Abstract
Research on memory and language has been historically studied to understand the role of verbal memory in language. But it is far from clear how visual memory is involved in acquiring knowledge and language. In this review, we focus on the visuospatial sketchpad from the working memory model, which explains the perception and storage of visual representations to process language. It is significant from the light of findings that verbal memory is necessary for language; similarly, visual memory is also crucial in the processing and comprehension of language. To this point, we review the analysis of dual-coding theory, which suggests that verbal and visual memory are equally crucial for language processing. Further, the visual memory turns into visual or mental imagery that acts as an offline perception in the absence of sensory input. For people with aphantasia, this mental imagery is absent or impaired, leading to difficulties in language comprehension. Therefore, studying the importance of visual memory and mental imagery in language processing is necessary. Taken together, the present paper provides a broad-spectrum understanding of the mind’s eye that develops and comprehends the information with mental imageries. The article explains the biological pathway of visual representations in the visual cortex, forming visual memory and mental imageries that eventually help in learning.
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Savarimuthu, A., Ponniah, R.J. The Mind’s Eye is Not a Metaphor: Visuospatial Working Memory and Mental Imageries for Learning and Language Comprehension. Psychol Stud (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-024-00789-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-024-00789-z