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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Speed, Mak and McRae · Neuropsychologia
In two online experiments, 68 people with aphantasia and over 100 typical imagers read short sentences and judged whether a pictured object had been named. Both groups were slower when the picture's color clashed with the color the sentence implied (a dog hard to find in mud is likely brown), and the slowing was, if anything, larger in the aphantasia group. Neither group was affected by implied distance. The authors read this as automatic, unconscious simulation during reading that does not need conscious imagery, though they say other strategies still need ruling out.
Speed, Geraerds and McRae · Memory & Cognition
Thirty people with aphantasia and 29 typical imagers decided whether one word named a physical part of another (is a mane part of a lion?). Both groups were equally fast and accurate, and both were slower, by a similar amount, when the wrong answers were related words, which forces a closer check. In that version, ratings of each part's perceptual features predicted response times in both groups, which the authors read as automatic, unconscious simulation that does not need conscious imagery, though an abstract, non-visual strategy is also possible. People with aphantasia may also lean more on word associations.
Speed, Eekhof and Mak · Consciousness and Cognition
Readers with aphantasia felt less absorbed in a short story and less sympathy for its characters, yet liked it as much as other readers. This suggests mental imagery shapes how a story is experienced but is not the only route to enjoying one.
Monzel and Reuter · Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
In an online test, people with aphantasia took longer than controls to find objects in busy hidden-object pictures (8.95 versus 7.46 seconds), though no one was asked to visualize. More vivid imagery went with faster search.
Muraki, Speed and Pexman · Nature Reviews Psychology
A review of whether understanding words relies on quietly replaying sights, sounds and movements in the brain, often called simulation, and what aphantasia could reveal about it. The authors suggest such simulation may be a kind of imagery that is involuntary and unconscious, and set out studies to test whether people without voluntary imagery still show its effects. They also summarize what was known in 2023 about aphantasia, including its estimated prevalence, the value of objective tests alongside questionnaires, and dream imagery in about 60% of people with it.