The meanings-as-images hypothesis may arise from a systematic bias in conscious introspection rather than from the actual structure of language representation.

Finally, we should comment on the view expressed in some of the cognitive science literature that mental representations of language are primarily imagistic (e.g., Damasio 1994; Humphrey 1992). Certainly there is ample evidence for the reality and significance of mental imagery (Johnson-Laird 1983; Kosslyn 1994). Also creative thought often seems to rely on visualization, as observed early in the 20th century by Poincaré (1913) and Hadamard (1945). But as was previously noted, symbolic and imag