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Reconsidering the role of imagery in perception
1Department of Philosophy, York University.
Psychological Review
|January 8, 2026
Summary
This study challenges the Constitutive View, which posits that mental imagery constructs perception. Researchers argue this view relies on a flawed concept of imagery and offers little explanatory value for perceptual completion.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Philosophy of Mind
- Psychology
Background:
- Perception is a constructive process, integrating sensory input with internal representations.
- A recent movement suggests mental imagery significantly contributes to constructing these perceptual representations.
- The "Constitutive View" posits that perceptual representations routinely incorporate mental imagery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To challenge the Constitutive View of imagery's role in perception.
- To critique the expansive definition of mental imagery underpinning the Constitutive View.
- To re-evaluate the relationship between perceptual completion and mental imagery.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of the Constitutive View and its underlying definition of mental imagery.
- Examination of phenomena like perceptual completion to assess their relationship to mental imagery.
- Argumentation against the explanatory utility of construing perceptual completion as imagery.
Main Results:
- The expansive conception of mental imagery is problematic and lacks psychological unity.
- Construing perceptual completion as a form of mental imagery offers limited explanatory power.
- The constructive nature of perception is better understood independently of mental imagery.
Conclusions:
- The Constitutive View of imagery's role in perception is not well-supported.
- A more parsimonious explanation of perception's constructive aspects exists without invoking mental imagery.
- Perceptual processes should be understood on their own terms, distinct from mental imagery.
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