Complexity and Cognitive Engagement in the Rorschach Task: An fMRI Study

Abstract

Recently, an eye-tracking study found that Complexity and other R-PAS variables located in the Engagement and Cognitive Processing domain correlated with a proxy marker for cognitive effort and engagement. The goal of the current study was to test the robustness and validity of those eye-tracking findings by inspecting fMRI data. We hypothesized that the greater the level of engagement and cognitive effort put in place by a Rorschach test-taker, the greater the engagement of his/her cortical areas reflecting ongoing top-down attentional processes should be. We re-analyzed archival fMRI data from 26 healthy participants exposed to the Rorschach inkblots with the instruction to think of what they might be. The association of various Engagement and Cognitive Processing R-PAS scores to increased BOLD signals in the Dorsal Attention Network of the brain was examined. As expected, Complexity showed the strongest effect size across all R-PAS variables under investigation (d = 0.43), followed by Synthesis (d = 0.32) and Human Movement (d = 0.21). Noteworthy, the correlation between the effect sizes found in the current fMRI study and those found in the previously published eye-tracking study consists of an impressive r = .80.

Data availability statement

Authors are willing to share their data set upon reasonable request. To obtain the data set associated with this article, please contact the corresponding author at [email protected]

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments for this project are due to the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) and to the Hubbard Foundation, San Diego California. The SPA has funded 500$ to cover part of the costs (e.g., compensation for participants and payment of travels); the Hubbard Foundation has covered the costs of the scanning sessions.

Disclosure statement

Donald Viglione (third author) owns a share in the corporate (LLC) that possesses rights to Rorschach Performance Assessment System.

Notes

1 A cluster threshold of 300 VMR voxels was used to create the clusters.

2 In line with Dunlap et al. (1996) recommendations, because we were more interested in calculating the actual effect size, rather than in determining the power that would be needed to detect an a priori established effect size, Cohen’s d values were calculated using standard independent samples d formula.