended upon the type of item imagined. Ratings of items of the same type as used on the spatial tests predicted performance on the spatial tests, whereas vividness ratings of items recalled or constructed from long‐term memory did not. Participants can successfully introspect on several different properties of their images, and their ratings do predict performance on tasks thought to require imagery. The large effect of item type raises questions about the predictive value of existing models of the imagery system especially in relation to the role of phenomenological properties of our images.     

从表征和认知过程上看表象与知觉、记忆的关系

表象、知觉和记忆是一个整合的认知系统。由于知觉和记忆提供了表象生成的材料,因而三者共享相似的表征,并激活广泛而相似的脑区。然而在认知加工过程上三者存在一定的差异。与知觉相比,表象的编码方式更抽象、更依赖过去经验的参与且处理细节能力更弱;与记忆相比,表象更容易受无关信息的干扰。未来对三者关系的研究应关注不同来源和不同类型的表象与知觉、记忆之间的关系,以及工作记忆在三者关系中所起的作用。     

Spatial complexity and hand usage on the Block Design Test

The Block Design test is a task utilizing spatial ability, on which subjects are required to arrange red and white blocks in a pattern similar to one presented on a stimulus card. 69 right-handed subjects were presented a series of trials which varied in difficulty or spatial complexity. The amount of time that each subject's hand was in contact with the blocks during each of the reproduction attempts was recorded. Analysis of these times shows that subjects use their right hands with greater frequency only on tasks of low and moderate spatial complexity. This preference is not present on tasks of high spatial complexity. Interpretations of this finding are offered.     

The differential contributions of visual imagery constructs on autobiographical thinking

There is a growing theoretical and empirical consensus on the central role of visual imagery in autobiographical memory. However, findings from studies that explore how individual differences in visual imagery are reflected on autobiographical thinking do not present a coherent story. One reason for the mixed findings was suggested to be the treatment of visual imagery as an undifferentiated construct while evidence shows that there is more than one type of visual imagery. The present study investigates the relative contributions of different imagery constructs; namely, object and spatial imagery, on autobiographical memory processes. Additionally, it explores whether a similar relation extends to imagining the future. The results indicate that while object imagery was significantly correlated with several phenomenological characteristics, such as the level of sensory and perceptual details for past events – but not for future events – spatial imagery predicted the level of episodic specificity for both past and future events. We interpret these findings as object imagery being recruited in tasks of autobiographical memory that employ reflective processes while spatial imagery is engaged during direct retrieval of event details. Implications for the role of visual imagery in autobiographical thinking processes are discussed.     

Similarity of tactual and visual picture recognition with limited field of view.

Subjects attempted to recognize simple line drawings of common objects using either touch or vision. In the touch condition, subjects explored raised line drawings using the distal pad of the index finger or the distal pads both of the index and of the middle fingers. In the visual condition, a computer-driven display was used to simulate tactual exploration. By moving an electronic pen over a digitizing tablet, the subject could explore a line drawing stored in memory; on the display screen a portion of the drawing appeared to move behind a stationary aperture, in concert with the movement of the pen. This aperture was varied in width, thus simulating the use of one or two fingers. In terms of average recognition accuracy and average response latency, recognition performance was virtually the same in the one-finger touch condition and the simulated one-finger vision condition. Visual recognition performance improved considerably when the visual field size was doubled (simulating two fingers), but tactual performance showed little improvement, suggesting that the effective tactual field of view for this task is approximately equal to one finger pad. This latter result agrees with other reports in the literature indicating that integration of two-dimensional pattern information extending over multiple fingers on the same hand is quite poor. The near equivalence of tactual picture perception and narrow-field vision suggests that the difficulties of tactual picture recognition must be largely due to the narrowness of the effective field of view.     

