Memory Images

How many windows are on the front of your house?

How many windows are in your entire house?

Did you inwardly visualize the front of your house to answer the first question? Are you sure about your answer to the second question? Do you have to go outside and see? What is it like to inwardly visualize a familiar object or space? Did you literally "count" using the mental image, or was it more complicated than that? Could some other inner mechanism explain how you are able to remember certain facts about the visual appearance of places or objects?

When you remember where you left something, do you "see" it in your memory? Do memory images play an important part in your life or are they infrequent and unimportant? Some people claim to never have "images." Could people who have "no images" function as well as those who do? Consider this question:

IS LONDON WEST OF MOSCOW?
How would a person who had no memory image of a globe or world map be able to answer this question? Some psychological tests use questions such as this to "ensure" that memory images are used during the test and to try to understand the mechanism behind them.

The questions arising from the scientific attempt to discover the mechanism for memory images is presently the single most controversial topic the study of imagery -- and one of the most controversial in all of psychology. See the many documents associated with this topic at this web site.

 

Return to Introduction to Mental Images Page

Under Development. (This is a demonstration of the essentials of a well-known phenomenon. It does not (to my knowledge) follow a standard scientific test, nor could a Web environment easily provide one in any case. If you take the test, it will simply "give you the idea" of how this works -- and simply re-enforce something you already know intuitively. The "discovery" related to this phenomenon is described in Step 3.)

To try to demonstrate a mechanism of human memory:

STEP 1. Click here to start the test. (Do this ONLY ONCE! A screen will display for a very short period of time -- so, pay attention. In order to perform the experiment, you cannot know in advance what the experiment is intended to measure. So, just look at the screen. Don't try to "do" anything or "memorize it" when you look at it. When you are returned to this page, proceed to Step 2.)

STEP 2. Click here for the question about the test screen.

STEP3. Click here for explanation of the result.