The Effect of Image Vividness on Reality Monitoring

Abstract

In this experimental study of “reality monintoring” as in an earlier study by Johnson, Raye, Wang, and Taylor, each of thirty-six pictures was visually perceived two, five, or eight times and was visually imaged two, five, or eight times. When subjects in these studies were asked to estimate how many times each picture had actually been perceived, their frequency estimates were higher not only for pictures that had been perceived more often, but also for pictures that had been imaged more often. Such misremembered imaging in the experiment by Johnson, et al., was significantly more pronounced in subjects with better visual memory. In contrast, the misremembrance of frequent images in the current experiment was significantly less pronounced in subjects with more vivid imagery. The implications of these findings for immediate “reality testing” and memorial “reality monitoring”, as described by Kunzendorf and Johnson respectively, are discussed.