Elsevier

Poetics

Volume 12, Issue 1, March 1983, Pages 1-18
Poetics

The mind's eye in arts and science☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-422X(83)90002-5Get rights and content

Abstract

Mental imagery has been attributed with various powers by literary analysts, poets, and scientists. They have suggested, among other things, that specific images can symbolize or represent literary themes and scientific abstractions, and that imagery plays a crucial role in the creative process itself. Such views are intuitively appealing and may contain a core of truth. However, they have been based mainly on introspective analysis rather than empirical evidence and they remain vague and imprecise. The intuitive ideas are reinterpreted here in terms of specific functions of mental imagery in memory, thought, and language as revealed by psychological research.

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    • ☆

    This article is based on a lecture given to the Faculty of Arts at the University of Western Ontario in February, 1976.

    ∗

    The author's research reported in this article was supported by research grants (A0087) from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

    Author's address: Allan Paivio, Dept. of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ont. N6A 3K7, Canada.

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