Running head: VISUAL IMAGERY IN STUDENTS OF 1

Visual Imagery in Students of Different Majors

Camantha-Rea Lyerly

Catawba College

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Psychology 2222, Experimental

Psychology

5/1/2020

On my honor, I Camantha-Rea, have not violated the honor code in completing this work.

-Camantha-Rea Lyerly
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Abstract

I examined how the use of visual imagery in students of different majors impacted cognitive and

affective performances. My focus was that arts majors are superior at visual imagery tasks than

non-arts majors. The participants viewed 10 pictures on a slide show presentation and either used

memory to memorize the picture or made-up a story about the picture (mediated) to memorize it.

After being shown the pictures, the participants recalled the photos they saw and then took a

recognition test that required picking out the 10 pictures shown out of 30 similar pictures. The

participants were timed on a Smartphone. After the study, I also assessed perceptions of ability at

visualization. The results suggested that arts majors did better at cognitive and affective

performances when aided with visual imagery than those who are non-arts majors. The self-

reports revealed that arts majors also believed themselves to be better visualizers than those who

are non-arts majors. This study aids more to our understanding of visual imagery and how

students of different majors can use it to aid their learning.

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Visual Imagery in Students of Different Majors

It is a common perception that theater and art majors tend to be better at visualizing

things. When artists are given a blank canvas, they tend to be able to make something beautiful

out of it, just from their own mind. If business majors are given the same blank canvas, most

would think they could not paint something as beautiful as the artist. Arts and theater majors may

just perceive themselves as better at visualization. According to Humphreys, Lubinski, and Yao

(1993), art majors in undergraduate and graduate school have high special visualization

compared to other majors like math and business, so their brains may actually be trained to be

better at visualization tasks.

Visual memory and visual mental imagery are two different things. Visual memory just

requires recalling stored information while visual mental imagery requires constructing the

image from one’s own thoughts. Slotnick, Thompson, and Kosslyn (2012) examined visual

mental imagery and visual memory on participants to see if they relied on the same cognitive

functions. MRI scans that followed revealed that the same brain regions are used for both visual

memory and visual mental imagery, but that memory requires more cognitive activity than

imagery does. Cardi and Belardinelli (2011) examined visual mental imagery, as well, and the

role it has on creativity. Their results showed that vividness of visual mental imagery is

positively correlated with creativity and the practicality of being able to perform the task. Cardi

and Belardinelli confirmed their hypothesis that visual imagery plays a direct role on creativity.

Visual imagery and auditory imagery are examined for their differences as well.

Whitbourne, Manzi, and Cody (1983) examined these differences through viewing or hearing

sentences and having to recall them. Across the span of three experimental age groups,

Whitbourne et al. concluded that adults in the oldest age group did better in the auditory
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condition than the visual condition, but abstract sentence acquisition was not confirmed to get

greater with age. However, Greenberg and Knowlton (2014), examined the role of visual

imagery in autobiographical memory and hypothesized that those considered to be visualizers

would have a stronger sense of reliving the memory and therefore a better autobiographical

memory than those who are verbalizers. In this experiment, the participants were asked to read a

word such as TREE and then answer several questions about the memory they have associated

with the word. The results showed that both verbalizers and visualizers can relive and believe a

memory they have, but the cognitive processes differ. Greenberg and Knowlton could not

confirm that visualizers have better autobiographical memory.

The mood of a person can affect his or her visual imagery (Bywaters, Andrade, &

Turpin, 2004; Craver-Lemley & Bornstein, 2006), for instance those who are in a depressed

mood may be more drawn to unpleasant images. Bywaters et al. (2004) hypothesized that those

with a low mood, like depression, would have more vivid imagery of unpleasant pictures. The

participants completed a picture rating trial where the participants rated each picture on a

slideshow for emotion, vividness, and arousal, then an immediate imagery trial where after the

picture was show, then participants completed the delayed imagery trial where they were

described the picture and then chose the slide that best fit. After one week, the participants

recalled all the slides they could. After one year, the participants recalled what they could

remember from the slides again. Bywaters et al. concluded that pictures with high arousal and

vividness are recalled better and people with low mood rate both pleasant and unpleasant images

with high vividness.

