Comparing Mental Imagery across the Sensory Modalities

Abstract

Previous studies using introspective reports have suggested that although mental images can contain elements referring to all sensory modalities, visual images tend to be experienced as most vivid, whereas olfactory and gustatory images tend to be least vivid. However, these studies have typically used arbitrarily selected events and objects as the to-be-imagined stimuli, which may have biased cross-modal comparison. Therefore, in the present study participants were instructed to imagine an event or product of their choice that elicited a conspicuous or characteristic appearance, sound, feel, smell, or taste. The results showed that the types of events imagined differed considerably across modalities. Similar to previous studies in this area, we found that the reported image quality was consistently highest for vision and audition, and lowest for smell.

Emotions associated to mealtimes: Memorable meals and typical evening meals

“…1 = not at all vivid; 7 = extremely vivid). These questions were adapted from Schifferstein (2009) and the responses were provided on 7-pt scales. The vividness data were used to confirm that participants were able to vividly recall the focal eating experience.…”

What makes meals ‘memorable’? A consumer-centric exploration

“…10 short sentences. Based on Schifferstein (2009), ratings of the vividness with which participants recalled that experience were obtained (e.g., "how vivid was the occasion in your mind?" 1 = not at all vivid; 7 = extremely vivid).…”

Dynamics of shifting viewpoints: an investigation into users' attitudes towards products

“…On the other side, regarding the number of moving viewpoints longer than 2 seconds, words related to feelings can be identified (e.g., 'feeling, 'comfortable', or 'pleasant'). It can be speculated that moving viewpoints contribute to richer mental imagery, which is related to feelings (Richardson, 2013;Schifferstein, 2009).…”