The Case for Mental Imagery

The Case for Mental Imagery PDF Author: Stephen M. Kosslyn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195179080
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
When we try to remember whether we left a window open or closed, do we actually see the window in our mind? If we do, does this mental image play a role in how we think? For almost a century, scientists have debated whether mental images play a functional role in cognition. In The Case for Mental Imagery, Stephen Kosslyn, William Thompson, and Giorgio Ganis present a complete and unified argument that mental images do depict information, and that these depictions do play a functional role in human cognition. They outline a specific theory of how depictive representations are used in information processing, and show how these representations arise from neural processes. To support this theory, they seamlessly weave together conceptual analyses and the many varied empirical findings from cognitive psychology and neuroscience. In doing so, they present the conceptual grounds for positing this type of internal representation and summarize and refute arguments to the contrary. Their argument also serves as a historical review of the imagery debate from its earliest inception to its most recent phases, and provides ample evidence that significant progress has been made in our understanding of mental imagery. In illustrating how scientists think about one of the most difficult problems in psychology and neuroscience, this book goes beyond the debate to explore the nature of cognition and to draw out implications for the study of consciousness. Student and professional researchers in vision science, cognitive psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience will find The Case for Mental Imagery to be an invaluable resource for understanding not only the imagery debate, but also and more broadly, the nature of thought, and how theory and research shape the evolution of scientific debates.

The Case for Mental Imagery

The Case for Mental Imagery PDF Author: Stephen M. Kosslyn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195179080
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
When we try to remember whether we left a window open or closed, do we actually see the window in our mind? If we do, does this mental image play a role in how we think? For almost a century, scientists have debated whether mental images play a functional role in cognition. In The Case for Mental Imagery, Stephen Kosslyn, William Thompson, and Giorgio Ganis present a complete and unified argument that mental images do depict information, and that these depictions do play a functional role in human cognition. They outline a specific theory of how depictive representations are used in information processing, and show how these representations arise from neural processes. To support this theory, they seamlessly weave together conceptual analyses and the many varied empirical findings from cognitive psychology and neuroscience. In doing so, they present the conceptual grounds for positing this type of internal representation and summarize and refute arguments to the contrary. Their argument also serves as a historical review of the imagery debate from its earliest inception to its most recent phases, and provides ample evidence that significant progress has been made in our understanding of mental imagery. In illustrating how scientists think about one of the most difficult problems in psychology and neuroscience, this book goes beyond the debate to explore the nature of cognition and to draw out implications for the study of consciousness. Student and professional researchers in vision science, cognitive psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience will find The Case for Mental Imagery to be an invaluable resource for understanding not only the imagery debate, but also and more broadly, the nature of thought, and how theory and research shape the evolution of scientific debates.

Mental Imagery in Health Care

Mental Imagery in Health Care PDF Author: Helen Graham
Publisher: Nelson Thornes
ISBN:
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
The author shows how ancient and modern uses of imagery, backed by contemporary research and experience, can be applied to psychotherapy and bio medicine, including the field of psychoneuroimmunology. This introductory text traces the development of imaginative approaches and provides a guide to: the applications of imagery; indications and contraindications of its use; and guided imagery exercises directed to specific health issues.

Encyclopedia of Mental Imagery

Encyclopedia of Mental Imagery PDF Author: Gerald Epstein
Publisher: Gerald Epstein
ISBN: 1883148103
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Containing more than 2,100 original mental imagery exercises drawn from the work of the great 20th-century spiritual master and healer Colette Aboulker-Muscat, this manual of spiritual teaching and rich treasury of powerful healing images can be used as a daily source of inspiration, transformation, and healing.

