Cognitive scientist explains how we 'see' what isn't real - Harvard Gazette

"Yes and no, says cognitive scientist Tomer Ullman, the Morris Kahn Associate Professor of Psychology, who with Halely Balaban recently published a paper titled "The Capacity Limits of Moving Objects in the Imagination." If you're like most people, you probably thought about some of these things, but not others. People build mental imagery hierarchically, starting with the ideas of "person," "room," "ball," and "table," then placing them in relation to one another in space, and only later filling in details like color."

"'Our imaginations are actually patchwork and fuzzy and not filled in,' he said. His theory: Your mind's eye might be lazier than you think. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. 'You leave things out until you need them.' For the latest installment of 'One Word Answer,' we asked Ullman to elaborate further on the current scientific thinking behind 'imagination.' Some people very much associate imagination with the visual or the sensory: I'm creating a scene in my head that isn't real right now."

Human imagination constructs hierarchical, patchwork mental representations that prioritize object categories and spatial relations before perceptual details such as color. Imagination can operate conceptually rather than pictorially, enabling comprehension of scenarios without generating vivid sensory images. Mental imagery often remains sparse and fuzzy, with details supplied only when necessary. Imaginative thinking connects closely to pretense and play, allowing consideration of things known to be untrue. Debates about the role of sensory imagery in imagination trace back to Plato. Capacity limits emerge when imagining moving objects and their relations. These limits shape how people predict and reason about dynamic scenes.

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