The effects of imagery content, choice of imagery content, and self-verbalization on the self-control of pain

Abstract

Ninety female students in a general psychology class at the University of Missouri-Columbia volunteered to be exposed to pre- and posttests of ice water tolerance. They were divided into eight experimental groups in a 2 × 2 × 2 design and one attention-placebo control group. The main independent variables were imagery content (pleasant versus neutral scenes), choice of imagery content (choice versus yoked), and self-verbalization (SV) (preplanned explicit SV versus no SV). The two main dependent variables were changes from pre- to posttests in actual tolerance and in self-reported pain. After both pre- and posttests, subjects rated their involvement in imagery (percent of time spent in imagery and vividness of imagery). A three-way ANOVA revealed that for increases in tolerance, significant main effects were found for choice of content (choice greater than yoked) and for SV (SV greater than no SV). Imagery content (pleasant versus neutral) was not significant. No ANOVA interactions were significant. For decreases in selfreported pain the only significant effect was choice (choice greater than yoked). Only two experimental groups had greater changes in tolerance than the attention-placebo group; no group had greater changes in selfreported pain than the control group. For vividness of posttest imagery, pleasant imagery was greater than neutral imagery, choice was greater than yoked, and SV was greater than no SV. A measure of vividness of visual imagery, completed by subjects prior to their exposure to ice water, was a weak predictor of changes in tolerance and self-reported pain from pre- to posttests.