Research recruitment
Recruit volunteers with aphantasia and hyperphantasia for your study
We send your study to the people who signed up to hear about research: 40,000 to 70,000 subscribers, depending on who it is for. You collect responses on your own platform, or we build the study on ours.
Participate in New Research: Aphantasia and Perceptual Cognition
Hello there,
We have an opportunity for you to contribute to aphantasia research at the University of Chicago.
These studies examine how aphantasia affects perceptual cognition and memory.
Take part in the studyPublished from studies we recruited for
Each of these papers says in its methods that it recruited participants through Aphantasia Network.
Vividness of mental imagery reflects a broad range of internally generated visual experiences
Schwarzkopf and colleagues · Royal Society Open Science
Vividness ratings robustly capture a wide range of subjective experiences, from internal mental depictions to externally projected imagery. This suggests aphantasia should be redefined to distinguish between faint imagery and a total lack of pictorial representation.
Motor imagery abilities in individuals who experience aphantasia
Wright and colleagues · Neuropsychologia
People with aphantasia rated feeling a movement in the mind as hard but easier than seeing it, especially right after doing the movement. This suggests kinesthetic imagery may exist without visual imagery, though weakly.
Investigating mental simulation during sentence comprehension in aphantasia
Speed, Mak and McRae · Neuropsychologia
People with aphantasia showed a match effect for object color during sentence comprehension, indicating they engage in unconscious mental simulation. This suggests that conscious imagery and involuntary simulation are separate cognitive processes.
Challenging dual-coding theory: Picture superiority effects persist in aphantasia
Yan, Roberts and Bainbridge · Neuropsychologia
Aphantasic individuals showed a robust picture superiority effect and recalled symbols better than pictures. This challenges dual-coding theory by demonstrating that visual imagery is not essential for the memory advantages of image-based stimuli.
Reimagining the vividness of visual imagery questionnaire as a single item screener for aphantasia
Monzel and colleagues · Consciousness and Cognition
VVIQ items showed high redundancy for identifying aphantasia, with inter-item correlations ranging from .79 to .90. A single screening question about visualizing a familiar place achieved high specificity (98.8%) and sensitivity (97.5%) against the strictest definition of core aphantasia (VVIQ = 16), suggesting the full 16-item questionnaire is unnecessary for screening purposes.
Autonomic, neurodevelopmental, and early adversity correlates of acquired aphantasia
Gao, Nagai and Silvanto · Neuropsychologia
People who lost their mental imagery reported more childhood trauma, anxiety, heart and breathing symptoms, and ADHD and autism traits than typical imagers. This suggests acquired aphantasia can follow emotional pathways as well as brain injury.
Seeing Is Feeling: How Aphantasia Alters Emotional Engagement With Stories
Abdelrahman, Melcher and Ripollés · Psychophysiology
People with aphantasia felt less emotionally engaged by audio and video stories than typical imagers, though they followed them as well. Only typical imagers had higher heart rates for audiobooks than videos, which suggests imagery takes effort.
Sensory representations in primary visual cortex are not sufficient for subjective imagery
Cabbai and colleagues · Current Biology
In an fMRI study, the type of sound people with aphantasia heard could be decoded from their primary visual cortex, though they reported no imagery. A higher region, the precuneus, tracked whether imagery was experienced.
The Impact of Aphantasia on Mental Healthcare Experiences
Mawtus and colleagues · Collabra: Psychology
Among people reporting a mental health condition, fewer with aphantasia than imagers reported intrusive sensory symptoms (31% vs 74%), and they found visual imagery in therapy less helpful. The authors urge adapting techniques to the person.
Latent Profiles of Visual Imagery: Aphantasics, Mid-Range Imagers, and Hyperphantasics Experience Reading Differently
Williams and Suggate · Imagination, Cognition and Personality
People with low imagery reported being less absorbed in stories, especially in seeing scenes and feeling transported, yet still enjoyed reading. This suggests imagery shapes how reading feels more than whether people like it.
We have also sent invitations for studies at the University of Cambridge, University College London, Radboud University, Georgia State University, Western University, the University of Bath, the University of Macau, the University of British Columbia, Western Kentucky University and others.
“We have had a wonderful experience working with the Aphantasia Network on this project. … I will definitely recommend working with the Aphantasia Network to anyone who is looking for extreme imagery participant recruitment.”
How it works
- 1
Tell us about the study
Send us your study: what it asks, who it is for, how long it takes, and your ethics approval (or when you expect it).
- 2
We agree the audience
We agree who should hear about it: the country, the language, and where people fall on the imagery spectrum.
- 3
We send the invitation
We write the invitation with you and send it to the people who match, then send a follow-up if it needs one.
- 4
You collect the responses
People take part on your platform, or on ours if we built the study. You collect the responses and any contact details yourself.
What shapes how many people take part
Where it runs
Online studies reach the most people. In-person studies, and studies open in one country, reach far fewer.
What it asks
Long tasks, tasks that only work on a computer, and strict entry criteria all mean fewer people finish.
Who it is for
A narrow group, such as one age range or only people with very vivid imagery, is a smaller list to send to.
When to talk to us
Talk to us before you finalise your protocol or ethics application. Small changes can make a large difference to who can take part.
Price
Write to us first. We agree the audience and timing with you, then send an invoice.
One study
$999
- An invitation to the people who match your study
- A follow-up send if it needs one
- We agree the audience and the wording with you
Up to three studies
$2,500
- Up to three related studies over six months
- We can build your studies on our platform
- Anonymised demographics for the people who took part
Prices in US dollars. Recruitment is best effort: we don’t guarantee a number of completions. Invoices go to you or your institution, and we can work with purchase orders.
Grants and letters of support
Applying for funding? We write letters of support for grant applications, and we have been named a partner on applications. Recruiting through us can sit in your budget as a line we invoice.
Questions
People who joined Aphantasia Network and said they would like to hear about research. They span the imagery spectrum, from aphantasia to hyperphantasia.
No. Recruitment is best effort. How many take part depends on the study: where it runs, how long it is, and who it is for. We tell you before we start what we think is realistic, and we don’t promise a number.
We need proof of ethical approval from your institution before we send anything. If approval is still in progress, write to us anyway: we can plan the send now and run it once it comes through.
Your own, in most cases: Qualtrics, Gorilla, SurveyMonkey and the like. People follow the link in our invitation. You collect the responses and any contact details yourself; we don’t pass on participants’ details.
With the multi-study option we can build the study on our own platform instead, and give you anonymised demographics for the people who took part.
We can send to one country or region, and we do run invitations for in-person studies. They reach far fewer people than an online study, so tell us early and we will say what to expect.
Yes. We write letters of support for grant applications. Ask us while you write the application, and tell us the funder and the deadline.
Plan your study with us
Tell us about the study, who it is for and when you need it. We reply within two working days, often sooner, with what we think is realistic.