Visual Imagery

The systemic functional (SF) approach to multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) is concerned with the theory and practice of analysing meaning arising from the use of multiple semiotic resources in discourses which range from written, printed and electronic texts to material lived-in reality. The SF-MDA approach developed in this article explores the meaning arising through the use of language and visual imagery in printed texts. This involves investigation of linguistic and visual forms of semiosis, and formulation of cross-functional systems such as colour. An integrative platform based on the SF metafunctional principle is proposed, and intersemiotic mechanisms and systems (content and expression strata) are developed to capture the expansion of meaning which occurs when linguistic and visual forms combine. The SF-MDA approach is demonstrated through the analysis of ideational meaning in a print advertisement. The practical approach involves the use of digital technology in the form...

Among many controversies in visual neuroscience is whether visual imagery of objects, scenes and living beings is based upon contributions of the early visual areas or depends on hierarchical higher visual areas only, and whether the cortical areas subserving visual imagery are identical to those underlying visual perception. These questions are important for furthering our understanding of vision, since areas active in visual imagery might tell us how the visual cortex represents objects, scenes and riving beings. Here, P. E. Roland and B. Ou/yas present their hypothesis, based on experimental evidence in man and primates, that the visual areas subserving visual imagery are parieto-occipita/ and temporo-occlpita/ visual association areas, and that these areas form only a subset of the visual areas engaged in perception. This hypothesis is consistent with the view that objects, scenes and riving beings are represented, stored and re-evoked outside the domain of the primary visual cortex and its immediate nelghbours,

The focus of this paper is to address the issue of visual imagery in cross-cultural consumer research. The authors investigate the relationship between visual imagery, brand familiarity, and brand claim recall in two distinct cultural environmentsthe U.S. and Russia. The paper consists of two studies that explored imagery potency from the point of view of memory-evoking effects. The results suggest that image-intensive tools generate different returns depending on the level of brand familiarity and cultural media. The research findings may be of interest to marketing scholars studying cross-cultural consumer behavior as well as to practitioners operating in international advertising and global brand building.

Despite extensive research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anger in PTSD has received little attention. This is surprising, given anger is a key predictor of treatment outcome in PTSD. This paper seeks to build an argument for investigating anger in PTSD as a discrete entity. A key argument is that the capacity to image visual mental phenomena is crucial to the aetiology and maintenance of anger in PTSD. Evidence is reviewed for the influence of visual imagery in anger in PTSD from the perspectives of neuropsychology, psychopathology, anger and PTSD. An argument is advanced for including visual imagery in an integrated (visual-linguistic) cognitive model of anger in PTSD. Directions for research on visual imagery in anger in PTSD and its treatment implications are discussed.

During the last decades, many cognitive architectures (CAs) have been realized adopting different assumptions about the organization and the representation of their knowledge level. Some of them (e.g. SOAR [35]) adopt a classical symbolic approach, some (e.g. LEABRA[48]) are based on a purely con-nectionist model, while others (e.g. CLARION [59]) adopt a hybrid approach combining connectionist and symbolic representational levels. Additionally, some attempts (e.g. biSOAR) trying to extend the representational capacities of CAs by integrating diagrammatical representations and reasoning are also available [34]. In this paper we propose a reflection on the role that Conceptual Spaces, a framework developed by Peter Gärdenfors [24] more than fifteen years ago, can play in the current development of the Knowledge Level in Cognitive Systems and Architectures. In particular, we claim that Conceptual Spaces offer a lingua franca that allows to unify and generalize many aspects of the symbolic, sub-symbolic and diagrammatic approaches (by overcoming some of their typical problems) and to integrate them on a common ground. In doing so we extend and detail some of the arguments explored by Gärdenfors [23] for defending the need of a conceptual, intermediate, representation level between the symbolic and the sub-symbolic one. In particular we focus on the advantages offered by Conceptual Spaces (w.r.t. symbolic and sub-symbolic approaches) in dealing with the problem of compositionality of representations based on typicality traits. Additionally, we argue that Conceptual Spaces could offer a unifying framework for interpreting many kinds of diagrammatic and analogical representations. As a consequence, their adoption could also favor the integration of diagrammatical representation and reasoning in CAs.

2017. 12,000 words. The question of whether our conscious experience is rich or sparse remains an enduring controversy in philosophy. The “overflow” account argues that perceptual consciousness is far richer than cognitive access: when perceiving a complex scene, subjects see more than they can report. This paper draws on aphantasia (the condition of absent voluntary imagery) to propose a new argument in favor of overflow. First, it shows that opponents of overflow explain subjects’ performance in a change detection paradigm by appealing to a type of “internal imagery”. Second, it provides empirical evidence to demonstrate that aphantasics are incapable of generating this imagery. However, aphantasics perform equally well in this task; and so the no-overflow account fails to explain their performance. This means that proponents of this view are committed to an unsupported view of perception. (Forthcoming 2017, Philosophical Psychology).

