Complexity and Cognitive Engagement in the Rorschach Task: An fMRI Study

Recently, an eye-tracking study found that Complexity and other R-PAS variables located in the Engagement and Cognitive Processing domain correlated with a proxy marker for cognitive effort and engagement. The goal of the current study was to test the robustness and validity of those eye-tracking findings by inspecting fMRI data. We hypothesized that the greater the level of engagement and cognitive effort put in place by a Rorschach test-taker, the greater the engagement of his/her cortical areas reflecting ongoing top-down attentional processes should be. We re-analyzed archival fMRI data from 26 healthy participants exposed to the Rorschach inkblots with the instruction to think of what they might be. The association of various Engagement and Cognitive Processing R-PAS scores to increased BOLD signals in the Dorsal Attention Network of the brain was examined. As expected, Complexity showed the strongest effect size across all R-PAS variables under investigation (d = 0.43), followed by Synthesis (d = 0.32) and Human Movement (d = 0.21). Noteworthy, the correlation between the effect sizes found in the current fMRI study and those found in the previously published eye-tracking study consists of an impressive r = .80.