University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Relationships and meanings are represented by abstract symbols or statements. The image is an example of a propositional representation of a boat.

Propositional representation

A representation in which different parts of an image are located at different places in space.

Spacial representation

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Difference between spatial and propositional representation 

A debate in psychology beginning in the 1970s about whether imagery is created by spacial mechanisms  (involved in perception) or propositional mechanisms (involved in language). Most evidence supports spacial mechanisms being involved in mental imagery.

Imagery debate

Representations of realistic images of some object.

Depictive representation 

In a 1978 study, Stephen Kosslyn asked his subjects to imagine and animal and then to imagine that they were walking towards it. The goal was to see how close they could get to the animal and still be able to imagine it. They found that similarly to external visual stimuli, the closer they got, the harder it was to discern what the image was. In addition, larger animals were harder to imagine close up than smaller animals (similar to external visual stimuli). These findings supported the spatial representation of imagery).

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