title: Refractive errors affect the vividness of visual mental images.
abstract: The hypothesis that visual perception and mental imagery are equivalent has never been explored in individuals with vision defects not preventing the visual perception of the world, such as refractive errors. Refractive error (i.e., myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism) is a condition where the refracting system of the eye fails to focus objects sharply on the retina. As a consequence refractive errors cause blurred vision. We subdivided 84 individuals according to their spherical equivalent refraction into Emmetropes (control individuals without refractive errors) and Ametropes (individuals with refractive errors). Participants performed a vividness task and completed a questionnaire that explored their cognitive style of thinking before their vision was checked by an ophthalmologist. Although results showed that Ametropes had less vivid mental images than Emmetropes this did not affect the development of their cognitive style of thinking; in fact, Ametropes were able to use both verbal and visual strategies to acquire and retrieve information. Present data are consistent with the hypothesis of equivalence between imagery and perception.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Psicologia, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy. liana.palermo@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Liana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Palermo
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nori
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Piccardi
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zeri
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Babino
authors.forename: Fiorella
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giusberti
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guariglia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D012030:Refractive Errors / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult