The structure of visual and kinaesthetic imagery: A free association study

Abstract

A free association technique was used to investigate the semantic structure of three forms of encoding: verbal, visual imagery, and kinaesthetic imagery. Kinaesthetic imagery involves imagined bodily identification with the stimuli (animal names) and is included because of its possible involvement in creativity, and in view of the importance of enactive representation in cognitive development. The analysis of evoked associations in terms of the propositional relations they bear to the stimuli, shows that the actor-action-object framework is particularly important in kinaesthetic imagery, and the whole-part structure in visual imagery. Verbal representation gives rise to various abstract and phonemically based association types. The relevance of these findings to creativity and to the concept of semantic memory is discussed.

Free Associations Mirroring Self- and World-Related Concepts: Implications for Personal Construct Theory, Psycholinguistics and Philosophical Psychology

“…The exhaustive categorization process left no associations uncategorized. All categories were derived from an examination of the data (e.g., Aylwin, 1977 ). In the case, when a word can be assigned to more than one category, the prevailing meaning of the given word was employed.…”

The Role of Visual Imagery in Social Cognition

“…Visual Imagery -Libby & Eibach, p. 23 of 51 Later participants were asked to provide associations to each animal name. Those who had used visual imagery to study the animals were more likely to provide associations that related to physical features of the animals (e.g., dog à brown) whereas those who had used verbal processing were more likely to provide associations based on category membership (e.g., dog à animal) (Aylwin, 1977). Picturing the object leads people to understand its verbal label in terms of the specific instance that was visually represented, whereas thinking about the verbal label itself leads people to understand it in terms of its abstract meaning in relation to conceptual structures.…”

How to Grasp Environmental Complexities? Photographic Narratives and Environmental Concept Formation

“…The position represented here is not exclusive. Rather, it is advocated that the visual mode provides us with qualitatively different kinds of information compared with the verbal mode, and the different forms of representation lead to different associative patterns and constructions of reality (compare Aylwin 1977Aylwin , 1981Goldschmidt 1994;John-Steiner 1986), with the visual mode bearing great potential for the exploration of environmental issues. Gathering environmental information and developing understanding through image-driven media has been proposed in the literature for the environmental context (see, for example , Meagher 1995;Porter & Gleick 1990, p.6;Ryan 1993); photographic imagery serves as a strategy along with other creative mediums to learn about a particular landscape and the environment This study sought to identify in what way visual mental and photographic imagery can transform environmental constructs.…”