Debate over whether mental images are visual or spatial representations is seen as based on the false premise that they must be one or the other. Visual neurophysiological research and experiments with a brain-damaged patient (impaired visual representations) suggest that mental imagery has distinct visual and spatial representation components.…

Several experiments were undertaken with a total of 111 undergraduates. Subjects attempted to imagine how three-dimensional novel wire objects would appear from viewpoints other than that of the subject. Subjects were unable to perform this task without making use of strategies that circumvent the process of visualization. (TJH)

Four experiments demonstrated that mental images are functionally equivalent to physical errors of movement in producing changes in visual-motor coordination, at both central and peripheral levels of the visual-motor system. Subjects observed or imagined pointing errors after pointing movements were completed. Imagery vividness ratings were also…

This paper examines the mental processes involved in inferring perspective changes resulting from the rotation of a spatial array or from the rotation of the viewer of that array. Under certain conditions, viewer-rotation problems become easy and array-rotation problems become difficult. Apparently, an array is fixed vis-a-vis the spatial context.…