Visual Mental Representations Research Articles

The Effect of Visual Reasoning on Arithmetic Word Problem Solving

First-grade students often encounter challenges in understanding and solving arithmetic word problems due to their limited reading comprehension abilities. Despite these difficulties, students may employ arbitrary strategies, such as combining numbers based on specific keywords, even if they lack a full understanding of the problems. Research suggests that effective mathematical reasoning involves the use of visual mental representations during the problem-solving process. To address this, some studies have explored methods to enhance students’ comprehension of word problems. Building on this, the current study explores the impact of first-grade pupils creating visual representations of problem situations on their comprehension and the number of correct solutions. In a typical math class, 45 first graders received a paper-and-pencil task, and, in a visual context, they solved similar problems after reading and illustrating the situation. The findings reveal that while most participants correctly represented the problem situations through drawing, about half struggled to determine the numeric solutions. Nevertheless, the visual context led to an increase in the number of correct problem solutions compared to the normal context, suggesting the potential benefits of incorporating visual representations in enhancing comprehension and problem-solving skills.

Adults' spatial scaling of tactile maps: Insights from studying sighted, early and late blind individuals.

The current study investigated spatial scaling of tactile maps among blind adults and blindfolded sighted controls. We were specifically interested in identifying spatial scaling strategies as well as effects of different scaling directions (up versus down) on participants' performance. To this aim, we asked late blind participants (with visual memory, Experiment 1) and early blind participants (without visual memory, Experiment 2) as well as sighted blindfolded controls to encode a map including a target and to place a response disc at the same spot on an empty, constant-sized referent space. Maps had five different sizes resulting in five scaling factors (1:3, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, 3:1), allowing to investigate different scaling directions (up and down) in a single, comprehensive design. Accuracy and speed of learning about the target location as well as responding served as dependent variables. We hypothesized that participants who can use visual mental representations (i.e., late blind and blindfolded sighted participants) may adopt mental transformation scaling strategies. However, our results did not support this hypothesis. At the same time, we predicted the usage of relative distance scaling strategies in early blind participants, which was supported by our findings. Moreover, our results suggested that tactile maps can be scaled as accurately and even faster by blind participants than by sighted participants. Furthermore, irrespective of the visual status, participants of each visual status group gravitated their responses towards the center of the space. Overall, it seems that a lack of visual imagery does not impair early blind adults' spatial scaling ability but causes them to use a different strategy than sighted and late blind individuals.

Das Imaginäre als Teil des Fremdsprachenunterrichts

"The Imaginary as the Part of the Foreign Language Education. Inner images (visual mental representations) undoubtedly constitute an intrinsic part of our personal world. They are independent of external visual stimuli and they are stored in the brain. Associative relations – as part of the speaker's individual lexicon in his semantic memory – are evoked in one’s memory as ready-made units. Instead of a purely cognitive transfer of materials, they serve – together with visual mental representations – as a support for sensory-reflexive and imaginative-creative processing of themes. The recall of these units in the memory can be supported by works of art. It is the figurative-iconic process of storage in the memory – which takes place in the educational process in parallel with the linguistic-conceptual one – that significantly contributes to a deeper and more permanent consolidation of the learning materials. The integration of works of art into foreign language education thus not only supports the development of language competence, but also the aestheticization of the learner. The article presents new didactic procedures in teaching German as a foreign language through works of fine art. Keywords: visual mental representations, associative relations, works of art, foreign language education, aestheticization "

Reinstating location improves mnemonic access but not fidelity of visual mental representations.

In a virtual reality environment combined with a continuous delayed estimation paradigm, we investigated how manipulation of location at recall (i.e., corresponding vs. non-corresponding to the location where the object was previously encoded) affected mnemonic access and mnemonic fidelity of color information in 100 participants with a within-subjects design. We predicted that the reinstatement of location during recall would improve mnemonic access and mnemonic fidelity. The results suggest that congruent location enhances color access. However, congruent location seems to play no role, or a small role not yet identified in enhancing the details of visual mental representations (weak evidence for the null hypothesis). Explorative analyses revealed that self-reported object imagery preferences modulate the effect of location manipulation on mnemonic access. Overall, the results support the conceptualization of spatial information as a basic feature to help access visual mental representations. Taken together, these findings are in line with the scaffolding hypothesis of visual mental imagery.

Thinking in pictures in everyday life situations among autistic adults.

