Stretching the Imagination: Representation and Transformation in Mental Imagery (Counterpoints: Cognition, Memory, and Language)

This is the first volume in the Counterpoints Series, which explores the issues being debated in psychology, child development, linguistics, and neuroscience. Each volume consists of the presentation of three or four extensive chapters by researchers representing key points of view on the issue. This text examines one of the liveliest areas of debate in psychology today, the relationship between perception and mental imagery. A variety of recent studies have pointed to the existence of a strong relationship between memory and mental representation, while others have shown that images are open to reinterpretation and manipulation, and are therefore not merely static impressions or mental representations of memories. Three core chapters by researchers in the midst of this debate--Maria Brandimonte, Geir Kaufmann, and Dan Reisberg--make up the central portion of this text. The first chapter is a historical overview of the problem as well as a review of the research in psychology and the argument as it has developed in related fields, such as philosophy and artificial intelligence. The last chapter pulls together all of the positions and points to new areas of research which may help uncover an explanation for the apparent contradictions in the research. Students and researchers in psychology and cognitive psychology will benefit from this comprehensive look at this heated debate.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Reisberg, Daniel

Logie, Robert H.

Cornoldi, Cesare

Brandimonte, Maria A.

Kaufmann, Geir

Psychology & Counseling

Oxford University Press

Religion & Spirituality

Working Memory and Human Cognition (Counterpoints: Cognition, Memory, and Language)

This new volume in the Counterpoints series compares and contrasts different conceptions of working memory, generally recognized as the human cognitive system responsible for temporary storage of information. The book includes proponents of several different views. Robert Logie discusses the theoretical and empirical utility of separating working memory into an articulatory loop, a phonological store, and a visuo-spatial sketchpad into visual and spatial subsystems. Patricia Carpenter provides evidence for a process view of working memory, arguing that both task-specific processing and general processing capabilities can account for the full range of working memory phenomena. She focuses on findings from reading comprehension and memory tasks suggesting that working memory is used to represent the set of skills and strategies necessary for complex tasks, while retaining residual capacity for use as a storage buffer. Lynn Hasher argues in favor of the new inhibitory model, with evidence drawn from the literature on aging and pathology that demonstrates parallels between memory disorders and normal memory functioning. Randall Engle addresses the issue of whether working memory resources are required for retrieval of information or whether that task is relatively automatic. Engle's empirical studies, in turn, bear directly on the positions of Carpenter, Hasher, and Logie. As interest in working memory is increasing at a rapid pace, an open discussion of the central issues involved is both useful and timely. This work serves this purpose for a wide audience of cognitive psychologists and their students.

Engle, Randall W.

Hasher, Lynn

Stoltzfus, Ellen R.

Zacks, Rose T.

Richardson, John T.E.

This new volume in the Counterpoints series compares and contrasts different conceptions of working memory, generally recognized as the mechanism within the human cognitive system that is responsible for the temporary storage and processing of information. This notion has been used in a wide variety of ways, partly because it encapsulates several themes that have appeared in the history of research into human memory and cognition. Consequently, variations in the usage of the term working memory also arise because it is invoked by theorists with different research agendas and perspectives. The book includes contributions from proponents of different views: Robert Logie discusses the existence of three different components that control temporary verbal storage, temporary visuo-spatial storage, and the central coordination of both processing and storage, including the retrieval of information from long-term memory. Ellen Stoltzfus, Lynn Hasher, and Rose Zacks focus on the inhibitory processes that control the entrance of information into working memory and update the contents by deleting information that is no longer relevant to the task at hand. Randall Engle argues that individual differences in working memory are tantamount to differences in the attentional resources needed to retrieve information from memory, and that these lead to differences in the ability to inhibit or suppress irrelevant information. Finally, editor John Richardson identifies the key issues that have divided researchers in this field and gives an integrated account of what has been discovered about working memory. As interest in working memory is increasing at a rapid pace, an open discussion of the central issues involved is both useful and timely. This work serves this purpose for cognitive psychologists and their students.

Visuo-spatial Working Memory (Essays in Cognitive Psychology)

Representation of the visual and spatial properties of our environment is a pivotal requirement of everyday cognition. We can mentally represent the visual form of objects. We can extract information from several of the senses as to the location of objects in relation to ourselves and to other objects nearby. For some of those objects we can reach out and manipulate them. We can also imagine ourselves manipulating objects in advance of doing so, or even when it would be impossible to do so physically. The problem posed to science is how these cognitive operations are accomplished, and proffered accounts lie in two essentially parallel research endeavours, working memory and imagery. Working memory is thought to pervade everyday cognition, to provide on-line processing and temporary storage, and to update, moment to moment, our representation of the current state of our environment and our interactions with that environment. There is now a strong case for the claims of working memory in the area of phonological and articulatory functions, all of which appear to contribute to everyday activities such as counting, arithmetic, vocabulary acquisition, and some aspects of reading and language comprehension. The claims for visual and spatial working memory functions are less convincing. Most notable has been the assumption that visual and spatial working memory are intimately involved in the generation, retention and manipulations of visual images. There has until recently been little hard evidence to justify that assumption, and the research on visual and spatial working memory has focused on a relatively restricted range of imagery tasks and phenomena. In a more or less independent development, the literature on visual imagery has now amassed a voluminous corpus of data and theory about a wide range of imagery phenomena. Despite this, few books on imagery refer to the concept of working memory in any detail, or specify the nature of the working memory system that might be involved in mental imagery. This essay follows a line of reconciliation and positive critiquing in exploring the possible overlap between mental imagery and working memory. Theoretical development in the book draws on data from both cognitive psychology and cognitive neuropsychology. The aim is to stimulate debate, to address directly a number of assumptions that hitherto have been implicit, and to assess the contribution of the concept of working memory to our understanding of these intriguing core aspects of human cognition.

