Please read the chapters from your text that deals with the material covered in the powerpoint notes I sent our earlier as an email attachment (Verbal Representation of Knowledge and mental Representation of Knowledge). Next, find three topics from the notes that are of interest to you (and something that you haven't posted on already) and discuss what your text has to say on those topics. Next indicate two topics that you would like me to cover in more depth in class.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Reading Activity – Week #12
Topic #1: Language and Knowledge
The text discusses many important concepts related to Language and Knowledge. It talks about how important Language is in our every-day lives. The representation of Knowledge is very important throughout the passing of one generation onto the next. A good point made was that we are considerably more knowledgeable than people of previous generations, and the reason for this is due to the fact that knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next through the form of language. What is language though? Language can be defines as a “system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate”. Communication is the main function of language, but there are also many other ways to express language. According to the text, there are four main language skills; listening to others speak, reading, writing, and speaking. It is fair to say though, that each person may be strong or weak in any of these areas and therefore that brings us to modules. Modules are a “self contained set of processes: it converts input to output, without any outside help on what goes on in between”. Throughout language there are many models are used as a basis to modularity. These models are represented by a number of boxes that are connected by arrows, and represent specific processing that occurs within each of the boxes.
Topic #2: Cognitive Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience allows us to establish where in the brain specific cognitive processes occur and when these processes occur. This information allows us to determine the order of the different parts of the brain that becomes active when performing a tasks as well as finding out whether two tasks involve the same parts of brain the same way, or whether there are certain differences. There are four lobes in each brain hemisphere including frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital. The frontal lobes are divided from the parietal lobes by the central sulcus (sulcus means groove or furrow). The lateral fissure separates the temporal lobes from the parietal and frontal lobes, and the parietal-occipital sulcus and pre-occipital divides the occipital lobe from the parietal lobe. Researchers use these terms to describe the activation in the brain during certain tasks.
Topic #3: Synaesthesia
Synaesthesia can be defined as the tendency for one sense modality to start another. To state simple, Synaesthesia is a neurological rarity in which two or more senses are connected. For example, music might be "seen" in colors and patterns, or taste may be seen in shapes, letters and numbers may have textures, etc. Some people may make the mistake the idea that they may have synaesthesia because they may see 3 dimensional circles when eating an orange, or see the color read while thinking of the emotion of anger. They may also associate smoothness with something like cream. There is a debate regarding the idea that these associations may seem like they are unlearned and come naturally while there is nothing that can be done to stop these associations. But in actuality, these associations are learned.
Things that I would like to be discussed further are the theories. The Dual coding Hypothesis, Conceptual Propositional Hypothesis and Functional Equivalency Hypothesis are also things I would like to talk about further.
Symbolic and analogue are the two codes that make up the dual-code theory. An analogue code represents main features of a physical stimuli. For example, the text suggested that trees and rivers are represented by analogue codes. We create mental images in our minds of stimuli in our environment which are analogous to the actual stimuli that we observe. According to the text, symbolic codes stand for something that doesn't not perceptually resemble whatever is being represented. A good example for a symbolic code would is our representation of numbers. We recognize the number 5 as a symbol for "five." This symbol tells us 5 means a quantity of five or something representing five. However, this symbol alone does not suggest it's meaning. We developed our own symbolic codes to interpret the meanings. Overall, our brains process stimuli and organize them into the appropriate coding so we are then able to retrieve information properly.
We use cognitive maps to represent spatial features of our external environment. As I read in my text, some research suggests that we may form imaginable maps that are based on our physical interactions and navigations through our environment. For example, in class we had a discussion about how we truly know how to get to our classroom. Cognitive maps offer internal representations that are mainly centered on spatial relationships. According to our text, there are three types of cognitive maps that we use. First, landmark knowledge is used when there is particular information and features about a location. For example, we may use landmark knowledge when we remember a specific picture on a wall or a big tree outside. Next, route-road knowledge helps us represent specific pathways for moving from one location to another. Our cognitive maps might use route-road knowledge when we are walking across campus. The last type of knowledge is survey knowledge. This type helps us use estimated distances between landmarks. For example our cognitive maps use survey knowledge when estimating how far away a building is from your current location.
