Mental Images And Propositions Chapter.7 Complete Test Bank

Chapter 7

Mental Images and Propositions

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. A scientist who studies classic epistemology would be studying the ____.

a. nature, origin, and limits of mental representation

b. limits of visual imagery

c. nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge

d. nature and origin of semantic knowledge

ANS: c REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Remember

2. Declarative knowledge includes ____.

a. facts that can be stated

b. procedures that can be implemented.

c. only knowledge that can be visually represented

d. only knowledge that cannot be mentally represented

ANS: a REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Remember

3. “The U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1789” is an example of ____ knowledge.

a. analogical

b. declarative

c. nondeclarative

d. procedural

ANS: b REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge

KEY: Bloom’s: Apply

4. Which type of knowledge involves knowing how to do something, like how to ride a bicycle?

a. declarative knowledge

b. procedural knowledge

c. productive thinking

d. preoperational knowledge

ANS: b REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Remember

5. In ____, the relationship between a word and what it represents is arbitrary.

a. analog representation

b. semantic representation

c. deductive code

d. symbolic representation

ANS: d REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Remember

6. Imagery includes ____.

a. only visual representations

b. representations perceived through any senses

c. only visual, auditory, and taste representations

d. only visual and auditory representations

ANS: b REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

7. We are typically most aware of our use of ____ imagery.

a. tactile

b. auditory

c. visual

d. olfactory

ANS: c REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Remember

8. According to Allan Paivio, mental representations for words are represented in a(n) ____ code, whereas visual images are represented in a(n) ____ code.

a. symbolic; analog

b. analog; symbolic

c. verbal; propositional

d. propositional; verbal

ANS: a REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

9. Which type of code preserves some feature of what is being represented?

a. analog code

b. hierarchical code

c. deductive code

d. symbolic code

ANS: a REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

10. Which type of code arbitrarily stands for what it represents and does not preserve the original features?

a. analog code

b. hierarchical code

c. deductive code

d. symbolic code

ANS: d REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

11. The dual-code theory was first proposed by ____.

a. Stephen Kosslyn

b. Allan Paivio

c. Lee Brooks

d. John Anderson

ANS: b REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Remember

12. The dual-code theory states that ____.

a. all information is encoded in the same form and can be called up as either a visual or verbal representation.

b. information is represented in the form of a proposition with two separate ways of encoding information, verbally and nonverbally.

c. some information is represented in a verbal form, some in a nonverbal form, and some is encoded and stored in both forms.

d. all information is either represented in a verbal or in a nonverbal form, but not both.

ANS: c REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

13. Debbie is trying to recall the words to the French national anthem. Jim is trying to recall the exact appearance of the Statue of Liberty. If asked, Paivio would probably say that Debbie is retrieving information stored in a(n) ____ code, whereas Jim is retrieving information stored in a(n) ____ code.

a. analog; symbolic

b. symbolic; analog

c. visual; verbal

d. symbolic; verbal

ANS: b REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge

KEY: Bloom’s: Apply

14. Which theory suggests that our mental representations can take one of two forms—pictorial or verbal?

a. epiphenomena

b. survey

c. dual-code theory

d. propositional

ANS: c REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

15. Which theory suggests that our mental representations are in an abstract form?

a. epiphenomena

b. holographic representations

c. dual-code

d. propositional

ANS: d REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

16. Brooks conducted a study in which participants performed a visual (involving a picture) or verbal (involving a sentence) task. Participants expressed their responses verbally (saying “yes” or “no” aloud), visually (pointing to an answer), or manually (tapping with one hand to agree and the other to disagree). Based on dual code theory, he hypothesized that ____.

a. there would be interference only when the task and response modalities differed

b. when the task and response modalities were the same, responses would be more rapid

c. when the task and response modalities were the same, responses would be slower

d. the task and response modality would not interact in any way

ANS: c REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

17. ____ have moved beyond the original version of propositional theory to include multiple forms of mental representations.

a. Herbert Clark and Stephen Kosslyn

b. Zenon Pylyshyn and Stephen Reed

c. Deborah Chambers and Daniel Reisberg

d. John Anderson and Gordon Bower

ANS: d REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Remember

18. ____ proposed the idea that mental images are epiphenomena and that we manipulate images using a propositional code, not an analogous one.

a. Stephen Reed

b. Zenon Pylyshyn

c. Mary Peterson

d. Daniel Reisberg

ANS: b REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Remember

19. According to the propositional theory, ____.

a. imaginal information and verbal information are stored in two separate sets of encoded propositions, each ready to be called up and represented as either verbal or imaginal

b. only imaginal information is stored in the form of a proposition, whereas verbal information is stored as encoded symbols

c. both imaginal information and verbal information are stored as encoded

propositions, ready to be called up and decoded as either verbal or visual

d. only verbal information is stored in the form of a proposition, whereas imaginal information is stored in the form of raw images

