Knowledge And Visual Imagery

1. Consider the pervasiveness of priming in our everyday lives. For example, have you ever had the experience of watching a horror movie and then noticed how an unexplained “creaky” noise in the house seemed ominous? How do expectations that we bring to contexts or situations benefit us, facilitating our perception and memory? How are we hindered when our expectations are violated? What does the pervasiveness of priming tell us about human cognition?

2. Look at an object for a minute; then look away, create a mental image of it, and draw a sketch of the object based on your mental image. Then draw a sketch of the same object while you are looking at it. What kinds of information about the object in the imagery drawing were omitted, compared to the sketch you made while looking at the object? Why do you think they were omitted? How does this relate to the phenomenon of “change blindness” that we studied earlier?