Adaptive control of though (ACT) is a combination of different mental representations. According to the text, John Anderson believed that in ACT, procedural knowledge is represented by production systems and declarative knowledge is represented by propositional networks. Temporal information in ACT allows us to sequence actions, events and the order of which items appear. John Anderson refers to the temporal information as "temporal strings." For example, a temporal string could be before/after, second/third/fourth, and yesterday/tomorrow. Overall, temporal information helps us maintain regularities in our environment.
Terms: cognitive maps, temporal information, landmark knowledge, route-road knowledge, survey knowledge, ACT, analogue code, symbolic code
Synaesthesia:
This is based on neurological rarity where two or more senses are connected. As an example... you might be listening to music, but actually see a visual representation of the music in colors or patterns, or you may be able to taste something you see like a chair, or see a number or letter as having texture. These types of associations that people make are usually present as early as the person can remember and usually shows up when they are first presented with the stimulus; like learning the alphabet and then associating a smell or taste with it. It is common for some people to believe that they have this because they will think of the color red when they are thinking about anger or see spheres when eating an orange, but these are actually learned associations. In Synaesthesia the associations are arbitarily linked and not learned, and will always exist in the same way. If they see wind as purple squiggles, they will always see wind this way.
Semantic Feature-Comparison Model:
This theory was proposed by Smith, Shoben, and Rips to describe memory as being composed of feature lists for different concepts. In the idea of this view, the relations between categories are not directly retrieved, but they are indirectly computed. For example, Smith ect. subjects were showed sentences. These sentences by be verified by comparing the feature sets that represent its subject and predicate concepts. There are defining features that are essential to an object, like stating that a goose is a bird because it has all of the characteristics that a bird should have, but it also has characteristic features where there can be an incorrect characterization of an object... like in Bambi when he thinks that the butterfly is a bird because it has wings and he learned that wings are a defining feature of what a bird is.
cognitive maps:
Toleman is usually given credit for the creation of this idea. Cognitive maps are a type of processing comprised of a series of psychological transformations by which a person can acquire, code, store, recall, and decode information about the relative locations and attributes of phenomena in their everyday environment. Simply, these are a method we use to structure and store spatial knowledge. It allows us to visualize images in order to reduce cognitive load and enhance recall and learning information. They can vary with the individual, but can encompass very detailed representations or very abstract generalizations.
Some concepts I guess I would like to know more about might be connectionism, the dual coding hypothesis, and the propositional networks.
The topics I chose for this assignment are also connected with the topic of categorization of knowledge. One of the most interesting models of categorization (and thus organization of mental concepts) is the model of semantic network. The main idea of the model is in the fact that the concepts are combined into semantic networks depending on the relation to each other. For example, the concepts “sparrow” and “robin” would be connected to the concept “bird” and “animal”. One of the core features is in the fact that the whole organization is hierarchical and follows the rule of cognitive economy. It means that the main features of the concept “bird” would be stored at this concept level, while the concept “canary” would only have the additional ones like “yellow”, “singing”, etc. Otherwise it would make the network overloaded at we would have to reduplicate the same information on different levels.
The model was first proposed by Collin and Quillian in 1970-ies. It is still influential although it has been modified according to the new data and research results. One of the changes points out the fact that the “connection” between the words has not the same length. Thus the concept of “sparrow” would be closer to the concept “bird” than a concept “penguin”. Another peculiar detail is connected to the spreading activation. It means that the signal comes through the network and activates several concepts. Depending on the initial signal and the first activated concepts the others might be activated in different degrees.
