Mental imagery - Maryam Amir

1. A BRIEF REVIEW OF RECENT DEBATES MENTAL IMAGERY MENTAL IMAGERY MARYAM AMIR MSc cognitive psychology student Institute for Cognitive Science Studies (ICSS) Maqy.amir@gmail.com

2. میا هدید رای خر سکع هلایپ رد ام ام مادم برش تذل ز ربخ یب یا ظفاح

3. WHAT IS WHAT IS MENTAL IMAGERY ? MENTAL IMAGERY ? “Representation & experience of sensory information without a direct external stimulus” Pearson, Naselaris, Holems & Kosslyn, 2015 TiCS

4. Galton, 1880 WHEN MIGHT WHEN MIGHT WE USE MENTAL WE USE MENTAL IMAGERY? IMAGERY? Thinking of the breakfast table this morning Remember a highlight from your last date - - - - Type of Bread Tea or Coffee Design colors - - - - Café or Restaurant Music Clothes Smell

5. Wilhelm Wundt German physiologist & philosopher - Introspection - theater of consciousness - spotlight of selective attention B. F. Skinner American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor & social philosopher - behaviorism -The pigeons - Black box IT IS VALID IT IS VALID TO ASK TO ASK THESE SORT THESE SORT OF Q OF Q BECAUSE BECAUSE… … Noam Chomsky American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic & political activist - criticized behaviorism - 23 years old PHD student

6. ROLES OF IMAGINATION Motivation Mcmahon 1973 AJP Memory Emotion Prospective Thoughts Addis & Wong 2007 Neuropsychologia Schacter & Addis 2012 Neuron Holmes & Mathews 2010 Clinical psychology review - a common brain network underlies both memory and imagination. - the ability of individuals to re- experience episodes from the past and also imagine or pre- experience episodes that may occur in the future. - mental images of goal objects serve as motives by providing energization and direction . - Mental imagery acts as an “emotional amplifier” in both negative and positive emotional states and in many emotional disorders.

7. IMAGERY DEBATES 1991 1991 Descriptive Descriptive Depictive Depictive Michael Michael Tye Tye Imagery does not rely exclusively on the same sorts of representations that underlie language. “visual thinking” requires a combinatorial system—a language of thought—that itself is not in any sense “pictorial.” Kosslyn 2005 Pyshylyn 2003

8. ARISTOTLE . . . we can call up a picture, as in the practice of mnemonics, by the use of mental images . . . “the soul never thinks without a fantasma”. DE ANIMA 350 BC The nature of memory and its process has now been explained as the persistent possession of an image, in the sense of a copy of the thing to which the image refers, and it has been further explained to what faculty in us this belongs, viz. to the primary power of sensation . . . ON THE MEMORY 350 B.C

9. HOBBES imagination being only of those things which have been formerly perceived by sense, either all at once or by parts at several times, the former, which is the imagining the whole object as it was presented to the sense, is simple imagination, as when one imagines a man or horse which he has seen before. The other is compounded, as when, from the sight of a man at one time and of a horse at another, we conceive in our mind a centaur. Leviathan 1651

10. LOCKE . . . there is an ability in the mind when it will revive them again, and as it were paint them anew on itself, though some with more, some with less difficulty . . . An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1695

11. BERKELEY [F]or myself, I find indeed I have a faculty of imagining, or representing to myself, the ideas of those particular things I have perceived, and of variously compounding and dividing them. I can imagine a man with two heads, or the upper parts of a man joined to the body of a horse. I can consider the hand, the eye, the nose, each by itself abstracted or separated from the rest of the body. Principles of Human Knowledge 1710

12. KOSSLYN mental images are distinct from language because they depict, not describe, information. The cognitive neuroscience of mental imagery 1995

