Aphantasia and its Effects on Visual Working Memory Performance Violet Rutledge; Ralf Greenwald, PhD Project Mentor(s) : Ralf Greenwald, PhD Aphantasia, the inability to conjure up mental images, offers a unique perspective into the relationship between mental imagery and visual working memory. Although mental imagery and visual working memory both involve internally generated visual representations, early research rarely examined these processes together. Recent studies have shown individuals with stronger mental imagery tend to perform better on visual working memory tasks, suggesting a positive correlation between imagery vividness and memory accuracy (Keogh & Pearson, 2011). Case studies and behavioral research on individuals with aphantasia demonstrate visual working memory can remain largely intact despite the absence of mental imagery, suggesting there are alternative cognitive strategies that may support visual working memory performance (Zeman et al., 2010). While mental imagery seems to improve fine visual detail, it does not seem to be required for basic visual working memory tasks (Jacobs et al., 2018). Existing research has primarily relied on lab-based tasks that may not fully capture the scale of mental imagery abilities, leaving uncertainty about how aphantasia influences performance on standardized memory assessments. However, there have not been any studies found that have specifically studied aphantasia on visual working memory using the TOMAL-II (Test of Memory and Learning). The present study addresses this gap by examining visual working memory in individuals with aphantasia using the TOMAL-II measurement. This study aims to clarify whether the absence of mental imagery affects visual working memory performance using a different form of measurement and to determine whether subtle deficits that occur are captured by this assessment. When Anger Looks Like Disgust: The Effect of Facial Occlusion and Sex on Facial Expression Recognition Violet Rutledge, Josephine Lai, Moksha Karidhi Project Mentor(s): Mary Radeke, PhD Anger and disgust facial expressions are frequently misidentified by human observers and automated FACS-based systems (Calvo & Nummenmaa, 2016; Krumhuber et al., 2020; Mollahosseini et al., 2017). This confusion reflects similar facial muscle configurations, with disgust distinguished by the nose wrinkle (AU 9) and upper lip raiser (AU 10). When these configurations are obscured, disgust may be mistaken for anger. Prior research indicates that occluding facial regions may further impair recognition accuracy. Evidence for sex differences in emotion recognition is similarly mixed, with findings varying by participant sex and the sex of the face. The present study examined anger and disgust recognition accuracy as a function of participant sex, model sex, and occlusion using repeated measures design. Male and female participants ( N = 37) viewed photographs of male and female faces displaying anger and disgust under no and full-occlusion (mask and sunglasses) conditions. Preliminary results indicate sex-specific accuracy patterns. Female participants were more accurate in recognizing disgust, whereas male participants were more accurate for anger. In the no-occlusion condition, males were more accurate than females overall. Accuracy also varied by face sex: females were more accurate for female disgust faces, while males were more accurate for anger faces posed by both male and female models. These findings suggest that the observer and face characteristics interact with occlusion to influence anger and disgust recognition accuracy with implications for social, clinical, and technological contexts. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation (May 21, 9:30am–3:00pm) Keywords: Disgust, Anger, Facial Expression Recognition, Facial Occlusion SOURCE Form ID: 61 Presentation Type: Poster Presentation (May 21, 9:30am–3:00pm) Keywords : Aphantasia, Memory, Performance, Imagery, TOMAL-II SOURCE Form ID: 7
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