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Visual Imagery (visual + imagery)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	66%
Psychology	16%

Selected Abstracts

Visual Imagery: Visual Format or Visual Content?

MIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 4 2010
DOMINIC GREGORY
It is clear that visual imagery is somehow significantly visual. Some theorists, like Kosslyn, claim that the visual nature of visualisations derives from features of the neural processes which underlie those episodes. Pylyshyn claims, however, that it may merely reflect special features of the contents which we grasp when we visualise things. This paper discusses and rejects Pylyshyn's own attempts to identify the respects in which the contents of visualisations are notably visual. It then offers a novel and very different account of what is distinctively sensory about the contents of sensory images. The paper's alternative account is used in explaining various pieces of phenomenological and behavioural data concerning visualisation. Finally, it is tentatively suggested that the proposed account of the contents of sensory images may also shed light upon some of the neurological data involving visualisation and sensory imagery more generally. [source]

Visual imagery and historical invisibility: Antonia Torelli, her husband, and his mistress in fifteenth-century Parma

RENAISSANCE STUDIES, Issue 3 2009
Timothy McCall
Antonia Torelli, married to the signore Pier Maria Rossi, remains historically invisible, generally ignored by scholars and obscured by the frescoed image of Rossi's mistress Bianca Pellegrini decorating Torrechiara castle, south of Parma. In this paper, I investigate the networks and spaces of power, at once personal and multilineal, that Torelli accessed, navigated, and created. Antonia's wealth enabled her to exercise considerable authority and to foster remarkable patronage in and around Parma while living between convent and città. Though her construction of camere at San Paolo, for instance, is significant in the context of interventions by the Rossi and Torelli in Parma's ecclesiastical networks, it is of even greater art historical importance when viewed as originating a series of aristocratic apartments at the convent culminating in Giovanna da Piacenza's camera painted by Correggio. Modern constructions of individual subjectivity, together with bourgeois notions of family and heteronormative love, have defined Antonia and Pier Maria as autonomous subjects acting only according to personal desires (read through an efficacious campaign of chivalric imagery); this study, however, underscores Antonia's agency and power even in the face of her ostensible representational absence and historical invisibility. [source]

Cognitive visual dysfunctions in preterm children with periventricular leukomalacia

DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 12 2009
ELISA FAZZI MD PHD
Aim, Cognitive visual dysfunctions (CVDs) reflect an impairment of the capacity to process visual information. The question of whether CVDs might be classifiable according to the nature and distribution of the underlying brain damage is an intriguing one in child neuropsychology. Method, We studied 22 children born preterm (12 males, 10 females; mean age at examination 8y, range 6,15y; mean gestational age 30wks, range 28,36wks) with periventricular leukomalacia, spastic diplegia, normal intelligence (mean Full-scale IQ 84; mean Verbal IQ 97; mean Performance IQ 74), and normal visual acuity, focusing on higher visual functions. Brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) were analysed to establish the presence of lesions along the primary optic pathway, in the occipitoparietal and occipitotemporal regions. Results, Most children displayed an uneven cognitive profile, with deficits in visual object recognition, visual imagery, visual,spatial skills, and visual memory, and sparing of visual associative abilities, non-verbal intelligence, and face and letter recognition. Conventional brain MRI did not document major alterations of parietal and temporal white matter, or cortical alteration of areas involved in visual associative functions. Interpretation, We suggest a widespread involvement of higher visual processing systems, involving both the ventral and dorsal streams, in preterm children with periventricular leukomalacia. The lack of major alterations on conventional MRI does not exclude the possibility of malfunctioning of higher visual processing systems, expressing itself through discrete CVDs. Possible mechanisms underlying these neuropsychological deficits are discussed. [source]

Effector-independent representations of simple and complex imagined finger movements: a combined fMRI and TMS study