ANS: c REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

20. If images are simply a result or byproduct of other cognitive processes, they are conceptualized as a(n) ____.

a. epiphenomenon

b. percept

c. construal

d. deductive code

ANS: a REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

21. John mentally represents a boat sailing under a bridge. He then represents what he has heard: a person shouting from a car downtown. According to the Anderson and Bower’s hypothesis, ____ is/are encoded as (a) proposition(s).

a. the first representation only

b. the second representation only

c. neither representation

d. both of the representations

ANS: d REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Apply

22. In experiments using ambiguous figures, Chambers and Reisberg concluded that because most subjects could ____.

a. not visualize alternate interpretations of an ambiguous figure, there is no discrete imaginal code

b. easily visualize alternate interpretations of an ambiguous figure, there is a discrete imaginal code

c. visualize alternate interpretations of an ambiguous figure, the imaginal code may, in some cases, override a propositional code

d. not visualize alternate interpretations of an ambiguous figure, an imaginal code may be overridden by a propositional code in some case

ANS: d REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

23. ____ have at least two different interpretations.

a. Percepts

b. Dichotic stimuli

c. Multidimensional stimuli

d. Ambiguous figures

ANS: d REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Remember

24. In ____, there is a shift in the positional orientations of the figures on the mental “page.”

a. mental repositioning

b. mental reassessment

c. mental realignment

d. mental reconstrual

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

2. Describe Chambers and Reisberg’s work with ambiguous figures and what it demonstrated.

ANS: Chambers and Reisberg had showed ambiguous figures to research participants and then asked them to identify alternative interpretations based on their memory of the figure. When participants had trouble coming up with alternatives, the experimenters offered hints. If that did not help, the experimenters suggested that participants draw the figures out from their memories. Even then, they had trouble, suggesting that propositional code may override the imaginal code in some circumstances.

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

3. Identify and describe two of the hints that helped research participants re-interpret their images of ambiguous figures.

ANS: 1. Implicit reference frame hint. Participants first were shown another ambiguous figure involving realignment of the reference frame.

2. Explicit reference frame hint. Participants were asked to modify the reference frame by considering either “the back of the head of the animal they had already seen as the front of the head of some other animal” (considered a conceptual hint) or “the front of the thing you were seeing as the back of something else” (considered an abstract hint).

3. Attentional hint. Participants were directed to attend to regions of the figure where realignments or reconstruals were to occur.

4. Construals from “good” parts. Participants were asked to construe an image from parts determined to be “good” (according to both objective [geometrical] and empirical [interrater agreement] criteria), rather than from parts determined to be “bad” (according to similar criteria).

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

4. Using an example, explain what a proposition is.

ANS: To describe a picture in which a cat is sitting underneath a table, you could say, “The table is above the cat.” You also could say, “The cat is beneath the table.” Both of these statements indicate the same relationship as “above the cat is the table.” With a little extra work, you probably could come up with a dozen or more ways of verbally representing this relationship. Logicians have devised a shorthand means, called predicate calculus, to express the underlying meaning of a relationship. This method attempts to strip away the various superficial differences in the ways we describe the deeper meaning of a proposition: [Relationship between elements]([Subject element], [Object element])

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

5. What is the functional equivalence hypothesis and how does it apply to mental images? Describe how imaging studies support the idea of functional equivalence.

ANS: According to the functional equivalence hypothesis, although visual imagery is not identical to visual perception, it is functionally equivalent to it. Functionally equivalent things are strongly analogous to each other—they can accomplish the same goals. The functionally equivalent images are thus analogous to the physical percepts they represent. This view essentially suggests that we use images rather than propositions in knowledge representation for concrete objects that can be pictured in the mind.

Evidence for functional equivalence can be found in neuroimaging studies. In one study, for example, participants either viewed or imagined an image. Activation of similar brain areas was noted, in particular, in the frontal and parietal regions. Additionally, imagery can evoke responses in high-level visual brain areas and the visual primary cortex—areas that are highly involved in the processing of visual stimuli we see with our eyes.

REF: Mental Manipulations of Images KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

6. What is the difference between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge? Give an example of each to show the distinctions.

ANS: Declarative knowledge refers to facts that can be stated, such as the date of your birth, the name of your best friend, or the way a rabbit looks. Procedural knowledge refers to knowledge of procedures that can be implemented. Examples are the steps involved in tying your shoelaces, adding a column of numbers, or driving a car. The distinction is between knowing that and knowing how.

