Date:  Tuesday Dec 9 at 9am PT (US)

Guest Speaker: Olesya Blazhenkova,  Assistant Professor, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey

 Summary:   Our approach distinguishes between object and spatial visual imagery as two separate dimensions of mental representation. Evidence from neuroimaging, neuropsychological, psychometric, and cognitive studies shows that visual imagery is not a unitary faculty but consists of distinct subsystems. Object imagery involves processing pictorial properties such as color, shape, brightness, and texture, whereas spatial imagery involves processing spatial relations, locations, structures, and transformations. Individuals differ in the extent to which they rely on these subsystems, which are linked to distinct cognitive strengths and associated with success in the arts for object imagery and in STEM fields for spatial imagery. My research focuses on assessing individual differences in these skills through tests, questionnaires, as well as play and creative activities.  

Readings:

Blazhenkova, O., & Booth, R. W. (2020). Individual differences in visualization and childhood play preferences [sciencedirect.com]. Heliyon, 6(6), e03953.

Blazhenkova, O., & Kozhevnikov, M. (2020). Creative processes during a collaborative drawing task in teams of different specializations. [scirp.org] Creative Education, 11(09), 1751.

Blazhenkova, O., & Kozhevnikov, M. (2016). Types of Creativity and Visualization in Teams of Different Educational Specialization. [tandfonline.com] Creativity Research Journal, 28(2), 123-135.

Kozhevnikov, M., Kozhevnikov, M., Yu, C.J., Blazhenkova, O. (2013). Creativity, visualization abilities, and visual cognitive style. [pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov] British Journal of Educational Psychology, 83 (2), 196-209.

Blazhenkova, O., Kozhevnikov, M., & Becker, M. (2011). Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal cognitive styles in children and adolescences [sciencedirect.com]. Learning and Individual Differences, 21 (3), 281-287.

Blazhenkova, O. & Kozhevnikov, M.  (2010). Visual-object ability: A new dimension of non-verbal intelligence [sciencedirect.com]. Cognition, 117 (3), 276-301.

Blazhenkova, O. & Kozhevnikov, M. (2009). The new object-spatial-verbal cognitive style model: Theory and measurement. [onlinelibrary.wiley.com] Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23 (5), 638-663.

Blajenkova, O., Kozhevnikov, M., & Motes, M. A. (2006). Object-spatial imagery: A new self-report imagery questionnaire [onlinelibrary.wiley.com]. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 239-263.

Recording: