THE VIVIDNESS OF VISUAL-IMAGERY QUESTIONNAIRE AS A PREDICTOR OF FACIAL RECOGNITION MEMORY PERFORMANCE

After viewing 27 upright photographs of faces, 94 subjects took a forc ed-choice recognition memory test in which the pairs were shown either upright (N = 54) or inverted (N = 40), then completed Marks' (1973) V ividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ). Although groups of 12 good and 12 poor visualizers representing the lower and upper 30 per cent of VVIQ scores were less accurate, slower to respond and less con fident for inverted than upright faces, VVIQ status did not interact w ith the effect of inversion. However, good visualizers were more confi dent than poor visualizers, and VVIQ scores themselves were lower (ind icating more vivid reports) in the upright than in the inverted condit ion. It was also found that VVIQ scores were lower for more than for l ess confident subjects, but only for those who were less accurate. The se results contradict the hypothesis that the VVIQ reflects holistic p rocessing, but support the hypothesis that it is contaminated by an in strument factor. It is suggested that studies with the VVIQ should be designed to avoid cueing effects of the criterion task, and that the V VIQ should be accompanied by a test of general processing capacity to identify subjects whose responses might be contaminated by confidence.