This model has support from various researches including psycholinguistics. In lexical decision task we see the difference in time reaction for the stimuli that are supposed to be situated on different levels of the semantic network. The priming effect also takes place.
Cognitive neuroscience gives us certain evidence in favor of this theory as well. fMRI research shows that living and non-living things are processed and categorized in different parts of the brain. The participants showed activation in different brain-areas, although in many cases there was sufficient overlap between categories.
The cases of visual agnosia when patients can see the objects but cannot name them also can give us hints about the mental vocabulary and categorization of knowledge. In 1991 researches Hills and Caramazza found a patient who could not name unloving things and some living, while most of the living things he could name without any problems.
Language and knowledge. Personal experience and culture might influence the structure of the semantic network. At the same time while much of our cognitive activity is knowledge we cannot say that language equals knowledge. According to Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language can actually affect the way people think. Some of the researches provide certain evidence in favor of the hypothesis, especially in areas like color perception, but still this influence is very limited. The strong version of the hypothesis said that cognition actually depends on language and thus categorization of objects, for example, might sufficiently differ for the French and Chinese native speakers. But the modern data do not support such claim. Apparently, there is certain connection, but it is not that strict and that diverse.
Terms used: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, semantic network, cognitive economy, spreading activation, fMRI, priming effect, lexical decision task.
Synethesia is a rather complicated neurological condition that can open up many questions in regards to cognitive psychology. Synethsia is a rather diverse neurological condition, with many synesthetes experience perceptions rather differently. However, one can telescope a synesthetes experience by categorizing and finding common forms of perception and grouping them together. An example my book points out is that syneshetes experience color in regards to sound a higher pitch occurs for lighter colors. Even with some similarities and differences there are commonalties between them all. First that syenesthesia is involuntary and occurs automatically. Synesthetic perceptions often times have a location or place where they are stronger and or more likely to occur. These experience of perception are memorable and create distinctive affect.
The cause of syethesia has been debated but common assumption is that it is occurs on the neurological level. Scientist label what is occurring to be a cross-talk between regions of the brain that are specialized for specific functions. This occurs because of a failure on the brains part to prune certain synaptic lines that are either weak and or there may be too many of them. These particular neurological theories have been furthered by specific neurological testing. PET Scans and FMRI’s have the ability to show that certain parts of the brain are more active in synthetes than non. An example is that when someone who has grapheme (word-> and color) the grapheme and v4 (part of the brain the recognizes color) react around the same time. Overall synetheisa is a rather complicated condition that has gained and lost attention through out history.
Semantic Networks - I find the process of semantic networks to be rather entertaining. I often times catch myself outlining my networks so my friends can see how the hell I got to what I was talking about. Semantic networks is a rather simple concept. It can be proven in a rather simple example. Is a German Sheppard a mammal. Well one can easily answer this. A German Sheppard is a dog, a dog is a mammal. And we have our answer. The network gets more complicated when one looks into the networks that exist around those particular categories. One could say that a German Sheppard dog is anguard dog. We can then go through our a list in our mind and see a cop, then we can go as far as seeing a Nazi concentration camp, leading me to think of Anne Frank. Now if I had the time I could show all the semantic networks that could be built off of those concepts but I think it would be rather trivial as my point has already been made. That semantic networks is a system of nodes, that build off of one another creating one main node. Leading me to note that semantic networks are based off of the cognitive economy. Cognitive economy states that there is a hierarchy within the semantic networks, such that properties and facts about a node ( a centering point that is made up of parts) are stored at the highest level possible. An example of this would be “is alive” would be stored under animals rather than under every individual animal out there. This allows one to not have cognitive overload and retrieve the information at a much faster rate.
Connectionism- also known as parallel-distributed processing, or PDP. Is derived from models depicting cognition as a network of connections among simple (and usually numerous) processing units. Because these units are sometimes compared to neurons cells that transmit these electrical impulses that underlie most to all of the sensation and muscle movement. Often times they are compared to neural networks but in truth they are different. One thing that must be noted is that this is not sequential .When looking at semantic networks one can see that it is linear, connectionism networks however is a pool of information that is flooded by other small pools. And they flow in and out of the main pool..
