Cognitive-Semantic Concept Structuring in Visual Perception and Visual Imagery: Identifying a New Basic Top-Down Processing System for Visual Experience

Abstract

Visual experience encompasses both visual perception and visual imagery. Using cognitive-semantic analysis, it is outlined how visual experience can be characterized as involving (among other top-down processes) a basic top-down-processing system that is organized by fundamental aspects of the four main Talmyan concept structuring systems (fundamental aspects of configurational structure, perspective, attention, and—not in principle, but quite often—force dynamics). It is proposed that this visual concept structuring represents a thus far unidentified basic top-down-processing system of visual experience which structures the conceptual content of the visual/imagistic stimulus. While Talmyan concept structuring has in the literature thus far mainly been applied to language, the main conclusion of this paper is that Talmyan concept structuring is a basic component of visual top-down processing even when language is not involved. Implications for sensory modalities other than the visual one are discussed, and possible future research is formulated.