Where’s Wanda? The influence of visual imagery vividness on visual search speed measured by means of hidden object pictures
Open accessAbstract
Previous research demonstrated effects of visual imagery on search speed in visual search paradigms. However, these effects were rather small, questioning their ecological validity. Thus, our present study aimed to generalize these effects to more naturalistic material (i.e., a paradigm that allows for top-down strategies in highly complex visual search displays that include overlapping stimuli while simultaneously avoiding possibly confounding search instructions). One hundred and four participants with aphantasia (= absence of voluntary mental imagery) and 104 gender and age-matched controls were asked to find hidden objects in several hidden object pictures with search times recorded. Results showed that people with aphantasia were significantly slower than controls, even when controlling for age and general processing speed. Thus, effects of visual imagery might be strong enough to influence the perception of our real-life surroundings, probably because of the involvement of visual imagery in several top-down strategies.
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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 [65]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes
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- Authors
- Monzel, M., & Reuter, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Bonn (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Monzel, Merlin
- Venue
- Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
- Published
- 2023-01-10
- Volume
- 86
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 22-27
- ISSN
- 1943-3921 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-393X
- PMC
- PMC10769966
- OpenAlex
- W4315433137
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 4
- FWCI
- 3.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- 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
- visual imagery vividness, aphantasia, top-down approach, processing speed, ecological validity
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Imagination, Visual Perception
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