Subjects participated in perceptual and imagery tasks while their brains were scanned using positron emission tomography. In the perceptual conditions, subjects judged whether names were appropriate for pictures. In one condition, the objects were pictured from canonical perspectives and could be recognized at first glance; in the other, the objects were pictured from noncanonical perspectives and were not immediately recognizable. In this second condition, we assume that top-down processing is used to evaluate the names. In the imagery conditions, subjects saw a grid with a single X mark; a lowercase letter was presented before the grid. In the baseline condition, they simply responded when they saw the stimulus, whereas in the imagery condition they visualized the corresponding block letter in the grid and decided whether it would have covered the X if it were physically present. Fourteen areas were activated in common by both tasks, only 1 of which may not be involved in visual processing (the precentral gyrus); in addition, 2 were activated in perception but not imagery, and 5 were activated in imagery but not perception. Thus, two-thirds of the activated areas were activated in common. 1997

Current theories of visual imagery hold that the same neural processes govern both the representation of real objects and the representation of imagined (but real) objects. Here we test whether the representation of imagined (real) objects and the representation of imagined (but unreal) objects depend on the same or different neurocognitive processes. A likely clinical group for a dissociation between these two types of imagination are children with autism, since they show deficits in imaginative play, impoverished imagination is part of their diagnosis, but they can search for hidden objects. The present study explored imagination in autism using experimental methods. Experiment 1 investigated if children with autism could introduce changes to their representations of people and houses, using Karmiloff-Smith's (1989) technique of asking children to draw "impossible" people or houses. Results showed that children with autism were significantly worse than matched controls in their ability to introduce "unreal" changes to their representations of people and houses. Instead, they tended to draw real people or objects. Experiment 2 investigated whether the performance in Experiment 1 by children with autism was due to an inability to disengage from "real world" representations, as executive dysfunction theorists would argue. To do this, the experimenter instructed them on what to draw and how to draw it. Results showed that even when executive control passed to the experimenter in this way, the children with autism were still significantly impaired in their ability to draw imaginary but unreal things relative to the matched controls. Experiment 3 investigated whether the results from Experiments 1 and 2 arose because of a generativity deficit in autism, which might be the executive dysfunction theorists' alternative account. To test this, the same subjects were given a test of Verbal Fluency and a test of imagining multiple functions of a brick. Results showed that the children with autism were no worse than clinical controls in their ability to generate ideas about real objects, suggesting that a global generativity deficit cannot explain the previous findings. Rather, these results point to a specific impairment in the ability to imagine unreal objects. This is discussed in terms of its possible neural dissociability from other kinds of imagery, and in terms of its possible relationship to theory of mind.

It is currently claimed that congenitally blind do not have visual imagery and are therefore unable to present visual contents in their dreams. The aim of our study was to quantitatively evaluate the existence of visual imagery in born-blind dreams and to correlate it with objective measures, such as sleep EEG frequency components, namely with alpha attenuation (regarded as an indicator of visual activity), and graphical analysis of dream pictorial representations. The investigation was carried out via simultaneous recordings of dream reports and polysomnography, during nocturnal sleep at volunteers' homes; scheduled regular awakenings during the night provided the data for dream and EEG analysis. In the morning, subjects were asked to make a drawing of their dream images. Congenitally blind (n510) were comparable to normal sighted subjects (n59): the two groups presented equivalent visual activity indices, and no differences in the analysis of graphical representation of dreaming imagery. However, blind subjects presented a lower rate of dream recall than sighted (27% versus 42%). Both groups had significant negative correlation between Visual Activity Index (VAI) and alpha power in the central and occipital O2 derivations (blind: C4: r520. 615, P,0.005; O2: r520.608, P,0.006; sighted: C4: r520.633, P,0.01; O2: r520.506, P,0.05). This correlation was weaker for the blind in O1 (r520.573, P,0.05) and non-existent for the sighted. Blind individuals have significantly lower alpha activity in the central derivation. In conclusion, the congenitally blind have visual content in their dreams and are able to draw it and, as expected, their VAI is negatively correlated with EEG alpha power. 

This paper addresses the potential role of visualisation tools in rapidly increasing peoples' awareness of climate change and possibly affecting behaviour and policy, together with ethical dilemmas to be overcome if such a course of action is pursued. The urgent need to mitigate and adapt to climate change is becoming more widely understood in scientific and some policy circles, but public awareness and policy change are lagging well behind. Emerging visualisation theory suggests that realistic landscape visualisations may offer special advantages in bringing the possible consequences of climate change home to people in a compelling manner. Recent research results on a local climate change visioning process conducted in British Columbia is providing new evidence of this effect. A participatory process to localize, spatialize, and visualize climate change implications in case study communities was successful in raising community awareness, increasing the sense of urgency, and articulating for the first time holistic community options in mitigating and adapting to climate change at the local level. Potentially, such methods could accelerate policy change and action, representing a powerful social marketing tool. The authors conclude that the persuasive use of visualisations and visioning processes by landscape architects is justified, and indeed imperative in communicating climate change. It also offers new opportunities for professional leadership in tackling a global crisis. However, in attempting to move communities on to a more sustainable path, we need to address the ethical and professional dilemmas raised by the fundamental shift in moving from an objective 'neutral' paradigm to a more persuasive approach which deliberately engages the emotions with visual imagery. Such efforts need to address the '3 Ds' of visualising the future with climate change: disclosure, drama, and defensibility. We need stronger professional standards or an adapted code of ethics if we are to use visualisation to convey effectively and vividly the science of climate change, acknowledging the uncertainties and maintaining professional credibility.

