The Symbolic Nature of Visual Imagery

The i s sue is whe the r human v i s u a l imagery can be r e p r e s e n t e d by symbo l i c s t r u c t u r e s and p r o c e s s e s . P r o t o c o l s o f t he t a s k o f i m a g i n i n g a pa th i n space were ana l yzed u s i n g a p r o d u c t i o n system i n t e r p r e t e r . A d e t a i l e d s i m u l a t i o n o f the s u b j e c t ' s b e h a v i o r w i t h i n t h e c o n f i n e s of a symbo l i c s h o r t t e r m memory (STM) demons t ra tes t h a t symbol s t r u c t u r e s a re s u f f i c i e n t t o e x p l a i n imag ing b e h a v i o r . The e x p e r i e n c e o f p rog ramming w i t h p r o d u c t i o n s and a homogeneous STM has b r o u g h t ou t t he impo r tance o f a c o n t r o l language when u s i n g a n u n s t r u c t u r e d r u l e sys tem. D e s c r i p t o r s : c o g n i t i v e p s y c h o l o g y , c o g n i t i v e r e p r e s e n t a t i o n , v i s u a l image ry , v i s u a l e n c o d i n g , p r o t o c o l a n a l y s i s , s i m u l a t i o n , p r o d u c t i o n sys tems.