The vividness of visualisations and autistic trait expression are not strongly associated

A minority of people (Aphantasics) report an inability to visualise. Aphantasia has been linked to Autism – a neurodevelopmental condition affecting social interactions. There is a risk of a circular logic informing proposed links, as the most popular metric of autistic traits, the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), has an Imagination subscale with items relating directly and indirectly to imagery. We tested for inter-relationships between imagery vividness ratings and the expression of autistic traits, using metrics that do and do not encompass an Imagination subscale. We also conducted hierarchical linear regression analyses to assess the contributions of different AQ subscale scores to imagery inter-relationships. Only in our highest-powered study (N = 308) were we able to detect a weak inter-relationship between AQ scores and imagery, independent of the Imagination subscale. We suggest that only a weak inter-relationship should exist, as many autistic people describe themselves as visual thinkers who have strong imagery.