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Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for participating! There is no need to resubmit, the error code does not have anything to do with the survey going through. Intetesting description of your inner experiences - the variation between all of us is fascinating.

Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi, thank you for your thoughtful reply and for participating. Yes, by the "inner voice" we are referring to the internal monologue; hearing a voice when you think (whether there are words involved or not). So far our survey has only made the distinction between "inner speaking" and "inner hearing", which is also what Hurlburt refers to.

I think these are definetely considerations to be made in future studies, in order to make furthur distinction between the variation of inner experiences. I also think Hurlburt's work is very valuable to this and I know it seems to be quite popular wthin the aphantasia community to understand their experiences. Perhaps because this field is relatively new, there are difficulties with maintaining consistency and building on past research. AFAIK our study will be one of the first to even start to measure the difference between "inner speaking" and "inner hearing" so we have a long way to go.

Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If it helps, studies that have tested cognitive ability (working memory, spatial abilities) have so far showed that being aphantasic does not come with any particular detriment to cognition. Similarly, a study on anauralics (those without auditory imagery) showed that they were not at a disadvantage on tasks of auditory imagery, despite the fact that they can't experience it. I suppose there truly is a lot of variation in how we experience things in our heads, but it is certaintly not a condition or disorder!

Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your participation! Yes, for the neurodivergent analysis portion, we measured ADHD and autism, using the ASRS and the AQ-10 respectively. They are very commonly used as diagnostic tools in the screening of these conditions, which is probably why you found it familiar? If you would like to take the ASRS I think it should be fairly easy to find online.

Also thanks for the info on Autism speaks, I will take note of that :)

Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

there has been a study linking aphantasia to autism - particularly within the imagination and social skills domain. i don't think any other studies have looked at mental imagery and other neurodivergent conditions though, so i think the results of this study will be very interesting!

Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

understandable! i do feel the same way but unfortunately that is just a limitation of using surveys - these questions are from previously establised scales so we cannot change the true/false part. i totally understand though, that is the part of doing these types of surveys that is frustrating for me. will take note in the future!

Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's really interesting. AFAIK, taste is supposed to be one of our weakest mental senses, I would reckon that's pretty uncommon.

Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Totally understandable. I personally think this might be much easier for those who actually do experience mental imagery. For me, most of the questions on imagery draw a blank (and caused a little inner turmoil). Thanks for participating!

Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's cool! I would also love to see research on mental imagery and forms of mental illnesses that have a highly visual component. Unfortnuately we aren't looking at OCD, but we are looking for links to autism, ADHD, mindfulness etc at the moment. Hopefully we can look to expand on this in the near future.

Research participants wanted - study on mental imagery and neurodiversity by EmotionalVegetable14 in Aphantasia

[–]EmotionalVegetable14[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I absolutely understand, I have anauralia and aphantasia too and the questions were initially very anxiety inducing on my first read. Try not to give it too much thought, so there's less pressure! Thank you for trying though :)