The effect of word abstractness and pleasantness on pupil size during an imagery task

Abstract

Findings from two studies demonstrate that a S’s pupils dilate when he attempts to generate mental images to words. Dilation, which may reflect the cognitive difficulty of the imagery task, was greater to abstract than to concrete words, but did not vary with word pleasantness-unpleasantness. © 1966, Psychonomic Press. All rights reserved.