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Individual Differences in the Control of Imagery Processing: Knowing How, Knowing When, and Knowing Self

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Imagery and Related Mnemonic Processes

Abstract

Scientists have studied individual differences in imagery for well over a hundred years (e.g., Galton, 1880). During all this time, theorists have favored data-driven models in explaining imagery differences, such as those that assume the differences result from either the latency or the perceptual clarity with which images are formed. These data-driven models have had little to say about the role that prior knowledge or belief systems play in producing individual variability in image arousal or effectiveness. To emphasize the importance of concept-driven components, Katz (1983) proposed an interactive model in which he postulated that imaginal effectiveness results, in part, from the conjoint influence of three related knowledge states. These states can be characterized as “how-to knowledge,” “when-to knowledge,” and “self-knowledge.” The goal of the interactive model is to undrstand when and how people use imagery meditators in their everyday activities. From this perspective, the research questions of interest revolve around the conditions under which imaginal processes are spontaneously employed. The present chapter is directed at separately examining the three knowledge states suggested by the model as they relate to money-relevant situations. We should begin with a warming: imagery effects in memory have been widely discussed in the 15 years since the epochal book by Paivio (1971) and yet there is a relative paucity of research performed on the type of question to which we are directed by the interactional model. In this chapter the relevant literarure is reviewed.

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  1. Albert N. Katz
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, 46556, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA

    Mark A. McDaniel

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5C2, Ontario, London, Canada

    Michael Pressley

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Katz, A.N. (1987). Individual Differences in the Control of Imagery Processing: Knowing How, Knowing When, and Knowing Self. In: McDaniel, M.A., Pressley, M. (eds) Imagery and Related Mnemonic Processes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4676-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4676-3_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9111-4

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