In this paper we report the results of a qualitative multimodal analysis of a corpus of Spanish and British TV ads featuring female hygiene products such as tampons, liners and sanitary towels/pads. We contend that advertisers of menstruation-related products employ a wide range of strategies to convey both overt information about the products advertised, as well as to -and more importantlyindirectly transmit stereotypical beliefs of women which inevitably helps reproduce and sometimes perpetuate a gender-biased type of discourse (Holmes and Marra, 2005). Crook's (2004) distinction between the product-claim and the reward dimension in ads has been taken as the starting point for our analysis. Within the product-claim dimension we have focused on what information is transmitted through the application of some of Brown and Levinson's (1987) generic positive and off-record politeness strategies. On the other hand, within the reward dimension attention is shifted to how information surfaces the language in an indirect fashion through attention to different format types, visual imagery, voices and music. Results indicate that ads either tend to focus on the product, its advantages and practicality as the solution to women's worries during menstruation, something that brings the negative aspects of this biological activity to prominence; whereas a second group of ads is constructed as a celebration of womanhood and the creation of a certain female identity whereby women are endowed with their ability to break with old myths and taboos. #

The present fMRI study investigates, first, whether learning new arithmetic operations is reflected by changing cerebral activation patterns, and second, whether different learning methods lead to differential modifications of brain activation. In a controlled design, subjects were trained over a week on two new complex arithmetic operations, one operation trained by the application of back-up strategies, i.e., a sequence of arithmetic operations, the other by drill, i.e., by learning the association between the operands and the result. In the following fMRI session, new untrained items, items trained by strategy and items trained by drill, were assessed using an eventrelated design. Untrained items as compared to trained showed large bilateral parietal activations, with the focus of activation along the right intraparietal sulcus. Further foci of activation were found in both inferior frontal gyri. The reverse contrast, trained vs. untrained, showed a more focused activation pattern with activation in both angular gyri. As suggested by the specific activation patterns, newly acquired expertise was implemented in previously existing networks of arithmetic processing and memory. Comparisons between drill and strategy conditions suggest that successful retrieval was associated with different brain activation patterns reflecting the underlying learning methods. While the drill condition more strongly activated medial parietal regions extending to the left angular gyrus, the strategy condition was associated to the activation of the precuneus which may be accounted for by visual imagery in memory retrieval. D

This study investigated the relationship between visuo-spatial representation, mental rotation (MR) and functional anatomy examination results. A total of 184 students completed the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), Mental Rotation Test (MRT) and Gordon Test of Visual Imagery Control. The time spent on personal assignment was also considered. Men were found to score better than women on both GEFT and MRT, but the gender effect was limited to the interaction with MRT ability in the anatomy learning process. Significant correlations were found between visuo-spatial, MR abilities, and anatomy examination results. Data resulting from the best students’ analyzes underscore the effect of high MR ability which may be considered reliable predictor of success in learning anatomy. The use of specific tests during learning sessions may facilitate the acquisition of anatomical knowledge.

This article provides an exploratory study of a new analytical approach to examining visual imagery in relation to the underlying cognitive processes involved. The analytical approach combines social semiotic theory of representation with cognitive-linguistic studies on blending or conceptual integration. The author's thesis is that visual-analytic tools suggested by the social semiotic approach perfectly complements the inward cognition of an image-viewer, a synergy which has rarely been envisaged by scholars from both disciplines. From this perspective, visual analysis is seen as both semioti-cally and cognitively relevant. The interdisciplinary approach developed in the article hopes to present new perspectives on the ways images are analysed and interpreted.

Children's literature has been analyzed through a number of different theoretical lenses, including critical literacy, feminism, and multiculturalism. Yet, given the prominence that image plays in such literature, little if any work in literacy has analyzed children's literature from the perspective of art theory. This study first theorized how and why artists render visual representations as they do. It then used this theory to analyze images in Caldecott award-winning literature. Three findings emerged from the analysis: (a) image types cut across time, culture, and artists' rendering; (b) images embody stable representations of culture; and (c) images tend to render visual binaries and invite oppositional readings. Implications are discussed for developing and using a theory for the close reading of visual imagery in children's literature.