Topics I would like discussed: I guess I would rather like to have ideas explored. One example is if one could ever connect the V4 synapse to the grapheme to see color. As studies have shown people have much more ease remembering things when this occurs. And the ethical questions that would arise from a study would also be interesting to discuss.
I found that my textbook covered the connectionist model that was mentioned within the chapter nine slides of verbal representation. This model is often used to explain a person’s ability to recognize words. My textbook used the connectionist model to help understand the data from an experiment conducted by Seidenberg in 1985. In his experiment Seidenberg found that low-frequency words took longer to name compared to high-frequency words. Low-frequency words are defined as words that appear seldomly within a certain language while high-frequency words appear regularly within that language. Next, this study found differences among the recognition of exception words versus regular words. Regular words are known to correspond accordingly based on spelling and how they are sound when they are spoken. These words also tend to follow predictable patterns. An exception word does the exact opposite. It does not follow a predictable pattern and its pronunciation does not correspond to its spelling. For example, a regular word would be “fish” while an exception word would be “of.” Notice the differences in how the letter “f” is pronounced (Kellogg 2003). I often hear that English is a very hard language to learn compared to most other languages such as Spanish. It makes sense now to see that English is made up of much more exception words than a language such as Spanish. Therefore, it is safe to say Spanish tends to follow more predictable patterns as far as the spelling of words and their pronunciation goes. Another finding from Seidenberg’s study was that there were no differences found when comparing high frequency words both regular and exception words. There was however a significant difference between low-frequency words that were either regular words or exception words. It took participants much longer to name low-frequency exception words than it did to name low-frequency regular words.
Now how are all of these findings interpreted by the connectionist model? The model helps explain why it makes sense that most participants were able to learn the patterns of pronunciation of high-frequency words. Participants were able to incorporate new words into their vocabulary after they became either regular words or high-frequency exception words. My textbook also covers what is known as the dual-route model which shows that people recognize words based on two separate routes of the brain. In order to complete the process of word recognition a person begins with the word’s graphemes then either converts it the grapheme to a phoneme and follows with phonological lexicon. The other process begins with graphemes and follows with orthographic lexicon. Even after reading this section over and over I was unable to come to clear understanding of orthographic lexicon and phonological lexicon. That would be two topics I would like discussed in class.
Terms: Connectionist Model, Low/high-frequency words, regular v. exception words, dual-route model
There are many things that our notes covered that were also covered in the my book. There were also some things that we covered in class that were not mentioned in my book and vice versa. The main idea that I looked into was long-term memory. Some of this information I have already covered in previous blogs. Of those we have already discussed levels of processing but, on our notes it was stated slightly differently than I had talked about previously and that led into a new way to look at this process and the other process that are related. Our notes said that whether our memories are processed at deep of shallow levels depends on the stimulus and the available time. I had always lumped levels of processing with the importance of the information and not the environmental situation as well. In realizing this I read further in the notes until it talked about levels of recall - which is determined by the action that that information is needed for. This makes sense in that if the information is life-threatening you brain would work very hard to come up with the information… for self-preservation’s sake (then again it will depend on the information needed. Our brains will allow us the information that will keep us alive like where to find food and shelter or a way to travel. If the situation is that someone has a gun to us and is asking for the name of a movie star we may be too preoccupied with the gun - Is it loaded? Do I have time to get away? And we will not be able to come up with “Brad Pitt” when asked). I hope that extensive example makes sense in explaining that our levels of recall depend on what is being asked of us.
Levels of recall got me interested in what types of information we remember best and what other processes are involved in the storage and recall of long-term memory. One topic that was discussed in my book and in our notes is the self reference effect - this effect contains some narcissistic qualities in that we have high opinions of ourselves, cognitively speaking of course. Our self-centeredness leads to a deep levels of processing with this information. These deep levels of processes and abundant amount of information results in an elaborate network of self information.
