How imagination operates

Atypical imaginative cognition has been associated with a wide range of brain dysfunctions, highlighting the importance of understanding how imaginative thinking operates.  The cognitive processes underlying imaginative thinking are much the same as non-imaginative thinking, suggesting that selective attention plays an important role. In addition, the imagination should generate more novel exemplars when attention shifts between explicit, perceptually available dimensions to implicit, associative or relational dimensions. This project looks to determine whether methodology such as varying the stimuli, presentation of a conflict and explanation facilitate attention to sample from implicit dimensions and lead to more imaginative responses.

Researchers:

Enquiries:  Tammy Dennis (t.dennis@student.unimelb.edu.au)

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