Cogprints

Experience and Theory as Determinants of Attitudes toward Mental Representation: The Case of Knight Dunlap and the Vanishing Images of J.B. Watson

Thomas, Nigel J. T. (1989) Experience and Theory as Determinants of Attitudes toward Mental Representation: The Case of Knight Dunlap and the Vanishing Images of J.B. Watson. [Journal (Paginated)]

This is the latest version of this eprint.

Full text available as:

[img] HTML
61Kb

Abstract

Galton and subsequent investigators find wide divergences in people's subjective reports of mental imagery. Such individual differences might be taken to explain the peculiarly irreconcilable disputes over the nature and cognitive significance of imagery which have periodically broken out among psychologists and philosophers. However, to so explain these disputes is itself to take a substantive and questionable position on the cognitive role of imagery. This article distinguishes three separable issues over which people can be "for" or "against" mental images. Conflation of these issues can lead to theoretical differences being mistaken for experiential differences, even by theorists themselves. This is applied to the case of John B. Watson, who inaugurated a half-century of neglect of image psychology. Watson originally claimed to have vivid imagery; by 1913 he was denying the existence of images. This strange reversal, which made his behaviorism possible, is explicable as a "creative misconstrual" of Dunlap's "motor" theory of imagination.

Item Type:Journal (Paginated)
Keywords:Behaviorism, introspection, image, imagery, Watson, Dunlap
Subjects:Psychology > Cognitive Psychology
Philosophy > Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy > Philosophy of Science
ID Code:5019
Deposited By: Thomas, Nigel James Treharne
Deposited On:01 Aug 2006
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:56

Available Versions of this Item

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Abelson, R.P. (1979). Imagining the purpose of imagery. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2, 548-549.

Anderson, J.R. (1978). Arguments concerning representations for mental imagery. Psychological Review, 85, 249-277.

Anderson, J.R. (1979). Further arguments concerning representations for mental imagery: A response to Hayes-Roth and Pylyshyn. Psychological Review, 86, 395-406.

Anderson, J.R., & Bower, G.H. (1973). Human associative memory. New York: Wiley.

Basso, A., Bisiach, E., & Luzzatti, C. (1980). Loss of mental imagery: A case study. Neuropsychologia, 18, 435-442.

Beloff, J.. (1977). Historical overview. In B. B. Wolman (Ed.), Handbook of Parapsychology, (pp. 3-24). New York: Van Nostrand & Reinhold.

Block, N. (1983). Mental pictures and cognitive science. Philosophical Review, 92, 499-539.

Bugelski, B.R. (1984). Imagery. In R.J. Corsini (Ed.), Encyclopædia of psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 185-187). New York: Wiley.

Burnham, J.C. (1968). On the origins of behaviorism. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 4, 143-151.

Cohen, D. (1979).J. B. Watson - the founder of behaviorism: A biography. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Danto, A.C. (1958). Concerning mental pictures. Journal of Philosophy, 55, 12-20.

Denis, M., & Carfantan, M. (1985). People's knowledge about images. Cognition, 20, 49-60.

Dennett, D.C. (1978). Brainstorms. Hassocks, Sussex, U.K.: Harvester.

DiVesta, E.J., Ingersoll, G., & Sunshine, P. (1971). A factor analysis of imagery tests. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 10, 471-479.

Dunlap, K. (1912a). The case against introspection. Psychological Review, 19, 404-413.

Dunlap, K. (1912b). A system of psychology. New York: Scribners.

Dunlap, K. (1914, March). Images and ideas. Johns Hopkins University Circular, 3, 25-41.

Dunlap, K. (1932). Knight Dunlap. In C. Murchison (Ed.), A history of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 2, pp. 35-61). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.

Finke, R.A., & Schmidt, M.J. (1978). The quantitative measure of pattern representation in images using orientation-specific color aftereffects. Perception & Psychophysics, 23, 515-520.

Galton, F. (1880). Statistics of mental imagery. Mind, 5, 301-318.

Galton, F. (1883). Inquiries into human faculty and its development. London: Macmillan.

Haber, R.N. (1970). Imagine! They are finally talking about images again. Contemporary Psychology, 15, 556-559.

Hamilton, E., & Cairns, H. (Eds.). (1961). The collected dialogues of Plato (including the letters). New York: Pantheon.

Hannay, A. (1971). Mental images - a defence. London: Allen & Unwin.

Hebb, D.O. (1968). Concerning imagery. Psychological Review, 75, 466-477.

Hebb, D.O. (1969). The mind's eye. Psychology Today, 2, 54-57, 67-68.

Hinton, G. (1979). Some demonstrations of the effects of structural descriptions in mental imagery. Cognitive Science, 3, 231-250.

Holt, R.R. (1964). Imagery: The return of the ostracized. American Psychologist, 19, 254-266.

Huer, E, Fischman, D., & Reisberg, D. (1986). Why does vivid imagery hurt color memory? Canadian Journal of Psychology, 40, 161-175.

Humphrey, G. (1951). Thinking. London: Methuen.

