ABSTRACT
Hebb attempted to analyze imagery in physiological terms. He believed that an image can be clearly understood in much the same way as phantom limb pain. In addition to the contributions of Hebb and Kosslyn, imagery theory identifies the effect of vividness as the very essence of the imagery experience. Imagery tests involving vividness ratings are aimed at being able to reliably predict a subject's ability to image. Information that has accumulated on the relationship between imagery and right-hemisphere functioning has come from observations on split-brain patients, where the cortical pathway that connects the two hemispheres has been surgically severed; and from patients with neurological insults including stroke. Special techniques available make it possible to confine detailed sensory information to only one hemisphere, permitting investigators to also study hemispheric differences not only in split-brain and brain damaged patients, but also in neurologically-normal subjects. Bakan has suggested a relationship between hypnosis or hypnotizability and information processing in the right hemisphere.
