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Motor Imagery Performance Through Embodied Digital Twins in a Virtual Reality-Enabled Brain-Computer Interface Environment

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Published on: May 10, 2024

New Percepts via Mental Imagery?

Fred W Mast¹, Elisa M Tartaglia, Michael H Herzog

¹Department of Psychology, University of Bern Bern, Switzerland ; Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern Bern, Switzerland.

Frontiers in Psychology

|October 13, 2012

Summary

Mental imagery allows extracting hidden details from visual memory, but true perceptual learning requires actual perception. Mental imagery training can improve visual perception within existing frameworks.

Keywords:

ambiguous figure bisection combinatorics interpolation mental rotation perceptual learning top-down processing

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

Mental imagery allows detailed information extraction from visual memory, leading to novel interpretations.
Previous research demonstrated that mental imagery can induce perceptual learning, enhancing visual discrimination abilities.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the extent to which mental imagery can lead to new perceptual experiences.
To differentiate between discoveries within existing mental models and truly novel perceptual learning.

Main Methods:

Participants underwent extensive mental imagery training involving imagining visual stimuli.
The impact of this mental imagery training on subsequent visual perception was assessed.

Main Results:

Mental imagery training enhanced observers' ability to perceive previously invisible visual details.
These improvements were constrained, suggesting they occurred within established perceptual models.

Conclusions:

Mental imagery can facilitate perceptual learning and refine existing perceptual capabilities.
However, truly novel perceptual experiences, or learning beyond current frameworks, are primarily driven by direct sensory perception.