| Summary: | It has been suggested that there is a relationship between visual memory distortion and
fantasy proneness (Merckelbach, Muris, Horselenberg & Stougie, 1999; Merckelbach,
Horselenberg & Muris, 2001; Aleman & Haan, 2003). This relationship appears to be
primarily in the cognitive processing of imagery and the executive processes of frontal lobe
functioning (Aleman & Haan, 2003). The current research investigated the relationship
between visual memory distortion and fantasy proneness using a non-experimental within
subjects design. A total of 49 university students from both the sciences and humanities
faculties, between the ages of 20 and 35 years, chose to participate. The students completed a
measure of fantasy proneness, the Creative Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ), and were
individually assessed by the researcher, on visual memory distortion, using the Rey-Osterrieth
Complex Figure Test (ROCFT). Qualitative observations of strategy were recorded by the
researcher in the ROCFT and used in the statistical analysis, as a means of examining strategy
as an executive process (Lezak, 1995). Low scores in the qualitative strategy score indicated
more use of strategy, whilst high scores indicated little to no use of strategy. No significant
relationship was found in the sample (n = 49) between visual memory distortion and fantasy
proneness, measured by the ROCFT and the CEQ respectively. The sample was then split into
two groups, sciences (n = 31) and humanities (n = 18) students, in order to investigate the
relationship within separate faculties. A significant correlation was observed in the
humanities students between the CEQ and the copy trial of the ROCFT, where there was a
moderate negative relationship (r = -0.59, p= 0.009). The significant correlation observed in
the sciences students was between the CEQ and the qualitative strategy component of the
ROCFT, where there was a weak positive relationship (r = 0.38, p = 0.027). The study
concluded that there is no direct relationship between visual memory distortion and fantasy
proneness, but visual memory distortion and fantasy proneness may share overlapping
executive processes, in terms of strategy and organization, and possibly those involved in
meaning and symbolic processing in memory, imagery and fantasy. Meaning and symbolic
processing in memory and fantasy proneness were not assessed in this study, and appears to
be one of the limitations in understanding both processes more thoroughly. However further
research is needed to investigate these links. The ROCFT was also examined and discussed
independently, with regards to its’ measurement of visual memory distortion. Lastly initial
normative data was also established and has been discussed for the ROCFT and the CEQ, for
their possible use in the South African context.
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