THISARTICLE REVIEWS RESEARCH ON HOW people use mental models of images in an information retrieval environment. An understanding of these cognitive processes can aid a researcher in designing new systems and help librarians select systems that best serve their patrons. There are traditionally two main approaches to image indexing: concept-based and content-based (Rasmussen, 1997). The concept-b...

A principle characteristic of public speaking anxiety relates to intrusive mental images of potential future disasters. Previous research has found that the self-reported emotionality of such "flashforwards" can be reduced by a cognitively demanding, dual-task (e.g., making eye movements) performed whilst holding the mental image in-mind. The outcome measure in these earlier studies was partici...

Mental rotation involves transforming a mental image of an object so as to accurately predict how the object would look if it were rotated in space. This study examined mental rotation in male and female 3-month-olds, using the stimuli and paradigm developed by Moore & Johnson (2008). Infants were habituated to a video of a 3-dimensional object rotating back and forth through a 240° angle aroun...

Body image disturbances are central to anorexia nervosa (AN). Previous studies have focused mainly on attitudinal and visual aspects. Studies on somatosensory aspects thus far have been scarce. We therefore investigated whether AN patients and controls differed in tactile perception, and how this tactile body image related to visual body image and body dissatisfaction. The Tactile Estimation Ta...

Objective. To investigate the predictive value of type 2 diabetes and lack of physical activity for mental health and health-related quality of life after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Method. Forty severely obese patients undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass were included in the GASMITO study. Information about physiological and psychological factors was prospectively assessed at four time points, ...

There has long been considerable controversy over the ontological status of mental images. Most recently, members of the A.I. community have argued for the sufficiency of "propositional representation" and have resisted the notion that other sorts of representations are functional in the human mind. The purpose of this paper is to review what I take to be the best evidence that images are disti...

We propose a strategy of how to construct useful mental images given that these are inexact. Inexactness is modelled as constructed image element (point) positions represented probabilistically, which leads to slight changes over time in the spatial relations extracted from this image by inspection. This may make the extracted information unstable or even incorrect. We show that the proposed st...

This research was an attempt to replicate and extend a published study that reported a left hemispheric locus for the generation of mental images. Several methodological problems were addressed, the stability of effects was assessed by repeating the experiment, and P300 latency was measured. A lateralized visual choice reaction time task was performed twice, once without the use of imagery and ...