The Face Through the Mind’s Eye: Exploring Individual Differences in Visual Imagery and Face Perception.

<p><strong>Neuropsychological studies suggest an association between visual imagery and face perception. For example, individuals without visual imagery (aphantasics) seem to have weaker face recognition skills, and some individuals with face blindness (prosopagnosics) have trouble making up mental pictures. Here I report three high-powered studies that examine the relationship between visual imagery and face perception across individual differences in the typical range. Study 1 (N = 200) examined the relationship between visual imagery and general face recognition abilities. Studies 2 and 3 examined the relationship between visual imagery and perception of faces using ambiguous stimuli that demand greater top-down inference, namely Mooney faces (Experiment 2, N = 200) and illusory faces (Experiment 3, N = 200). Across three studies, I observed mixed results concerning the relationship between visual imagery and face perception. These results suggest that visual imagery and face perception may not be related across individuals in the typical population.</strong></p>