Two types of image generation: Evidence for left and right hemisphere processes

Abstract

The results from seven experiments provide evidence that visual mental images can be generated by either the left or right cerebral hemisphere, but in different ways. Subjects were cued to form images within a grid or within a set of four corner brackets; a single X mark was enclosed within each stimulus, and the subjects were to determine whether the X mark would have fallen on an imaged pattern. When subjects memorized descriptions of how parts were arranged, they could later form images of the composite pattern when cued in the right visual field (left hemisphere) more accurately than when they were cued in the left visual field (right hemisphere). In contrast, when subjects memorized individual segments on a screen, and ‘mentally glued’ them into a single pattern, they later could form images more accurately, at least in some circumstances, when cued in the left visual field. These results were predicted by the theory that images are built up by arranging parts, and that two different processes can be used to arrange them. One process uses stored descriptions to arrange parts, and is more effective in the left cerebral hemisphere; the other process uses stored memories of metric positions to arrange parts, and is more effective in the right cerebral hemisphere. Convergent evidence was obtained by having subjects memorize letters in grids (which are easily encoded using descriptions of the positions of segments) or within a space delineated by four brackets (which require memorizing the precise positions of the segments). Subjects were relatively more accurate when cued in the left visual field with bracket stimuli, but tended to be relatively more accurate when cued in the right visual field with grids stimuli. Control experiments showed that this finding was not due to hemispheric differences in the ease of forming images at different sizes or differences in the ease of perceptually encoding the probes.