IUBio

what exactly happens when we imagine stuff ?

Pam Blundell pjw106 at york.ac.uk
Mon Feb 28 12:20:26 EST 2000


"ashwin kelkar" <ashwin_k18 at my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:88vi94$f3$1 at nnrp1.deja.com...
> no i don't mean to say that i see it running like a video clip but i
> can follow its path from first to last and do it again, i can rerun
> imagination about anything.
> although i agree that when i 'rerun' imagination it is not the same as
> before, there is some detail which i have forgotten or have added extra.
> you theory is very logical and i agree with it, this answers the
> question about conscious imagination, what about sub-conscious
> imagination like something which strikes us out of the blue ?? or is
> there no such thing as sub-conscious imagination ? and whatever happens
> strikes us when our conscious brain appreciates it ?
> for example dreams or ideas ?

On the subject of forming false memories of events, there is much work
looking at 'schemas' the idea being that in order to have ecomonical use of
memory, we have a set schema of an event, and only encode the way in which
specific events differ from that schema.  For example, subjects were put in
a waiting room, and then asked to recall objects from that room.  Subjects
recalled objects which were not actually there, but which often are present
in waiting rooms (ashtrays, magazines).  They had no trouble recalling
objects which are not usually present in waiting rooms.  There is some good
basic info on this sort of theory in a book called 'Cognitive psychology' by
Eysneck and Keane.

Pam.






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