UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Visual working memory performance in aphantasia

Jacobs, C; Schwarzkopf, DS; Silvanto, J; (2018) Visual working memory performance in aphantasia. Cortex , 105 pp. 61-73. 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.014. Green open access

[thumbnail of 2017 - Jacobs et al - Cortex.pdf]
Preview
Text
2017 - Jacobs et al - Cortex.pdf - Published Version

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Aphantasia, i.e., the congenital inability to experience voluntary mental imagery, offers a new model for studying the functional role of mental imagery in (visual) cognition. However, until now, there have been no studies investigating whether aphantasia can be linked to specific impairments in cognitive functioning. Here, we assess visual working memory performance in an aphantasic individual. We find that she performs significantly worse than controls on the most difficult (i.e., requiring the highest degree of precision) visual working memory trials. Surprisingly, her performance on a task designed to involve mental imagery did not differ from controls', although she lacked metacognitive insight into her performance. Together, these results indicate that although a lack of mental imagery can be compensated for under some conditions, mental imagery has a functional role in other areas of visual cognition, one of which is high-precision working memory.

Type: Article
Title: Visual working memory performance in aphantasia
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.014
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.014
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Aphantasia, Mental imagery, Visual working memory
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10066302
Downloads since deposit
4,438Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item