Autistic individuals are often described as thinking in pictures. The aim of this study was to investigate the phenomenological characteristics of mental representations and inner experiences of autistic individuals. A total of 39 autistic adults and 80 control adults answered an online questionnaire. Autistic participants reported a more frequent use of visual mental representations than controls for different types of everyday situations. Moreover, autistic individuals defined their visual mental representations as more detailed than control participants. Furthermore, when describing their inner experiences, autistic participants used perceptive visual themes whereas control participants relied more on the description of events and memories. Our results support the hypothesis that some autistic individuals indeed "think in pictures". We discuss the impact of such a visual way of thinking in daily life.

The Concept of [Robot] in Children and Teens

This paper discusses the existence of a prototypical visual mental representation associated to the concept of [robot] in children and teenagers. The study aims at determining the best design options for the MOnarCH project robots from the viewpoint of the children, the main audience of the project, involved. By accounting for the children's view a maximization of their emotional response when interacting with the robots is expected. A survey taken by children in pediatric age range is used to establish a baseline. These children are not in the hospital and hence eventual biases caused by an inpatient condition will not be present. Moreover, by comparing with the view of what a robot is by inpatient children it is possible to validate the MOnarCH in-lab trials, avoiding trials with biased scenarios. A set of 119 non-patient children is used in the study. Non-parametric statistics analysis is used on a number of hypotheses useful in the design of the robots.

Smellizing Cookies and Salivating: A Focus on Olfactory Imagery

The concept of olfactory imagery is introduced and the conditions under which imagining what a food smells like (referred to here as “smellizing” it) impacts consumer response are explored. Consumer response is measured by: salivation change (studies 1 and 2), actual food consumption (study 3), and self-reported desire to eat (study 4). The results show that imagined odors can enhance consumer response but only when the consumer creates a vivid visual mental representation of the odor referent (the object emitting the odor). The results demonstrate the interactive effects of olfactory and visual imagery in generating approach behaviors to food cues in advertisements.

Asymmetric cross-domain interference between two working memory tasks: Implications for models of working memory

Abstract Observations of higher dual-task costs for within-domain than cross-domain task combinations constitute classic evidence for multi-component models of working memory (e.g., Baddeley, 1986 , Logie, 2011 ). However, we report an asymmetric pattern of interference between verbal and visual–spatial tasks, such that imposing a verbal memory load provokes graded decreases in visual memory performance, but imposing a visual memory load does not much affect verbal memory performance. Across multiple experiments, we verify that this pattern cannot adequately be explained as a mere byproduct of stimulus recoding or strategic preference. Current working memory models do not predict this persistent finding, thus a change in ongoing debate about relationships between attention and maintenance of verbal and visual mental representations is necessary.

Differences between Spatial and Visual Mental Representations

This article investigates the relationship between visual mental representations and spatial mental representations in human visuo-spatial processing. By comparing two common theories of visuo-spatial processing – mental model theory and the theory of mental imagery – we identified two open questions: (1) which representations are modality-specific, and (2) what is the role of the two representations in reasoning. Two experiments examining eye movements and preferences for under-specified problems were conducted to investigate these questions. We found that significant spontaneous eye movements along the processed spatial relations occurred only when a visual mental representation is employed, but not with a spatial mental representation. Furthermore, the preferences for the answers of the under-specified problems differed between the two mental representations. The results challenge assumptions made by mental model theory and the theory of mental imagery.

Dissociation between visual attention and visual mental imagery

Visual mental imagery (which involves creating, interpreting, and transforming visual mental representations, i.e., “seeing with the mind's eye”) and visual attention typically are described as distinct processes. However, some researchers have claimed that imagery effects can be explained by appeal to attention (and thus, that imagery is nothing more than a form of attention). In this study, we used a size manipulation to demonstrate that imagery and attention are distinct processes. We reasoned that if participants are asked to perform each function (imagery and attention) using stimuli of two different sizes (large and small), and that stimulus size affects the two functions differently, then we could conclude that imagery and attention are distinct cognitive processes. Our analyses showed that participants performed the imagery task better when stimuli were large, whereas they performed the attention task better when stimuli were small. This finding demonstrates that imagery and attention are distinct cognitive processes.

