Psychology Imagery Mental Imagery Is a Cognitive

Psychology

Imagery

Mental Imagery is a cognitive process that very much resembles the human experience of perceiving an object, scene, or event when that object, scene or event is not present. Some educators think that the use of mental imagery can both enhance memorization and learning. If the learning process can emphasize visual, auditory and kinesthetic experiences, then teaching in multiple sensory processes benefits the potential for memory. Being able to mentally "see" the event, page, process, formula, musical notes, etc. often creates a more robust memory experience for the learner (Kosslyn, et.al, 2003).

The loci technique, or the memory palace, is a mnemonic device that allows for images or facts to be associated with physical locations. Cognitively, it relies on an individual's ability to memorize spatial relationships that give order, and then that order helps with recollection. The idea is that we can increase our chances of memorizing something if we associate that something with a familiar object -- or walk through the memory place to recall things (Carlson, 2010, pp. 245-6).

The pegging system helps memorize lists. It works by pre-memorizing a list of words that can easily be associated with numbers -- those are the pegs on the system. Pegs are sometimes used as subsets of the loci technique as well (e.g. pegs are items in rooms, rooms are loci in a house, the house is loci in a city, etc.). Peg lists remind the individual of what they should remember and allow a way to retrieve the items through linkage (Peg Method, 2011).

One way to help with memory for this writer is to create a mind map of the things that are important. In the center is a picture or easy drawing of the concept, with arrows and shapes going to and from the center as part of the bigger picture. The pictures can rhyme, be numbers, depending on what needs to be remembered. For example, to remember Plato's Allegory of the Cave, I would jot something down similar to this to understand how Plato saw individuals rising from slavery to the idea of the good. In my mind, each step has another image or destination, and if I think about the evolution of the person, I can better explain Plato.

Part 2 - A garden path sentence is a sentence that is grammatically correct but stated in a way that the person reading will likely misinterpret the actual meaning. Psychologists believe that as the person reads the sentence, they build up a scaffold of meaning one word at a time. At some point during the experience, the reader figures out that the next word or phrase cannot be incorporated into the structure they were building, and must find a new way to interpret the sentence. The idea of "late closure" says that new words or phrases are attached to the current clause being read. In other words, we assume that the new word we are reading is part of the current phrase. This principle can improve our writing and cognition skills by forcing us to slow down and "parse" the sentence into a more appropriate level of meaning and ensure that we do not have too many "run on" sentences, phrases, and that the sentences tie back to the paragraphs.

1. The pretty girl slammed through the window fell.

2. The wedding cake decorator made the bridal cake was quite complimented.

3. Be sure to make the students passed the swimming test retake and certify.

We can see from the syntax that the mind tends to add material to the sentence to make it both more understandable to the reader and to make syntax sense -- we tend to ignore the mistakes and fill in to make it linguistically correct. We use late closure as long as it makes sense, once it does not, then we try for another way to reset the sentence (Fliskowski, 2011).

Part 3 -- If the entire class were stranded on a desert isle, there are several things we would need to do to ensure that we survive:

Find a Water Supply

Find a way to make fire

Build or find a natural shelter

Find food -- either gather fruits, etc. Or find a way to hunt or fish

Convergent thinking is the ability to give a more correct answer to questions that do not require significant creativity. Convergent thinking is oriented towards single answers that are well-established, that make sense, and that are more appropriate as to a solution oriented outcome. Divergent thinking is more spontaneous, more stream of consciousness, more free flowing ideas that have multiple solutions and unexpected and rather creative, or "off the wall" solutions are given. Once the process of divergent thinking occurs, ideas are then structured to formulate convergent answers to specific problems. Divergent thinking is brainstorming, creativive thinking, and finding new answers (Strategies of Divergent Thinking, 2008).

In the case of the island, the process evolves. Certainly, the 4 basic parts of questions are more like Maslow's Hierarchy -- survival. That is convergent; finding the answers, though, on an unfamiliar island is divergent -- where to fish, how to find a way to hunt, what plants can we eat. Brainstorming would occur, and then after some exploration and fact finding, the divergence would come together to be convergent thinking about the tactical way of doing things in order to survive. On the island, divergent thinking would be strategic, convergent thinking would be tactical.

Part 4 -- Dan Gilbert, psychologist at Harvard, challenges the common idea that if we do not get exactly what we want, we will not be happy. Instead, humans tend to create their own happiness and it acts like a mental "immune system," protecting the psyche from harm and acting in a way that allows the neurochemicals in our brains to make ourselves happy. This happiness, or as Gilbert calls it, "synthetic happiness" is just as valid and we can create it ourselves, in our own way.

For example, frequency of good experiences is more important to the human mind than intensity -- if we have more positive experiences during our daily lives, a few things happen. First, we become accustomed to being happy, we rely on this, and our brains and bodies get used to being happy. Second, this happiness makes us more productive, more successful in relationships, and more healthy. We participate in more activities, we engender more positive experiences with others, and we actualize more wealth and kindness in our worlds.