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Mental Simulation and Motor Imagery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Gregory Currie and
Ian Ravenscroft
Gregory Currie*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Flinders University of South Australia
Ian Ravenscroft*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Flinders University of South Australia
*
†Send reprint requests to the authors, Philosophy Department, Flinders University of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia.
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Abstract

Motor imagery typically involves an experience as of moving a body part. Recent studies reveal close parallels between the constraints on motor imagery and those on actual motor performance. How are these parallels to be explained? We advance a simulative theory of motor imagery, modeled on the idea that we predict and explain the decisions of others by simulating their decision-making processes. By proposing that motor imagery is essentially off-line motor action, we explain the tendency of motor imagery to mimic motor performance. We close by arguing that a simulative theory of motor imagery gives (modest) support to and illumination of the simulative theory of decision-prediction.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 1997, pp. 161 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (grant no. A59602059). We are indebted to Larry Parsons and Ian Gold for helpful advice. We would also like to thank two anonymous referees for their comments.

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