Craver-Lemley and Bornstein (2006), examined mood on visual imagery by using the

exposure effect through use of different variations of the duck-rabbit figure. Participants were
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told they were looking at a rabbit or a duck in the image. After viewing different images

resembling either the duck or the rabbit more, two images were put side by side and the

participants rated them. The results confirmed that prior stimulus exposure of the figures would

be equal for both groups. Craver-Lemley and Bornstein confirmed their hypothesis that exposure

would result in more pleasing imagery of the figure participants were looking for.

When using visual imagery, there are strategies used to fully grasp the image: the detail

coding strategy, where one looks at the little details, or the image coding strategy, where one

looks at the whole image to remember. Berger and Gaunitz (1979), examined self-rated visual

imagery scores on predictability to see who will do better at visual imagery, taking into account

coding strategies. The experiment required looking at two similar pictures and picking out their

differences as quickly as possible. After the experiment, the participants said if they used a detail

coding strategy or an image coding strategy to find the differences. The results could not

determine if the self-rated test could predict who would do better at the task, however, Berger

and Gaunitz found that the detail coding strategy was more effective than the image coding

strategy.

Visual imagery also plays a role in motor tasks, which Housner (1984) examined in an

experiment on those who were high visual imagers. Each participant viewed a video of a person

performing movements such as dancing and the participant would then replicate the movement.

The results showed that visual imagery is useful to encoding and reproducing movement tasks.

In sum, visual imagery can be manipulated by how vivid or how much emotion a picture

depicts. Visual imagery plays a major role in performing motor tasks and even recalling

autobiographical memories. The purpose of this experiment is to examine whether theater majors
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are significantly better at visual imagery tasks than those of other majors. I hypothesize that

theater majors will be better at visual imagery tasks than those of other majors.

Method

Participants and Design

Participants were 60 college students, a total of 30 men and 30 women. Half of the

participants within each sex were a theater or arts major and the other half were another major,

for example, psychology, business, math). Half of the theater/arts majors served under the

memorization condition and the other served under the mediated learning condition, within which

they had to make up a story about what is going on in the picture. The same set up is used for

those of a different major. I obtained informed consent before starting the 2 x 2 (Major x

Visualization Task) between-participants design.

Stimulus Materials

I prepared 10 photos of people doing things, for example, walking down the road or kids

playing in the yard, and put them into a slide show presentation. These photos were of people

doing things, which helped lend to imagery. Then, there were 20 other photos (making 30 photos

in all), two that are similar to each of the 10 target photos, which were used in the recognition

test. These photos can be seen in Appendix A. The participants were either told to memorize

each picture on the slide show, or they were told to make up a story about each picture in the

slide show.

Dependent Measures

A blank sheet of paper was used for the free recall test. In the recall test, participants had

60 s to write down what was going on in as many of the photos they can remember. The

participants were timed on a Smartphone. Participants were also timed in s to evaluate how long
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it takes to recognize the photos from the slide show presentation out of the array of 30 photos

presented on a poster board. Number correct was written down for each participant for both the

free recall test and the recognition test.

Self-reports following the task were taken on a 7-point bipolar scale with opposite-

meaning endpoints measuring how good the participant thinks they are at visualizing (1 very

good to 7 not very good), how well they think they did on the experiment (1 not very well to 7

very well) and if they think their major has made them better at visualizing (1 it totally has to 7 it

definitely hasn’t).

Procedure

The participants served in either the memorization condition or the mediated learning

condition. In the memorization condition, participants were told to memorize each picture on the

slide show because they would have to recall it later. In the mediated learning condition, the

participants were told to make up a story about each picture in the slide show and that they

would have to recall the picture later. Each participant viewed the same 10 pictures at 5 s at a

time. I made three different versions of the slideshow presentation using the same photos in order

to reduce order effects. After the slideshow, the participants were given a piece of paper for a

recall test and told to write down what was going on in each picture they saw. A phone timer was

used for this, giving the participants 60 s to recall as many items as possible. Then, the

participants were presented with a board of 30 pictures on it, 10 of which were on the slide show

and the other 20 which are similar but were not on the slide show. The participants had to pick

out which pictures they saw on the slideshow. The participants then made their self-reports. At

the end of the experiment all the participants were debriefed.

Results
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A 2 x 2 (Major x Encoding Strategy) ANOVA was used to determine whether the

participant’s major and encoding strategy impacted his or her ability to free recall. The means

and CIs of this analysis are located in Figure 1. Arts majors (M = 5.18, SD = 2.29) did not show a

significant difference from Non-arts majors (M = 4.89, SD = 1.91) in their ability to recall, F(1,

52) = 1.85, MSE = 2.64, p = .180. The participants in the mediated encoding strategy group (M =

6.30, SD = 2.05) recalled more items than those in the memory encoding strategy group (M =

3.86, SD = 1.33), F(1, 52) = 32.73, p < .001, p2 = .37. The interaction between Major and

Encoding Strategy was also significant, F(1, 52) = 6.59, p = .013, p2 = .11. A post-hoc revealed

that arts majors (M = 7.25, SD = 1.66) did significantly better at the mediated encoding strategy

task than the non-arts majors (M = 5.53, SD = 2.07), p = .013. The arts majors (M = 3.62, SD =

1.20) did not do significantly better at the memory encoding strategy task than the non-arts

majors (M = 4.15, SD = 1.46).

A 2 x 2 (Major x Encoding Strategy) ANOVA was used to determine if the participants’

major and encoding strategy impacted their recognition test. The means and standard deviations

of this analysis are located in Table 1. Arts majors (M = 2.07, SD = 1.49) did not do significantly

better than non-arts majors at the recognition test (M = 1.75, SD = .93), F(1, 52) = .72, MSE =

1.57, p = .401. Those in the mediated encoding strategy group (M = 1.74, SD = 1.34) did just as

well at the recognition test as those in the memory encoding strategy group (M = 2.07, SD =

1.36), F(1, 52) = .78, p = .381. The interaction between major and encoding strategy was not

significant, F(1, 52) = .12, p = .726.

A 2 x 2 (Major x Encoding Strategy) ANOVA was used to determine if the participants’

major and/or encoding strategy impacted the time to complete the tasks. The means and standard

deviations of this analysis are located in Table 1. Arts majors (M = 1.93, SD = 1.30) took less
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time than non-arts majors (M = 3.04, SD = 1.58), F(1, 52) = 8.39, MSE = 2.13, p = .006, p2 = .

14. Those in the mediated encoding strategy group (M = 2.37, SD = 1.64) did not do significantly

better than the memory encoding strategy group (M = 2.59, SD = 1.45), F(1,52) = .74, p = .395.

The interaction between encoding strategy and major was not significant, F(1,52) = .19, p = .666.

A 2 x 2 (Major x Encoding Strategy) ANOVA was used to determine if those who are

arts majors think they were better visualizers than those who are non-arts majors. The results of

this analysis are located in Table 1. Arts majors (M = 4.79, SD = 1.93) believed they were better

visualizers than those who were non-arts majors (M = 3.54, SD = 1.67), F(1, 52) = 8.07, MSE =

3.12, p = .006, p2 = .13. Those in the mediated encoding strategy group (M = 4.59, SD = 2.10)

believed they were better visualizers than those who were in the memory encoding strategy

group (M = 3.76, SD = 1.62), F(1, 52) = 4.24, p = .044, = p2 = .08. The interaction was not

significant, F(1, 52) = .12, p = .73.

Discussion

The results of this study showed that arts majors are far superior at visual imagery tasks

(recall, recognition, and time) than those of other majors. Interestingly, those who were arts

majors also reported themselves to be good visualizers. Consistent with Greenberg and

Knowlton (2014), those who are better at visual imagery tasks have a better autobiographical

memory. Greenberg and Knowlton measured this by how well a person could discuss a memory

associated with the word given, such as TREE. This means that those with better visual imagery

can place themselves in a memory more easily than those who are better at verbal imagery.

Craver-Lemley and Bornstein (2006) found that if the participants are primed before the

experiment, their visual imagery will be more pleasing when seeing what they thought they

would be. For instance, the duck- rabbit image was more pleasing if the participant was told to
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see a duck and then they did. Similarly, both Bywaters et al. (2004) and Craver-Lemly and

Bornstein found that negative images are better remembered when people are in a depressed

mood. Bywaters et al. specifically found that those in a depressed mood remember unpleasant

imagery more easily. I found this to be very interesting and an addition that could be added to

my present study. If a self-report to establish mood before the study was given, would it have an

effect on how well the participants memorize the imagery?

In the present study, I found that arts majors not only believe they are better visualizers,

but actually are better at using visualization to remember things than non-arts majors. Also, if

given the opportunity to use mediation, the participant reported himself or herself to be good at

visual imagery. However, Berger and Gaunitz (1979) found that those who self-rated themselves

to be good visualizers could not predict if they actually would be good at visual imagery tasks or

not. They did find that detail-encoding strategies worked better than imagery encoding strategies

when finding differences in a similar picture. In my study, an encoding strategy could have been

asked for and then I would examine if its use was consistent with the use demonstrated by Berger

and Gaunitz.

It is a well-known perception that artsy people are better at visualizing images than those

who are considered to be non-artsy. Returning to the blank canvas analogy, artsy people are

expected to be able to make something beautiful on the canvas. Housner (1984) found that high-

visual imagers were able to watch a video and recreate the movements better than low who were

low-visual imagers. Consistent with my research, artsy people would be considered high-visual

imagers, therefore imagery would affect their motor skills more.

In this study, I measured the participant as being better at visual imagery based on

number correct in the recognition and recall test, less time taken to complete the recall and
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recognition test, and the self-reports on visualization. My results were only confirmed at the

college-level age group. If the study were to be replicated the use of more age groups should be

used. The integration of the coding strategy and a self-report on mood would also be good

elements to add to this study. Another way to improve this study would to be adding more

pictures to select from for the slide show presentation. However, the overall results of this

experiment confirm my hypothesis that arts majors are better visual imagers than those who are

non-arts majors. In sum, my findings contribute more to our understanding of visual imagery and

which majors are best at it. These results could benefit many colleges and how they teach arts

majors verse non-arts majors.

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References

Berger, G. H., & Gaunitz, S. C. (1979). Self-rated imagery and encoding strategies in visual

memory. British Journal of Psychology, 70(1), 21–24.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1979.tb02137.x

Bywaters, M., Andrade, J., & Turpin, G. (2004). Determinants of the vividness of visual

imagery: The effects of delayed recall, stimulus affect and individual differences.

Memory, 12(4), 479–488. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658210444000160

Craver-Lemley, C., & Bornstein, R. F. (2006). Self-generated visual imagery alters the mere

exposure effect. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 13(6), 1056–1060.

https://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03213925

Greenberg, D. L., & Knowlton, B. J. (2014). The role of visual imagery in autobiographical

memory. Memory and Cognition, 42(6), 922–934.

https://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-014-0402-5

Housner, L. D. (1984). The role of visual imagery in recall of modeled motoric stimuli. Journal

of Sport Psychology, 6(2), 148–158.

Humphreys, L. G., Lubinski, D., & Yao, G. (1993). Utility of predicting group membership and

the role of spatial visualization in becoming an engineer, physical scientist, or artist.

Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(2), 250–261.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.2.250

Palmiero, M., Cardi, V., & Belardinelli, M. O. (2011). The role of vividness of visual mental

imagery on different dimensions of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 23(4), 372–

375. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2011.621857
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Slotnick, S. D., Thompson, W. L., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2012). Visual memory and visual mental

imagery recruit common control and sensory regions of the brain. Cognitive

Neuroscience, 3(1), 14–20. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17588928.2011.578210

Whitbourne, S. K., Manzi, P., & Cody, J. (1983). Imagery and modality in sentence acquisition

by adult males and females. The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on

Human Development, 142(2), 181–187.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1983.10533510
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Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for the Cognitive Performance and Self-Report

According to Major and Encoding Strategy

Major

Arts Non-Arts

(n = 28) (n = 28)

Encoding Strategy

Memory Mediation Memory Mediation

(n = 16) (n = 12) (n = 13) (n = 15)

Recall 3.62 7.25a 4.15 5.53b

(1.20) (1.67) (1.46) (2.07)

Recognition 2.25 1.83 1.85 1.67

(1.61) (1.34) (0.99) (0.90)

Time 2.00 1.83 3.31 2.80

(1.27) (1.40) (1.38) (1.74)

Visualization Ability 4.44 5.25a 2.92 4.07b

(1.71) (2.18) (1.04) (1.94)

Note: Means with different subscripts inside rows differ in p < .05.