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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Visual Imagery, Mental Models, and Reasoning

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Abstract: The focus of this paper is the relation between Steven Kosslyn’s visual mental images and Johnson-Laird’s mental models. Knauff et al. presented empirical evidence and a challenging argument for the hypothesis that in fact “visual imagery impedes reasoning.” I argue that these results may look embarrassing for pictorialists, but closer inspection suggests that they are actually harmless. I argue that the presented evidence fails to show that imagery impedes reasoning. I present some objections to the explanation proposed by Knauff and Johnson-Laird by pointing out some terminological and conceptual problems. Afterwards, I sketch an alternative explanation, which is more pictorialist in spirit. In fact, even from the view of pictorialism, the results are not as surprising as they may seem at first blush. Finally, I claim that mental models and visual images are not as different as typically assumed.