高、低强迫症状个体的词语再认差异

比较了高强迫症状（High obsessive compulsive symptom, HOC）和低强迫症状（Low obsessive compulsive symptom, LOC）被试对于不同类型词语（强迫症敏感词、情绪词和中性词）再认成绩和记忆信心的差异。结果发现,HOC组记忆保存量显著低于LOC组（p<0.05）,表明HOC组对强迫症敏感词存在一定的偏好;通过对被试反应信心的检测和信号侦察论的应用,发现HOC组对中性词再认正误的判断觉察能力（d’值）低于LOC组（边缘显著：p＝0.054）;在正确反应信心上,被试类型和词语类型间存在交互作用,F(1,22)=4.60,p<0.05。本研究认为HOC组辨别能力的缺损可能导致其记忆信心方面的降低,这种假设还需要进一步的认知和脑功能研究来证实。     

Movement imagery in rock climbing: patterns of interference from visual,spatial and kinaesthetic secondary tasks

Climbers were trained on two routes on a climbing wall, one vertical and one horizontal. The routes differed in the amount that could be seen from the start position, in the visibility of the holds (both of which were greater in the vertical climb), and in the need to use a range of hand and body configurations during the climb (which was greater in the horizontal climb); also the vertical climb was shorter than the horizontal climb. After training, subjects imagined climbing the routes under control conditions and with one of three secondary tasks derived from the working memory literature. The secondary tasks were dynamic visual noise, spatial tapping, and kinaesthetic suppression. Spatial tapping increased the duration of both routes; dynamic visual noise increased the duration on the vertical route, and kinaesthetic suppression increased duration on the horizontal route. The results are discussed in terms of the multiple forms of representation for action and the complexity of imagery for skilled movement. It is suggested that these working memory tasks may have a role in elucidating the demands of movement imagery under different conditions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unexceptional spatial memory in an exceptional memorist.

Rajan Mahadevan evidences an exceptional memory for arrays of digits. We tested whether Rajan's spatial memory was likewise exceptional. Eight control Ss and Rajan were instructed to remember the position and orientation of 48 images of common objects shown either to the left or the right of fixation and facing either left or right. Rajan's accuracy for judging whether the position and orientation of these pictures had changed when they were shown in a different sequence was lower than that of control Ss for both judgments. Rajan's exceptional memory capacity apparently does not extend to spatial relations.     

Strategic hand use preferences and hemispheric specialization in tactual reading: impact of the demands of perceptual encoding

Four reading-related, information-processing tasks were administered to right-handed blind readers of braille who differed in level of reading skill and in preference for using the right hand or the left hand when required to read text with just one hand. The tasks were letter identification, same-different matching of letters that differed in tactual similarity, short-term memory for lists of words that varied in tactual and phonological similarity, and paragraph reading with and without a concurrent memory load of digits. The results showed interactions between hand preference and the hand that was actually used to read the stimulus materials, such that left preferrers were significantly faster and more accurate with their left hands than with their right hands whereas right preferrers were slightly but usually not significantly faster with their right hands than with their left hands. In all cases, the absolute magnitude of the left-hand advantage among left preferrers was substantially larger than the right-hand advantage among right preferrers. The results suggest that encoding strategies for dealing with braille are reflected in hand preference and that such strategies operate to modify an underlying but somewhat plastic superiority of the right hemisphere for dealing with the perceptual requirements of tactual reading. These requirements are not the same as those of visual reading, leading to some differences in patterns of hemispheric specialization between readers of braille and readers of print.     

Attention and memory cues in concept learning as a function of task complexity and age

The effects of attention and memory cues on concept learning performance were investigated as a function of task complexity and grade level of Ss. It was found that: (1) the attention and memory cues were closely interrelated in their effects upon performance with both significantly improving performance at all but the lowest levels of complexity; (2) both types of cues considerably lessened the effect of stimulus complexity upon performance; and (3) the attention cue elicited the best performance from Ss in the first through ninth grades, while the memory cue elicited the best performance from 4-year-old and kindergarten Ss.     

Kinetic and static imagery in sentence memory

This experiment investigates the possibility that two different kinds of imagery codes are used in sentence memory, one involving moving images (kinetic imagery) and the other involving stationary images (static imagery). Using a modality-specific interference task it was shown that only sentences involving kinetic imagery were affected by the visual interference task; neither static nor low imagery sentences were so affected. The results are interpreted as showing that some kind of imaginal code is used in memory, but that there are different kinds of code available. It is claimed that this result is inconsistent both with Paivio's (1971) ‘dual-coding’ hypothesis and with propositional accounts of sentence memory.     