Enhanced mental image mapping in autism

The formation and manipulation of mental images represents a key ability for successfully solving visuospatial tasks like Wechsler's Block Design or visual reasoning problems, tasks where autistics perform at higher levels than predicted by their Wechsler IQ. Visual imagery can be used to compare two mental images, allowing judgment of their relative properties. To examine higher visual processes in autism, and their possible role in explaining autistic visuospatial peaks, we carried out two mental imagery experiments in 23 autistic and 14 age and IQ matched, non-autistic adolescents and adults. Among autistics, 11 had significantly higher Block Design scores than predicted by their IQ. Experiment 1 involved imagining a letter inside a circle, followed by a decision concerning which of two highlighted portions of the circle would contain the greater proportion of the letter. Experiment 2 involved four classic mental rotation tasks utilizing two- and three-dimensional geometric figures, hands and letters. Autistics were more accurate in the formation and comparison of mental images than non-autistics. Autistics with a Block Design peak outperformed other participants in both speed and accuracy of mental rotation. Also, Performance IQ and Block Design scores were better predictors of mental rotation accuracy in autistic compared to non-autistic participants. The ability to form, access and manipulate visual mental representations may be more developed in autistics. We propose two complementary mechanisms to explain these processing advantages: (1) a global advantage in perceptual processing, discussed in the framework of the enhanced perceptual functioning model, and (2) particular strengths in veridical mapping, the ability to efficiently detect isomorphisms among entities and then to use these mappings to process stimulus characteristics, thereby facilitating judgments about their differences.

Thinking in Pictures as a Cognitive Account of Autism

We analyze the hypothesis that some individuals on the autism spectrum may use visual mental representations and processes to perform certain tasks that typically developing individuals perform verbally. We present a framework for interpreting empirical evidence related to this "Thinking in Pictures" hypothesis and then provide comprehensive reviews of data from several different cognitive tasks, including the n-back task, serial recall, dual task studies, Raven's Progressive Matrices, semantic processing, false belief tasks, visual search, spatial recall, and visual recall. We also discuss the relationships between the Thinking in Pictures hypothesis and other cognitive theories of autism including Mindblindness, Executive Dysfunction, Weak Central Coherence, and Enhanced Perceptual Functioning.

Visual mental representations supporting object drawing: How naming a novel object with a novel count noun impacts on young children's object drawing

Object drawing can be supported by a number of cognitive resources, each making available visual information about the object being drawn. These resources include perceptual input, short-term visual memory, and long-term visual memory. Each of these resources has the potential to make available distinct forms of visual representation, including viewpoint-specific and viewpoint-independent representations, object-specific and category representations, and separate representations of object colour. We review neuropsychological and developmental evidence supporting these claims, including evidence that the same drawing can reflect the influence of multiple forms of visual representation. Seven experiments are then reported, investigating object drawing by 4- to 6-year-old children, to confirm the support for drawing provided by different forms of visual representation. Young children are selected for investigation because their drawing is relatively unconstrained by culturally determined norms which, in our culture, dictate that objects should be drawn just as they appear from the vantage point of the drawer. To distinguish the support provided by object and category representations, the experiments exploit the privileged links between count nouns as object labels, and representations of object categories. In addition, pre-established representations, visual or otherwise, are precluded from influencing drawing by asking the children to draw novel objects, and by creating novel count nouns with which to label the objects. The results reveal how viewpoint-specific perceptual representations, object-specific representations of shape and of colour, and category representations of shape can each impact on object drawing, and in some circumstances on the same drawing. It appears that simple drawing tasks have the potential to reveal some of the distinct types of representation able to support visual cognition.

Gestion de l’anxiété de performance orale et représentations mentales: Les propriétés structurales des représentations mentales comme outil de changement