13. SUPER BRIEF HISTORY OF MEASURING IMAGERY Questionnaires (VVIQ) Mental Rotation (3D,Motion) Reaction Times Binocular Rivalry VVIQ in 1973 VVIQ-2 in 1995 VOIQ in 1998 VMIQ-2 in 2008 Showing Images and how quick and slowly react to it Task of rotating something in your mind and imagine colors visual phenomenon that involves perceptual switching in response to different images presented to each eye. The VVIQ consists of 16 items groups of 4 items in which the participant is invited to consider the image formed in thinking about specific scenes and situations. in four

14. MACHINES GE's SIGNA GE's SIGNA 7.0 7.0T T Hennessey Venom F Hennessey Venom F5 5 Maybach Exelero

15. MENTAL IMAGERY CELEBRITIES Bence Nanay Adam Zeman Joel Pearson Emily Holmes University of Exeter Citations: 6,660 h-index: 41 Research interests: Neurology, Memory, Imagery, Consciousness University of Antwerp University of Antwerp Citations Citations: 2752 h h- -index index: 30 Research interests: Multimodal Mental imagery, Philosophy of mind, Decsision making, Aesthetics Karolinska Institutet Citations: 23544 h-index: 76 Research interests: Mental imagery, PTSD, bipolar disorder Researcher Citations: 4,722 h-index: 34 Research interests: Mental imagery, Consciousness, Intuition, Visual Working Memory, Science of Innovation

16. LAB MAP Sweden England Belgium Australia

17. (ZEMAN ET AL, 2010) A A CASE OF 'BLIND IMAGINATION CASE OF 'BLIND IMAGINATION' This case of a patient, MX abruptly lost the ability to generate visual images. He rated himself as experiencing almost no no standard questionnaires, yet performed performed normally normally standard tests of perception, visual imagery and visual memory. paper describes the MX, who imagery imagery on on

18. (ZEMAN ET AL, 2010) A CASE OF 'BLIND IMAGINATION A CASE OF 'BLIND IMAGINATION' IMAGERY IMAGERY– –IMAGERY CONTROL IMAGERY CONTROL COMPARISON COMPARISON BETWEEN MX AND BETWEEN MX AND HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS Increases : (A, right anterior cingulate cortex) Decreases : (B, left fusiform cortex)

19. (ZEMAN ET AL, 2010) A CASE OF 'BLIND IMAGINATION A CASE OF 'BLIND IMAGINATION'  posterior posterior visual employed by the healthy control participants visual network network  MX activation in frontal network that includes the inferior inferior frontal frontal & & anterior cingulate cingulate gyri gyri. The supracallosal anterior cingulate is implicated in error prediction (Brown & Braver, 2005): given that MX reports an inability to task it is reasonable to assume that he did not expect successfully,. The supracallosal anterior cingulate also is sensitive to task difficulty Koski, &Westbury,1998), could be of since MX is likely to find this task effortful. anterior (Paus, Caramanos which  The inferior frontal gyrus has been associated with selection selection processes processes and semantic semantic retrieval retrieval (Moss et al., 2005): its activation could reflect an attempt to perform perform the no no visual visual way way. perform the relevance, to visualize the task task in in a a

20. (ZEMAN ET AL, 2010) 4 MAIN CONCLUSIONS CONCLUSIONS  successful performance on standard tests of visual imagery does not always require the experience of visual imagery.  studies of visual imagery deficits should address both subjective and objective aspects of imagery.  activation of posterior visual cortices is required for the experience of visual imagery but not for the performance of imagery tasks.  Value of fMRI in cog tasks.

