Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire - VVIQ

Technical Manual

Script Author: Adnan Niazi (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen)

Credits:
Millisecond thanks Dr.Niazi for sharing his script!

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 (VVIQ) by Marks (1973). The VVIQ measures the clarity and vividness of a person's mental imagery (their "mind's eye").

A paper version of this VVIQ is available on David Marks webpage: https://web.archive.org/web/20080615154210/https://www.staff.city.ac.uk/d.marks/vviq.htm

References

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

Duration

7 minutes

Description

participant rates once with eyes open/once with eyes closed the vividness of 16 imagined scenes on a 5-point scale (a glider is used in this script). Each response receives 1 (highest vividness) to 5 (lowest vividness) points.

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

Instructions

The htm instruction pages are provided by Millisecond (build on the instructions by A. Niazi).
They were written to closely resemble the original
(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: vviq_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
Vviq Scores
vviqopeneyes Range 16-80, the lower the score, the higher the ability to imagine
vviqclosedeyes Range 16-80, the lower the score, the higher the ability to imagine
vviqTotal Range 32-160, the lower the score, the higher the ability to imagine