ESP and imagery in the sighted and the blind
ESP and imagery in the sighted and the blind
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Issue Date
1982
Authors
Gonzalez-Scarano, Frances
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Abstract
This thesis examines, both theoretically and experimentally, a proposed interaction between ESP and memory images. Memory images are defined according to Paivio's (1971) model of cognition, which basically postulates two systems of coding in memory: the imaginal and the verbal. The imaginal contains image units which are coded in the different sensory modalities available. The verbal contains language units represented by auditory-motor patterns of speech. Extensive research has supported the model's assumption of greater functional efficiency of the imaginal over the verbal system in the cognitive processing of information. The thesis discusses the mechanisms that provide this advantage, emphasizing those that involve concrete and abstract words. Concrete words, because of their double coding in both the imaginal and the verbal system, as well as because they have the organizational properties of the imaginal system at their disposition, have a more efficient role in facilitating memory and learning processes than abstract words. Also discussed is the relationship between perceptual experience and coding in the imaginal system. Individuals having a sensory deficit are expected to have an imaginal coding deficit in the corresponding modality, consequently showing a relative dominance of other modalities over the one lacking. In the case of individuals afflicted with total blindness before the visual processes are psychologically integrated into cognitive processes, a relative dominance of auditory memory images is expected. A final assumption discussed is the unconscious nature of memory images. A memory image activation does not necessarily produce a direct conscious representation of its activated contents. The correspondence between an unconscious memory image and its conscious representation can be affected by (non-cognitive) processes such as emotions. The measurement of this activation process is distinguished from the vividness variable, which specifically measures conscious imagery processes.
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Keywords
Blind and ESP , Extrasensory perception , Imagery (parapsychology)