Verbal Imagery Research Articles

The Lambe Speaketh... An English Protestant Satire

Previous articleNext article No AccessNotesThe Lambe Speaketh... An English Protestant SatireRowena J. SmithRowena J. Smith Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes Volume 61, Number 11998 Published for the Warburg Institute and the Courtauld Institute Views: 1Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/751254 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright © 1998 by The Warburg Institute. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Auditory verbal imagery in differing form

Auditory verbal imagery in differing form

Deficits in Source Monitoring in Subjects with Auditory Hallucinations May be Due to Differences in Verbal Intelligence and Verbal Memory

Previous research has proposed that the experience of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia represents a failure to monitor self-generated verbal mental imagery. However, recent neuropsychological investigations into this matter have provided inconclusive and even contradictory findings with respect to the proposed relationship. This study compared the performance of three groups of adult males, schizophrenic inpatients (hallucinators and nonhallucinators), and normal controls, matched for age, education, and medication, on a source monitoring task. Initial analysis indicated that performance on a Verbal IQ and Verbal Memory test were significantly related to performance on the source monitoring task. Comparisons between groups were made on the basis of state and trait group characteristics with respect to hallucinations. After controlling for the influence of Verbal IQ and Verbal Memory on task performance, no between-group differences were found for overall accuracy in attribution of self-generated items or in the number of self to experimenter misattribution errors. This finding suggests that the inconsistent findings previously noted in this field may be due to a failure to identify and control for these important covariates. The implications of these findings for theoretical models of hallucination are discussed.

Talking gender: public images, personal journeys, and political critiques

Talking Gender assesses the state of women's studies in the 1990s. The contributors write from the perspective of their own academic disciplines and experiences, but they also address more general issues of women's lives and circumstances. The result is a broad picture of women's studies and feminist scholarship, which emerge as a rich, if sometimes dissonant, chorus of voices. These original essays cover a range of topics and a variety of times and places: images of women inherited from Roman oratory, visual images from cultures of trauma; verbal imagery in today's pornography debates; political and social identities in the state of Israel; boundaries between private and public lives of African American women leaders; voices and audiences of African American women writers; stereotypes of HIV-positive women; what women's studies can teach men about themselves; and the place of women in global industry. The introduction and conclusion place the collection within the context of historical debates in women's studies and suggest some new directions for the field. The contributors: Cynthia Enloe (Clark University) Sara M. Evans (University of Minnesota) Kathy E. Ferguson (University of Hawai'i at Manoa) Karla F. C. Holloway (Duke University) Michael S. Kimmel (SUNY-Stony Brook) Mandy Merck (London) Barbara Ogur (Cambridge Neighborhood Health Centers) Amy Richlin (University of Southern California) Kristine Stiles (Duke University) Deborah Gray White (Rutgers University) A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Selective loss of verbal imagery

This single case study of the ability to generate verbal and non-verbal imagery in a woman who sustained a gunshot wound to the brain reports a significant difficulty in generating images of word shapes but not a significant problem in generating object images. Further dissociation, however, was observed in her ability to generate images of living vs non-living material. She made more errors in imagery and factual information tasks for non-living items than for living items. This pattern contrasts with our previous report of the agnosic patient, M.S., who had severe difficulty in generating images of living material, whereas his ability to image the shape of words was comparable to that of normal control subjects. Furthermore, with regard to the generation of images of living compared with non-living material, M.S. shows more errors with living than non-living items. In contrast, the present patient, S.M., made significantly more errors with non-living relative to living items. There appear to be two types of double dissociation which reinforce the growing evidence of dissociable impairments in the ability to generate images for different types of verbal and non-verbal material. Such dissociations, presumably related to sensory and cognitive processing demands, address the problem of the neural basis of imagery.

Remaking the Self through Metaphor: Recovery from Anorexia Nervosa

Metaphors help create the self: Our awareness ofour bodies is formed through visual, sensory and verbal imagery and the associations it establishes; consciously or unconsciously. It follows, therefore, that changes to these images and associations may alter our perception of our bodies and hence of ourselves1. An analysis of the metaphors which establish an anorexic way of being and those which assist the transformation to recovery is important in several ways: First, it can lead to a new understanding of the genesis of self starvation, bingeing and purging. Second, it provides material of value to therapists and counsellors assisting people to overcome the problem and of course to such people themselves. Third, it offers new ways of thinking about the body for all who are interested in preventing eating disorders. Finally, it sheds light on the processes by which humans experience themselves as embodied beings, suggesting by extension ways to live more fully in and through the body.

