Stimulus-Driven Vividness in Visual Memory: Introducing the Concept of ‘Vividability’

Objective memory performance is tied to remembered stimuli and their constituent properties, however it is not clear whether the subjective experience of remembering an event is determined by stimuli and their features. The consistency of vividness ratings for visual stimuli, across participants, was assessed in two Experiments. Experiment 1 found real-world object images were rated with a consistent level of vividness and the vividness of images was related to low-level visual complexity, object familiarity, and image memorability. Experiment 2 found consistency amongst vividness ratings for artificially generated, novel shapes. The vividness of these stimuli was also associated with visual complexity, however the nature of the relationship differed, reflecting task differences. Together, these results reveal that inherent features of the remembered stimulus are predictive of memory vividness. Moreover, the task-related differences in how stimulus features relate to memory vividness highlight the importance of contextual factors in how phenomenological experience is constructed.