21. Lives without imagery Lives without imagery – – congenital aphantasia Adam Zeman, Michaela Dewar, Sergio Della Sala congenital aphantasia - - 2015 2015 A-ΦΑΝΤΑΣΊΑ Aristotle, 1968 Charcot 1883 Cotard 1882 Galton 1880 • Break-Fast Table No visualize because of stroke • Lost of the Mind’s Eye & Depression • Faw 2004 Gruter 2009 Barmett 2008 Zeman 2015 suggests a name – aphantasia - for this poorly recognized phenomenon. •

22. The Eye’s Mind – a study of the neural basis of visual imagination and its role in culture is a research project, which launched in January 2015, funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Innovation Award. http://sites.exeter.ac.uk/eyesmind/ Professor Adam Zeman Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at University of Exeter Medical School Professor John Onians Professor Fiona Macpherson Professor and Head of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow Professor Emeritus in the School of World Art Studies at the University of East Anglia Dr Crawford Winlove Susan Aldworth Lecturer in Neuroscience at University of Exeter Medical School Visual artist

23. PURSUING THREE RELATED STRANDS OF ENQUIRY Strand 2 Strand 1 Strand 3 Studies individuals two or three in a hundred, lack visual imagination completely, a phenomenon termed aphantasia, others have imagery as vivid as ‘real hyperphantasia. Systematic meta-analysis Searching for patterns in the varied and sometimes results of previous studies. Reviews the insights Theories of visual imagination which artists, students of art, philosophers and others have proposed over the two and half thousand such thinking began. consistent we have while conflicting years since seeing’ –

24. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFELONG VISUAL THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFELONG VISUAL IMAGERY VIVIDNESS IMAGERY VIVIDNESS EXTREMES EXTREMES A ZEMAN ET AL MAY 2020-CORTEX 130 SDAM Weak Autobiographical memory Prosopagnosia Face Recognition Difficulties Dreams Dream without images Synaesthesia significantly less likely to experience of synaesthesia Occupation significantly less likely to be in ‘Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations’ Emotional impact, perceived advantages, relationships less likely than the participants in the hyperphantasia group to see their condition as advantageous.

25. YOUTUBE FEEDBACKS

26. FM Lab is an experimental startup which is part agency and part traditional research laboratory; home to a multi-disciplinary team of psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, data scientists, UX and visual designers. https://www.futuremindslab.com/

27. Professor Joel Pearson Director Dr Sebastian Rogers Dr Rebecca Keogh Cognitive Neuroscientist Cognitive Neuroscientist

28. RESEARCH AREA + Bespoke Psychometric Tests + Commission Research measure skills and aptitudes like creativity, resilience, tolerance for ambiguity, mental (imagination), leadership. bring science to out of the lab and into industry, with rapid iteration of experiments conducting reviews and meta- analysis. imagery as well as intuition and

29. 2017 Here we ran a group of self described congenital congenital aphantasics aphantasics on the binocular rivalry visual rivalry visual imagery imagery paradigm paradigm to measure the strength of their sensory imagery. If congenital aphantasia is a complete lack of visual imagery, we should expect no facilitative no facilitative priming effects of visual imagery on subsequent rivalry. However, if congenital aphantasia is instead a lack of metacognition, metacognition, or failed or failed introspection introspection, then we may expect to observe some priming, despite the subjective reports of no imagery. binocular priming

30. WHAT YOU IMAGINE IS WHAT YOU SEE The blind mind: No sensory visual imagery in aphantasia Rebecca Keogh , Joel Pearson 2017

31. 2021 our study provides new methods for measuring the sensory strength of attentional templates of attentional templates. We also demonstrated that visual imagery and attention relationship relationship with each other. imagery has been shown to be a ‘cognitive simulation tool simulation tool’ to help perform a range of different cognitive tasks. Such a theory highlights the ubiquity of imagery across human cognition and paints an exciting picture of imagery as a a keystone element element to to understanding for a range of other understanding for a range of other cognitive tasks. cognitive tasks. strength Experiment Experiment 1 1— exploratory analysis relationship between imagery, attentional templates attentional templates feature feature- -based based attention attention hold a close of imagery, the cognitive tool tool’ or ‘sensory sensory and and Experiment Experiment 3 3— investigating attentional templates attentional templates in in aphantasia aphantasia Experiment Experiment 2 2— investigating feature attention attention in in aphantasia feature- -based aphantasia based Experiment Experiment 4 4— investigating the effect of irrelevant irrelevant visual information information on attentional templates attentional templates keystone further further unlock unlock visual on

32. Experiment 1 1— Experiment IMAGERY TASK presented with the letter ‘R’ or ‘G’, which cued them to imagine the red horizontal gratings or the green vertical gratings. ATTENTION TASK presented with the plaid stimuli (brightness levels: 100, 50, 25, 5% or (0%), random) for 4 s and were asked to attend to the image they were cued to.

