Monzel Merlin, Scholz Christian O, Pearson Joel, Reuter Martin
Personality Psychology and Biological Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111, Bonn, Germany.
Institute of Philosophy II, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Behav Res Methods. 2025 Aug 4;57(9):248. doi: 10.3758/s13428-025-02780-6.
Since mental imagery cannot be observed from the outside, it is all the more important to make it measurable. Yet, many so-called mental imagery tasks confuse object and spatial imagery or can be solved entirely without mental imagery, making them inappropriate for the assessment of mental imagery strength. One promising measurement method is the binocular rivalry task by Pearson et al. (Current Biology 18(13):982-986, 2008), which uses mental imagery priming to quantify mental imagery strength. Here, we propose an improved equation for the binocular rivalry priming score to significantly increase its predictive validity. In a sample of 38 aphantasics and 73 controls, we demonstrate that the binocular rivalry priming score calculated by the new equation explains more variance in the self-reported mental imagery capacity than the original equation. The improved binocular rivalry priming score is particularly beneficial when only a few trials are recorded (e.g., due to time or attention constraints) or when people with low mental imagery (i.e., aphantasics) have to be identified. The improved binocular rivalry priming score is advantageous in many situations, making it the preferred measure for future research.
由于心理意象无法从外部观察到，因此使其具有可测量性就显得尤为重要。然而，许多所谓的心理意象任务混淆了物体和空间意象，或者完全可以在没有心理意象的情况下解决，这使得它们不适用于评估心理意象强度。一种有前景的测量方法是Pearson等人（《当代生物学》18(13):982 - 986, 2008）提出的双眼竞争任务，该任务利用心理意象启动来量化心理意象强度。在此，我们提出了一个改进的双眼竞争启动分数方程，以显著提高其预测效度。在一个由38名心象缺乏者和73名对照组组成的样本中，我们证明，新方程计算出的双眼竞争启动分数比原方程能解释更多自我报告的心理意象能力方面的差异。当只记录少量试验时（例如，由于时间或注意力限制），或者当必须识别出心理意象能力较低的人（即心象缺乏者）时，改进后的双眼竞争启动分数特别有用。改进后的双眼竞争启动分数在许多情况下都具有优势，使其成为未来研究的首选测量方法。
