Mental image reversal and verbal recoding: When ducks become rabbits

Abstract

A recent debate has concerned whether classical bistable configurations (e.g., duck/rabbit) can be reinterpreted using mental imagery. Research in this field indicates that image reversal is possible only when subjects change their specification of orientation. In a series of four experiments, we demonstrate that mental reversal of classical bistable configurations( CBCs) is impeded by verbally recoding the visual pattern at the time of input. When subjects were prevented from verbally recoding visual stimuli in short-term memory, they fared systematically better in mentally reversing the CBC, even when they received no instructions to change their reference frame or specification of orientation. On this basis, we suggest a model of image reversal that takes into account the interaction between memory codes and provides a new perspective on verbal recoding, verbal overshadowing, and mental discoveries

Implicit motor learning of a balancing task

“…Similar improved performances for non-verbal tasks have been reported by Brandimonte et al when the verbal system is engaged [28][29][30]. A series of studies investigated the effects of a concurrent verbal task, articulatory suppression, during the learning of a new visual stimulus on subsequent performance of imagery manipulation tasks.…”

Imagery and memory illusions

“…People make a selection of the details which are integrated and maintained in their mental images. For instance, in the famous Chambers and Reisberg study (1985;Chambers and Reisberg 1992;Brandimonte and Gerbino 1993) the subjects had to reinterpret their mental images elaborated from an ambiguous drawing from which it is possible to identify two animals: a rabbit and a duck. In this experiment, subjects first saw the drawing (for instance some of them identified a rabbit) and they were instructed to keep in mind a mental image of this drawing.…”

Are Theories of Imagery Theories of Imagination? An Active Perception Approach to Conscious Mental Content

“…It has been shown that reinterpreting the "reversible figures" depends on shifting the focus of visual attention across the picture (Tsal & Kolbert, 1985), and Kosslyn (1994) explicitly holds that we can spatially shift our attention across the visual buffer; nevertheless, it is easy to reinterpret the duck-rabbit picture and very hard to reinterpret its image. True, it has now been shown that images of certain rather different figures can be reinterpreted somewhat more easily, and that under special conditions even images of the duck-rabbit and its ilk can sometimes be reversed (Finke, Pinker, & Farah, 1989;Peterson, Kihlstrom, Rose, & Glisky, 1992;Brandimonte & Gerbino, 1993;Cornoldi, Logie, Brandimonte, Kaufmann, & Reisberg, 1996). Nevertheless, this work does nothing to undermine the integrity of the original results, and others like them.…”