The urgent need to mitigate and adapt to climate change is becoming more widely understood in scientific and policy circles, but public awareness lags behind. The potential of visual communication to accelerate social learning and motivate implementation of the substantial policy, technological, and life-style changes needed, has begun to be recognised. In particular, realistic landscape visualisations may offer special advantages in rapidly advancing peoples' awareness of climate change and possibly affecting behaviour and policy, by bringing certain possible consequences of climate change home to people in a compelling manner. However, few such applications are yet in use, the theoretical basis for the effectiveness of visualisations in this role has not been clearly established, and there are ethical concerns elicited by adopting a persuasive approach which deliberately engages the emotions with visual imagery. These questions and policy implications are discussed in the context of a theoretical framework on the effects of landscape visualisation on a spectrum of responses to climate change information, drawing in part on evidence from other applications of landscape visualisation. The author concludes that the persuasive use of visualisations, together with other approaches, may be effective, is justified, and could be vital in helping communicate climate change effectively, given ethical standards based on disclosure, drama, and defensibility.

By drawing on visual data ranging from printed advertisements to digital photography, this book provides a fine-grained social semiotic analysis of a full range of visual texts in terms of specified periods, offering a complex interpretation of what different social functions these texts realise in a semiotic artefact. Situated in the semiotic landscape of the city of Hong Kong, the current study demonstrates that the social context of meaning making is an important feature of a social semiotic visual analysis. For example, it shows that the widespread use of smartphone applications has a significant impact on the personal photography of Hong Kong females, leading to socio-cultural transformations that are reflected in the representational aesthetic practices of digital photographs for self-modelling as well as an emerging gendered identity within the community. In addition, the social semiotic analysis of printed advertisements in magazines on slimming products and services also offers deep insights into the media ideologies relating to female body idealisation, gender roles and stereotypes, providing a useful sociologically relevant analysis on the basis of analytical tools from social semiotics and further pointing to the need for combining social semiotics with sociological theory and beyond. The book also discusses how social semiotic analysis might attend to the broader discursive practices, as in the case of TV commercials focussed on personal loans and luxury property. The desire of a hedonistic lifestyle has been the driving force behind these discursive practices in which social actors are idealised through semiotic resources in such a way that their semiotically shaped identities in the advertising discourse become a site of ideology on the basis of which intertextuality and the broader discourse of social stereotypes could be analysed. This book will therefore be of interest to a very wide readership in various academic fields in arts and social sciences such as semiotics, visual studies, design studies, media and cultural studies, anthropology and sociology.

Recently, the relationship between music and nonmusical cognitive abilities has been highly debated. It has been documented that formal music training would improve verbal, mathematical or visuospatial performance in children. In the experiments described here, we tested if visual perception and imagery abilities were enhanced in adult musicians compared with nonmusicians. In our main experiment, we measured reaction times of subjects who had to detect on which side of a horizontal or a vertical line a target dot was flashed. In the ''imagery'' condition the reference line disappeared before the target dot was presented. In order to accomplish the task, subjects had to keep a mental image of the position of the line until the dot appeared. In the ''perception'' condition, the procedure and stimuli were the same except that the line remained on the screen until the dot was displayed. In both groups, reaction times were shorter for horizontal compared to vertical discrimination, but reaction times were significantly shorter in musicians in all conditions. Moreover, discrimination on the vertical dimension, especially in imaging condition, seemed to be greatly improved on the long term by musical expertise. Simple and choice visual reaction times indicate that this advantage could only be partly explained by better sensorimotor integration in adult musicians.

Two experiments investigated the reality attributed to hypnotic suggestion through subtle projection of a visual image during simultaneous suggestion for a visual hallucination that resembled the projected image. In Experiment 1, high and low hypnotizable participants were administered either a hypnotic induction or wake instructions, given a suggestion to hallucinate a shape, and then the projected image was subsequently introduced. Although highs in both conditions rated the projected image more vividly than lows, highs in the hypnosis (but not wake) condition made comparable reality ratings when the projected image was absent and present. In Experiment 2, high hypnotizable participants were administered a suggestion to see a shape on a wall. For half the participants the suggested image was projected on the wall and then removed, and for half the projection was initially absent and then introduced. Participants who had the projection absent and then present reported comparable reality and vividness ratings when the projection was absent and present. These findings indicate that elevated hypnotizability and hypnosis are associated with attributions of external reality to suggested experiences.

Episodic memory (EM) involves reliving or re-experiencing past experiences, which suggests that EM depends on mental imagery. Aphantasics lack mental imagery, however, which would imply that they don't have EM, and people with "severely deficient autobiographical memory" (SDAM) also lack the ability to relive or re-experience. Both aphantasics and people with SDAM are otherwise normally functioning people, however, and do have personal memories, which is an other defining aspect of EM. By implication, episodic memory is not a natural kind but a loose collection of independent mental faculties. Aphantasics indeed lack episodic memory, because there is no such thing as episodic memory.

An updated version of this talk was published as “Aphantasia, SDAM, and Episodic Memory” in the Annals of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science, vol. 28 (2019), pp. 9-32.

