Subjects' expectations, individual variability, and the scanning of mental images

Abstract

The near-perfect correlation between mental imagery scanning times (averaged across subjects) and interobject distances on imaged maps has been cited as evidence for Kosslyn's (1981) analog theory of mental imagery. Present results (1) indicate that individual subjects' scanning-time/distance correlations vary as a function of instructional set (and, hence, a priori expectations), and (2) reveal a large degree of individual variability in scanning-time/distance correlations. © 1985 Psychonomic Society, Inc.