From Imagining to Seeing: The influence of visual mental imagery of people and buildings on perception during binocular rivalry

Abstract

Mental imagery and visual perception can both give rise to vivid visual experiences, yet the extent to which they can functionally influence each other remains an open question. Previous research has shown that imagining a stimulus before viewing a rivalrous display can bias perception towards the imagined content. However, this effect has been demonstrated primarily with simple, low-level stimuli such as oriented gratings. Here, we investigated whether imagery of more complex representations—people and buildings—can influence perception, using the binocular rivalry paradigm. Participants in our study imagined either a personally familiar person or personally familiar building before viewing a rivalrous face–house stimulus. We measured their perceptual dominance and imagery vividness on each trial. Their overall imagery ability was assessed using the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ). We found that participants were significantly more likely to perceive the imagined stimulus; however, this priming effect was driven by person imagery. Greater vividness of person imagery on each trial significantly increased dominance of the face stimulus, but this effect did not extend to building imagery and the house stimulus. Furthermore, the VVIQ did not predict individual differences in priming magnitude. These results extend previous work by showing that mental imagery can influence perception beyond simple stimuli, but that this functional link is shaped by stimulus-specific features. Our findings highlight the need for future research to examine the conditions under which imagining more complex representations affects seeing.

Authors

• Jana Tomastikova1
• Edward H. Silson1

From Imagining to Seeing: The influence of visual mental imagery of people and buildings on perception during binocular rivalry

Abstract

Mental imagery and visual perception can both give rise to vivid visual experiences, yet the extent to which they can functionally influence each other remains an open question. Previous research has shown that imagining a stimulus before viewing a rivalrous display can bias perception towards the imagined content. However, this effect has been demonstrated primarily with simple, low-level stimuli such as oriented gratings. Here, we investigated whether imagery of more complex representations—people and buildings—can influence perception, using the binocular rivalry paradigm. Participants in our study imagined either a personally familiar person or personally familiar building before viewing a rivalrous face–house stimulus. We measured their perceptual dominance and imagery vividness on each trial. Their overall imagery ability was assessed using the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ). We found that participants were significantly more likely to perceive the imagined stimulus; however, this priming effect was driven by person imagery. Greater vividness of person imagery on each trial significantly increased dominance of the face stimulus, but this effect did not extend to building imagery and the house stimulus. Furthermore, the VVIQ did not predict individual differences in priming magnitude. These results extend previous work by showing that mental imagery can influence perception beyond simple stimuli, but that this functional link is shaped by stimulus-specific features. Our findings highlight the need for future research to examine the conditions under which imagining more complex representations affects seeing.

Authors

• Jana Tomastikova1
• Edward H. Silson1