Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ)

Background

The Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) is a psychometric test used to measure the clarity and vividness of a person's mental imagery (their "mind's eye"). Developed by David Marks in 1973, it is widely used in cognitive psychology and neuroscience and is frequently used to help identify aphantasia, a condition where individuals cannot form voluntary mental images.

The original VVIQ provides participants with 16 visual scenarios such as "Clouds. A storm blows up, with flashes of lightening." and participants are asked to rate the vividness of their mental image on a 5-point scale ranging from "No image at all" to "Perfectly clear as if I was actually seeing it", once with their eyes open and once with their eyes closed. Marks published the VVIQ2 in 1995 to improve the 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.

Task Procedure

The VVIQ2 presents 32 visual scenarios and asks participants to rate their ability to imagine the described scene on a 5-point Likert scale with the following anchors: 1-"No image at all", 2-"Vague and dim", 3-"Moderately clear and vivid", 4-"Reasonably clear and vivid", 5-"Perfectly clear & vivid as if I was actually seeing it"

The final VVIQ2 total score ranges between 32 and 160, with higher scores indicating higher abilities for mental imagery.

What it Measures

The VVIQ/VVIQ2 are measures of mental imagery abilities

Psychological domains

• Perception: How the brain processes actual sensory input versus how it replicates that input internally (imagery).
• Working Memory: Ability to of the visuospatial sketchpad to hold and manipulate images.
• Episodic Memory: Ability to visualize past experiences

Main Performance Metrics

• Total Score: Main indicator of mental imagery abilities (Note: VVIQ and VVIQ2 use reverse scores)

Psychiatric Conditions

VVIQ scores tends to be heightened or impaired in patients with the following conditions.

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Parkinson’s Disease (PD)
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
• Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI)

Test Variations

References

Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ).

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Marks, D.F. (1973). Visual imagery differences in the recall of pictures.

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

Faw, B. (1997). Outlining a brain model of mental imaging abilities. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Volume 21, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 283-288

Olesya Blazhenkova, Maria Kozhevnikov (2010). Visual-object ability: A new dimension of non-verbal intelligence. Cognition, Volume 117, Issue 3, December 2010, Pages 276-301.

Borst, G., & Kosslyn, S. (January 01, 2010). Individual differences in spatial mental imagery. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 10, 2031-2050.

Robert H. Logie, Cyril R. Pernet, Antimo Buonocore, Sergio Della Sala (2011). Low and high imagers activate networks differentially in mental rotation. Neuropsychologia, Volume 49, Issue 11, September 2011, Pages 3071-3077.