Table 1.
Summary of experimental tasks to assess the four cognitive stages of mental imagery (Kosslyn, 1980, 1994; Kosslyn et al., 2006).
| Domain | Task | Author | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generation | Image Generation Task | Original: Podgorny and Shepard (1978) Variant: Kosslyn et al. (1988) Variant: Dror and Kosslyn (1994) |
Computerised |
| Mental Clocks Task | Original: Paivio (1978) Variant: Grossi et al. (1989) |
Verbal/pen and paper | |
| Familiar Squares Description Test | Original: Bisiach and Luzzatti (1978) Variant: Bartolomeo et al. (1994) Variant: Rode et al. (2010). |
Verbal/pen and paper | |
| Buildings Task | Original: Nori and Giusberti (2006) Variant: Palermo et al. (2010) |
Verbal/pen and paper | |
| Maintenance | Image Maintenance Task | Original:Kosslyn et al. (1990); Dror and Kosslyn (1994) | Computerised |
| Visual Patterns Test | Original: Della Sala et al. (1997, 1999) | Computerised/pen and paper | |
| Change Detection Task | Original: Luck and Vogel (1997) | Computerised | |
| Visual Short-Term Memory Precision | Original: Bays and Husain (2008) Variant: Bays et al. (2009) |
Computerised | |
| Complex Span Tasks | Original: Russell et al. (1996) Variant: Alloway et al. (2006) |
Computerised | |
| Image Duration Tasks | Original: Cocude and Denis (1986, 1988) | Computerised/pen and paper | |
| Inspection | Image Scanning Task | Original: Finke and Pinker (1983) Variant: Dror et al. (1993) Variant: Borst and Kosslyn (2010) |
Computerised |
| Map Scanning Tasks | Original: Kosslyn et al. (1978) Variant: Mellet et al. (2002) |
Computerised/ pen and paper | |
| Letter Corner Classification Task | Original: Brooks (1968) Variant: Baddeley et al. (1975) Variant: Farah et al. (1988) |
Pen and paper | |
| Size Comparison of Paired Animals Task | Original: Moyer (1973) | Computerised/pen and paper | |
| Animals' Tail Test: | Original: Farah et al. (1989); Behrmann et al. (1994) | Pen and paper | |
| Straight/Curved Letter Task | Original: Coltheart et al. (1975) Variant: Policardi et al. (1996); Holmes et al. (2011) |
Pen and paper | |
| Mental Hue Comparison Task | Original: De Vreese (1991) | Pen and paper | |
| Top/Bottom Larger Letter Task | Original: Policardi et al. (1996) | Pen and paper | |
| Objects Form Task | Original: Mehta et al. (1992) Variant: Aleman et al. (2005); Noordzij et al. (2007) |
Pen and paper | |
| Transformation and Manipulation: Mental Rotation | Image Rotation Task | Original: Shepard and Metzler (1971) Variant: Cooper (1975) Variant: Cooper and Shepard (1973) Variant: Dror and Kosslyn (1994) Variant: Wright et al. (2008) |
Pen and paper/computerised |
| Manikin Task | Original: Ratcliff (1979) | Pen and paper | |
| Rotation Arrow Span Task | Original: Shah and Miyake (1996) | Computerised | |
| Transformation and Manipulation: Rrestructuring and Reinterpretation | Component Detection Task | Original: Reed and Johnson (1975) Variant: Verstijnen, Hennessy et al. (1998); Verstijnen, van Leeuwen et al. (1998) |
Computerised |
| Interpretation of Ambiguous Figures | Original: Chambers and Reisberg (1985) Variant: Mast and Kosslyn (2002); Reisberg and Chambers (1991) |
Pen and paper | |
| Image Combination and Subtraction | Original: Brandimonte et al. (1992a,b,c) | Pen and paper | |
| Transformation and Manipulation: Mental Synthesis | Image combination | Original: Finke et al. (1989) Variant: Behrmann et al. (1994) |
Pen and paper |
| Creative synthesis | Original: Finke and Slayton (1988) Variant: Anderson and Helstrup (1993) Variant: Helstrup and Anderson (1996) Variant: Pearson et al. (1999) |
Pen and paper | |
| Temporal Integration Task | Original: Brockmole et al. (2002) Variant: Lewis et al. (2011) |
Computerised |