Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

M O D U L E 2 3 
Thinking and Reasoning
“What do you think I think about what you think
I think you’ve been thinking about?”
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244 Chapter 
8 
Cognition and Language
Mental Images: 
Examining the Mind’s Eye
Think of your best friend. 
Chances are that you “see” some kind of visual image when asked to think of 
her or him, or any other person or object, for that matter. To some cognitive psy-
chologists, such mental images constitute a major part of thinking. 
 Mental images  are representations in the mind of an object or event. They are 
not just visual representations; our ability to “hear” a tune in our heads also relies 
on a mental image. In fact, every sensory modality may produce corresponding men-
tal images (Kosslyn, 2005; De Beni, Pazzaglia, & Gardini, 2007; Gardini et al., 2009).
Research has found that our mental images have many of the properties of the 
actual stimuli they represent. For example, it takes the mind longer to scan mental 
images of large objects than small ones, just as the eye takes longer to scan an actual 
large object than an actual small one. Similarly, we are able to manipulate and rotate 
mental images of objects, just as we are able to manipulate and rotate them in the real 
world (Mast & Kosslyn, 2002; Iachini & Giusberti, 2004; Zacks, 2008; see Figure 1). 
Some experts see the production of mental images as a way to improve various 
skills. For instance, many athletes use mental imagery in their training. Basketball