Abstract
Findings from two studies demonstrate that a S’s pupils dilate when he attempts to generate mental images to words. Dilation, which may reflect the cognitive difficulty of the imagery task, was greater to abstract than to concrete words, but did not vary with word pleasantness-unpleasantness.
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This research was partially supported by grants from the National Research Council of Canada (Grant APA-87) and the University of Western Ontario Research Fund.
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Paivio, A., Simpson, H.M. The effect of word abstractness and pleasantness on pupil size during an imagery task. Psychon Sci 5, 55–56 (1966). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03328277
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03328277