There are two others information processing that were in my book that I found very interesting. They are two types of rehearsal that use in order to store information long enough that it may move from short-term memory to long-term memory. The first is maintenance rehearsal - recycling information within short-term memory and working memory by repeating it to yourself. I use this rehearsal when I am trying to move things to long-term memory and when I’m trying to hold the information in my working memory long enough to use it. For example I may repeat a phone number in order to use it a few seconds later but will not necessarily remember it years later. The other type of rehearsal is called elaborative rehearsal - linking information in short-term memory with information already stored in long-term memory. This definition made me think about the last hippie when he remembers who is music teacher is he refers to her as someone he knew in high school when in reality she was new acquaintance. For the rest of us we probably use this rehearsal method with information like a new family member. I have always known my cousin Chris - then I learned his wife Heather’s name followed by their three kids - Camryn, Logan and Gavin. Gavin was born less than a month ago. When I first learned his name is would take me a second longer to recall Gavin then it would to say Camryn or Logan but that information was stored.
The last type of processing I’ll talk about is called transfer-appropriate processing - this term is very relevant for us as college students. The definition states that test performance depends on engaging in the correct processes of encoding that will enable you to recall that information during the test. The example my book gave compared how one would prepare for an essay test versus a multiple choice question. I would compare it between our cognitive class and my history of photography course. For history of photo I cram and stress out for tests in order to memorize information on 60 images and then also know their significance and how to compare them to each other. We also need to know the current photographic processes for that time in history… Now I wonder when on earth am I going to need to know this information? I am neither a photo major nor a history major… oh well. On the other hand - for cognitive tests I have the resources that I need and in the end do not end up using them because I am calm during our tests and can think clearly. Because these questions are based off of information we have already discussed or that I have at least blogged about in the past. I think that transfer-appropriate processing is a topic that all professors and teachers should know about!
Two topics I would like to discuss further are procedural memory and declarative memory along with episodic and semantic memory. I get these two sets of words/topic confused and still am not able to readily recall the definitions of episodic and semantic memory even though we have talked about them in class and I wrote about them when we read about Franco and Pantito. These are areas that I would just like a little review.
Terms: Levels of processing, levels of recall, self reference effect, maintenance rehearsal, elaborative rehearsal, transfer-appropriate processing
Language and Knowledge
Many studies are being done involving the verbal development in humans because our verbal development greatly surpasses other species throughout the world. There is an estimation that a human knows around 20,000-40,000 words and can recognize many more words than that. One area that cognitive psychology can greatly deal with is the fact that we often will look at how things are stored in relation to other items, as well as just identifying what is stored in the mind in general. Along with this cognitive psychology will deal with the concepts and relationships that go along with the words and meanings they present, which allows us to understand something. By studying how words are represented in memory we can study the content, structure, and processes that are involved in the representation of knowledge. All of this information that is discussed in the text is interesting because it helps give us an insight to how the human brain works, and shows how we understand different things in relation to our language.
Cognitive Maps
Cognitive maps are something that is extremely interesting to me, we frequently rely on our own “maps” in our head to navigate us where we are going or when making reference to something farther away. A cognitive map was first defined by Tolman and was stated as, a general spatial knowledge exhibited by rats in a maze. More experiments were done in relation to cognitive maps. One of these was done by Thorndye and Hayes-Roth in 1982. From this they came to the conclusion that humans use two main types of knowledge when learning about their spatial world. These are route and survey knowledge. Route knowledge is defined as specific pathways that we use to get us from one point to the next. Survey knowledge is defined as having global relationships between environmental cues (it is over there in that general area). Some suggest that these mind maps we have in our head are both a reflection of the objective realities of the world and partly a reflection of the subjective interpretation of these impressions. There is some evidence that shows that expressive forms of representation can mirror our subjective impression of reality (example of the Texan’s view of the US in the text).
Synesthesia
Synesthesia is defined as a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. This is a case where a in which “sensations from one modality are experienced in another modality). Examples of this include, people tasting shapes, feeling sounds, or seeing certain numbers and letters in a certain color. Synesthesia tends to be rule governed not random, which is very interesting. For example there is a relationship between a higher pitch and increased brightness. Many people may actually experience synesthesia where images and sound are entwined. The thing that I find very interesting about synesthesia is that they find that it could occur in as many as 1 in 23 people. Also, they are finding more and more that it is running in families, which is likely to show that there is a genetic link in this trait. Synesthesia is also sometimes reported by individuals under the influence of psychedelic drugs, after a stroke, during a temporal lobe epilepsy seizure, or as a result of blindness or deafness. Research is showing that synesthesia can be measured and that there is a strong relationship between certain sense (like pitch and brightness). From research there has also been shown that there is a difference in brain activation in those who have synesthesia. From further studying this we could learn more about perceptual processes and cognitive processes.
Topics I would like to be discussed are: The Dual coding Hypothesis, Connectionist Model, & Cognitive Economy
Terms: Language and knowledge, representation of knowledge, cognitive maps, route knowledge, survey knowledge, synesthesia
I thought the basic theories of the mental representation of knowledge were a good place to start reading in the chapter. Mental imagery is a mental representation of a nonpresent object or event. In this chapter, there are three theories of how mental imagery is processed and stored. The first theory, the dual-coding hypothesis, “suggests that there are two codes and two storage systems” (one being imaginable, and the other being verbal) (Solso, MacLin & MacLin, 2005, pp. 294). The mental imagery can be coded into one or the other or both. An example that the book offers is that the word elephant is more easily imagined than the word virtue.
The second theory is the conceptual-propositional hypothesis. It states that we store interpretations of events, rather than the imaginal components, and regardless of whether they are verbal or visual.
The final theory, the functional-equivalency hypothesis, assumes that imagery and perception are very similar. Shepard was one to do research that contributed a lot to this hypothesis. In his experiments he used mental rotation to judge how long it took the participant to decided if the stimuli was the same as the first, after it was rotated a certain number of degrees. He found that the more degrees of rotation the object was rotated, the longer it took the participant to come to a decision. He also introduced the term second-order isomorphism. This means that the relationship between objects in memory is the same as the relationship between those objects in the real world. This is different from one-to-one isomorphism in that objects are not directly or structurally represented in our brains, but the way internal relationships word is very similar to the way external relationships work.
After reading about these three theories, I think that the functional-equivalency hypothesis is the hardest to understand. This may be because I am terrible with mental rotation of objects in my mind! I think that the conceptual-propositional hypothesis makes the most sense to me. I tend to agree with Anderson and Bower’s argument on the dual-coding hypothesis. The text offers a quote from them, stating that “it is not scientifically viable to suppose that memories, or other sorts of knowledge, are carried about in a form like an internal photograph, video tape, or tape recording, which we can reactivate and replay in remembering an image” (pp. 295 & 296). This relates to what we have talked about in class in the past, as well as Dr. MacLin’s presentation on how the brain lies. We have talked about how storing something into memory is not as accurate as if a photograph were being taken. We have also discussed how memories are not perfect and can be altered. The brain has a way of changing our surroundings to match what is consistent and complete.
Concept for a little more clarification: functional-equivalency hypothesis
Terms: mental imagery, dual-coding hypothesis, conceptual-propositional hypothesis, functional-equivalency hypothesis, mental rotation, second-order isomorphism
A previous blog pretty much addressed chapter nine so I’m going to focus on chapter 10 for this blog. And I already did a blog on mental imagery, so it’s more slim pickings here.