33. Experiment 1 1— Experiment RESULT RESULT • This suggests that even when no plaid participants were forming an attentional biased subsequent perception. • priming in template condition correlated positively with attention conditions. • These data imagery imagery may may be related related to to attentional attentional templates than to feature attention. was present template that the attentional all feature suggest be more more closely templates that closely

34. Experiment 2 2— Experiment IMAGERY TASK The imagery task was the same as in the previous experiment (figure 1a). Participants completed two blocks of 50 imagery trials (10% mock/catch trials), resulting in a total of 100 trials. ATTENTION TASK The attention task was the same as in the previous experiment (figure 1b) except there was only one brightness condition, 100%. completed the VVIQ. All participants

35. Experiment 2 2— Experiment RESULT RESULT • These data demonstrate that participants who do not have visual imagery evidence evidence of of attention attention through subsequent priming of binocular rivalry. • imagery imagery strength strength significantly significantly feature feature- -based based strong perceptually presented images still feature feature- -based exhibit based did did not not with with correlate correlate attention attention to

36. Experiment 3 3— Experiment IMAGERY TASK The imagery task was the same as in the previous experiment (figure 1a). Participants completed two blocks of 50 imagery trials (10% mock/catch trials), resulting in a total of 100 trials. ATTENTION TASK three (interleaved presentation), 100%, 5% and no image. brightness conditions order random

37. Experiment 3 3— Experiment RESULT RESULT • The individuals above-chance priming in the attention condition indicates that attentional attentional templates very very similar similar to to visual and are different in some way from standard feature-based attention. fact that do aphantasic not show templates are visual imagery imagery are

38. Experiment 4 4— Experiment All stimuli were the same as in experiment 1 except there were three three attention attention brightness used—100% (strong), 5% (weak) and no image (attention template) brightness levels There background background background/no luminance (same as experiments 1–3) background/luminance condition. were also conditions conditions, two two different a black and yellow

39. Experiment 4 4— Experiment RESULT RESULT • These evidence attention, templates, are affected presence presence of of irrelevant information information. . that, like visual imagery, they too recruit recruit low low- -level regions regions that are vulnerable to incoming sensory information. data provide that or affected by irrelevant visual This further preparatory attention by the visual suggests the level sensory sensory

40. UNDERSTANDING WHAT GIVES RISE TO THESE MENTAL EXPERIENCES MENTAL EXPERIENCES IN THE ABSENCE OF PERCEPTUAL INPUT WILL BETTER OUR UNDERSTANDING OF VISION AND CONSCIOUSNESS. Rebecca Keogh and Joel Pearson 2021

41. Using psychological and cognitive profiles of intuitive people as measured by MindX, scripted entirely by bespoke artificial intelligence, and directed by an Oscar-winning director – a true collaboration between science and art, man and machine. https://www.mindx.com.au/ Perception & cognition Psychophysiology Eye tracking Neural Data analytics

42. HOW WE IMAGINE AND SUBJECTIVELY EXPERIENCE THE FUTURE CAN INFORM HOW WE MAKE DECISIONS IN THE PRESENT Moral imagination: Facilitating prosocial decision-making through scene imagery and theory of mind Brendan Gaesser 1, Kerri Keeler 2, Liane Young 2 2018 The Thinker by Auguste Rodin

43. THANK YOU 