Intons-Peterson, M.J. (1983). Imagery paradigms: How vulnerable are they to experimenter's expectations? Journal of experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 9, 394-412.

James, W. (1904). Does "consciousness" exist? Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 1. [Reprinted in James, W. (1912). Essays in radical empiricism (pp. 1-38). New York: Longmans]

Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kaufmann, G. (1981). What is wrong with imagery questionnaires? Scandinavian journal of psychology, 22, 59-64.

Kessel, F.S. (1972). Imagery: A dimension of mind rediscovered. British Journal of Psychology, 63, 149-162.

Kosslyn, S.M. (1980). Image and mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kosslyn, S.M. (1981). The medium and the message in mental imagery: A theory. Psychological Review, 88, 46-66.

Kosslyn, S.M. (1983). Ghosts in the mind's machine: Creating and using images in the brain. New York: Norton.

Kosslyn, S.M., & Hatfield, G. (1984). Representation without symbol systems. Social Research, 51, 1019-1045.

Kosslyn, S.M., Pinker, S., Smith, G.E., & Shwartz, S.P. (1979). On the demystification of mental imagery. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2, 535-548.

Kosslyn, S.M., & Pomerantz, J.R. (1977). Imagery, propositions and the form of internal representations. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 52-76.

Kosslyn, S.M., & Shwartz, S.P. (1977). A simulation of visual imagery. Cognitive Science, 1, 265-295.

Lafuma, L., & Barnwell, H.T. (Eds.), (1973). Blaise Pascal: Pensées (J. Warrington, Trans.). London: Dent. (Original work published 1670)

Larson, C.A., & Sullivan, J.J. (1965). Watson's relation to Titchener. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 1, 338-354.

Lawrie, R. (1970). The existence of mental images. Philosophical Quarterly, 20, 253-257.

Lovejoy, A.O. (1914, March). On the existence of ideas. Johns Hopkins University Circular, 3, 42-99.

Marks, D.F. (1972). Individual differences in the vividness of visual imagery and their effects. In P. W. Sheehan (Ed.), The function and nature of imagery (pp. 83-108). New York: Academic Press.

Marks, D.F. (1973). Visual imagery differences in the recall of pictures. British Journal of Psychology, 64, 17-24.

Marks, D.F. (1981). Imagery, knowledge and the individual. Journal of Mental Imagery, 5, 47-50.

Marks, D.F. (1983a). In defense of imagery questionnaires. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 24, 243-246.

Marks, D.F. (1983b). Mental imagery and consciousness: A theoretical review. In A.A. Sheikh (Ed.), Imagery: Current theory, research, and application (pp. 96-130). New York: Wiley.

Marks, D.F. (1986). The neuropsychology of imagery. In D.F. Marks (Ed.), Theories of image formation (pp. 225-241). New York: Brandon House.

McMahon, C.E.(1973). Images as motives and motivators: A historical perspective. American Journal of Psychology, 86, 465-490.

Moran, T.P. (1974). The symbolic imagery hypothesis: An empirical investigation via a production system simulation of human behavior in a visualization task. Dissertation Abstracts International, 35, 55 1 B-552B. (University Microfilms No. 74-14, 657)

Moran, T.P. (1979). The imprecision of mental imagery. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2, 560.

Morris, P.E., & Hampson, P.H. (1983). Imagery and consciousness. London: Academic Press.

Nadaner, D. (1988). Visual imagery, imagination, and education. In K. Egan & D. Nadaner (Eds.), Imagination and education (pp. 198-207). Milton Keynes, U.K.: Open University Press.

Neisser, U. (1970). Visual imagery as process and as experience. In J.S. Antrobus (Ed.), Cognition and affect (pp. 159-178). Boston, MA: Little, Brown.

Neisser, U. (1972). Changing conceptions of imagery. In P.W. Sheehan (Ed.), The function and nature of imagery (pp. 234-251). New York: Academic Press.

Neisser, U. (1976). Cognition and reality. San Francisco: Freeman.

Neisser, U. (1979). Images, models, and human nature. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2, 561.

O'Donnell, J.M. (1985). The origins of behaviorism: American psychology, 1870-1920. New York: New York University Press.

Orne, M.T. (1962). On the social psychology of the psychology experiment: With particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications. American Psychologist, 17, 776-783.

Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Paivio, A. (1975). Imagery and synchronic thinking. Canadian Psychological Review, 16, 147-163.

Paivio, A. (1977). Images, propositions and knowledge. In J.M. Nicholas (Ed.), Images, perception and knowledge [Western Ontario Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 8] (pp. 47-71). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel.

Paivio, A. (1983). The empirical case for dual coding. In J.C. Yuille (Ed.), Imagery, memory and cognition: Essays in honor of Allan Paivio (pp. 307-332). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations: A dual coding approach. New York: Oxford University Press.

Palmer, S.E. (1978). Fundamental aspects of cognitive representation. In E. Rosch & B.B. Lloyd (Eds.), Cognition and categorization (pp. 259-303). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Price, H.H. (1953). Thinking and experience. London: Hutchinson.

