The study found that for disappeared objects, human imagination primarily uses a serial process, tracking each object one after another rather than simulating multiple objects in parallel.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by peer-reviewed Nature Communications paper (Balaban & Ullman, 2025) and corroborated by independent science journalism (Harvard Gazette syndication, Medical Xpress).
Sources
- Researchers uncover surprising limit on human imagination (news.harvard.edu)
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61021-8 (nature.com)
- https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-uncover-limit-human.html (medicalxpress.com)
- https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/researchers-uncover-surprising-limit-on-human-imagination/ (goodmenproject.com)