Journal
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 63, Issue 10, Pages 2031-2050Publisher
PSYCHOLOGY PRESS
DOI: 10.1080/17470211003802459
Keywords
Spatial mental imagery; Individual differences; Spatial ability; Image scanning
Funding
- National Science Foundation (NSF) [REC-0411725]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In this article, we report a new image-scanning paradigm that allowed us to measure objectively individual differences in spatial mental imageryspecifically, imagery for location. Participants were asked to determine whether an arrow was pointing at a dot using a visual mental image of an array of dots. The degree of precision required to discriminate oyeso from onoo trials was varied. In Experiment 1, the time to scan increasing distances, as well as the number of errors, increased when greater precision was required to make a judgement. The results in Experiment 2 replicated those results while controlling for possible biases. When greater precision is required, the accuracy of the spatial image becomes increasingly importantand hence the effect of precision in the task reflects the accuracy of the image. In Experiment 3, this measure was shown to be related to scores on the Paper Folding test, on the Paper Form Board test, and on the visuospatial items on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matricesbut not to scores on questionnaires measuring object-based mental imagery. Thus, we provide evidence that classical standardized spatial tests rely on spatial mental imagery but not object mental imagery.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available