Effects of imagery ability and speech anxiety on imagery vividness of imaginary of speech scene

Abstract

Effects of imagery ability and speech anxiety on imagery vividness of imaginary of speech scene were examined. Subjects were divided into four groups in terms of high and low scores of Scale of Mental Imagery-Short Form (SMI-S) and a speech anxiety scale. They imagined themselves in neutral, action and speech scenes. They were asked to rate valence, arousal, and dominance of associated emotion, as well as imagery vividness, of each scene. An SMI-S effect was found on the vividness for neutral and action scenes. For vividness of the speech scene, however, speech anxiety had a stronger effect than imagery ability. The subjects with high speech anxiety significantly decreased imagery vividness, and experienced stronger arousal during imaginary speech. Good-imagery subjects with high speech anxiety reported stronger arousal than poor-imagery subjects. These results suggested that speech anxiety was a major determinant of imagery vividness of imaginary of speech scene.