We report the neuropsychological and MRI investigation of a patient (MV) who developed a selective impairment of visual-spatial working memory (WM) with preservation not only of verbal, but also of visual shape WM, following an ischemic lesion in the cerebral territory supplied by one of the terminal branches of the right anterior cerebral artery. MV was defective in visual-spatial WM whether the experimental procedure involved arm movement for target pointing or not. Also, in agreement with the role generally assigned to visual-spatial WM in visual imagery, MV was extremely slow in the mental rotation of visually and verbally presented objects. In striking contrast with the WM deficit, MV's visual-spatial long-term memory was intact. The behavioral and neuroanatomical investigation of MV provides support for the hypothesis that the superior frontal gyrus (BA 6) and the dorsomedial cortex of the parietal lobe (BA 7) are part of the neural circuitry underlying visual-spatial WM in humans.

SUMMARY Early in a scientific debate, before much evidence has accumulated, why are some scientists inclined toward one position and other scientists toward the opposite position? We explore this issue with a focus on scientists' views of the 'imagery debate' that unfolded in ...

The authors examined the role of distinctiveness in the differential memory performance of visual and verbal elaboration strategies. Twenty-eight undergraduates learned information about familiar and unfamiliar animals while using either the visual (imagery) or verbal (answering why questions) elaboration strategies. There was no difference between the 2 strategies in level of organization for the familiar animal material, but imagery students organized unfamiliar animal information into intact sets more than verbal elaboration students. Imagery easily permits the generation of relations and distinctions for unfamiliar material through the creation of unique mental images. In contrast, learners using verbal elaboration may be more likely to access general rather than specific information when answering why questions for unfamiliar information. may be sent via Internet to [email protected].

A historical "dual systems" perspectives on dreaming is revisited. Some contemporary perspectives are outlined in which dreams are considered in terms of : virtual reality simulations; memory processing; a way of "thinking". Reference is made to recent research indicating that REM sleep is involved in information processing of memories, learning, and problem solving. The traditional role of the brain stem in relation to the neurophysiological "origins" of dreaming is summaried. Some research and opinions indicating that the cerebellum may be a contributor to D/REM sleep are listed. Finally, iIt is proposed that the cerebellum is the very source of the sensorimotor information sequence that is exported, via the brain stem, to the cerebral cortex, and which is experienced in its reception at cerebral level as a dream.

Drawing on a sample of 372 dreams from 15 blind adults, we present two separate analyses that replicate and extend findings from previous studies. The first analysis employed DreamSearch, a software program designed for use with dream narratives, to examine the appearance of the five sensory modalities. It revealed that those blind since birth or very early childhood had (1) no visual imagery and (2) a very high percentage of gustatory, olfactory, and tactual sensory references. The second analysis found that both male and female participants differed from their sighted counterparts in the same ways on several Hall and Van de Castle (1966) coding categories, including a high percentage of locomotion/transportation dreams that contained at least one dreamer-involved misfortune. The findings on sensory references and dreamer-involved misfortunes in locomotion/transportation dreams are interpreted as evidence for the continuity between dream content and waking cognition.

Recent research into perception, the visual brain, and neuropsychology has important implications for understanding Upper Palaeolithic art. The relevant aspects of this research will be described and how this relates to the art produced. It will also be shown that the depiction of animals in caves provides particularly important evidence in this regard. Specific natural features and environmental conditions of the cave will be shown to have interacted with the way the visual brain functions that led to the ability to produce animal depictions in particular ways over a period of 20,000 years. Some suggestions are offered demonstrating how the various insights gained may impact on socio-cultural factors associated with such depictions.

This study explores the relationship between public speaking anxiety (PSA) and Imaginary Interactions (IIs). Participants (N = 17) were recruited from the multi-section departmental introductory public speaking course. Virtual reality (VR) as a potential form of II treatment for PSA blurs the reality between imagined and actual interactions. This study utilized a sequential explanatory approach to examine infer-ential and descriptive findings. The inferential investigation employed a four-stage design requiring participants to complete pre-test PSA and post-test assessments before and after VR simulations, exploring II functions and attributions. The follow-up descriptive analysis expanded and generated new understanding for the complexities of II through participants' experiences using directed content analysis. Utilizing VR as an extension of IIs highlighted the rehearsal function, and variations in attri-butions for discrepancy and specificity between VR realism and artificial simulated perceptions. The implications suggest that VR provides students in public speaking environments a treatment mechanism that minimizes the cognitive strain to imagine
the scene and setting of the situation, while simultaneously providing assistance in PSA reduction.

