ABSTRACT
Imagery is a sensory-type experience in the mind without an actual corresponding situation providing the immediate sense stimulus. Studies are suggesting that everybody does in fact possess a considerable degree of imagery, whether, paradoxically, they are aware of it or not. In a study of five hundred people everyone reported having images of some kind. Most people use imagery in memory quite naturally, often starting very early on in life. Some have various images associated with numbers. Often this involves a spatial arrangement of the numbers. Visual images are generally much better remembered than words. So much so that visual recognition is practically perfect. In fact there is only one study that shows picture memory to be poor, and in that study the pictures were deliberately constructed to be as misleading as possible. In the animal kingdom, and in primitive man, memory evolved to record the routes and location of food, shelter, mates, and foes.
