Imagery as a private audiovisual aid

Mental images are conscious representations of our knowledge of the world. Like audiovisual aids in instructional programs, they can be intentionally and systematically used as the informational base for cognitive operations and as an aid to new learning. They permit one to make judgments, computations, and inferences that depend upon world knowledge. They can be consciously manipulated for problem solving and creative purposes. They can be used as learning and memory aids in numerous tasks, including foreign language learning where they function as a kind of private voix et image program that provides referential contexts for the language in the absence of the referent objects and situations themselves. Experimental evidence is cited to support these claims.