Reimagining the vividness of visual imagery questionnaire as a single item screener for aphantasia

Abstract

Despite criticism, the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) has emerged as the gold standard for identifying visual aphantasia (i.e., the absence or stark reduction of visual imagery). While more comprehensive measures are needed to investigate mental imagery on several other dimensions such as sharpness, saturation or clarity, we argue in the present paper that the VVIQ is sufficient for identifying aphantasia. In a large dataset of 35,467 participants from 159 countries (53.9 % female, 39.8 % male, 6.3 % other), we provide evidence of redundancy in the VVIQ items for identifying aphantasics, and propose a more efficient single item screener with high specificity and appropriate sensitivity. Several statistical definitions of aphantasia by means of the VVIQ are evaluated including previously proposed classification thresholds of scores of 32 and 23. Overall, we emphasize the importance of distinguishing core aphantasia from hypophantasia.