Mental Imagery

Mental Imagery PDF Author: Joel Pearson
Publisher: Frontiers E-books
ISBN: 2889191494
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Our ability to be conscious of the world around us is often discussed as one of the most amazing yet enigmatic processes under scientific investigation today. However, our ability to imagine the world around us in the absence of stimulation from that world is perhaps even more amazing. This capacity to experience objects or scenarios through imagination, that do not necessarily exist in the world, is perhaps one of the fundamental abilities that allows us successfully to think about, plan, run a dress rehearsal of future events, re-analyze past events and even simulate or fantasize abstract events that may never happen. Empirical research into mental imagery has seen a recent surge, due partly to the development of new neuroscientifc methods and their clever application, but also due to the increasing discovery and application of more objective methods to investigate this inherently internal and private process. As the topic is cross hosted in Frontiers in Perception Science and Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, we invite researchers from different fields to submit opinionated but balanced reviews, new empirical, theoretical, philosophical or technical papers covering any aspect of mental imagery. In particular, we encourage submissions focusing on different sensory modalities, such as olfaction, audition somatosensory etc. Similarly, we support submissions focusing on the relationship between mental imagery and other neural and cognitive functions or disorders such as visual working memory, visual search or disorders of anxiety. Together, we hope that collecting a group of papers on this research topic will help to unify theory while providing an overview of the state of the field, where it is heading, and how mental imagery relates to other cognitive and sensory functions.

Theoretical and Clinical Applications

Theoretical and Clinical Applications PDF Author: Joseph E. Shorr
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1468411799
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
When discussion began four years aga about launehing the American Association for the Study of Mental Imagery there was still a great deal of skepticism on the part of many academic and clinical psychologists. They held to the gradually diminishing view that mental imagery was too idiosyncratic a subject for intensive study. However, there were sufficient visionaries to recognize the undeniable importance of imagery for the functioning of life in memory and the transmission of information. Through the valiant efforts of these pioneers in psychology, art and movement therapy, and others in the field of human relations the organization has grown and flourished. Even more important is the burgeoning of knowledge about the ubiquitous nature of imagery and its impact on life. The third annual meeting of AASMI was held in 1981 at Yale University under the sponsorship of president-elect Jerome L. Singer. Sixty-five persons presented papers, workshops and theoretical studies. This volume represents the broad array of topics and approaches offered at the conference. While it is informative and stimulating to read and study the articles in this volume they can convey only a fraction of the excitement and the knowledge available to those who attended the conference. The reader will reap a two-fold benefit from this volume, for not only does it cover a vast array of topics related to imagery, but it also offers the strong possibility that the results of these works can be included in one's daily work as a clinician and/or researcher.

Imagery

Imagery PDF Author: Joseph Shorr
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1468437313
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
Imagery--the miraculous quality that human beings use to re-evoke and reorganize perceptions--is no longer considered idio syncratic. It is an absolutely integral part of human development and motivation which gives substance to subjective meaning and realistic aostract thought. A necessary ingredient of the trans mission and development of human life, imagery must be understood and carefully studied to enhance our knowledge and our lives. The imaginations people have of one another and the imagina tion one has of oneself are composed of the stuff that we call imagery. To my way of thinking, there is waking imagery (consist ing of our stream of images while we are awake) and dream, or sleep imagery (consisting of all that goes on in our minds while asleep). Daydreaming, reverie, fantasy, hallucinations and unbidden images are forms of waking imagery. Dreams, nightmares, hypnogogic and hypnopompic images are all part of sleep imagery. To be aware of and to study the manifestations and complexity of waking imagery--which appears to function in an effortless, instantaneous and ubiquitous manner--is now considered a fit sub ject for study after a half century of denial. The interest in and study of imagery has been far more empha sized in Europe than in America. In Sweden, for example, all clinical training for psychologists includes major emphasis on the works of Hanscarl Leuner and my own work in imagery.

