Visual working memory in aphantasia: Retained accuracy and capacity with a different strategy
Abstract
Visual working memory paradigms involve retaining and manipulating visual information in mind over a period of seconds. Evidence suggests that visual imagery (sensory recruitment) is a strategy used by many to retain visual information during such tasks, leading some researchers to propose that visual imagery and visual working memory may be one and the same. If visual imagery is essential to visual working memory task performance there should be large ramifications for a special population of individuals who do not experience visual imagery, aphantasia. Here we assessed visual working memory task performance in this population using a number of different lab and clinical working memory tasks. We found no differences in capacity limits for visual, general number or spatial working memory for aphantasic individuals compared to controls. Further, aphantasic individuals showed no significant differences in performance on visual components of clinical working memory tests as compared to verbal components. However, there were significant differences in the reported strategies used by aphantasic individuals across all memory tasks. Additionally, aphantasic individual's visual memory accuracy did not demonstrate a significant oblique orientation effect, which is proposed to occur due to sensory recruitment, further supporting their non-visual imagery strategy reports. Taken together these data demonstrate that aphantasic individuals are not impaired on visual working memory tasks, s…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
On standard experimental measures of memory, people with aphantasia perform normally or show at most mild to moderate impairment.
“On a range of standard experimental measures of memory (short- and long-term, verbal and visual), people with aphantasia perform normally or show, at most, mild to moderate impairment”
From Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes (2024) · cites this paper as [49]
People with aphantasia use alternative strategies in tasks that are performed using imagery by people to whom this is available.
“people with aphantasia use alternative strategies in tasks that are performed using imagery by people to whom this is available [49”
From Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes (2024) · cites this paper as [49]
Cites
When is early visual cortex activated during visual mental imagery?
Kosslyn, S. M., & Thompson, W. L. (2003) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.723 · Cited by 515 · see citing works
The functional impact of mental imagery on conscious perception
Pearson, J., Clifford, C. W. G., & Tong, F. (2008) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.05.048 · Cited by 409 · see citing works
The blind mind: No sensory visual imagery in aphantasia
Keogh, R., & Pearson, J. (2018) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.012 · Cited by 352 · see citing works
Self-citationOblique effect: a neural basis in the visual cortex
Li, B., Peterson, M. R., & Freeman, R. D. (2003) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00954.2002 · Cited by 328 · see citing works
A cognitive profile of multi-sensory imagery, memory and dreaming in aphantasia
Dawes, A. J., Keogh, R., Andrillon, T., & Pearson, J. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-65705-7 · Cited by 322 · see citing works
Self-citationA theory of working memory without consciousness or sustained activity
Trübutschek, D., Marti, S., Ojeda, A., King, J.-R., Mi, Y., Tsodyks, M., & Dehaene, S. (2017) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.23871 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
Bainbridge, W. A., Pounder, Z., Eardley, A. F., & Baker, C. I. (2021) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.11.014 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
Redefining Visual Working Memory: A Cognitive-Strategy, Brain-Region Approach
Pearson, J., & Keogh, R. (2019) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0963721419835210 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Self-citationNeural dynamics of perceptual inference and its reversal during imagery
Dijkstra, N., Ambrogioni, L., Vidaurre, D., & van Gerven, M. (2020) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.53588 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The prevalence of aphantasia (imagery weakness) in the general population
Dance, C. J., Ipser, A., & Simner, J. (2022) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.concog.2021.103243 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes
Zeman, A. (2024) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2024.02.007 · Cited by 148 · see citing works
Takahashi, J., Saito, G., Omura, K., Yasunaga, D., Sugimura, S., Sakamoto, S., Horikawa, T., & Gyoba, J. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1174873 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Mental imagery and visual attentional templates: A dissociation
Cabbai, G., Brown, C. R. H., Dance, C., Simner, J., & Forster, S. (2023) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2023.09.014 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
- Authors
- Keogh, R., Wicken, M., & Pearson, J.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Keogh, Rebecca
- Venue
- Cortex
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-10
- Volume
- 143
- Pages
- 237-253
- ISSN
- 0010-9452 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3192107546
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 8.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Cortex (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian Research Council (DP140101560)
- National Health and Medical Research Council (APP1024800, APP1046198, APP1049596, APP1085404)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- aphantasia, visual working memory, visual imagery, working memory capacity, memory accuracy, oblique effect, spatial working memory, memory strategies
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Imagination, Memory, Short-Term, Visual Perception, Imagery, Psychotherapy, Spatial Memory
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