Functional anatomy of inner speech and auditory verbal imagery.

The neural correlates of inner speech and of auditory verbal imagery were examined in normal volunteers, using positron emission tomography (PET). Subjects were shown single words which they used to generate short, stereotyped sentences without speaking. In an inner speech task, sentences were silently articulated, while in an auditory verbal imagery condition, subjects imagined sentences being spoken to them in an another person's voice. Inner speech was associated with increased activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Auditory verbal imagery was associated with increases in the same region, and in the left premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area and the left temporal cortex. The data suggest that the silent articulation of sentences involves activity in an area concerned with speech generation, while imagining speech is associated with additional activity in regions associated with speech perception.

Functional anatomy of inner speech and auditory verbal imagery

The neural correlates of inner speech and of auditory verbal imagery were examined in normal volunteers, using positron emission tomography (PET). Subjects were shown single words which they used to generate short, stereotyped sentences without speaking. In an inner speech task, sentences were silently articulated, while in an auditory verbal imagery condition, subjects imagined sentences being spoken to them in an another person's voice. Inner speech was associated with increased activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Auditory verbal imagery was associated with increases in the same region, and in the left premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area and the left temporal cortex. The data suggest that the silent articulation of sentences involves activity in an area concerned with speech generation, while imagining speech is associated with additional activity in regions associated with speech perception.

The role of mental imagery and emotion in imagined interaction

Imagined interactions, internal dialogues experienced as conversations with significant others, are conceptualized as a form of social cognition. Imagined interactions have important affective components and mental imagery. Results of an investigation demonstrate that verbal imagery is associated with self‐dominance, rehearsal and understanding while visual imagery is associated with more pleasantness. Pleasant imagined interactions are lower in self‐dominance and more similar to actual communication than unpleasant imagined interactions. The results are explained in terms of information processing and relational communication; two categories of imagined interaction reflecting verbal and mixed imagery are also proposed.

Construct validity of tests of verbal and visual mental imagery

Abstract To examine the construct validity of a verbal and visual mental imagery task, 59 male and female neurologically impaired patients were administered the imagery tasks as well as the Wechsler Memory Scale and The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale -Revised. Pearson- product correlation coefficients and a factor analysis were conducted between the two imagery tasks and the various subtests and IQ scores from the Wechsler scales. Results showed modality-specific correlations between the verbal and visual imagery tasks and verbal and visual cognitive abilities. The imagery tasks also showed secondary loadings on an attention/concentration factor. The results support the convergent and discriminative validity of these two imagery tasks as measures of verbal and visual functioning after brain injury.

The ability of patients with brain damage to generate mental visual images.

The ability to form mental visual images was investigated in normal controls, patients with localized brain damage, and patients with Parkinson's disease. Verbal and visuospatial imagery tasks were compared with tasks in the same modality that did not demand the formation of visual images. In the verbal part, memorizing of word pairs was tested for abstract words, concrete words without imagery instruction, and concrete words with imagery instruction. In the visuospatial part, three tests required the evaluation of spatial features of imagined letters. In one of them mental rotations had to be performed in the exploration of the imagined stimulus. The visuospatial control tasks tested the ability to judge the position of perceived dots and mentally to rotate a seen mannekin. The pattern of results was determined mainly by the differential sensitivity of visuospatial and verbal tasks to right and left brain damage, respectively. Multidimensional scaling of correlations between test results did not show a close relationship between the results of verbal and visuospatial imagery tasks, but suggested that brain damage affected visuospatial imagery tasks differentially from visuospatial control tasks. Analysis of single cases showed that patients with lesions of the left temporo-occipital region failed to benefit from the imagery instruction in the memorizing of concrete words. These patients could nonetheless solve correctly the visuospatial imagery tasks. Possibly this dissociation is due to differences in the amount or the quality of information conveyed by the visual images rather than to the verbal or visuospatial mode of processing to which the images are subjected.

Environmental imagery of the wet prairie of east central Illinois, 1820–1920

Currently, east central Illinois represents the heart of America's corn and soybean belt and contains some of the nation's most valuable agricultural land. The area, however, was not always viewed favourably, for initially this was a landscape stigmatized for its sloughs, swamps, and presence of malaria, making it a region which repelled travelers. It was the last section of the state settled. A search of verbal, cartographic, and pictorial imagery from immigrant guidebooks, travelers, settlers, and nineteenth-century maps revealed that the attention the wet lands received was disproportionate to the area they occupied. In landscape assessment, people observed what they considered “typical”, and stereotyped areas regardless of what actually was representative.

