The effects of photic stimulation and private self-consciousness on the complexity of visual imagination imagery

Three levels of photic stimulation (6, 10, 18 Hz) were employed to induce visual imagination imagery in 40 female undergraduates, half of whom had been selected because they had an habitual interest in their own internal states and half because they had no such interest (high and low on a Private Self-conscious (PSC) scale). It was predicted, and found, that more complex images would be reported (1) under the averaged 6 and 10 Hz condition than under the 18 Hz condition, (2) under the 6 than under the 10 Hz condition, and (3) under the high PSC than under the low PSC condition. An interaction effect was also obtained such that the complexity of visual imagination imagery was greatest for the high PSC group, compared with the low PSC group, under the 6 Hz condition and least under the 18 Hz condition. Additional analyses were undertaken on the types of colour, form and movement reported by the high and low PSC groups under combined conditions of photic stimulation. The results of the complexity scores were discussed in terms of West's (1962) 'perceptual release' theory and several suggestions were made for future research.