Mental Representations
Mental Representations - Related Videos
05:56
Mental Rotation
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2023
Source: Laboratory of Jonathan Flombaum—Johns Hopkins University Visual mental imagery refers to the ability to conjure images in one’s mind’s eye. This allows people to process visual material above and beyond the constraints of a current point-of-view; for example, a person could imagine, using their mind’s eye, how something might look in a different color, or what it would look like if it were made from a different material or rotated and seen from a different perspective. Mental imagery...
35:03
Mental Status Examination
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2023
Source: Carmen Black, Matthew Goldenberg, and Jaideep Talwalkar; Yale School of Medicine The mental status exam is a clinical evaluation of emotional, perceptual, and cognitive functioning that spans both the fields of psychiatry and neurology. Developing skill in the psychiatric portions of the examination are important to describe salient aspects of the patient's mental state that may be observed during routine history and/or physical exam. Proficiency in the cognitive portions of this...
01:27
State Space Representation
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2024
The frequency-domain technique, commonly used in analyzing and designing feedback control systems, is effective for linear, time-invariant systems. However, it falls short when dealing with nonlinear, time-varying, and multiple-input multiple-output systems. The time-domain or state-space approach addresses these limitations by utilizing state variables to construct simultaneous, first-order differential equations, known as state equations, for an nth-order system. Consider an RLC circuit, a...
01:16
Control Volume and System Representations
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2025
Two key frameworks are employed to analyze mass, energy, and momentum transfer: the control volume approach and the system approach. These frameworks offer different perspectives, depending on whether the focus is on a specific region in space (control volume approach) or a defined mass of fluid (system approach). The control volume approach considers a stationary region in space through which fluid flows. This region is bounded by a control surface. For instance, in the case of water flowing...
01:28
Graphical Representation of Inequalities
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2025
The graph of the equation where y equals x squared forms a curve known as a parabola. This curve acts as a boundary in the coordinate plane, dividing it into distinct regions based on the relative position of points.When the equality sign in the equation is replaced with an inequality—such as greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, or less than or equal to—the graphical representation changes from a single curve into a broader shaded area that signifies the set of all points...
FAQs
They are shaped by several information sources rather than by perception alone. Sensory input supplies current information, while language, memories, and prior knowledge help organize and interpret it. This combination allows people to compare new information with what they already know, supporting cognition when an object, event, or relationship is not immediately present.
Attention affects which aspects of information receive processing, while memory contributes information that can be retrieved and integrated with new input. Differences in either process can therefore alter how accurately information is organized and later used. Psychology researchers examine these influences to understand variation in perception, learning, reasoning, and decision-making.
Their usefulness depends on more than storing information. People can retrieve representations, compare them, and mentally manipulate them while working through a problem or evaluating a choice. These operations help cognition extend beyond immediate sensory input and contribute to reasoning, categorization, decision-making, and communication.
Researchers investigate them through tasks involving perception, mental imagery, categorization, problem-solving, and decision-making. These tasks examine how participants organize information, retrieve it, compare alternatives, or use it to guide responses. Taken together, the outcomes help researchers study representation accuracy, flexibility, and the effects of attention and memory.
They are relevant whenever researchers examine how people acquire, organize, retrieve, or use information. In learning, representations help explain how new material relates to prior knowledge. In communication, they provide a way to study how language connects with concepts and relationships. The same framework also supports research on reasoning and decision-making.
Mental representations provide a common focus for studying mental imagery and language processing, because both concern how information is organized and accessed in cognition. Researchers also examine them in cognitive disorders to identify differences in representation or use. This work can be considered alongside research in artificial intelligence and individual differences in cognition.