Visual Mental Images in the Brain: Current Issues
Martha J. Farah, Graham Ratcliff · Psychology Press eBooks · 2013
Visual mental imagery occurs when visual information is retained or when stored visual information is activated, creating a short-term memory representation that is accompanied by the experience of "seeing with the mind&s;s eye." In this chapter we review key issues surrounding, and much of the. recent empirical findings about, visual mental imagery. However, we have chosen not to review the findings exhaustively; the literature on visual mental imagery has been surveyed many times in the recent past, notably by Farah (1988), Finke (1989), and Finke and Shepard (1986); prior to this, Paivio (1971), Kosslyn (1980), and Shepard and Cooper (1982) provided detailed reviews of the earlier literature. We have no desire to duplicate previous efforts; hence, we focus on major current issues about the brain mechanisms that underlie imagery, and review only findings that have a direct relation to these issues.