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Cited by 61Visual perception and processing mechanismsVisual Attention and Saliency DetectionMemory Processes and Influences

Imagine, and you will find – Lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics

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Monzel, Merlin, Keidel, Kristof, Reuter, Martin·2021·Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
DOI 10.3758/s13414-021-02307-zPMC PMC8302533
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Abstract

Aphantasia is the condition of reduced or absent voluntary imagery. So far, behavioural differences between aphantasics and non-aphantasics have hardly been studied as the base rate of those affected is quite low. The aim of the study was to examine if attentional guidance in aphantasics is impaired by their lack of visual imagery. In two visual search tasks, an already established one by Moriya (Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 80(5), 1127-1142, 2018) and a newly developed one, we examined whether aphantasics are primed less by their visual imagery than non-aphantasics. The sample in Study 1 consisted of 531 and the sample in Study 2 consisted of 325 age-matched pairs of aphantasics and non-aphantasics. Moriya’s Task was not capable of showing the expected effect, whereas the new developed task was. These results could mainly be attributed to different task characteristics. Therefore, a lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics can be assumed and interpreted as new evidence in the imagery debate, showing that mental images actually influence information processing and are not merely epiphenomena of propositional processing.

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  • Several studies have suggested that people with aphantasia process visual tasks more slowly than people with normal imagery.

    “Several studies have suggested that people with aphantasia process visual tasks more slowly than people with normal imagery [64–67”

    From Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes (2024) · cites this paper as [64]

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Monzel, M., Keidel, K., & Reuter, M.
Affiliations
University of Bonn (DE)
Corresponding author
Monzel, Merlin
ORCID
Venue
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2021-04-20
Volume
83
Issue
6
Pages
2486-2497
ISSN
  • 1943-3921 (ISSN-L)
  • 1943-393X
DOI
10.3758/s13414-021-02307-z
PMC
PMC8302533
OpenAlex
W3154484913
Cited by
61
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1
FWCI
5.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Attention Perception & Psychophysics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
Keywords
aphantasia, visual imagery, attention guidance, visual search, mental imagery
MeSH terms
Attention, Cognition, Humans, Imagination, Visual Perception, Imagery, Psychotherapy

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