Imagine, and you will find – Lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics

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Monzel, M., Keidel, K., & Reuter, M. (2021). Imagine, and you will find – lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 83(6), 2486–2497. doi:10.3758/s13414-021-02307-z

Abstract

Aphantasia is the condition of reduced or absent voluntary imagery. So far, behavioural differences between aphantasics and non-aphantasics have hardly been studied as the base rate of those affected is quite low. The aim of the study was to examine if attentional guidance in aphantasics is impaired by their lack of visual imagery. In two visual search tasks, an already established one by Moriya (Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 80(5), 1127-1142, 2018) and a newly developed one, we examined whether aphantasics are primed less by their visual imagery than non-aphantasics. The sample in Study 1 consisted of 531 and the sample in Study 2 consisted of 325 age-matched pairs of aphantasics and non-aphantasics. Moriya’s Task was not capable of showing the expected effect, whereas the new developed task was. These results could mainly be attributed to different task characteristics. Therefore, a lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics can be assumed and interpreted as new evidence in the imagery debate, showing that mental images actually influence information processing and are not merely epiphenomena of propositional processing.

Authors

Merlin Monzel30
Kristof Keidel2
Martin Reuter16

What This Study Is About

Researchers wanted to know if aphantasia—the inability to create mental images—affects how people focus their attention. Specifically, they tested whether people with aphantasia lack "attentional guidance," which is the ability to use a mental picture to find an object in the real world more quickly.

How They Studied It

The researchers conducted two large-scale studies. In the first, they tested 531 people using a standard visual search task. In the second, they used a more refined task with 325 pairs of participants, matching each person with aphantasia to a person with typical imagery of the same age and gender. Participants were given a word (like "apple") and then had to quickly find the matching image among other pictures. The researchers measured how much faster people were when they had a chance to "prime" their brain by thinking of the object beforehand.

What They Found

The study found that people with typical imagery were significantly faster at finding objects when they could use a mental image to prepare. In contrast, people with aphantasia did not show this same speed boost. While people with aphantasia were just as good at processing words and identifying objects, they couldn't use "mental pictures" to get a head start on the search. This suggests that for most people, mental imagery isn't just a "decoration" in the mind; it actually helps the brain process information faster.

What This Might Mean

This research suggests that aphantasia is more than just a difference in how people describe their thoughts—it is a functional difference in how the brain prepares for tasks. It supports the idea that mental images play a real role in how we navigate the world. However, the researchers noted that people with aphantasia likely use "non-visual" strategies (like using facts or verbal descriptions) to compensate, which allows them to perform the tasks accurately, even if they are slightly slower in specific scenarios.

One Interesting Detail

This study involved one of the largest groups of people with aphantasia ever experimentally tested, helping to move the field beyond small case studies toward more robust, large-scale data.

Imagine, and you will find – Lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics

Abstract

Authors

Imagine, and you will find – Lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics

Abstract

Authors

Imagine, and you will find – Lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics

Abstract

Authors

Imagine, and you will find – Lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics

Abstract

Authors

What This Study Is About

How They Studied It

What They Found

What This Might Mean

One Interesting Detail

What This Study Is About

How They Studied It

What They Found

What This Might Mean

One Interesting Detail

Joel Pearson

Merlin Monzel

Adam Zeman

Rebecca Keogh

Martin Reuter

Juha Silvanto

Paolo Bartolomeo

Carla Dance

Jianghao Liu

Fraser Milton