The first topic I want to address is mental rotation. This concept originates from Shepard and Metzler. Using two similar (or mirrored) or identical (but rotated) images they would see how long it would take for the subjects to decide whether or not they were identical. The further the image is rotated the longer it takes for the subject to identify if it is identical.
The next topic is cognitive maps. Cognitive maps are our spatial knowledge about our surroundings or the environment (except in our minds). We have two types, route knowledge and survey knowledge. Route knowledge is individualized pathways that we use to get from one place to another. Survey knowledge is more general, and includes global relationships between environmental cues. In addition there is object-based transformations where you rotate the environment or your field of view to locate the object. In egocentric perspective transformation you move yourself in your (mind) environment to seek out the object.
Lastly I am going to talk about some of the theories of the visual representation of knowledge. The dual-coding hypothesis believes that there are two codes and two storage systems, imaginal and verbal. Information can be coded and stored in both these areas or just one. Here some words are more visual then other (i.e. Elephant vs. Virtue). Next, conceptual-propositional hypothesis which suggests that both visual and verbal information are represented in abstract form about objects and their relationships. Lastly, functional-equivalency hypothesis proposes that perception and imagery use similar processes. This is where mental rotation fits in.
I found this chapter a lot better than the last chapter and looked forward to learning more about it in the future.
Functional Equivalency Hypothesis - This idea that when we mentally picture something we are basically percieving it is interesting to me. The hypothesis incorporates working memory into it's view of mental imagery and seems to hold up against logical scrutiny. Mental rotation tests prove that we are able to manipulate data of a visual fashion in our working memory. It is supported by the results which show the reaction time increases as the object is further rotated. Anyone doing the task can tell you that they were using images in their mind to complete it, and if a subject is consistently getting the answers to the tasks correctly then the image in the brain must be using an image that is at least pretty accurate. Second-order isomorphism refers to level of accuracy we create in our mental images. Of course we cannot get every detail correct but we are able to create an image that is functional and relevant. In class we were asked to replicate a technique used by Kosslyn, to mentally picture ourselves walking across a small boat, and then walking across a huge boat. For the most part we saw that people would finish imagining the small boat in a relatively short amount of time and the large one took quite a bit longer. It was as if we were not only recalling details, either remembered ones or fabricated ones, but actually walking down the deck of the boat experiencing it. Neurological testing by Kosslyn showed that activity would occur in the same areas of the brain used for perception when the subject was asked to do a mental imagery task, but at a greater intensity! The book suggests that perhaps the perceptual structures had to put more effort into actively creating images than just perceiving them.
Synestesia - A condition in which subjects report the experience of "visions" usually colors, when exposed to sound. Essentially it is thought to be a cross-wiring between the auditory and visual pathways. The book describes a relationship between pitch and brightness, stating that usually the higher the pitch the brighter the color (orange, yellow).
Mental Maps - Directions are something we always need. When we need to tell someone how to get somewhere we consult a map we store in our memory in visual form. For me personally it is a collection of snapshots of landmarks and whatnot. Thorndyke and others called this type of imagery route knowledge. This is the simple path to get from A to B. There is always another aspect to our orientation, though, and that is where we are facing. The book describes this knowledge as survey knowledge and it is our general ability to determine where we are and what way we are facing in our environment. Distortion of course occur that cause our mental maps to become inaccurate, but a study done by Tversky suggested that is because humans use conceptual strategies, such as landmarks rather than counting exact distance, to orient themselves. Zacks and others did studies on cognitive maps and found there are two ways in which we manipulate the image we hold in our mind. The first is called object based spatial transformations and we engage in this tactic when we manipulate the imagined environment to complete a task, while egocentric perspective transformations involve us manipulating our own position in our cognitive map. So if we are looking for our keys that we lost last night, and we picture our room and rotate the room, mentally moving and rotating objects or around locations this is object based transformations, while if we imagine ourselves walking into the room, and walking to each area we wanted to investigate this would be egocentric transformation. Research has shown that these two tasks involve different parts of the brain.