Mental Health

Psychology Press

Working Memory and Thinking: Current Issues In Thinking And Reasoning

Thinking and memory are inextricably linked. However, a "divide and rule" approach has led cognitive psychologists to study these two areas in relative isolation. With contributions from some of the leading international researchers on working memory and thinking, the present volume aims to break down the scientific divisions and foster scientific integration in the connections between these two core functions of cognition. Broadly defined, thinking comprises mentally driven change in current representations. The processes involved in such change include application of logical rules, heuristics, problem solving strategies, decision making, planning and comprehension of complex material. Memory involves the encoding, retention and retrieval of information, and the retention may be temporary or in a long-term knowledge base.; Thinking cannot occur in a vacuum; it relies on the long-term memory base and a temporary mental workspace. Despite the apparent limitations on mental workspace, humans can drive a car and hold a conversation, or store partial solutions while tackling other aspects of a problem. So too, some aspects of thinking are relatively resilient in the face of quite extensive brain damage, yet other aspects are remarkably vulnerable to neuroanatomical insults. Humans can solve complex problems with many alternative choice points and yet seem to be able to consider only a few hypotheses at any one time. These apparent paradoxes present significant scientific challenges as to how humans can be such successful thinkers despite their very limited working memory. The chapters herein represent a diversity of views as regards the nature or working memory and forms of human thinking. The links between working memory and thinking are directly addressed and made explicit, and in so doing this volume offers an increasingly integrated understanding of human thinking and memory.

Gilhooly, Kenneth

Routledge

The topic of mental imagery has reached a stage of considerable maturity with a large published literature and a wide range of experimental paradigms now available. In recent years there has been a growing interest in uses for imagery in mental discovery and in the link between imagery and visuo-spatial working memory. Mental discovery offers insights into creative thinking, while the study of mental imagery in working memory offers a scientific understanding of important aspects of on-line cognition both in the laboratory and in everyday life. These cognate topics have been the subject of numerous scientific meetings, and there is now a well established network of imagery researchers across Europe. The idea for this special issue arose from a meeting of European imagery researchers that took place in Oslo, Norway in the summer of 1997. The topics for the special issue were chosen to reflect predominant themes represented at the meeting, but submission of papers was open to all readers of the European Journal of Cognitive Psychology whether or not they attended the conference. All the papers were subject to the normal strict reviewing process for the journal. The result is a sample of the exciting developments that are benefiting from significant growth in European based cognitive psychology.

Imagery in Working Memory and Mental Discovery: A Special Issue of the European Cognitive Psychology (Special Issues of the Journal of Cognitive Psychology)

Helstrup, Tore

Thinking and memory are inextricably linked. However, a "divide and rule" approach has led cognitive psychologists to study these two areas in relative isolation. With contributions from some of the leading international researchers on working memory and thinking, the present volume aims to break down the scientific divisions and foster scientific integration in the connections between these two core functions of cognition. Broadly defined, thinking comprises mentally driven change in current representations. The processes involved in such change include application of logical rules, heuristics, problem solving strategies, decision making, planning and comprehension of complex material. Memory involves the encoding, retention and retrieval of information, and the retention may be temporary or in a long-term knowledge base.; Thinking cannot occur in a vacuum; it relies on the long-term memory base and a temporary mental workspace. Despite the apparent limitations on mental workspace, humans can drive a car and hold a conversation, or store partial solutions while tackling other aspects of a problem. So too, some aspects of thinking are relatively resilient in the face of quite extensive brain damage, yet other aspects are remarkably vulnerable to neuroanatomical insults. Humans can solve complex problems with many alternative choice points and yet seem to be able to consider only a few hypotheses at any one time. These apparent paradoxes present significant scientific challenges as to how humans can be such successful thinkers despite their very limited working memory. The chapters herein represent a diversity of views as regards the nature or working memory and forms of human thinking. The links between working memory and thinking are directly addressed and made explicit, and in so doing this volume offers an increasingly integrated understanding of human thinking and memory.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Logie, Robert H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Logie, Robert H.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Logie, Robert H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Stretching the Imagination: Representation and Transformation in Mental Imagery (Counterpoints: Cognition, Memory, and Language)

Stretching the Imagination: Representation and Transformation in Mental Imagery (Counterpoints: Cognition, Memory, and Language)

Working Memory and Human Cognition (Counterpoints: Cognition, Memory, and Language)

Working Memory and Human Cognition (Counterpoints: Cognition, Memory, and Language)

Visuo-spatial Working Memory (Essays in Cognitive Psychology)

Working Memory and Thinking: Current Issues In Thinking And Reasoning

Imagery in Working Memory and Mental Discovery: A Special Issue of the European Cognitive Psychology (Special Issues of the Journal of Cognitive Psychology)

Working Memory and Thinking: Current Issues In Thinking And Reasoning