The Spatial Reference Frame of Imagined Motion
Edelmann, M. & Dils, A.T. (2017). The spatial reference frame of imagined motion.
From the infancy of civilization to the modern day, human beings have been fascinated with the imagination and the seemingly limitless expanse of its influence. Statues, paintings, pottery, and other mediums have often been our outlet for our creative vision, and with those channels, we have created sights that the physical world has never seen. Mythical beasts like the monstrous hybrid chimaera or the seven-headed hydra, were likely vivid and detailed in the minds of Ancient Greeks despite these fantastical qualities. While the artists had a lack of reference for these impossible creatures, they were able to create vibrant, lifelike representations using only their mind’s eye.
This begs the question, how similar is our ability to internally generate visual imagery to our ability to perceive the world?
Could there be overlapping representations that support both vision and mental imagery? Or are these faculties neutrally separable?
Responsibilities
● Completed a comprehensive independent literature review on the shared neural mechanisms of mental imagery and vision, the motion aftereffect, and the cultural differences in spatial reference frames.
● Developed a research question based on literature: whether or not visual mental imagery in motion has the same spatial reference frame as actual vision.
● Designed an experiment based on research question: Do we process the motion aftereffect from mental imagery using an egocentric reference frame or environmental reference frame?
● Coded and analyzed data using Matlab, Microsoft Excel, and SPSS
Research Interests and Implications
● Examined what aspects of real visual motion are preserved in mental imagery, specifically the spatial reference frame using the motion aftereffect illusion as a physiological measure (egocentric or self-centered, or environmental)
● Used a custom-designed head tilt apparatus to control for an egocentric bias
● Results indicated a priming effect, which contradicted previous studies that demonstrated a motion aftereffect from mental imagery, indicating the weakness of the overall effect against rigorous controls
● Future studies would work to refine the head tilt paradigm to prevent degradation as well as strengthen the motion aftereffect with external stimuli such as visual or auditory guides