Imagery and Cognitive Mapping Analysis - Essay Example

?Imagery and Cognitive Mapping Paper A of Imagery and Cognitive Mapping Cognitive mapping is described as visualization or imagining of how individuals make sense of a problem space (Hanington and Martin, 2012). Lee (2012) defines cognitive mapping as a process composed of several psychological changes by which a person obtains, codes, stores, remembers, and decodes information concerning the attributes of phenomena and relative locations in his daily spatial environment. It is most successful when utilized in the structuring of sophisticated issues and appraisal of decision-making. It is an information visualization method that can be utilized as a sense- and decision-making tool. The aim of cognitive mapping is to disclose how individuals think about an issue space, and visualize or imagine how they process and reason out their experience. As the map takes shape, the subjective patterns of reasoning of the participant can be exposed and the basis of the problem revealed (Hanington and Martin, 2012). Image is a generic term for all the conscious, subjective demonstrations of a quasi-sensory character; however, it is not used for non-perpetual character. Imagery is a crucial part of cognitive processes and a key feature of cognitive mapping process. Imagery is focused on the processing of spatial information. Visual information is critical in understanding the processes involved in imagery (Lee, 2012). Imagery experiences are well understood by individuals as copies, reconstructions, or echoes of actual, continuous experiences from their past. However, at other times, imagery experiences seem to anticipate possible and feared or desired future experiences. It is worth noting that imagery can happen with respect sensory modalities such as emotional feeling and acoustic perception (www.saylor.org, 2011). Common Applications of Imagery and Cognitive Mapping Imagery and cognitive mapping have a number of applications. Cognitive maps were particularly designed as decision-making tools that could inform strategic direction. Cognitive mapping can enable note-taking process during interviews, and during the transcription of text-based qualitative data. Cognitive mapping has been used for strategy and agenda development and during the production of group maps that join multiple points of view (Hanington and Martin, 2012). Cognitive mapping has also been applied in the tourism and recreation industry. This industry works hard to generate marketing materials that will favorably influence and manipulate a person’s cognitive representation of place. Travel and recreation have some environmental cognitive because individuals must orient, locate, and transverse recreation attractions and destinations. Cognitive mapping permits recreation resource manager the chance to identify where users regard the best recreation places are situated. It is also pertinent to note that cognitive mapping has been utilized in studying tourism and recreation related issues (Lankford, Scholl, Pfister, Lankford, and Williams, 2004). How Imagery and Cognitive Mapping Can Be Applied In the Improvement of Long-Term Memory Whatever enters the long-term memory may not be characterized by visual means, however, like visual displays; cognitive maps can assist in the formation of key associations and function as memory pegs. Any material that enters the long-term memory is encoded, and it is facilitated through elaboration, organization, and meaningfulness. Mental imagery just like cognitive maps fits how the long-term memory functions in some ways. Individuals use imagery to represent visual and spatial knowledge. Mental imagery fits in the recollection of concrete objects. Pictorial illustrations enhance or improve the learning of the student from text. Individuals utilize imagery to think about abstract magnitudes (Kinnes, 2011). Using pictures and concrete materials improves memory. Audiovisual aids enhance the learning process. Long-term memory can be improved by getting better at retrieval and encoding. It is worth noting that mental images have been found to be immensely helpful in connecting a pair of items that are unrelated. Visual and graphic displays like images assist long-term memory, which focuses on essentials, including the meanings. Cognitive maps are graphic organizers or graphic displays. They are pivotal in assembling massive amounts of information, hierarchical structuring, and merging spatial organization (Kinnes, 2011). Working memory for spatial and visual information consists of both a “quasi-pictorial representation structure for short-term storage and a structure that holds the underlying facts and controls their treatment in the image proper” (Barkowsky, 2001, p375). The specifics that are utilized in inducing mental image come from the long-term memory. They are retrieved for the formation of a mental image to think about some issues at hand. Retrieval from the long-term memory is thought to be done through the activation of stored portions of knowledge to make them clear for subsequent use, for instance, for mental imagery. Mental images consist of both facts retrieved from the long-term memory and developments of state of affairs not clearly contained in the memory (Barkowsky, 2001). Thus, proper understanding of how image and cognitive mapping works in the memory is crucial in developing ways of improving long-term memory. The Role of Mirror Neurons With Regard To Imagery, Cognitive Mapping, and Information Transfer The discovery of mirror neurons opened a fascinating and a new perspective on the issue of understanding and action perception. Mirror neurons were initially found in the monkey premotor cortex’s convexity. When the monkey observes another monkey or human performing similar action or when it performs a goal-directed motor act, the neurons are discharged. The discovery of these neurons had a strong effect on the theoretical accounts of understanding and action perception. Specifically, it was regarded a decisive item of evidence in favor of a collection of theories suggesting that the functional link between action and perception was an important mechanism entailed in higher cognitive function (Caggiano, Casile, and Ferrari, 2011). These theories indicate that the primates’ high visual sensitivity for the actions of conspecifics may be due, at least partly, to a functional link between the visual and motor systems. Specifically, according to the direct-matching hypothesis, monkeys or primates recognize activities when they map their visual representations against their correspondent’s internal motor representations. In other words, action understanding and perception are not only the outcome of abstract processes depending only on visual representations. On the other hand, the motor system of the observer is actively entailed in this process, and function of mirror neurons is to represent and probably recreate actions based on their motor goals (Caggiano, Casile, and Ferrari, 2011). References Barkowsky, T. (2001). Mental processing of geographic knowledge. In D. R. Montello (Ed.), Spatial information theory – Foundations of geographic information science (pp. 371-386). Berlin: Springer. Caggiano, V., Casile, A., & Ferrari, P. F. (2011). The mirror neuron system: A fresh view. Neuroscientist, XX(X), 1-15. doi: 10.1177/1073858410392239 Hanington, B., & Martin, B. (2012). Universal methods of design: 100 ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions. Rockport Publishers. Kinnes, T. (2011). Idea maps: Theory and evidence. Retrieved from http://oaks.nvg.org/nopre.html Lankford, S. V., Scholl, K., Pfister, R., Lankford, J., & Williams, A. (2004). Cognitive mapping: An application for trail management. Proceedings of the 2004 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Newton Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. Lee, S. (2012). Cognitive mapping research. Problems in Human-Environment Research, 172-188. www.saylor.org. (2011). Cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience/imagery. Retrieved from http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Imagery.pdf Read More