Imagery

Imagery PDF Author: J.A. Connella
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489908765
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
The fifth volume of Imagery emanates from the matrix of presentations offered after the conventions of the American Association for Mental Imagery for the years 1987 and 1988. The first meeting was held in Toronto; the second at Yale University. An overview of the presentations covered such a variety of subjects that we thought the subtitle would be most appropriately--Current Perspectives. For the first time in five volumes, two contributions are related to anthropological imagery by Caughey and Brink. John Caughey, whose book, Imaginary Social Worlds pioneered the social psychology approach to the silent inner imagination, offers a fine chapter in anthropological imagery of his own experiences with Sufi mystics in Pakistan and Micronesian Islanders in the Western Pacific compared to middle-class Americans. Nicholas Brink follows with a chapter on "The Healing Powers of the Native American Medicine Wheel. " Theoretical studies with interesting experimental designs are presented by Huneycutt, 'fA Functional Analysis of Imagined Interaction Activity in Everyday Life" by Kunzendorf and Hoyle on "Auditory Percepts, Mental Images and Hypnotic Hallucinations: Similarities and Differences in Auditory Evoked Potentials"; and by Giambia and Grodsky on "Task- Unrelated Images and Thoughts While Reading. " The relationship between creativity and mental imgery is presented by H. Rosenberg and W. Trusheim entitled, "Creative Transformations: How Visual Artists, Musicians and Dancers Use Mental Imagery in Their Work," and Colalillo-Kates discusses "Dreamjourneys: Using Guided Imagery and Transformational Fantasy With Children.

Therapeutic Games and Guided, Volume IIe Imagery

Therapeutic Games and Guided, Volume IIe Imagery PDF Author: Monit Cheung
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781935871446
Category : Child psychotherapy
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
Therapeutic Games and Guided Imagery is packed with tools for social workers counselors school professionals students and other helping professionals in the medical and mental health fields. The exercises included are both innovative and empirically tested; they aim to help clients increase the benefits of psychotherapy within a relatively short time. Professor Cheung has structured the books with tables and a cross-referenced index to facilitate easy and efficient navigation of the many step-by-step activities and exercises. The interactive exercises contained in Volume II are designed for children and adolescents with specific needs and in multicultural settings. Based on literature supporting the use of games and guided imagery for children with specific needs the materials included provide a basis for innovative and creative engagement with children and families enabling diverse solutions for diverse needs. The volume also includes a number of multilingual exercises and several examples of the guided imagery available at the associated website. Volume II features: Records of all of the guided imagery techniques are available for download and can be used in class or in practice sessionsemphasis on client and practitioner collaboration in designing more effective exercise modifications promotes creativity and flexibility in clinicianscites evidence-based literature to inform multicultural applications

Healing Images

Healing Images PDF Author: Anees Ahmad Sheikh
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351865439
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
"Healing Images: The Role of Imagination in Health" details the function and capacity of imagination in health. This work consists of 22 chapters and discusses theory, research, and clinical applications. Presented is a brief history of the use of imagery for healing in both Eastern and Western traditions, a review of research that deals with the physiological consequences of imagery and related approaches, and an explanation of how images lead to such bodily changes. "Healing Images" covers the latest theory and research on the relationship between imagery, cerebral laterality, and healing. An attempt is also made to integrate modern systems theory with concepts of information and energy, which disclose the role of imagery and love in health. Imagery and music in health are also discussed.

Music and Mental Imagery

Music and Mental Imagery PDF Author: Mats B. Küssner
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000789845
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
Drawing on perspectives from music psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, musicology, clinical psychology, and music education, Music and Mental Imagery provides a critical overview of cutting-edge research on the various types of mental imagery associated with music. The four main parts cover an introduction to the different types of mental imagery associated with music such as auditory/musical, visual, kinaesthetic, and multimodal mental imagery; a critical assessment of established and novel ways to measure mental imagery in various musical contexts; coverage of different states of consciousness, all of which are relevant for, and often associated with, mental imagery in music, and a critical overview of applications of mental imagery in health, educational, and performance settings. By both critically reviewing up-to-date scientific research and offering new empirical results, this book provides a unique overview of the different types and origins of mental imagery in musical contexts, various ways to measure them, and intriguing insights into related mental phenomena such as mind-wandering and synaesthesia. This will be of particular interest for scholars and researchers of music psychology and music education. It will also be useful for practitioners working with music in applied health and educational contexts.