Visual working memory performance in aphantasia. (August 2018)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Visual working memory performance in aphantasia. (August 2018)
- Main Title:
- Visual working memory performance in aphantasia
- Authors:
- Jacobs, Christianne
Schwarzkopf, Dietrich S.
Silvanto, Juha - Abstract:
- 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.
- Is Part Of:
- Cortex. Volume 105(2018)
- Journal:
- Cortex
- Issue:
- Volume 105(2018)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 105, Issue 2018 (2018)
- Year:
- 2018
- Volume:
- 105
- Issue:
- 2018
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2018-0105-2018-0000
- Page Start:
- 61
- Page End:
- 73
- Publication Date:
- 2018-08
- Subjects:
- Aphantasia -- Mental imagery -- Visual working memory
Neuropsychology -- Periodicals
Nervous system -- Periodicals
Neurology -- Periodicals
Psychophysiology -- Periodicals
Behavior -- Periodicals
Neurology -- Periodicals
612.825 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00109452 ↗
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00109452 ↗
http://www.cortex-online.org ↗
http://www.elsevier.com/journals ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.014 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0010-9452
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 3477.150000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library STI - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 10763.xml