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 12 2003
J. P. Kuhtz-Buschbeck
Abstract Kinesthetic motor imagery and actual execution of movements share a common neural circuitry. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used in 12 right-handed volunteers to study brain activity during motor imagery and execution of simple and complex unimanual finger movements of the dominant and the nondominant hand. In the simple task, a flexible object was rhythmically compressed between thumb, index and middle finger. The complex task was a sequential finger-to-thumb opposition movement. Premotor, posterior parietal and cerebellar regions were significantly more active during motor imagery of complex movements than during mental rehearsal of the simple task. In 10 of the subjects, we also used transcranial magnetic brain stimulation to examine corticospinal excitability during the same motor imagery tasks. Motor-evoked potentials increased significantly over values obtained in a reference condition (visual imagery) during imagery of the complex, but not of the simple movement. Imagery of finger movements of either hand activated left dorsal and ventral premotor areas and the supplementary motor cortex regardless of task complexity. The effector-independent activation of left premotor areas was particularly evident in the simple motor imagery task and suggests a left hemispherical dominance for kinesthetic movement representations in right-handed subjects. [source]

The rhetoric of popular Orangism, 1650,72

HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 196 2004
Jill Stern
During the period 1650,72, the Dutch Republic was without a stadtholder prince of Orange. This article examines the rhetoric of the supporters of the House of Orange throughout these years in relation to the common people of the Republic. Within this context, it investigates the arguments that Orangists used to justify the restoration of the stadtholderate, and examines how, at critical times, direct action by the commonalty was incited and justified. The article draws on the printed pamphlets of the period as well as on drama, poetry and visual imagery. [source]

The role of visual imagery in the enhanced cognitive interview: guided questioning techniques and individual differences,,

JOURNAL OF INVESTIGATIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND OFFENDER PROFILING, Issue 1 2004
Michael R. Davis
Abstract The cognitive interview utilises mnemonics and other techniques to facilitate obtaining information from victims and witnesses. Research has indicated superior recall to standard police interviews. However, there has been minimal research regarding the role of individual differences. One area that has generated spirited theoretical debate is imagery ability, as guided imagery questioning is an important part of the enhanced cognitive interview. Imagery is also arguably an integral part of several mnemonics employed in the technique. The present study investigated the role of individual differences in imagery ability, as well as the effect of explicit instructions to image, on recall performance. Participants completed the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), witnessed a film of a simulated crime, and were interviewed using the cognitive interview or a structured interview. While recall in the cognitive interview was superior, VVIQ scores had little relationship with recall of information. Further, recall elicited by guided imagery differed only minimally from that obtained using standard questioning in the structured interview. These results suggested that the relaxation and rapport building common to questioning in both interview conditions may evoke spontaneous imagery that is comparable to explicit instructions to image, regardless of individuals' inherent imagery ability. Future directions are discussed, including research focused on individual differences and a practical emphasis on context reinstatement and social facilitative techniques. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Visual Imagery: Visual Format or Visual Content?

Janus and Gender: Women and the Nation's Backward Look

NATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 4 2000
Tricia Cusack
This article considers how nations are imagined and characterised in relation to the national roles allocated to women, with particular reference to the early Irish state. It examines two related dichotomies, that between ,civic' and ,ethnic' nationalisms, and the concept of the nation itself as ,Janus-faced', simultaneously looking ahead to the future and back to the past. It has been suggested that women bore the burden of the nation's ,backward look' towards a putative traditional rural past and an organic community, while men appropriated the nation's present and future. This thesis is examined with reference to Ireland and the representation of women in visual imagery and travel writing. [source]

Carità e potere: representing the Medici grand dukes as ,fathers of the Innocenti'

RENAISSANCE STUDIES, Issue 2 2010
Diana Bullen Presciutti
In 1605, Roberto Antinori, prior of the Innocenti foundling hospital in Florence, commissioned marble busts of the first three Medici grand dukes for the hospital loggia. Several years later, he hired Bernardino Poccetti to fresco in the girls' refectory an ,Istoria degl'Innocenti', which included an idealized representation of the activities of the hospital under the watchful eyes of Cosimo II. The present study argues that these decorative projects worked together to shape an image of the grand dukes as ,fathers' of the foundlings of the Innocenti. In contrast to much of the scholarship on the grand dukes, which has focused on their use of visual imagery to achieve absolutist goals, I show how the image of Medici ,fatherhood' forged at the Innocenti, by articulating a construction of ruling authority in which the hospital and its young inmates played a constitutive role, served the interests of the hospital as much as it did those of the grand dukes. The paternal metaphor, which obligated the ,fathers of the Innocenti' to provide for their ,children', is elaborated most extensively in Poccetti's fresco, which represents Cosimo II as custodian of imperilled souls, supplier of nourishment, provider of education, and guardian of nubile chastity. [source]

Ego Boundaries, Shamanic-Like Techniques, and Subjective Experience: An Experimental Study

ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 1 2008
ADAM J. ROCK
ABSTRACT The subjective effects and therapeutic potential of the shamanic practice of journeying is well known. However, previous research has neglected to provide a comprehensive assessment of the subjective effects of shamanic-like journeying techniques on non-shamans. Shamanic-like techniques are those that demonstrate some similarity to shamanic practices and yet deviate from what may genuinely be considered shamanism. Furthermore, the personality traits that influence individual susceptibility to shamanic-like techniques are unclear. The aim of the present study was, thus, to investigate experimentally the effect of shamanic-like techniques and a personality trait referred to as "ego boundaries" on subjective experience including mood disturbance. Forty-three non-shamans were administered a composite questionnaire consisting of demographic items and a measure of ego boundaries (i.e., the Short Boundary Questionnaire; BQ-Sh). Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: listening to monotonous drumming for 15 minutes coupled with one of two sets of journeying instructions; or sitting quietly with eyes closed for 15 minutes. Participants' subjective experience and mood disturbance were retrospectively assessed using the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) and the Profile of Mood States-Short Form, respectively. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between conditions with regard to the PCI major dimensions of visual imagery, attention and rationality, and minor dimensions of imagery amount and absorption. However, the shamanic-like conditions were not associated with a major reorganization of the pattern of subjective experience compared to the sitting quietly condition, suggesting that what is typically referred to as an altered state of consciousness effect was not evident. One shamanic-like condition and the BQ-Sh subscales need for order, childlikeness, and sensitivity were statistically significant predictors of total mood disturbance. Implications of the findings for the anthropology of consciousness are also considered. [source]

Intuitions and introspections about imagery: the role of imagery experience in shaping an investigator's theoretical views

APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2003
Daniel Reisberg
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 Cognitive Science during the late 1970s and early 1980s. We examine the possibility that, during the early years of this debate, researchers' views were shaped by their own conscious experiences with imagery. Consistent with this suggestion, a survey of 150 psychologists, philosophers, and neuroscientists showed that those who experienced their own visual imagery as vivid and picture-like recall being more sympathetic in 1980 to the view that, in general, images are picture-like. Similarly, those who have vivid images and who regularly use their images in cognition were more inclined to believe that issues of image vividness deserve more research. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

THE PHANTASM OF AESTHETIC AUTONOMY IN WHISTLER'S WORK: TITLING THE WHITE GIRL

ART HISTORY, Issue 3 2006
AILEEN TSUI
This essay explores how James McNeill Whistler's design and titling of his painting The White Girl (1862) responded to the contradictions between his ideal of aesthetic autonomy and his concern to situate his work in the art markets of London and Paris. Attention to Whistler's ironic deployment of suggestive visual imagery and of titles associated with popular narratives leads to a re-evaluation of how the painting might have signified for viewers in 1862,3. The essay argues that Whistler negotiated conflicts between aesthetic purity and commercial concerns by designing and titling this canvas to function in different ways for what he posited as distinct audiences: an aesthetically sensitive elite and the general publics in London and Paris. The investigation of Whistler's titling tactics and their implications for his art's position within modernism is extended through analysis of new evidence found in previously unnoticed titular inscriptions on wood engravings after his designs. [source]