On the Cognitive Function of Visual Images and the Development of Individual Differences

Abstract

The hypothesis that mental images are the building blocks from which imaginative thoughts are constructed, although often uncritically accepted, is not supported by the many studies finding no significant correlation between visual imaging abilities and visual problem-solving skills. Based on the alternative hypothesis that visually imaged sensations are constructed from “imageless thoughts,” the present research correlates the ability to image with the ability to develop rules of perceptual equivalence, by constructing imaginal sensations from the rules and testing them against perceptual sensations. Specifically, in this research 60 students were instructed to figure out the rules of topological equivalence which allow a figure to be rotated and stretched and twisted into a topologically equivalent figure but do not allow it to be cut or glued together. As predicted, the results showed that the 30 students whose instructions encouraged them to construct visual “test images” were better at identifying which two figures, out of three, were topologically equivalent. In addition, the results showed that students whose visual images were more vivid and more prevalent at the end of the experiment were better at identifying topologically equivalent figures. Finally, they showed that figuring out topological rules increased the vividness of students' imagery.