Pylyshyn, Z.W. (1973). What the mind's eye tells the mind's brain: A critique of mental imagery. Psychological Bulletin, 80, 1-25.

Pylyshyn, Z.W. (1978). Imagery and artificial intelligence. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 9, 19-55.

Pylyshyn, Z.W. (1981). The imagery debate: Analogue media versus tacit knowledge. Psychological Review, 88, 16-45.

Reisberg, D., Culver, L.C., Huer, F., & Fischman, D. (1986). Visual memory: When imagery vividness makes a difference. Journal of Mental Imagery, 10, 51-74.

Richardson, A. (1969). Mental imagery. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Richardson, J.T.E. (1980). Mental imagery and human memory. London: Macmillan.

Roe, A. (1951). A study of imagery in research scientists. Journal of Personality, 19, 459-470.

Ross, W D. (Ed.). (1931). The works of Aristotle translated into English (Vol. 3). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ryle, G. (1949). The concept of mind. London: Hutchinson.

Ryle, G. (1979). On thinking. Oxford: Blackwell.

Sarbin, T.R., & Juhasz, J.B. (1967). The historical background of the concept of hallucination. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 3, 339-358.

Sartre, J.-P. (1966). The psychology of imagination. New York: Philosophical Library. (Original French edition, 1940)

Schlick, M. (1974). General theory of knowledge. Vienna: Springer-Verlag. (Translated from 2nd German edition, 1925; 1st German edition, 1918)

Sheehan, P.W. (Ed.). (1972). The function and nature of imagery. New York: Academic Press.

Sheehan, P.W., Ashton, R., & White, K. (1983). Assessment of mental imagery. In A.A. Sheikh (Ed.), Imagery: Current theory, research, and application (pp. 189-221). New York: Wiley.

Shepard, R.N. (1975). Form, formation and transformation of internal representations. In R.L. Solso (Ed.), Information processing and cognition: The Loyola symposium (pp. 87-122). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Shepard, R.N. (1978a). Externalization of mental images and the act of creation. In B.S. Randhawa & B.F. Coffman (Eds.), Visual learning, thinking and communication (pp. 133-189). London: Academic Press.

Shepard, R.N. (1978b). The mental image. American Psychologist, 33, 125-137.

Shepard, R.N. (1981). Psychophysical complementarity. In M. Kubovy & J.R. Pomerantz (Eds.), Perceptual organization (pp. 279-341). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Shepard, R.N. (1984a). Ecological restraints on internal representation. Psychological Review, 91, 417-447.

Shepard, R.N. (1984b, April). How the mind reflects the world. Paper presented at the University of California Cognitive Science Seminar, Berkeley, CA.

Shepard, R.N., & Cooper, L A. (1982). Mental images and their transformations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Shepard, R.N., & Podgorny, P. (1978). Cognitive processes that resemble perceptual processes. In W. K. Estes (Ed.), Handbook of learning and cognitive processes (pp. 189-237). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Simon, H.A. (1972). What is visual imagery: An information processing interpretation. In L. W. Gregg (Ed.), Cognition in learning and memory (pp. 183-204). New York: Wiley.

Skinner, B.F. (1953). Science and human behavior New York: Free Press.

Skinner, B.F. (1976). About Behaviorism. New York: Vintage. (Original edition, Knopf, 1974)

Sommer, R. (1978). The mind's eye. New York: Delacorte Press.

Targ, R., & Puthoff, H. (1974). Information transfer under conditions of sensory shielding. Nature, 251, 602-607.

Thomas, N.J.T. (1987). The psychology of perception, imagination and mental representation,and twentieth century philosophies of science. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Leeds, Leeds, U.K. (ASLIB Index to Theses, 37-iii, 4561)

Watson, J.B. (1903). Animal education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Watson, J.B. (1910). The new science of animal behavior. Harper's Monthly Magazine, 12O,346-353.

Watson, J.B. (1913). Image and affection in behavior Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 10, 421-428.

Watson, J.B. (1914). Behavior: An introduction to comparative psychology. New York: Holt.

Watson, J.B. (1919). Psychology from the standpoint of a behaviorist (1st ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott.

Watson, J.B. (1924). Psychology from the standpoint of a behaviorist (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott.

Watson, J.B. (1928). The ways of behaviorism. New York: Harper.

Watson, J.B. (1930). Behaviorism (rev. 2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Watson, J.B. (1936). John Broadus Watson. In C. Murchison (Ed.), A history of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 3, pp. 271-281). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.

Watson, J.B. (1961). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. In T. Shipley (Ed.), Classics in psychology (pp. 798-821). New York: Philosophical Library. (Reprinted from Psychological Review, 1913, 20, 158-177)

Wittgenstein, L. (1960). The blue and brown books (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.

Yuille, J.C. (1983). The crisis in theories of mental imagery. In J.C. Yuille (Ed.), Imagery, memory and cognition: Essays in honor of Allan Paivio (pp. 263-284). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.