Vividness Declines Across Lifespans With Ilona Kovács
Do we become more aphantasic with age?
To address this question, a Hungarian research team collected data from 2252 participants aged 12-60 using a widely-used measure of imagery vividness called the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire. They found a novel developmental pattern in the ability to produce vivid mental images, with a decline in average imagery vividness from adolescence to middle age. This pattern is characterized by a decreasing proportion of individuals with high imagery vividness and an increasing proportion of individuals with low imagery vividness as maturation and aging progress.
Dr. Illona Kovács is a Professor of Psychology from the Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary and a member of the BETAlab that researches adolescent development, including biological and emotional maturation and the development of cortical networks. Kovács joins Aphantasia Network for a live member event to discuss the recent findings showing vividness declines across lifespans.