Although there is ample evidence that motor imagery activates similar cerebral regions to those solicited during actual movements, it is still unknown whether visual (VI) and kinesthetic imagery (KI) recruit comparable or distinct neural networks. The present study was thus designed to identify, through functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 Tesla in 13 skilled imagers, the cerebral structures implicated in VI and KI. Participants were scanned in a perceptual control condition and while physically executing or focusing during motor imagery on either the visual or kinesthetic components of an explicitly known sequence of finger movements. Subjects' imagery abilities were assessed using well-established psychological, chronometric, and new physiological measures from the autonomic nervous system. Compared with the perceptual condition, physical executing, VI, and KI resulted in overlapping (albeit non-identical) brain activations, including motor-related regions and the inferior and superior parietal lobules. By contrast, a divergent pattern of increased activity was observed when VI and KI were compared directly: VI activated predominantly the occipital regions and the superior parietal lobules, whereas KI yielded more activity in motor-associated structures and the inferior parietal lobule. These results suggest that VI and KI are mediated through separate neural systems, which contribute differently during processes of motor learning and neurological rehabilitation. Hum Brain Mapp 30: [2157][2158][2159][2160][2161][2162][2163][2164][2165][2166][2167][2168][2169][2170][2171][2172] 2009. V V C 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Voiding cystourethrography (VCUG) is a commonly performed radiologic procedure in children that can be both painful and frightening. Given the distress that some children experience during the VCUG and the need for children to be alert and cooperative during the procedure, finding a psychological intervention that helps children to manage anxiety, distress, and pain is clearly desirable. This study was designed to examine whether relaxation and analgesia facilitated with hypnosis could reduce distress and procedure time for children who undergo this procedure. Forty-four children who were scheduled for an upcoming VCUG were randomized to receive hypnosis (n = 21) or routine care (n = 23) while undergoing the procedure. The sample consisted of 29 (66%) girls and 15 (34%) boys with a mean age of 7.6 years (SD: 2.5; range: 4-15 years). Ethnic/racial backgrounds were 72.7% white, 18.2% Asian, 4.5% Latino, 2.3% black, and 2.3% Filipino. The mean number of previous VCUGs was 2.95 (SD: 2.5...

A partir do boom do anime nos anos 1990, o fenômeno otaku tem gerado reações diversas sobre recepção e consumo. O discurso sobre o otaku tende a oscilar entre duas noções: a de subcultura, por vezes com graus patológicos, e a noção cool japan da cultura mainstream. Iremos observar essas tendências na configuração do anime com os autores Tsugata Nobuyuki, Thomas Lamarre e Saitō Tamaki e nas teorizações sobre o otaku com os autores Tatsumi Takayuki, Okada Toshio e Azuma Hiroki. A nossa proposta é que a aproximação afetiva do otaku com o anime abre uma zona de autonomia dentro do movimento otaku.

Eye movements during exposure to distressing mental images reduce their vividness and emotional intensity, which may be due to both tasks competing for working memory (WM) resources. WM theory predicts an inverted U-shaped relationship between degree of taxing and beneficial effects: greater taxing of WM will more greatly reduce vividness/emotionality, but extremely taxing tasks prevent holding the image in mind, thereby reducing benefits. This study examined whether mental arithmetic (subtraction) tasks during visual imagery reduce image vividness/emotionality ratings, and taxing WM and reduced vividness/emotionality show the predicted quadratic relationship. A non-clinical sample retrieved a distressing image of the Queen's Day tragedy (which occurred 1e3 months earlier in the Netherlands), and rated it for vividness and emotionality. Participants were assigned to one of four conditions: exposure alone or exposure with concurrent 'simple' subtraction, 'intermediate' subtraction, or 'complex' subtraction. Afterwards, vividness and emotionality were rated again. A reaction time task showed that the subtraction tasks increasingly taxed WM. Consistent with WM theory, exposure with subtraction reduced image vividness and emotionality compared to exposure alone. The expected inverse U-curve relationship was found for emotionality, but not for vividness: simple or intermediate subtraction had more beneficial effects than no dual-task or complex subtraction. Clinical implications are discussed.

The availability and salience of object attributes under haptic exploration, with and without vision, were assessed by two tasks in which subjects sorted objects that varied factorially in size, shape, texture, and hardness. In the directed-discrimination task, sub

The history of visual sociology is intimately entwined with the evolution of sociology and has dispersed and episodic trajectories across various geographies and historical periods. In this entry, I will present visual sociology not as a subfield of sociology but rather as a para-field, and trace some of the historical routes and roots contributing to the ongoing emergence of post/disciplinary features. Addressing how and in what context the topic emerged will primarily focus on critical moments and thinkers whose contributions nourish the field in important ways but have sometimes been overlooked. To do visual sociology justice, this depiction must be considered a piece in a vastly larger ecology of schools of visual sociology intercontinentally and historically with diverging perspectives that merit being addressed in a more extensive work. The specific aims of this entry are to present critical points of traction that attend specifically to the questions of how this post/discipline matters for the study of images; what particular set of problems are raised; what consequences visual sociology has had that are important for image studies; and generally what visual sociology contributes to understanding images. Readers will not be surprised to find shared approaches, thinkers, and theoretical perspectives with other topic areas.

