Imagery and Sensory Modality

Abstract

Because research on imagery has used materials lacking sensory content, a prime characteristic of imagery, the sensory values of auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactual, and visual words were established in Study I. Imagery for such sensory material, in terms of both ease of evocation and vividness, was then measured in Study II. Combining both judgments into an imagery index, high imagery values were found for tactual and gustatory words, visual and olfactory words were intermediate, and auditory words were low in imagery. Since most investigations of imagery have incorporated, at best, but two sensory modalities, vision and audition, it was argued that the existence and degree of imagery in previous studies must therefore have been relatively low, limited, and divergent. It was suggested that inconsistencies and contradictions in the literature on the extent and effectiveness of imagery may therefore have been due to the use of materials which did not fully or effectively maximize the occurrence of imagery. A table of imagery values for 228 sensory words is included.