Search results for "Pictorialism"

Visual Imagery, Mental Models, and Reasoning

2006

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 pictoriali…