Imagery, Food Cravings

Wikibook : Imagery

·      People have been talking about imagery for a long time.

o   Aristotle, Wundt, Watson

·      Is imagery necessary to thought? Do you have to be able to imagine to think?

o   Aristotle said “God is impossible without and image”

o   Wundt said, “imagery, sensations, and feeling are the base of consciousness”

o   Watson said, “there is no visible evidence of imagery, so it doesn’t matter).

·      More recent imagery debate:

o   Pylysyiyn: says imagery is represented in the mind as linked with propositions.

§  Any given sentence can be broken down into a true or false proposition ( a network with links)

§  Imagery is an epiphenomena (it has no causal role, not part of the essential basics of thought.

·      Like the light on a dvd player, it shows up, but it is more of an indicator or side effect ot he main function.

·      Task: asked to generate associates to words. More likely to generate one that was within a proposition rather than between propositions.

·      Even if a word is spatially or temporally closer, it is still more likel if it is in the proposition.

·      Some sort of spatial representation in the mind and brain.

·      “The advantage of a coordinate representation is that tit is directly analogous to the structure of the real space”

o   ex. An image representation of a dog vs. the word dog (part of the image that correspond to a particular part of the dog, but “D” or “”O” doesn’t correspond. Point to point correspondence between image and representation. Words are relatively arbitrary for the things they represent ((except maybe words like “Buzz”)))

·      Topographic maps apply here – such as a spatial map on the occipital cortex in vision.

·      Keeping spatial information preserved seems pretty important/

o   So maybe when you imagine something, this same principle is activated.

·      Our perceptions can come into the brain a lot of ways. Our representations may come from a lot of different things.

o   Such as language, photographs, movies, etc.

o   Some information stands for other information (such as maps, photos, but some info is just literal.

·      The author here argues that part of the real world may also be symbolic, such as spirals in churches representing something else.

·      Mental representations interact with other parts of memory.

·      Big question: what these images are and how they may function?

o   Perky Experiment: used a back projected image – the participant described what was on the screen without realizing it.

·      What happens when people are asked to scan an image in their mind?

o   Things that are spaced more widely on a picture, it takes them longer to can it (an analogy)

·      In blind people, it seems to work the same (except its spatial, not visual).

·      Mental rotation tasks: 2-stimuli say are they the same shape of different?

o   It takes longer the father they have to rotate – its like they are doing mentally to the shape what you would do physically.

·      Do they use these mental spatial representations for only touch and vision?

o   No, when you read a book or hear words, they get translated into mental images too.

·      Size/distance relationship in representation of objects (up close vs. far away = larger vs. smaller = more detail vs. less detail.)

·      Do image representations work this same way?

o   Yes, it seems so.

·      Overall, mental representations are linked closely with the things the represent, and perceptions too. The brain processes overlap a lot.

o   They don’t overlap entirely though, within vs. external difference

·      Motor imagery – can imagine doing things which activates motor areas.

o   Perhaps this activates mirror neurons too?

Kemps Article : Food Cravings.

·      Food cravings: specific food, not just for nutritional value

o   Motivation based: desire or urge-intense for a food.

o   Not necessarily a psych disorder, but it could indicate one.

o   Mental imaging of the food seems to be a key component of craving.

·      Does imagining something make you crave it?

o   Yes, strength of craving and strength of image are linked.

·      Dual tasks methods – craving can be like a cognitive task, so pairing it with another cognitive task à limited capacity working memory – the tasks are harder when you do 2 at once, and craving counts as one of them.

·      Food cravings consume limited cognitive resources.

·      Evidence for this – induced cravings in people and surprise word recall or math problems and a reaction time.

• Strategy for reducing food cravings: occupy your mind with other things so your working memory is full.
• This article does show evidence that craving occupies working memory, so it reducing our abilities.
• A visual imagery or olfactory task will reduce cravings, but an auditory task won't really help. Maybe because visual and olfactory are the s=ways in which we experience food in the first place.
• These teactics may also help reduce cigarette cravings, but they don't work very well in everyday life, it needs to be more readily applied to everyday settings.
• maybe eventually the randomized dots screen could be an app on a phone, but dynamic visual noise seems to work... these flashing white and black dots.
• maybe this is perceptual load, not cognitive load? perhaps imagery and perception are very closely linked.