IMAGERY VERSUS PERCEPTUAL PRIMING IN A MATCHING TASK: A COMPARISON ACROSS THREE MODALITIES
- Author:
- ARMENGOL DE LA MIYAR, CARMEN GUADALUPE
- Physical Description:
- 123 pages
- Additional Creators:
- Pennsylvania State University
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- Summary:
- Two current opposing formulations of imagery view it as either an epiphenomenon resulting from the activation of abstract memory codes (e.g. Pylyshyn), or as modality-specific and possessing emergent properties different from abstract representations (e.g. Kosslyn). Posner and Mitchell (1967) provided an experimental paradigm with data suggesting that incoming stimuli contact several memory codes at different levels of abstraction. This study attempted an investigation of code specificity in imagery through the application of the matching paradigm. Subjects were first asked to compare two musical instruments presented either visually (i.e. a picture), auditorily (the sound of an instrument), or auditorily by name. The subject's task was to judge whether the instruments were the same regardless of presentation modality. Evidence in support of matching at different levels of abstraction was obtained. This was true for both the perceptual and imagery conditions. In the latter case, subjects were asked to imagine the first stimulus of the pair in a given modality. The data support the view that images can be modality specific and that they cannot be explained as epiphenomena of mental activity. As part of these result patterns substantial judgement time differences were observed. For example, in both imagery and perceptual conditions, reaction times averaged at least 91 msecs. less for identical decision pairs than for the fastest same instrument/different modality perceptual pairs. Statistical reliability of the key conceptual results was demonstrated through analyses of variance and planned comparisons. Other findings relate to issues of visual dominance, the process of establishing a common code in cross-modal comparisons and the nature of that code, the role of mental effort in code generation, and the usefulness of self-report measures of imagery. It was argued that under imagery multiple codes were accessed in a preparatory fashion, but that a hierarchy of code readiness might also be in operation, given the pattern of results in the imagery condition, and the lower latencies for cross-modal matches in imagery. The implications of these results for the role of mental effort and central attentional systems in the generation and utilization of expectancies are discussed.
- Other Subject(s):
- Dissertation Note:
- Ph.D. The Pennsylvania State University 1985.
- Note:
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-12, Section: B, page: 4432.
- Part Of:
- Dissertation Abstracts International
46-12B
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