Abstract
Does conscious aware inspection of visual mental images mimic a spotlight? To answer this, a constructive naturalistic approach was used to integrate image latency (time necessary to generate a visual image), image size (specified by the size of an external display), and vividness (verbal report, through rating, indicating activation strength of images). Participants were asked to form images at “small” and/or “large” sizes and immediately rate them on a 7-point vividness scale. In Experiment 1, sizes varied between participants, and images were “trial-unique.” In Experiment 2, the task required forming all images repeatedly at 4 varying sizes. In Experiment 1, larger images took longer than smaller images to reach same vividness level, with interaction between vividness and size. Size effects and interaction disappeared in Experiment 2; furthermore, images seemed to undergo gradual built-up and more uniformly-distributed inspection. Both imagery phenomenology and its behavioral correlates seem to support the spotlight metaphor.
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