Mental imagery

Mental imagery is the experience of perceiving or manipulating sensory-like representations without corresponding external stimuli. It can involve vision, sound, touch, taste, smell, or movement.

Visual imagery: The experience of seeing image-like representations in the mind without corresponding visual input. It is the best-studied sensory form of mental imagery.
Episodic memory: Memory for personally experienced events, including their contexts and details. Recalled scenes can supply the content for mental images.
Mental practice: Rehearsal of an action through imagined performance rather than overt movement. It applies motor imagery to prepare or improve skilled actions.
Hallucination: A perception-like experience that occurs without a corresponding external stimulus and is experienced as real. Hallucinations are typically experienced as externally present, unlike ordinary imagery.
Visual imagery vividness: The subjective strength and clarity of a person's visual mental images. Its large individual differences raise questions about how imagery should be measured.
Auditory imagery: The experience of hearing sounds in the mind without corresponding acoustic input. Imagined music and inner speech show that imagery is not limited to vision.
Semantic memory: Memory for facts, concepts, and meanings independent of a particular episode of learning. Knowledge can guide imagined scenes even when no specific event is recalled.
Guided imagery: A practice in which spoken guidance directs a person to imagine particular scenes or sensations. It turns sensory imagery into a structured relaxation or coping exercise.
Illusion: A misperception caused by interpreting an actual external stimulus incorrectly. Illusions depend on external input, whereas imagery does not.
Imagery debate: The dispute over whether visual thought uses depictive representations or more abstract descriptions. It asks what kind of mental representation underlies visual imagery.

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