Visual Imagery: Its Psychophysiological Components and Levels of Information Processing

Abstract

The patterns of the psychophysiological components of visual imagery were investigated for three simple verbally-presented imagery stimuli, the letter P, pencil, and pasture, and the control stimulus go blank. The stimuli were assumed to represent different codes and levels of information processing based on McGuigan's model of neuro-muscular circuits. The responses shown by the EOG of horizontal and vertical eye movement activity, the EMG of lip and covert right arm movement, and to a lesser degree, the EEG of alpha activity in the right occipital area differentiated among the three stimuli and also the control stimulus. The results are seen as supporting the concept of images as mental phenomena with differential psychophysiological patterns involving peripheral and central stores of information processing.