Action to Image

What is an image in acting terms? It usually means one of three things: verbal imagery (in the traditional literary sense, a word-picture); an imaginary object, place, situation or physical state to be explored as if it were real (in acting parlance, called an adjustment, particularization, or substitution); and the visual/physical statement the actors make with their bodies in a space. Today, directors are exploring such imagery in ways that fulfill some of the ideals of V.E. Meyerhold, Antonin Artaud, the Surrealist writers, and the Futurists. Their work also can be looked at in relation to the spectacle of earlier theatre (the Romans, for example) if we for once suspend our usual judgement of those theatres as decadent simply because they were physical/visual rather than intellectual/verbal. But the immediate antecedents are certainly the Theatre of the Absurd, and the Happening.

Opening the Eyes of the Audience: Visual and Verbal Imagery in Juno and the Paycock

Near the end of Juno and the Paycock, Mary says, "My poor little child that'll have no father!" Juno comforts her, saying, "It'll have what's far betther — It'll have two mothers.” Given what we have seen of the men in the play, our initial inclination might be to agree with Juno; however, to do so would be to join the characters in their delusions and to ignore the realities with which O'Casey confronts us. To encourage his audience to see Ireland, and the world, realistically and dispassionately, O'Casey creates a complex pattern of verbal and visual imagery which should prompt our awareness of the sad truths his characters, even Juno, do not see. Through the play this imagery reinforces the message conveyed in the final tableau: that in a world where Boyles and Joxers prevail, two mothers may be relatively "better" but nothing has changed, nor will it, because the delusions and their causes remain.

Verbal hallucinations and language production processes in schizophrenia

AbstractHow is it that many schizophrenics identify certain instances of verbal imagery as hallucinatory? Most investigators have assumed that alterations in sensory features of imagery explain this. This approach, however, has not yielded a definitive picture of the nature of verbal hallucinations. An alternative perspective suggests itself if one allows the possibility that the nonself quality of hallucinations is inferred on the basis of the experience of unintendedness that accompanies imagery production. Information-processing models of “intentional” cognitive processes call for abstract planning representations that are linked to goals and beliefs. Unintended actions - and imagery - can reflect planning disruptions whereby cognitive products do not cohere with concurrent goals. A model of schizophrenic speech disorganization is presented that postulates a disturbance of discourse planning. Insofar as verbal imagery can be viewed as inwardly directed speech, a consequence of such planning disturbances could be the production of unintended imagery. This link between the outward disorganization of schizophrenic speech and unintended verbal imagery is statistically supported by comparing the speech behavior of hallucinating and nonhallucinating schizophrenics. Studies of “borderline” hallucinations during normal, “goal-less” relaxation and drowsiness suggest that experiential unintendedness leads to a nonpathological variant of hallucinatory otherness that is correctable upon emerging from such passive cognitive states. This contrasts with the schizophrenic case, where nonconcordance with cognitive goals reinforces the unintendedness of verbal images and sustains the conviction of an external source. This model compares favorably with earlier models of verbal hallucinations and provides further evidence for a language production disorder in many schizophrenics.Short Abstract: How is it that many schizophrenics identify certain instances of verbal imagery as hallucinatory? This paper proposes that the critical feature identifying hallucinations is the experience of unintendedness. This experience is nonpathological during passive conscious states but pathological if occurring during goal-directed cognitive processing. A model of schizophrenic speech disorganization is presented that postulates a disturbance of discourse planning that specifies communicative intentions. These alterations could generate unintended verbal imagery as well. Statistical data are offered to support the model, and relevant empirical studies are reviewed.

Intentionality and autonomy of verbal imagery in altered states of consciousness

Intentionality and autonomy of verbal imagery in altered states of consciousness

Detail and Elaboration in Phobic Imagery

It is hypothesized that phobics have cognitive representations of phobic stimuli that are relatively lacking in detail and elaboration, and that this is reflected in imagery relating to them. In a study of verbal imagery for coping with a spider, the accounts of phobics were found to be briefer and to include fewer stages. In a study of stimulus imagery, vividness was separated into its two components of (a) awareness of the image and (b) degree of detail, following a similar distinction proposed by Klinger. Awareness, but not detail, was found to be greater in phobics, though the hypothesis of less detail in phobics was not confirmed. It is suggested that a lack of elaboration of phobic imagery is likely to impede anxiety reduction in imaginal desensitization, and to reduce the effectiveness of imaginal representations of coping behaviour.