Many techniques used in brief psychotherapies are based on the activation of mental representations and images. For example, cognitive-behavioural therapists confront the subject at their mental representation of the phobogenic situation. Exposition techniques and desensibilization method (Wolpe) used by cognitive-behavioural therapists activate visual mental representations and verbal representations through the medium of auto verbalizations or self-statements. The strategic therapeutics or hypnotherapists invent metaphors or suggestions that solicited the patient’s cognitive style. So, psychotherapists can learn from lot specific researches about mental representations, particularly analytic conceptions of visual imagery elaborated by Kosslyn and studies about auditory imagery (Reisberg) because these researches demonstrate that the cognitive capacities concern many « sub-capacities » in which the subjects manifest different abilities. Objective.– This investigation examines the effects of modifications of the structural properties of verbal, visual, and somesthetic representations in oral performance anxiety. The goal of the present study is to identify the structural properties (visual, auditory and somesthetic) capable of producing the greatest reduction in oral performance anxiety. Structural properties encompass the auditory characteristics of self-statements (e.g. volume, rhythm, and distance from stressful event); the characteristics of the visual image (e.g. size, brightness, and distance from stressful event); and the somesthetic properties (e.g. intensity, location, and area of uncomfortable feelings associated with social anxiety). Results. – Concerning the visual representation of the stressful event, the distancing from the image tended to reduce anxiety more than the other modifications (i.e. size or brightness). Concerning negative self-statements, our results indicate that reducing volume tend to diminue anxiety than the slowing down of the rhythm. Finally, the instructions encouraging a reduction of the intensity of sensations were more effective than other modifications (displacing and area of unpleasant sensation) in reducing anxiety.

Visual perception and verbal descriptions as sources for generating mental representations: Evidence from representational neglect

In the majority of investigations of representational neglect, patients are asked to report information derived from long-term visual knowledge. In contrast, studies of perceptual neglect involve reporting the contents of relatively novel scenes in the immediate environment. The present study aimed to establish how representational neglect might affect (a) immediate recall of recently perceived, novel visual layouts, and (b) immediate recall of novel layouts presented only as auditory verbal descriptions. These conditions were contrasted with reports from visual perception and a test of immediate recall of verbal material. Data were obtained from 11 neglect patients (9 with representational neglect), 6 right hemisphere lesion control patients with no evidence of neglect, and 15 healthy controls. In the perception, memory following perception, and memory following layout description conditions, the neglect patients showed poorer report of items depicted or described on the left than on the right of each layout. The lateralised error pattern was not evident in the non-neglect patients or healthy controls, and there was no difference among the three groups on immediate verbal memory. One patient showed pure representational neglect, with ceiling performance in the perception condition, but with lateralised errors for memory following perception or following verbal description. Overall, the results indicate that representational neglect does not depend on the presence of perceptual neglect, that visual perception and visual mental representations are less closely linked than has been thought hitherto, and that visuospatial mental representations have similar functional characteristics whether they are derived from visual perception or from auditory linguistic descriptive inputs.

Does the Body Image Exist in Three Dimensions? The Study of Visual Mental Representation of a Body and a Nonbody Object

Do the mental images of 3-dimensional objects recreate the depth characteristics of the original objects? This investigation of the characteristics of mental images utilized a novel boundary-detection task that required participants to relate a pair of crosses to the boundary of an image mentally projected onto a computer screen. 48 female participants with body attitudes within expected normal range were asked to image their own body and a familiar object from the front and the side. When the visual mental image was derived purely from long-term memory, accuracy was better than chance for the front (64%) and side (63%) of the body and also for the front (55%) and side (68%) of the familiar nonbody object. This suggests that mental images containing depth and spatial information may be generated from information held in long-term memory. Pictorial exposure to views of the front or side of the objects was used to investigate the representations from which this 3-dimensional shape and size information is derived. The results are discussed in terms of three possible representational formats and argue that a front-view 2 1/2-dimensional representation mediates the transfer of information from long-term memory when depth information about the body is required.

Verbal mediation underlying inductive reasoning: Cognitive tempo differences

A verbal mediation strategy underlying successful inductive reasoning and its differential utilization by impulsive and reflective children was explored. Eighty children ( M age = 11.17) were identified as impulsive or reflective and subsequently administered an inductive reasoning task composed of figural matrices. The two cognitive tempo groups were equally distributed across four independent conditions intended to differentially encourage a verbal mediation strategy: standard administration or control (C), constrained nonverbal attention (A), experimenter-provided verbal cues (EL), and subject-elicited verbal cues (SL). These groups were given two task administrations: no verbal interference in Session 1 and verbal interference (i.e., concurrent word shadowing) in Session 2. The hypothesized verbal mediation strategy would be supported most clearly by a differential decrement in performance in the verbal conditions caused by the addition of verbal interference. Both impulsives and reflectives exhibited higher accuracy and lengthened response times in the EL and SL conditions without interference. However, only reflectives in the SL group demonstrated disrupted performance (decreased accuracy and shortened latency) with the verbal interference. It is proposed that reflectives may have incorporated the verbal labels into a covert verbal mediation strategy, whereas impulsives utilized the cues to construct a visual mental representation.