Sima, J. F.
Cognitive Systems, University of Bremen, Germany
The nature of the mental representations and processes underlying human mental imagery has been one the most prominent open questions in cognitive science for decades and still remains unresolved today. We shed new light on this question with a new theory of mental imagery, which is able to integrate the three contemporary theories, i.e., descriptive, enactive, and quasi-pictorial, by providing a consistent explanatory framework for a range of phenomena, which are not covered by one of the other theories on its own. In contrast to the other theories, this new theory is also implemented as a computational cognitive model. We show how the model accounts for common imagery phenomena, e.g., mental scanning, cognitive penetration, eye movements, and mental reinterpretation. We discuss how the structure and components of the model offer a new take on the distinction between visual and spatial mental imagery as well as neuropsychological results, e.g., imaginal neglect.