I would guess that Johnson-Laird’s point is something like this: If you imagine things clearly then the right answer is easy to find, but if you try to puzzle it out by pushing words or symbols around it’s much harder and you’re liable to be confused by gur snyfr flzzrgel orgjrra “ubevmbagny” naq “iregvpny”.
Which is fair enough … except that I have a weak visual imagination but solved the puzzles very easily. But, so far as I can tell by introspection, I didn’t do it by pushing words or symbols around any more than by forming a realistic mental image of needles in space. More like a somewhat abstract kinda-spatial model of the situation, if that makes sense.
He introduces the puzzles with the words “To find out how good your imagery is try this problem”. If he really means “imagery” then I think the problem doesn’t do what he thinks. Without reading more of the book than I have (I just skimmed a few pages in the Google Books view) it’s not obvious to me whether he means strictly visual imagery or merely somewhat spatial mental models.
I would guess that Johnson-Laird’s point is something like this: If you imagine things clearly then the right answer is easy to find, but if you try to puzzle it out by pushing words or symbols around it’s much harder and you’re liable to be confused by gur snyfr flzzrgel orgjrra “ubevmbagny” naq “iregvpny”.
Which is fair enough … except that I have a weak visual imagination but solved the puzzles very easily. But, so far as I can tell by introspection, I didn’t do it by pushing words or symbols around any more than by forming a realistic mental image of needles in space. More like a somewhat abstract kinda-spatial model of the situation, if that makes sense.
He introduces the puzzles with the words “To find out how good your imagery is try this problem”. If he really means “imagery” then I think the problem doesn’t do what he thinks. Without reading more of the book than I have (I just skimmed a few pages in the Google Books view) it’s not obvious to me whether he means strictly visual imagery or merely somewhat spatial mental models.
I’ve also only read the preview, but I’d say spatial+dynamic and not imaginary-camera full-color visual.