The role of visual imagery in story reading: Evidence from aphantasia
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Aphantasia is a condition in which people are unable to experience visual imagery. Since visual imagery is thought to be key to language processing, we hypothesized the experience of a story would differ between individuals with aphantasia and controls. Forty-seven individuals with aphantasia were compared to fifty-one matched controls on their experience of reading a short story and their general reading habits. Aphantasics were less likely to be engaged with, interested in, and absorbed in the story, and experienced reduced emotional engagement with and sympathy for the story characters, compared to controls. Yet, aphantasics and controls did not differ in how much they liked or appreciated the story, and in general, the reading habits of the two groups also did not differ. Results have implications for embodied theories of language, suggesting visual imagery may influence how a story is experienced, but it is not the only route to story enjoyment.
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Aphantasia influences how a story is experienced, with a reduction in evoked visual and bodily imagery and in absorption by the story world, but not in liking for the story.
“a recent study suggests that aphantasia influences how a story is experienced, and there is a reduction in the amount of evoked visual and bodily imagery and in absorption by the story world, although not in liking for the story [78”
From Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes (2024) · cites this paper as [78]
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- Authors
- Speed, L. J., Eekhof, L. S., & Mak, M.
- Affiliations
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Speed, Laura J.
- Venue
- Consciousness and Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-02
- Volume
- 118
- Pages
- 103645
- ISSN
- 1053-8100 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4391003142
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 8
- FWCI
- 24.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Consciousness and Cognition (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Research portal (Tilburg University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Radboud Universiteit
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Narrative Theory and Analysis
- Keywords
- aphantasia, visual imagery, story reading, narrative engagement, emotional engagement, reading habits
- MeSH terms
- Happiness, Humans, Imagination, Language, Imagery, Psychotherapy, Pleasure
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