A zoom lens before the eyes during imagery: individual differences and strange, unexpected responses.

The research examined some aspects of an hypothetical involvement of the eyes in the process of imagery and the individual differences in the modulation of the imagery-perception interaction of 59 (7 male and 52 female) undergraduate students in psychology. The subjects were asked to image with open eyes and to project, looking through a zoom lens, the "mental" image onto a white screen. While the subject was imaging, the experimenter moved the lever of the zoom lens in the direction of an hypothetical enlargement. This movement evoked different classes of responses: 46% of the subjects had a loss, even if for a short time, of the image, 37% of the subjects observed a strange and unexpected enlargement of the mental image, 7% did not observe any change in imagery, and 10% had other responses. A psychophysiological discussion concerned the strange phenomena observed in this research that have not yet been explored enough.