Metacognition in Aphantasia: Taking the “conscious” view seriously
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Whereas aphantasics report lacking voluntary conscious visual imagery, empirical findings indicate that they employ visual strategies to complete tasks. The discrepancy has led some researchers to propose that aphantasics rely on unconscious visual imagery. This paper instead motivates and defends a “conscious” view. Consciousness research uses both visibility and confidence measures. Participants in aphantasia studies are recruited based on their scores on the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), which closely resembles a visibility measure. To assess whether aphantasics’ task-relevant visual imagery is truly unconscious, we should also investigate their confidence in their first-order task performance. The few studies that have explored this suggest that they exhibit good metacognition. These findings therefore support the conscious interpretation. • A detailed examination of recent metacognitive findings on aphantasia. • A proposed framework for analysing metacognitive findings, informed by recent empirical and philosophical research on blindsight. • An innovative argument from metacognitive evidence for a “conscious” interpretation of imagery retained in aphantasia. • Careful support for the “visual” nature of imagery retained aphantasia.
Source: Neuropsychologia
Author: Lu Teng
Institution: Australian National University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,300
OpenAlex ID: W4416795488