Psychological Attitudes to Mental Imagery

Abstract

It is not always easy to understand or to appreciate the various ways in which psychologists choose to investigate mental imagery. Their methods are often abstruse and are occasionally bizarre. In common with much of the research which is carried out in experimental psychology, it is typically difficult to relate their investigations of psychological processes to the familiar, everyday situations in which ordinary folk believe those processes to be operating. In order to achieve some kind of appreciation of the activities of contemporary psychologists, it is vitally important to understand the historical development of the discipline. In particular, it is essential to realise the conceptual and methodological origins of current psychological research into mental imagery, if, on the one hand, one wishes to gain a proper evaluation of that research, and if, on the other hand, one wishes to put forward apposite criticisms of its foundations.