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Mental Images and Propositions

1) Mental representation refers to how knowledge is represented in the mind through mental images, propositions, or other forms. 2) Knowledge can be represented declaratively through facts or procedurally through knowledge of how to perform tasks. 3) Mental images are analogous representations that resemble what they represent, while symbols use arbitrary representations. 4) Both images and propositions play a role in knowledge representation, with images used more for concrete concepts and propositions for abstract ideas.

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mylene david
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447 views

Mental Images and Propositions

1) Mental representation refers to how knowledge is represented in the mind through mental images, propositions, or other forms. 2) Knowledge can be represented declaratively through facts or procedurally through knowledge of how to perform tasks. 3) Mental images are analogous representations that resemble what they represent, while symbols use arbitrary representations. 4) Both images and propositions play a role in knowledge representation, with images used more for concrete concepts and propositions for abstract ideas.

Uploaded by

mylene david
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MENTAL

IMAGES AND
PROPOSITIONS
Mental representation also called as
knowledge representation
-The form for what you know in your
mind about things, ideas, events, and so
on, outside the world.
-It is something that stands for these
people of what you know about them.
Mental Representation of Knowledge
Methods used to study knowledge
1. Self-report
2. Rationalist approach
a. Declarative knowledge – refers to facts
that can be stated, such as the date of your
birth, and the like.
b. Procedural knowledge – refers to
knowledge of procedures that can be
implemented.
3. Empiricist approach
a. Standard laboratory experiments – researchers
observe how people handle various cognitive
tasks that require the manipulation of mentally
represented knowledge.
b. Neuropsychological studies – (1) researcher
observe how the normal brain responds to
various cognitive tasks involving knowledge
representation and (2) they observe the links
between various deficits in knowledge
representation and associated pathologies in the
brain.
Communicating Knowledge: Pictures versus
Words
- Pictures capture concrete and spatial information
- Words capture abstract and categorical information
Pictures in Your Mind: Mental Imagery
Imagery is the mental representation of things
that are not currently seen or sensed by the
sense organs.
-May be old, new, futuristic, imaginary
-May involve any of the sensory modalities
(Imagine a taste, a sight, a touch)
-Use of mental images can help to improve
memory
Dual-Code Theory: Images and Symbols
Dual-Code Theory belief suggesting that
knowledge is represented both in images and
in symbols
-Analog codes resemble the objects they are
representing (imaginal code)
-Symbolic codes knowledge representation
that has been chosen arbitrarily to stand for
something that does not perceptually resemble
what is being represented.
Propositional Theory
-It suggest that knowledge is represented only in
underlying propositions, not in the form of images
or of words and other symbols.
-Propositions may be used to describe any kind of
relationship, relationship between elements, subject
element and object element.
- A proposition for a sentence would not retain the
acoustic or visual properties of the words, similarly,
a proposition for a picture would not retain the exact
perceptual form of the picture.
Limitations of Mental Images
- A propositional code may override the
imaginal code in some circumstances.
The Influence of Semantic Label
Limitations of Propositional Theory
-We do not necessarily need a
propositional code to manipulate
information.

Manipulation of mental reinterpretation:


-Mental realignment of the reference
frame.
-Mental reconstrual of parts of the figure.
MENTAL MANIPULATIONS OF IMAGES
Functional equivalence hypothesis – belief that
although visual imagery is not identical to visual
perception, it is functionally equivalent to it.
-This view essentially suggests that we use images
rather than propositions in knowledge representation
for concrete objects that can be pictured in the mind.

Principles of Visual Imagery


-Functionally equivalent to visual perception
- We use similar transformation on objects and
mental images
Neuroscience and Functional Equivalence
- Activation in the frontal and parietal regions
occurs when viewing or imagining an image

Mental Rotation
-It involves rotationally
transforming an objects’
mental image.
Zooming in Mental Images: Image Scaling
-We represent and use mental images in ways that
are functionally equivalent to our representations
and uses of percepts. We use mental images the
same way we use our actual perceptions.
Examining Objects: Image Scanning
-We use mental images in image scanning.
- The key underlying image scanning is images can
be scanned in much the same way as physical
percepts can be scanned.
Synthesizing Images and Propositions
Participants give the experimenters the pattern
they expect
Intons-Peterson replicated research but misled
experimenters
If experimenter expectations are part of
demand characteristics, then leading
participants to believe that longer distances
would lead to faster responses should alter the
results
Evidence supported demand characteristics
idea
Johnson-Laird’s Mental Models
Proposed that there are three types of mental
representations
Propositional representations are pieces of
information resembling natural language
Mental imagery are perceptual models from a
particular point of view
Mental models are structural analogies of the
world
Johnson-Laird’s Mental Models

Characteristics of a mental model


A representation of a described situation rather
than a representation of a text itself or the
propositions conveyed by a text
The structure corresponds to the functional
relations among entities as they would exist in
the world
A simulation of events in the world, either real or
imaginary
Two Kinds of Images: Visual & Spatial
Visual imagery (images are visual)
Seeing colors
Comparing shapes
Spatial imagery (analog spatial format)
Rotating objects
Aiming and shooting at a target
Neuroscience evidence
Farah (1988)
Brain injury case study (L.H.)
Gave some visual tasks
Color identification, object naming
Gave some imagery tasks
Mental rotation, mental scanning
Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Maps
Gain increased spatial knowledge
Using three types of knowledge
Landmark (special buildings)
Route-road (procedures to get to one place
from another)
Survey (global map-like view)
Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Maps
Heuristics affecting cognitive maps
Right-angle bias
Streets are drawn at 90-degree angles (even when
they are not)
Symmetry heuristic
Irregular geographic boundaries are made regular
(e.g., Americans straighten out the Canadian border)
Rotation heuristic
Tend to “regularize” tilted landmarks in maps to
appropriate E-W or N-S axis
Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Maps
Heuristics affecting cognitive maps
Alignment heuristic
People distort their mental images to represent
landmarks and boundaries as better aligned than they
really are
Relative-position heuristic
Relative positions of landmarks and boundaries are
distorted in ways consistent with people’s conceptual
knowledge

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