Glossary
Definitions of terms used across the site, in your Imagery Profile, and in research on mental imagery and imagination.
- Anauralia
Absent or greatly reduced voluntary auditory imagery; sometimes called sound aphantasia.
- Aphantasia
Absent or greatly reduced voluntary mental imagery; often used for visual imagery specifically, but can apply to any sense.
- Assessment
The Imagination Index questionnaire and scoring process.
- Audiation
Hearing music internally, e.g. when composing or reading notation.
- Auditory imagery
Mental sound: speech, music, and environmental sounds.
- BAIS
Bucknell Auditory Imagery Scale; measures auditory imagery vividness and control.
- Bitter (gustatory subcategory)
One of the basic taste dimensions in gustatory imagery.
- Category
One of the six imagery dimensions: Visual, Auditory, Motor, Olfactory, Gustatory, Tactile.
- Dual coding
Encoding information in both verbal and mental-image form; can improve memory and recall (Paivio's theory).
- Earworms
Involuntary musical imagery; distinct from voluntary auditory imagery.
- Flavor
The combined experience of taste and smell (especially retronasal); distinct from the five basic tastes alone.
- Graded motor imagery
Rehabilitation protocol using motor imagery, e.g. for pain or recovery.
- Gustatory imagery
Mental taste.
- Haptic (tactile subcategory)
Texture, pressure, and contact in tactile imagery; distinct from thermoception.
- Hyperphantasia
Exceptionally vivid mental imagery in one or more senses; the high end of the imagery spectrum.
- Imagery Profile
Your Imagination Index result: scores and status across the six senses.
- Imagination Index
The 12-minute, six-sense assessment and the resulting Imagery Profile.
- Imagination spectrum
The continuous range from no imagery (aphantasia) to very vivid imagery (hyperphantasia), often considered per sense.
- Inner speech
The inner voice or silent verbal rehearsal—thinking in words; overlaps with auditory imagery for speech.
- Internal visual imagery (IVI) and external visual imagery (EVI)
First-person vs third-person visual perspective in motor imagery (MIQ-3).
- Isolation vs compound (motor subcategories)
Single movements vs combined movement sequences in motor imagery.
- Kinesthetic imagery
Feeling of movement in the body during mental rehearsal; distinct from tactile and from watching movement.
- Linear score
0–100 scale for a category, used in reports and dashboard; derived from raw scores.
- Mental imagery
The experience of simulating sensory information in the mind without external stimulation.
- Mind's ear
Auditory equivalent of mind's eye: inner sound and voluntary auditory imagery.
- Mind's eye
Common term for voluntary visual mental imagery.
- MIQ / MIQ-R / MIQ-3
Movement Imagery Questionnaires; measure motor/kinesthetic and visual movement imagery (MIQ-3: KI, IVI, EVI).
- Motor imagery
Mental rehearsal of movement: posture, timing, force, and kinesthetic feel.
- Multisensory
Involving or measuring more than one sense; used for multisensory profile and assessment.
- Music (auditory subcategory)
Musical imagery: melody, rhythm, instruments.
- Objects (visual subcategory)
Mental images of things, e.g. an apple or a table.
- Olfactory imagery
Mental smell.
- People (visual subcategory)
Mental images of faces and bodies.
- Percentile score
Your score relative to a reference population; e.g. you score higher than X% of people.
- Phantasia
Typical or moderate imagery ability; the middle of the spectrum between aphantasia and hyperphantasia.
- Places (visual subcategory)
Mental images of locations and scenes.
- Pleasant vs unpleasant (olfactory subcategories)
Positive vs alerting smell imagery; can differ in vividness and hemisphere activation.
- Psi-Q
Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire; multisensory scale for visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and bodily/emotional imagery.
- Raw score
Sum of item responses before conversion to linear or percentile; shown in dashboard for transparency.
- Salty (gustatory subcategory)
One of the basic taste dimensions in gustatory imagery.
- SIAQ
Multisensory/general imagery questionnaire referenced in research and articles.
- Six senses
The dimensions measured by the Imagination Index: Visual, Auditory, Olfactory, Gustatory, Tactile, Motor.
- Sounds (auditory subcategory)
Environmental or non-musical sound imagery.
- Sour (gustatory subcategory)
One of the basic taste dimensions in gustatory imagery.
- Subcategory
A sub-dimension within a category, e.g. Visual: Objects, Places, People; Auditory: Sounds, Music.
- Sweet (gustatory subcategory)
One of the basic taste dimensions in gustatory imagery.
- Tactile imagery
Mental touch: texture, pressure, and temperature.
- Thermoception (tactile subcategory)
Temperature sensation (warmth, cold) in tactile imagery.
- Umami (gustatory subcategory)
Savory taste dimension in gustatory imagery.
- Visual imagery
Mental pictures: scenes, objects, faces, and spatial layout.
- Vividness
How clear or strong a mental image feels, e.g. on a scale from none to very vivid.
- Voluntary imagery
Mental imagery you can summon and control on purpose; what the Imagination Index assessment measures.
- VVIQ
Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (Marks, 1973); widely used for visual imagery and aphantasia.
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