Is Visual Image Sequencing Under Verbal Control

Conducted 3 experiments with undergraduates examining the conjecture of R. J. Weber and J. Castleman (see record) that sequencing between visual images of letters is sometimes under the control of verbal imagery (implicit speech) in the sense of saying a letter to oneself before visualizing it. Verbal control of visual image sequencing was investigated in alphabetic and word letter strings. Results with alphabetic letter strings were consistent with a verbal control process. However, results with word letter strings did not provide evidence for verbal control of sequencing, presumably because the name of a short word can serve to represent its several letters as a spatially parallel chunk in visual imagination. It is concluded that the visual system has a limited capacity for spatially parallel representation. When this limited capacity is exceeded, as in alphabetic strings, there is implicit verbal control over visual image sequencing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)