Sydney Aphantasia Research

🍎 Dr Joel Pearson recently chatted to ABC All In The Mind about all things Aphantasia. Have a listen here! https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/the-minds-eye/10425288
Joel is the director of Pearson Lab, and oversees all research being conducted by the Sydney Aphantasia Research group. If you're interested in participating or learning more, send us a message!

The mind's eye Picture an apple. Now, picture your favourite character from a novel. And now a loved one's face. Can you see those images in your mind's eye? Some people can't. They have a condition called aphantasia, which disrupts their ability to create a mental image.

Can you relate to any of these experiences?
The more people write about their experience with aphantasia, the more others realise they may have it! It's great to see awareness around aphantasia building as more and more people share their stories.
Here in the lab, these stories helps us define new research directions and questions to answer 🔎

Experience: I can't picture things in my mind I have a condition called aphantasia where I can’t visualise things. When I try to picture my daughter when she’s not there, I see nothing

🙋‍♀️ WELCOME to Pearson Labs dedicated Aphantasia group

This post is your field guide to all things Aphantasia:

🧠 What is Aphantasia? https://bit.ly/2M96Tvf

🤔 What does Aphantasia feel like?: https://bit.ly/1qIMp1u

👩‍🔬 I'm ready for the research: https://bit.ly/2tdkScw

🌟 Do I have Aphantasia?: Mental imagery sits along a spectrum, from very strong (Hyperphantasia), to weak (Aphantasia). Chances are, if you are asking this question- you may have Aphantasia!

💫 I have Aphantasia, what do I do?: Well, that's up to you! Both the academic and medical community are still working to understand Aphantasia. If you're interested in learning more about Aphantasia, or being a research participant, you can send an email to [email protected]. One of our friendly researchers can help answer all your queries.

🔎 What is Pearsons Lab?: https://bit.ly/2tdLmun
Pearsons Lab @ UNSW is a collection of psychologists, neuroscientists and psychophysisists working together to further understand Aphantasia. To keep up to date on research coming out of the lab, follow this page!

You can also follow Pearson Labs sister Lab (The Science of Innovation Lab) on Twitter for more neuroscience news

Aphantasia - help us understand the mind's eye https://www.everydayhero.com.au/event/helpusunderstandaphantasia Help Associate Professor Joel Pearson, Rebecca Keogh, Peter Simpson-Young and Annabel Blake ...

Thankyou all so much for your participation in our recent study. We have had an amazing response, with more than 400 people completing the study!

The questions we asked in this study are all commonly used measures of imagery and memory. However, we are aware that they are not perfect measures, especially for people who have no experience of visual imagery. With this in mind, we are really interested in hearing any feedback you may have on the questionnaires you completed, as well as your experience of aphantasia in general. We have created an online anonymous feedback form (below) for these purposes, should you wish to complete it:

Feedback form:
https://unswpsy.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8ix5rJWP8rmz1dz

To make valid scientific conclusions about the mechanisms underpinning aphantasia, it is necessary for us to compare your responses with individuals who do experience visual imagery. If you know of anyone who does experience voluntary visual imagery, and would be interested in participating in online research, we would be highly grateful for their participation. We have attached a link below where they may participate online.

Online participation link for visualisers:
https://unswpsy.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6D53zdma0Rvbsy1

Thankyou all for your interest, involvement, and valuable contribution to our research on aphantasia.

Best regards,

The Pearson Lab team

Online Survey | Built with Qualtrics Experience Management™ Qualtrics makes sophisticated research simple and empowers users to capture customer, product, brand & employee experience insights in one place.

You are invited to take part in an online experiment on the relationship between aphantasia and mood, memory, cognition and perception.

-About us-
This research project is run by the Pearson Lab at UNSW’s School of Psychology in Sydney, Australia. We are committed to pioneering research into Aphantasia, and our mission is to develop a better scientific understanding of Aphantasia and the impact of visual imagery capacity on a range of outcomes.

-Who can participate?-
All English-speaking individuals who identify as ‘non-imagers’ or ‘aphantasic’ are invited to participate. International participants are welcome. Internet access is required to participate in this study.

-What does this study involve?-
If you choose to participate in this study, you will be asked to provide some basic demographic information, and complete several self-report questionnaires assessing your visual imagery, mood, memory, response to stress, and dream experiences. If you do not wish to answer certain questions or questionnaire items, you are not obliged to do so and may skip them or exit the study without consequence.

This study is expected to take no more than 30 minutes to complete.

-Will I be compensated for participating?-
Participants may volunteer to enter into a draw to win a voucher of the value of $200AUD. You may supply your e-mail address at the end of the experiment if you wish to enter this draw. The randomly selected winner will be announced approximately 2 months after the experiment has begun. By participating in this experiment, you will also be helping us to develop robust scientific knowledge on aphantasia, and helping to illuminate the role of visual imagery in mood, memory, and dreaming.

-How do I participate?-
Simply click on the link below, which will take you to our online experiment. This link is anonymous and does not track user information.

Please ensure that you read the Participant Information Statement, which contains important information about disclosure, confidentiality, use of data, and consent. You can complete this study on a computer from a quiet location.

https://unswpsy.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e4gi109mNfzy5xj

-Where can I get additional information?-
You can find more information on our aphantasia project at our page, and more information about our lab at http://www.pearsonlab.org/

If you have questions about this specific study, or our research in general, you can email us at [email protected]

Best regards,

The Pearson Lab team

Online Survey | Built with Qualtrics Experience Management™ Qualtrics makes sophisticated research simple and empowers users to capture customer, product, brand & employee experience insights in one place.

Check out this news.com.au article discussing Aphantasia & some of our research. It's great to see increasing awareness about Aphantasia!

Aphantasia — when you’re blind in your mind PICTURE a beach. The sun is rising, the blue waves are crashing, and the white-gold sand is sparkling. Calming, isn’t it?

Checkout this latest interview about our Aphantasia research with Dr Joel Pearson, in Smart Drug Smarts!

#219 - Aphantasia with Dr. Joel Pearson – Smart Drug Smarts

In this 2016 study, we used tiny electrical currents to stimulate the visual cortex (the brain region responsible for visual processing) and enhance mental imagery. ⚡🧠

We hope to investigate whether this technique can be used to boost mental imagery in people with aphantasia.

If you're interested in participating in any of our research projects (in Sydney or online), drop us an email at [email protected].

Download the open access paper here:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/12/14/093690

Using an objective measure of mental imagery developed by the lab, we found further evidence that aphantasia is caused by a lack of mental imagery and not a lack of interoception (or metacognition).

Check out the open-access paper here:
https://psyarxiv.com/pdjb9/

Or this LiveScience interview with the lead author, Dr Rebecca Keogh:
https://www.livescience.com/

The blind mind: No sensory imagery in aphantasia

Consider this. If we asked you "what did you eat for dinner yesterday?" how would you recall the answer?

Most people report seeing a visual image of their food in their mind's eye, and reporting what they ate from that. But some people don't, or even can't, do this. This phenomena is called Aphantasia and may describe a minority of people who think, create, remember and live in a fascinatingly unique way - without visual mental imagery.

Popular and scientific awareness of Aphantasia has been recently gathering steam. At UNSW's Pearson Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, researchers are looking for people who think they might be aphantasics to participate in upcoming research. If you're in the Sydney area and think you might be aphantasic please drop us a line. You might be able to contribute directly to knowledge about this exciting emerging frontier in brain science.

To get in touch just send an email to [email protected] or message this page.