Chapter 2 Visual imagery in locomotor movement without vision

Abstract

This chapter discusses the localization of objects in space in non-visual movement. When an individual moves, the relative positions of objects in the subjects' environment change. People perceive these changes as apparent movement of these objects in their visual field, forming what is called an optical flow. Mental imagery is used to deal with the problem of distance of self from an object. The chapter presents a series of experiments on non-visually guided locomotion. In this experiment, our aim was to test subjects' ability to form and use a mental image of the optical flow created by their own locomotion. Two conditions were devised for this purpose: one in which the location of the arrival point was known ahead of time, the other in which it was not.