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

7. Describe Allan Paivio’s dual-code theory.

ANS: According to dual-code theory, we use both pictorial and verbal codes for representing information in our minds. These two codes organize information into knowledge that can be acted on, stored somehow, and later retrieved for subsequent use. According to Paivio, mental images are analog codes. Analog codes resemble the objects they are representing. For example, trees and rivers might be represented by analog codes. Just as the movements of the hands on an analog clock are analogous to the passage of time, the mental images we form in our minds are analogous to the physical stimuli we observe. In contrast, our mental representations for words chiefly are represented in a symbolic code. A symbolic code is a form of knowledge representation that has been chosen arbitrarily to stand for something that does not perceptually resemble what is being rep- resented. Just as a digital watch uses arbitrary symbols (typically, numerals) to represent the passage of time, our minds use arbitrary symbols (words and combinations of words) to represent many ideas.

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

8. What is mental rotation? What do we know about the neuroscience of mental rotation based on human neuroimaging studies?

ANS: Mental rotation involves rotationally transforming an object’s visual mental image (Takano & Okubo, 2003; Zacks, 2008). Just like you can physically rotate a water bottle you hold in your hands, you can also imagine a water bottle in your mind and rotate it in the mind.

Current brain-imaging techniques have allowed researchers to create images of human brain activity noninvasively to address such speculations. For example, in a study using fMRI, investigators found that the same brain areas involved in perception also are involved in mental rotation tasks. In one study, participants physically rotated objects instead of merely watching them being rotated. Later, they imagined the rotation of these objects. Parts of their motor cortex were activated that normally would not have been activated during mental rotation. In other words, the prior physical rotation of the objects affected the way their brains later processed the mental rotations of images of those objects. Of particular importance is the early visual cortex. It is the first area that receives input from the retina when we see an object. The early visual cortex (in particular, areas 17 and 18) is activated during imagery. Furthermore, when area 17 is impaired by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), imagery is compromised as well. In mental rotation, the primary motor cortex is activated when participants imagine manually rotating a stimulus (but not when they imagine a rotation driven by an electric motor). Thus, not only are imagery and perception functionally equivalent in many psychological studies, neuropsychological techniques also verify this equivalence by demonstrating overlapping brain activity.

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

9. Describe Johnson-Laird’s forms for mental representations.

ANS: Mental models are knowledge structures that individuals construct to understand and explain their experiences. The models are constrained by the individuals’ implicit theories about these experiences, which can be more or less accurate. Johnson-Laird also hypothesized that individuals use propositions, which he conceptualized as fully-abstracted representations of verbally expressible; and that they use images.

REF: Synthesizing Images and Propositions KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

10. What is representational neglect and how does it occur?

ANS: In spatial neglect, a person ignores half of his or her visual field. In representational neglect, a person asked to imagine a scene and then describe it ignores half of the imagined scene. Although these two types of neglect often occur together, they can also occur independently.

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

11. How do we mentally scan images and how do psychologists study the mental scanning of images?

ANS: The key idea underlying image scanning research is that images can be scanned in much the same way as physical percepts can be scanned. Furthermore, our strategies and responses for imaginal scanning should be the same as for perceptual scanning.

A means of testing the functional equivalence of imaginal scanning is to observe some aspects of performance during perceptual scanning, and then compare that performance with performance during imaginal scanning. For example, in perception, scanning across longer distances takes longer than scanning across shorter ones. The same finding holds when scanning images. There is an almost-perfect linear relation between the distances separating pairs of objects in the mental map and the amount of time it takes to scan them.

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

12. Identify and describe the manipulations involved in the mental reinterpretation of ambiguous figures.

ANS: 1. The first is a mental realignment of the reference frame. This realignment would involve a shift in the positional orientations of the figures on the mental “page” or “screen” on which the image is displayed.

2. The second manipulation is a mental reconstrual (reinterpretation) of parts of the figure.

REF: Mental Representation of Knowledge KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

13. What is the difference between visual and spatial imagery?

ANS: Visual imagery refers to the use of images that represent visual characteristics such as colors and shapes. Spatial imagery refers to images that represent spatial features such as depth dimensions, distances, and orientations.

REF: Synthesizing Images and Propositions KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

14. Describe Tolman’s classic experiment, identifying what he did and what he found. Why were these findings so revolutionary?

ANS: Tolman conducted an experiment involving rats running mazes for food rewards. The rats were divided into three groups:

1. In the first group, the rats had to learn the maze. Their reward for getting from the start box to the end box was food. Eventually, these rats learned to run the maze without making any errors. In other words, they did not make wrong turns or follow blind alleys.

