Visual mental imagery: A key representational format

Opinions diverge on the nature of visual mental imagery as a form of representation. Researchers adopting the pictorial position propose that visual mental imagery is concrete and pictorial in nature. Researchers adopting the propositional position believe that visual mental imagery is abstract and verbal in nature and deny images as an original form of information presentation. This chapter reviews the opposing theoretical stances and proposes that an acceptable resolution of the debate could be a dual representation position that takes visual mental imagery as a key representational format, suggesting complementary and integrating roles for verbal and pictorial representations in accounting for certain cognitive phenomena.