Research library
Papers about aphantasia and mental imagery, with summaries in plain words. The summaries are generated by AI and may contain errors.
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Pounder and colleagues · Cogent Psychology
A qualitative study found that congenital aphantasia impacts autobiographical memory, facial recognition, and orientation in everyday life. This highlights how the absence of voluntary visual imagery can influence broader cognitive domains and personal identity.
Azañón and colleagues · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Researchers found no evidence that mental imagery vividness correlates with performance on a word-color interference task. This suggests that subjective imagery strength may not directly influence low-level perceptual processing or interference.
Reeder and colleagues · Cognition
Aphantasics performed as well as typical imagers on a precise visual working memory task by using non-visual spatial and sensorimotor strategies. This demonstrates that mental imagery is not required for maintaining high-fidelity visual information.
Pounder and colleagues · PLOS ONE
People with aphantasia performed as well as typical imagers on auditory tasks despite reporting a lack of inner sound. This indicates a significant discrepancy between subjective imagery experience and objective behavioral performance.
Dando and colleagues · Royal Society Open Science
Eyewitnesses with aphantasia recalled fewer correct details of a filmed crime than typical imagers but made no more errors. They recalled least when asked to picture the scene, which suggests imagery-based interviews may not suit them.
Pounder and colleagues · Cortex
Twenty people with aphantasia were as accurate as 20 typical imagers on tests of memory, spatial span, planning and mental rotation. Differences appeared only in speed: they slowed more than controls as a planning puzzle got harder.
Bainbridge and colleagues · Cortex
People with aphantasia drew fewer objects and less color from memory than typical imagers, but placed objects just as accurately and added fewer false ones. This suggests memory for objects and memory for locations rely on separate systems.