Imagery, Regressive Thinking, and Verbal Performance in Internal Monologue

Abstract

In order to analyze a free-associative discourse–internal monologues obtained by the method of thinking aloud–, two analyses are offered, descriptive and deductive. In the descriptive analysis, an Imagery Dictionary and a Regressive Imagery Dictionary, both in French, were used to evaluate the importance and unfolding of images and regressive thinking in three-hour long internal monologues obtained from eighteen French-speaking volunteers. The deductive analysis relies on Osgood's Naturalness Principle: that congruent sentences conjoined by and evidence faster processing times than incongruent sentences conjoined by but. A positive relationship was hypothesized and confirmed between images and regressive thinking (considered as natural cognizings) on the one hand, and the use of markers of congruence on the other hand.