A longitudinal study was undertaken to assess the development of several types of imagery in an adult who has been blind for 12 years. Various imagery tests were carried out to measure: visual, auditory, tactile, kinaesthetic, gustatory, olfactory, and organic imagery; movement imagery; and control imagery. Image vividness related to vision was found to decline over time whereas image vividness related to other senses increased or remained stable. Further research is proposed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ArditiA.HoltzmanJ. D.KosslynS. M. (1988). Mental imagery and sensory experience in congenital blindness. Neuropsychologia, 26, 1–12. doi: org/10.1016/0028-3932(88)90026-7.
2.
BailesS. M.LambertR. M. (1986). Cognitive aspects of haptic form recognition by blind and sighted subjects. British Journal of Psychology, 77, 451–458. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1986.tb02210.x.
3.
CamposA. (1998). A measure of visual imaging capacity: A preliminary study. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 87, 1012–1014. doi: 10.2466/pms.1998.87.3.1012.
4.
CamposA. (2004). The vividness of imagery in a person who has been blind for three years. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 98, 309–313.
5.
CamposA.GonzálezM. A.AmorA. (2002). The Spanish version of the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire: Factor structure and internal consistency reliability. Psychological Reports, 90, 503–506. doi: 10.2466/PR0.90.2.503-506.
6.
CamposA.LópezA.GonzálezM. A.AmorA. (2004). Imagery factor in the Spanish version of the Verbalizer-Visualizer Questionnaire. Psychological Reports, 94, 1149–1154. doi: 10.2466//PR0.94.3.1149-1154.
7.
CamposA.PérezM. J. (1990). A factor analytic study of two measures of mental imagery. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 71, 995–1001. doi: 10.2466/PMS.71.7.995-1001.
8.
CamposA.Pérez-FabelloM. J. (2005). The Spanish version of Betts' Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery. Psychological Reports, 96, 51–56. doi: 10.2466/PR0.96.1.51-56.
9.
CamposA.Pérez-FabelloM. J.Gómez-JuncalR. (2004). Gender and age differences in measured and self-perceived imaging capacity. Personality and Individual Differences. 37, 1383–1389. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2004.01.008.
10.
CamposA.SueiroE. (1993). Sex and age differences in visual imagery vividness. Journal of Mental Imagery, 17(3&4), 91–94.
11.
De BeniR.CornoldiC. (1988). Imagery limitations in totally congenitally blind subjects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 14, 650–655. doi: 10.1037//0278-7393.14.4.650.
12.
HaberR. N.HaberL. R.LevinC. A.HollyfieldR. (1993). Properties of spatial representations: Data from sighted and blind subjects. Perception & Psychophysics, 54, 1–13. doi: 10.3758/BF03206932.
13.
HollinsM. (1985). Styles of mental imagery in blind adults. Neuropsychologia, 23, 561–566. doi: 10.1016/0028-3932(85)90009-0.
14.
IachiniT.RuggieroG. (2010). The role of visual experience in mental scanning of actual pathways: Evidence from blind and sighted people. Perception, 39, 953–969. doi: 10.1068/p6457.
15.
IsaacA.MarksD. F.RusselD. G. (1986). An instrument for assessing imagery for movement: The Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire (VMIQ). Journal of Mental Imagery, 10, 23–30.
16.
MarksD. F. (1973). Visual imagery differences in the recall of pictures. British Journal of Psychology, 64, 17–24. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1973.tb01322.x.
17.
MaurerD.LewisT. L.MondlochC. J. (2005). Missing sight: Consequences for visual cognitive development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 144–151. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2005.01.006.
18.
Pérez-FabelloM. J.CamposA. (2004). Factor structure and internal consistency of the Spanish version of the Gordon Test of Visual Imagery Control. Psychological Reports, 94, 761–766. doi: 10.2466/PR0.94.3.761-766.
19.
RichardsonA. (1969). Mental imagery. New York, NY: Springer.
20.
RichardsonA. (1977). Verbalizer-Visualizer: A cognitive style dimension. Journal of Mental Imagery, 1, 109–125.
21.
SheehanP. W. (1967). A shortened form of Betts' Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 23, 386–389. doi: 10.1002/1097-4679(196707)23:3 <386::AID-JCLP2270230328>3.0.CO;2-S.
22.
TorojM.SzubielskaM. (2011). Prior visual experience, and perception and memory of shape in people with total blindness. British Journal of Impairment, 29, 60–81. doi: 10.1177/0264619610387554.
WhiteK. D.AshtonR.BrownR. M. D. (1977). The measurement of imagery vividness: Normative data and their relationship to sex, age, and modality differences. British Journal of Psychology, 68, 203–211. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1977.tb01576.x.
25.
ZimlerJ.KeenanJ. M. (1983). Imagery in the congenitally blind: How visual are visual images?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 9, 269–282. doi: 10.1037/0278-7393.9.2.269.