Previous neuroimaging studies identified a large network of cortical areas involved in visual imagery in the human brain, which includes occipitotemporal and visual associative areas. Here we test whether the same processes can be elicited by tactile and auditory experiences in subjects who became blind early in life. Using positron emission tomography, regional cerebral blood flow was assessed in six right-handed early blind and six age-matched control volunteers during three conditions: resting state, passive listening to noise sounds, and mental imagery task (imagery of object shape) triggered by the sound of familiar objects. Activation foci were found in occipitotemporal and visual association areas, particularly in the left fusiform gyrus (Brodmann areas 19-37), during mental imagery of shape by both groups. Since shape imagery by early blind subjects does involve similar visual structures as controls at an adult age, it indicates their developmental crossmodal reorganization to allow perceptual representation in the absence of vision.

Introduction. Inconsistencies in the relationship between dissociation and hypnosis may result from heterogeneity among highly suggestible individuals, in particular the existence of distinct highly suggestible subtypes that are of relevance to models of psychopathology and the consequences of trauma. This study contrasted highly suggestible subtypes high or low in dissociation on measures of hypnotic responding, cognitive functioning, and psychopathology. Methods. Twenty-one low suggestible (LS), 19 low dissociative highly suggestible (LDHS), and 11 high dissociative highly suggestible (HDHS) participants were administered hypnotic suggestibility scales and completed measures of free recall, working memory capacity, imagery, fantasy-proneness, psychopathology, and exposure to stressful life events. Results. HDHS participants were more responsive to positive and negative hallucination suggestions and experienced greater involuntariness during hypnotic responding. They also exhibited impaired working memory capacity, elevated pathological fantasy and dissociative symptomatology, and a greater incidence of exposure to stressful life events. In contrast, LDHS participants displayed superior object visual imagery. Conclusions. These results provide further evidence for two highly suggestible subtypes: a dissociative subtype characterised by deficits in executive functioning and a predisposition to psychopathology, and a subtype that exhibits superior imagery and no observable deficits in functioning.

This study investigated, in the context of mathematical problem solving by secondary school students, the nature of the visual schemata which Johnson (1987) hypothesises mediate between logical propositional structures and "rich" specific visual images. Four groups of grade 10 students were studied, representing all combinations of high and low operational ability in mathematics (equivalent to Johnson's logical propositional structures) and high and low vividness of visual imagery (corresponding to Johnson's "rich" images). The results suggested first, that success at problem solving was related to logical operational ability, but not to vividness of visual imagery. Second, a variety of visually based strategies were used during problem solving which differed in their level of generality and abstraction, and use of these strategies appeared related to either logical operational ability or vividness of visual imagery, depending on their level of abstraction. The results supported Presmeg's (1992b) continuum of abstraction of image schemata.

Cerebral blood flow was measured using positron emission tomography (PET) in three experiments while subjects performed mental imagery or analogous perceptual tasks. In Experiment 1, the subjects either visualized letters in grids and decided whether an X mark would have fallen on each letter if it were actually in the grid, or they saw letters in grids and decided whether an X mark fell on each letter. A region identified as part of area 17 by the Talairach and Tournoux (1988) atlas, in addition to other areas involved in vision, was activated more in the mental imagery task than in the perception task. In Experiment 2, the identical stimuli were presented in imagery and baseline conditions, but subjects were asked to form images only in the imagery condition; the portion of area 17 that was more active in the imagery condition of Experiment 1 was also more activated in imagery than in the baseline condition, as was part of area 18. Subjects also were tested with degraded perceptual stimuli, which caused visual cortex to be activated to the same degree in imagery and perception. In

Urban space is a component of a city that changes during the history of a nation over several periods. While public spaces must provide users with a sense of attachment and identity, both emotionally and visually, certain urban public spaces seem to embody the cities in which they are found. Tahrir Square is considered one of the most significant spaces in Egypt. It was originally named “Ismailia Square” after the 19th-century ruler Khedive Ismail, who built the new downtown district’s “Paris on the Nile” design. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, the square became known as Tahrir (Liberation) Square. Public space is taken by many to refer to things like the media, the internet and networks of citizens in civil society, such that “the literal meaning has almost been wiped out” (Hénaff & Strong, 2001). Thus, this paper aims to examine the dramatic changes in the daily social activities in Tahrir Square over the past few years following political events. To achieve this, the study will start with an overview of the urban context and its historical development for the square up to its recent form, taking into account all the political events which occur there. Following this, the study will monitor all the added social activities and behavioural maps through various tools to reach the main conclusions, which in turn will clarify the direct link between how people react to the space and the significant political events.

This paper is centred on the study of the role that information visualisation can have in mathematics learning. A theoretical analysis is worked out in order to give account of the complex phenomena that take place in the classroom in order to allow students to construct a mental image of the mathematical object involved in the activity. This theoretical analysis is the reference to study the different didactical functions that information visualisation can develop in learning process. This different functions are discussed making reference to the role that Cabri Gèométre can have in the teaching/learning processes of Euclidean geometry.