Memory scanning for words in visual images

This study attempts to replicate an experiment reported by Seamon (1972). In the present investigation, as in the study by Seamon, the scanning of short-term memory was compared when its contents were rehearsed words vs. a mental image. Memory sets were composed of either one, two, or three words. In the relational imagery group, subjects were required to form a single interactive mental scene of the entities which the memory set words represent. Nonimagery subjects were given instructions to covertly rehearse the memory set. In both groups, the usual memory set size (m) effect was obtained, i.e., reaction time (RT) increased linearly with m. Moreover, the set size effect was the same for both groups. This latter finding stands in marked contrast to the result obtained by Seamon; he found no effect of set size when subjects were given interactive imagery instructions. Because of the failure to replicate Seamon, an additional group of subjects were given imagery instructions. For this latter group, some of the procedural discrepancies between the relational imagery group of the present study and the corresponding group in Seamon’s study were resolved. Also, in this additional group, the set size effect was examined as a function of the subjects’ ratings of the quality of the images which they had formed. The same set size effect was found for this additional group, and the effect was independent of image quality.     

Object and spatial imagery: distinctions between members of different professions

In the current research, we took a new approach to examining individual differences in mental imagery that relied on a key distinction regarding visual imagery, namely the distinction between object and spatial imagery, and further examined the ecological validity of this distinction. Object imagers consistently prefer to construct colorful, pictorial, high-resolution images of individual objects and scenes, and spatial imagers prefer to use imagery to schematically represent spatial relations among objects and can efficiently perform complex spatial transformations. To examine the ecological validity of the object versus spatial imager distinction, we examined the object and spatial imagery preferences and skills of groups of professionals.Visual artists, scientists, architects, and humanities professionals completed two types of imagery tests: spatial imagery tests assessing abilities to process spatial relations and perform spatial transformations, and object imagery tests assessing abilities to process literal appearances of objects in terms of color, shape, and brightness. A clear distinction was found between scientists and visual artists: Visual artists showed above average object imagery abilities but below average spatial imagery abilities; whereas, scientists showed above average spatial imagery abilities but below average object imagery abilities. Visual artists tended to be object imagers, and scientists tended to be spatial imagers. Thus, even though both groups use visual imagery extensively in their work, they in fact tended to excel in only one type of imagery.Furthermore, we interviewed the groups of professionals about imagery characteristics and imagery processes that they typically use when work, we had them interpret kinematics graphs and abstract art, and we monitored their eye-movements as they engaged in various perception and imagery tasks. The data revealed various qualitative differences between the professional groups. Both visual artists and scientists reported using imagery in their work. However, visual artists preferred to use object imagery, but scientists preferred to use spatial imagery for their work. Humanities professionals, however, reported less use of imagery. Additionally, visual artists reported that their images were more likely to come as a whole, but scientists reported that their images were generated part-by-part. Visual artist’s images were more persistent, less intentional, and had multiple meanings as compared to scientist’s images. Furthermore, visual artists and scientists interpreted kinematics graphs and abstract art qualitatively differently. Visual artists tended to interpret graphs literally (graphs-as-pictures), but scientists tended to interpret graphs schematically, in abstract way. However, visual artists tended to interpret the abstract art as abstract representations, but scientists tended to interpret abstract art literally, in a concrete way.The finding that professional domain, where work involves extensive use of object or spatial imagery, differentially predicted object and spatial imagery abilities and approaches in processing visual information provides ecological validation of the distinction between object and spatial imagers. Furthermore, these results provide support for the idea of a trade-off between object and spatial imagery abilities (i.e., a person being more effective at using one type of imagery and then tending to use this type of imagery more frequently than and at the expense of the other type of imagery).     

Stimulus complexity,free looking time,and inspective exploration

Fourteen Ss rated 59 objects on a seven point complexity scale. From these ratings 10 objects were chosen at the high, middle, and low levels of complexity, and 35 mm slides were made of these 30 objects. Fifteen Ss manipulated and inspected each of the objects for as long as they wished and a second group of 15 Ss viewed slides of the objects for as long as they wished. Analysis of the time scores from these two groups revealed that both inspective manipulation time and free looking time increased as a function of stimulus complexity. Inspective manipulation time was greater than free looking time except at the low complexity level.