An investigation of appearance ratio and subtype of aphantasia

Abstract

We investigated the appearance ratio of aphantasia, a condition in which people with normal perception show blind imagination. The participants (N = 1018) completed the questionnaire through online sampling. We used the QMI, VVIQ, and VVQ to examine imagery vividness of multimodality, vividness of visual imagery, and cognitive style, respectively. Further, they were required to complete a free description about their episodes if they had no imagery. The number of people with no imagery was 112. Comparing the VVIQ points, we found three groups: with the lowest point (n = 2：VVIQ = 16), with lower (n = 17：16 < VVIQ < 33), and with medium degree or more (n = 93：33 < VVIQ). There were differences in the rating tendency of QMI and VVIQ subfactors among these groups. We suggest subtypes focusing on subfactors of QMI and VVIQ, to consider appearance ratio of aphantasia.