Autobiographical memory (AM) entails a complex set of operations, including episodic memory, self-reflection, emotion, visual imagery, attention, executive functions, and semantic processes. The heterogeneous nature of AM poses significant challenges in capturing its behavioral and neuroanatomical correlates. Investigators have recently turned their attention to the functional neuroanatomy of AM. We used the effectlocation method of meta-analysis to analyze data from 24 functional imaging studies of AM. The results indicated a core neural network of left-lateralized regions, including the medial and ventrolateral prefrontal, medial and lateral temporal and retrosplenial/posterior cingulate cortices, the temporoparietal junction and the cerebellum. Secondary and tertiary regions, less frequently reported in imaging studies of AM, are also identified. We examined the neural correlates of putative component processes in AM, including, executive functions, self-reflection, episodic remembering and visuospatial processing. We also separately analyzed the effect of select variables on the AM network across individual studies, including memory age, qualitative factors (personal significance, level of detail and vividness), semantic and emotional content, and the effect of reference conditions. We found that memory age effects on medial temporal lobe structures may be modulated by qualitative aspects of memory. Studies using rest as a control task masked process-specific components of the AM neural network. Our findings support a neural distinction between episodic and semantic memory in AM. Finally, emotional events produced a shift in lateralization of the AM network with activation observed in emotion-centered regions and deactivation (or lack of activation) observed in regions associated with cognitive processes.

This is the original, longer draft for my entry on 'Hume' in the 'The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination' (Amy Kind (ed.), London: Routledge, 2016). — Please always cite the Routledge version, unless there are passages concerned that did not make it into the Handbook for reasons of length. — This chapter overviews Hume’s thoughts on the nature and the role of imagining, with an almost exclusive focus on the first book of his Treatise of Human Nature. Over the course of this text, Hume draws and discusses three important distinctions among our conscious mental episodes (or what he calls ‘perceptions’): (i) between impressions (including perceptual experiences) and ideas (including recollections, imaginings and occurrent beliefs); (ii) between ideas of the memory and ideas of the imagination; and (iii), among the ideas of the imagination, between ideas of the judgement (i.e. occurrent beliefs) and ideas of the fancy (i.e. imaginings). I discuss each distinction in turn, also in connection to contemporary views on imagining. In addition, I briefly consider Hume’s views on the imagination as a faculty aimed at the production of ideas, as well as on the role that imagining plays in the wider context of our mental lives, notably in the acquisition of modal knowledge and in the comprehension of, and resistance to, stories and opinions that we take to be false or fictional.

POSITRON emission tomography was used to investigate the functional anatomy of mental simulation of routes (MSR) in five normal volunteers. Normalized regional cerebral blood flow was measured while subjects mentally navigated between landmarks of a route which had been previously learned by actual navigation. This task was contrasted with both static visual imagery of landmarks (VIL) and silent Rest. MSR appears to be subserved by two distinct networks: a non-specific memory network including the posterior and middle parts of the hippocampal regions, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulum, and a specific mental navigation network, comprising the left precuneus, insula and medial part of the hippocampal regions.

This article pays tribute to the seminal paper by Peter J.  Lang (1977; this journal) on “Imagery in therapy: Information-processing analysis of fear”.  We review research and clinical practice developments in the past five decades with reference to key insights from Lang’s theory and experimental work on emotional mental imagery. First, we summarize and recontextualize Lang’s bio-informational theory of emotional mental imagery (1977; 1979) within contemporary theoretical developments on the function of mental imagery. Second, Lang’s proposal that mental imagery can evoke emotional responses is evaluated by reviewing empirical evidence that mental imagery has a powerful impact on negative as well as positive emotions at neurophysiological and subjective levels. Third, we review contemporary cognitive and behavioral therapeutic practices that use mental imagery and consider points of extension and departure from Lang’s original investigation of mental imagery in fear-extinction behavior change. Fourth, Lang’s experimental work on emotional imagery is revisited in light of contemporary research on emotional psychopathology-linked individual differences in mental imagery. Finally, key insights from Lang’s experiments on training emotional response during imagery are discussed in relation to how specific techniques may be harnessed to enhance adaptive emotional mental imagery training in future research.

O presente trabalho se propõe a realizar uma análise inicial sobre a formação da imagem da mulher brasileira considerando o discurso historicamente construído e reforçado na fotografia colonial. Tal visualidade resiste através dos tempos, consistindo em uma forma de colonialismo contemporâneo por caracterizar-se como uma ação reducionista das identidades, em dissimulação de uma ideologia globalizada. A possibilidade de criação de paradoxo a esses discursos é analisada por meio da reflexão dos trabalhos de André Cepeda e Miguel Valle de Figueiredo, fotógrafos portugueses que possuem trabalhos fotográficos acerca da mulher brasileira.  Nestas fotografias, a construção da mulher brasileira revelou discursos apoiados em percepções e experiências, como também em atribuições de valores generalizantes. Deste modo, concluiu-se que o entendimento sobre a imagem da mulher brasileira, conforme olhar desses fotógrafos, se mostra revestido de novos processos colonizadores em que à imagem da bras...