Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire 2 - VVIQ2

Technical Manual

Credits:
Millisecond thanks Dr. Adnan Niazi for sharing the original VVIQ script on which this script is built!

Last Modified: May 21, 2026 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire 2 (VVIQ2) by Marks (1995). The VVIQ2 measures the clarity and vividness of a person's mental imagery (their "mind's eye"). It was developed by Marks to improve statistical reliability, precision, and clarity of the original 1973 questionnaire by doubling the number of items, removing the open-eyes instruction condition, and reversing the scoring scale so that higher numbers indicate higher mental imagery abilities.

References

Marks, D.F. (1995). New Directions for Imagery Research. Journal of Mental Imagery, 19, 153-167.

Marks, D.F. (1973). Visual imagery differences in the recall of pictures. British Journal of Psychology, 64(1), 17–24.

Duration

6 minutes

Description

Participants rate with eyes closed the vividness of 32 imagined scenes on a 5-point scale (a glider is used in this script). (8 scenes with 4 questions each) Each response receives 1 (lowest vividness) to 5 (highest vividness) points.

( the VVIQ2 questionnaire reverses the scales compared to the VVIQ questionnaire)

Max combined score = 5*32 = 160 (high vividness) Min combined score = 1*32 = 32 (low vividness)

Instructions

The htm instruction pages are provided by Millisecond (build on the instructions by Niazi).
They were written to closely resemble the original instructions for the VVIQ
(at: https://web.archive.org/web/20080615154210/https://www.staff.city.ac.uk/d.marks/vviq.htm)
while adapting them to the computerized set-up used in this script.

Summary Data

File Name: vviq2_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
computer.touch 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities
computer.hasKeyboard 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
Demographics
textbox.age.response Age response of participant
radioButtons.gender.response Gender response of participant
textbox.occupation.response Occupation response of participant
Vviq2
vviq2Total Range 32 (low ability to imagine) -160 (high ability to imagine)
the higher the score, the higher the ability to imagine

Raw Data

File Name: vviq2*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject Participant ID
group Group number
session Session number
build Inquisit version number
q*_response Response given (in assigned values)
Scale: 1 (no image at all)- 5 (perfectly clear and vivid)
q*_latency How much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular
question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited)