Image and Mind

Image and Mind is, in a sense, like a great novelit can be read and appreciated from many different viewpoints: it is an account of the authors experiments, some of the cleverest in cognitive psychology. It contains a comprehensive theory of the imagery system with some novel standards of evaluation. It summarizes the methods and results of a computer simulation of the imagery system. It is a storehouse of ideas for the developmental psychologist. It is a treatise on the philosophy of science, with a number of ideas that will be new to many psychologists. Finally, it is a philosophical statement of the nature of mental events In summary, Image and Mind is undoubtedly a landmark in cognitive psychology. It has served to define a field: to state the issues, to indicate important unsolved problems, to provide a fairly comprehensive theory of imagery, and to provide a model of how unobservable states can be studied and theorized about. * Contemporary Psychology * A very ambitious project to understand visual imagery from the perspective of modern experimental psychology. * American Journal of Psychology *

Stephen M. Kosslyn is John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James, Emeritus, at Harvard University and Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

1. A Research Program 2. The Debate about Imagery 3. Validating the Privileged Properties of Imagery 4. The Origins of Images 5. The Core Theory 6. Generating Visual Images 7. Inspecting Visual Images 8. Transforming Visual Images 9. Using Visual Images to Answer Questions 10. Imagery and Cognitive Development 11. Imagery in Perspective 12. Reflections and Refutations References Index