mental representation
a hypothetical entity that is presumed to stand for a perception, thought, memory, or the like during cognitive operations. For example, when doing mental arithmetic, one presumably operates on mental representations that correspond to digits and numerical operators; when one imagines looking at the reverse side of an object, one presumably operates on a mental representation of that object; when one repeats a phone number aloud while dialing it, one presumably operates on mental representations of the names of the digits. However, there is no consensus yet as to what mental representations might be. See thinking.