Introduction to Cognitive Psychology - Department of Psychological ...

Professor Greg Francis 8/14/12Pure propositionsLets look at the arguments for a purelypropositional representationLook at this picture, Ill ask you questions about itWorking with imagesIf this image was printed on a piece of paper, you wouldhave no problem answering the questions about itIf you had an exact copy of the image in your head, youwould expect you could look at the copy and make allkinds of judgments but you cannot how you interpret the image to a large extent determines whatyou know about itMental images are not exactly like real images this tends to be particularly true for memory of images verbal descriptions dominate memory for imagesPurdue UniversityPurdue UniversityAnswer these questions:Another exampleHow did you do?Another exampleWhich is further North, Seattle, Washington orMontreal, Canada?Which is further East, Detroit, Michigan orIndianapolis, Indiana?Which is further South, Boston, Massachusetts orNew York City, New York?Which is further West, Reno, Nevada or SanDiego, California?Purdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPropositionsSo this suggests that mental images are not exactly like realimages and something like propositional information likely influencesreports that are ostensibly based on mental images or mentalSan DiegomapsinagentrelationNevadaSan Diego is inCaliforniaobjectobjectCaliforniaCalifornia is west of NevadaagentrelationWestPurdue UniversityReno is in NevadaagentRenoinrelationPropositionsIt is clear that propositional information influencesmental imagery but is it all propositions? are there mental images, as we tend to experience them?Is there any reason to believe that mental imagesare at all analogous to real images? yesPurdue UniversityPSY 200: Intro. to Cognitive Psychology 2