The Variability of Eidetic Imagery among Australian Aboriginal Children

Summary

Variability in incidence of eidetic imagery (EI)—the so-called “will-o'-the-wisp” nature of EI—can be considered in two ways. Regularity of occurrence of EI can be studied across cultural communities and within individual cultural groups. The present study tested EI in a group of Aboriginal children who previously were reported as showing a high incidence of this form of imagery. It also contrasted the performance of this group with the performance of another community of Aboriginal children who were even more isolated than the Bamyili sample from Western influence. Variability was evidenced across the two communities, but the same incidence of EI was found within the Bamyili sample. The change in frequency of occurrence of EI across unacculturated samples remains the essential puzzle of the phenomenon of eidetic imagery.