Answer to Question 1
The key idea underlying image scanning research is that images can be scanned in much the same way as physical percepts can be scanned. Furthermore, our strategies and responses for imaginal scanning should be the same as for perceptual scanning.
A means of testing the functional equivalence of imaginal scanning is to observe some aspects of performance during perceptual scanning, and then compare that performance with performance during imaginal scanning. For example, in perception, scanning across longer distances takes longer than scanning across shorter ones. The same finding holds when scanning images. There is an almost-perfect linear relation between the distances separating pairs of objects in the mental map and the amount of time it takes to scan them.
Answer to Question 2
In spatial neglect, a person ignores half of his or her visual field. In representational neglect, a person asked to imagine a scene and then describe it ignores half of the imagined scene. Although these two types of neglect often occur together, they can also occur independently.
Scorpions, Spiders and Sharks: Electron-Microscope Images
René Magritt,. The Treason of Images, Ceci n'est past une pipe.
Major Diagnostic Categories of Mental Disorders
Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1 budding (in green) from cultured lymphocyte. This image has ...
Images of the Russian Domain
Scanning the Brain