Opening the Eyes of the Audience: Visual and Verbal Imagery in <i>Juno and the Paycock</i>

Opening the Eyes of the Audience: Visual and Verbal Imagery in <i>Juno and the Paycock</i>

Social Policy

These day it is becoming common to emphasize the significant role metaphor plays in the human sciences. Donald Schön, for example, has recently highlighted its importance in social policy. However, this article argues a more radical interpretation of metaphor's ubiquitous presence in social policy (and, implicitly, in all forms of knowledge and practice). In doing this, it notes certain symptomatic shortcomings in Schön's treatment: His restricted notion of metaphor makes him unnecessarily cautious and ambivalent in certain regards, and unwarrantedly optimistic, indeed innocent, in others. Metaphor must not be considered intuitive and insightful verbal imagery in contrast to a judicious rationality of “critical inquiry.”

Correspondence

CORRESPONDENCE To the Editor: Since Professor Davidson's completely hostile (and I choose my words carefully) "review" of Shakespearean Iconoclasm .[Comparative Drama, 19 ( 1985), 1 89-92] manages in three pages a mere two sentences on my chapter on The Winter's Tale, one parenthetical clause on the style of a portion of my chapter on King Lear, and one clause on the combined subjects of Hamlet, Ophelia, Gertrude, and Lear, the reader will be sur­ prised to discover that over 220 of the book's 307 pages are devoted to analyzing individual works by Shakespeare. The reader will further find it surprising that the object of a lengthy paragraph in the review is a single minor footnote in my book and that Professor Davidson refutes points not to be found in the book. Granting that Professor Davidson read Shake­ spearean Iconoclasm, his misrepresentation of the book's substance, style, and scholarship can perhaps best be understood as an extension of Profes­ sor Davidson's previous polemical reactions to what he perceives as a "methodological crisis that the study of drama as literature is now exper­ iencing" (On the Use of Iconographic Study: The Example of the Sponsus from St. Martial of Limoges," in Clifford Davidson, ed., The Drama in the Middle Ages .[1982], 44; original italics) . Thus, it would seem useful to respond not only to the specifics of the attack on my book but as well to the critical stance that seems consistently to underlie his polemic. Let us begin with substance. Professor Davidson accuses Shake­ spearean Iconoclasm of providing only a "few" remarks concerning previous criticism to support the "misleading accusation" that "critics who have probed the visual aspects of Shakespeare have been princi­ pally interested in 'unity' and with abstract principles as opposed to concrete reality." The interested reader will be surprised to find that the book's "few" remarks about previous criticism-which include but are not limited to a discussion of the one line of critics Professor David­ son names-constitute the subject for much of the argument of the first 42 pages. It might also surprise the reader that the argument which Professor Davidson terms "misleading" is buttressed by quotations from Bridget Gellert Lyons, Wolfgang Clemen, Dieter Mehl, John Doebler, and others. But besides the instances of primary interest in unity and abstract principles adduced in the book's survey of criticism interested in visual and verbal imagery, one might easily add numerous repre­ sentative examples from criticism of diverse persuasion and method. In analyzing Shakespeare's verbal imagery, for example, Wolfgang Clemen claims "the imagery, in lending a unifying colour and 'key' to the tragedies, helps to create an organic unity which makes us forget the lack of classical unities of time and action" (The Development of Shakespeare's Imagery [second edition, 1977], 224) . Alan C. Dessen, discussing the theatrical benefits of the Elizabethan bare stage, praises its capacity (in Riobard Southem's terms) to stage moments free "from 284 Correspondence 285 the fetters of the trivial, the factual and the irrelevant, which exist in natural surroundings." He then suggests a blocking for the blinding of Gloucester that would intensify its "symbolic rather than physiological" aspects in keeping with the idea that visual images in Shakespeare are "linked to other moments in the play" and "can generate meanings and associations that inform the entire tragedy"-i.e., what he also terms "the major themes of the play" (Sidney Homan, ed., Shakespeare's More than Words Can Witness, [1980], 94-95) . Ann Haaker, in an account of the "emblematic method" in dramatic criticism, describes the critic as stopping the flow of action to search for ''the icons and symbolic representations (or allusions to such) which identify ideologi­ cal concepts and carry the meaning beyond the dramatic action itself," and she exemplifies this approach in an analysis of Titus as "a series of 'speaking pictures' which gradually unfolds for an alert audience the unified and total conception" of the play (Research 0pportunities in Renaissance Drama 13114 [1970-71], 165n and 143 ) . And in an article which Professor Davidson has cited with approval, W illiam S. Heckscher maintains "The entire play of Pericles may be...