• About the author
  • Colleagues
  • Contract work
  • Recordings

The Mnemonic Lode

Memory. Measurement. Life in Academia.

  • About the author
  • Colleagues
  • Contract work
  • Recordings

Individual differences in experiencing visual imagery

December 22, 2016 Measurement Research No Comments

One frustration with studying visual memory is that we have no way to directly experience what someone else sees in their mind. When trying to understand individuals’ memories about uncontrolled events, we rely mainly on verbal descriptions of visual memories and individuals’ feelings of confidence in the clarity and vividness of those memories. There is a lot of variability here. Some people believe that their visual memories are as clear and high-fidelity as a photograph (though there are very few examples of this fidelity being put to a convincing objective test; see this article for an overview). Other people report experiencing no visual imagery at all (see here and here for descriptions and discussion), even when asked to imagine something that should be extremely familiar. Most of our experiences probably fall somewhere in between these extremes.

My student Gintare Siugzdinyte is currently studying individual differences in visual imagination experiences, and hoping to attract a large and diverse sample to respond to a short questionnaire. Later in 2017 after we have analyzed these data, I can provide an update about what we learned about visual imagery from this survey. You can find our survey here. Thanks very much for your help!

aphantasianon-imagersphotographic memoryvisual imageryvisual memory

It's exam time: Do your best by trying empirically-confirmed advice

What do scholars want in a journal?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Recent Posts
  • In memoriam, Bill
  • Wrangling messy data in R using the tidyverse
  • Alessandra Souza, the 2019 WomWoM Research Fairy
  • #WomWom: A wand award for the 2018 research-fairy
  • I’ve got a lab handbook now
Recent Comments
  • Alessandra on Alessandra Souza, the 2019 WomWoM Research Fairy
  • Alessandra Souza, the 2019 WomWoM Research Fairy – The Mnemonic Lode on #WomWom: A wand award for the 2018 research-fairy
  • Candice Morey on #WomWom: A wand award for the 2018 research-fairy
  • Candice Morey on Going for a Registered Report?
  • Alessandra Souza on Going for a Registered Report?
Archives
  • May 2020
  • November 2019
  • November 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • January 2018
  • August 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
Categories
  • Academia
  • Measurement
  • Openness
  • Research
  • Uncategorized
  • WomWoM
Meta
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
About me
  • About the author
  • Colleagues
  • Contract work
  • Recordings
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Doo by ThemeVS.