Multimodal mental comparisons in those with and without aphantasia.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Sensory Perception

Background:

• Individual differences in mental imagery range from vivid experiences to aphantasia (no mental imagery).
• Quantifying mental imagery skill is challenging, often relying on self-report measures like the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ).
• Few behavioral tasks exist to objectively measure mental imagery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate mental imagery performance in individuals with aphantasia using a novel behavioral task.
• To compare performance on the Mental Comparisons Task (MCT) between aphantasic and non-aphantasic groups.
• To explore the relationship between self-report measures and behavioral performance in mental imagery.

Main Methods:

• An online study involving participants with (n=48) and without (n=95) aphantasia.
• Participants completed the Mental Comparisons Task (MCT) for visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli.
• Additional measures included the VVIQ, Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire, and task-solving strategy questions.

Main Results:

• Correlations between self-report and behavioral measures were small and non-significant.
• Aphantasic participants were generally slower but more accurate on the MCT.
• After correcting for speed-accuracy trade-offs, aphantasics demonstrated an advantage in tactile mental processing.

Conclusions:

• Aphantasic individuals exhibit preserved general mental processing capabilities.
• Findings suggest enhanced tactile mental processing in aphantasia.
• The study discusses the extent to which the MCT measures voluntary mental imagery versus non-imagery-based strategies.