2. A second group of rats also was placed in the maze, but these rats received no reinforcement for successfully getting to the end box. Although their performance improved over time, they continued to make more errors than the reinforced group. These results are hardly surprising. We would expect the rewarded group to have more incentive to learn.

3. The third group of rats received no reward for 10 days of learning trials. On the 11th day, however, food was placed in the end box for the first time. With just one reinforcement, the rats’ learning improved dramatically. These rats ran the maze about as well in fewer trials as the rats in the first group.

What, exactly, were the rats in Tolman and Honzik’s experiment learning? It seems unlikely that they were learning simply “turn right here, turn left there,” and so on. According to Tolman, the rats were learning a cognitive map, an internal representation of the maze. Through this argument, Tolman became one of the earliest cognitive theorists. He argued for the importance of the mental representations that give rise to behavior, something that was unheard of in the era of behaviorism.

REF: Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Maps KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

15. Describe the imaginal maps of bees and how they are used.

REF: Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Maps KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

16. What kinds of knowledge do humans use in forming and using cognitive maps?

ANS: Humans seem to use three types of knowledge when forming and using cognitive maps:

1. Landmark knowledge is information about particular features at a location and which may be based on both imaginal and propositional representations.

2. Route-road knowledge involves specific pathways for moving from one location to another. It may be based on both procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge.

3. Survey knowledge involves estimated distances between landmarks, much as they might appear on survey maps. It may be represented imaginally or propositionally (e.g., in numerically specified distances).

REF: Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Maps KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

17. Identify and describe three heuristics that people use in forming and using cognitive maps.

ANS: 1. Right-angle bias: People tend to think of intersections (e.g., street crossings) as forming 90-degree angles more often than the intersections really.

2. Symmetry heuristic: People tend to think of shapes (e.g., states or countries) as being more symmetrical than they really are.

3. Rotation heuristic: When representing figures and boundaries that are slightly slanted (i.e., oblique), people tend to distort the images as being either more vertical or more horizontal than they really are.

4. Alignment heuristic: People tend to represent landmarks and boundaries that are slightly out of alignment by distorting their mental images to be better aligned than they really are.

5. Relative-position heuristic: The relative positions of particular landmarks and boundaries is distorted in mental images in ways that more accurately reflect people’s conceptual knowledge about the contexts in which the landmarks and boundaries are located, rather than reflecting the actual spatial configurations.

REF: Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Maps KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

18. Can semantic or propositional knowledge influence our mental representations of world maps? Describe the relevant research results.

ANS: Semantic or propositional knowledge (or beliefs) can influence our imaginal representations of world maps. Specifically, students from 71 sites in 49 countries were asked to draw a sketch map of the world. Most students (even Asians) drew maps showing a Eurocentric view of the world. Many Americans drew Americentric views. A few others showed views centered on and highlighting their own countries. In addition, most students showed modest distortions that enlarged the more prominent, well-known countries. They also diminished the sizes of less well-known countries.

REF: Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Maps KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

19. What is the adaptive significance of cognitive maps?

ANS: To survive, we need to find our way around the environment in which we live. We need to get from one place to another. Sometimes, to get between places, we need to imagine the route we will need to traverse. Mental imagery provides a key basis for this adaptation. In some societies, the ability to navigate with the help of very few cues is a life or death issue. If sailors cannot do so, they eventually get lost and potentially die of dehydration or starvation. Thus, our imagery abilities are potential keys to our survival and to what makes us intelligent in our everyday lives.

REF: Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Maps KEY: Bloom’s: Understand

20. Who was L.H. and what was learned by studying his cognitive processes?

ANS: L. H. had a head injury at age 18. The injury resulted in lesions in the right and the left temporo-occipital regions, the right temporal lobe, and the right inferior frontal lobe. L. H.’s injuries implicated possible impairment of his ability to represent and manipulate both visual and spatial images.

Despite L. H.’s injuries, L. H.’s ability to see was intact. He was able satisfactorily to copy various pictures. Nonetheless, he could not recognize any of the pictures he had copied. In other words, he could not link verbal labels to the objects pictured. He performed poorly when asked to respond verbally to questions requiring visual imagery, such as those regarding color or shape. Surprisingly, however, L. H. showed relatively normal abilities in several kinds of tasks, including the following: (1) rotations (2-D letters, 3-D objects); (2) mental scanning, size scaling, matrix memory, and letter corners; and (3) state locations. That is, his ability for several types of spatial imagery was not impaired. This finding indicates that spatial and visual imagery may indeed be different from each other.

REF: Synthesizing Images and Propositions KEY: Bloom’s: Understand