Mentally Simulate Research Articles

Looking at Mental Images: Eye-Tracking Mental Simulation During Retrospective Causal Judgment.

How do people evaluate causal relationships? Do they just consider what actually happened, or do they also consider what could have counterfactually happened? Using eye tracking and Gaussian process modeling, we investigated how people mentally simulated past events to judge what caused the outcomes to occur. Participants played a virtual ball-shooting game and then-while looking at a blank screen-mentally simulated (a) what actually happened, (b) what counterfactually could have happened, or (c) what caused the outcome to happen. Our findings showed that participants moved their eyes in patterns consistent with the actual or counterfactual events that they mentally simulated. When simulating what caused the outcome to occur, participants moved their eyes consistent with simulations of counterfactual possibilities. These results favor counterfactual theories of causal reasoning, demonstrate how eye movements can reflect simulation during this reasoning and provide a novel approach for investigating retrospective causal reasoning and counterfactual thinking.

Automatic mental simulation in native and non-native speakers

Pictures of objects are verified faster when they match the implied orientation, shape, and color in a sentence-picture verification task, suggesting that people mentally simulate these features during language comprehension. Previous studies had an unintended correlation between match status and the required response, which may have influenced participants’ responses by eliciting strategic use of this correlation. We removed this correlation by including color-matching filler trials and investigated if the color-match effect was still obtained. In both a native sample (Experiment 1) and a non-native sample (Experiment 2), we found strong evidence for a color-match advantage on median reaction time and error rates. Our results are consistent with the view that color is automatically simulated during language comprehension as predicted by the grounded cognition framework.

From tablet to table: How augmented reality influences food desirability

Augmented reality (AR) technology has generated enormous industry investment and buzz, with the food and beverage sector quickly embracing this technology in an effort to enhance the customer experience. However, academic research has only just begun to empirically explore how and why this technology might influence consumer judgements and behaviors in such contexts. Across two field studies involving consequential behavior and two controlled laboratory studies, we find that AR’s unique ability to visually superimpose objects onto a real-time environment increases consumers’ ability to mentally simulate consuming a pictured food, which in turn increases their desire and purchase likelihood of the food item. Further, we find the increased mental simulation produced by AR is itself preceded and driven by an increased sense of personal relevance of the food items.

Beyond body image: what body schema and motor imagery can tell us about the way patients with anorexia nervosa experience their body.

Recent evidence suggests that the body image disturbance often observed in patients with anorexia nervosa also extends to the body schema. According to the embodiment approach, the body schema is not only involved in motor execution, but also in tasks that only require a mental simulation of a movement such as motor imagery, mental rotation of bodies, and visuospatial perspective-taking. The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of patients with anorexia to mentally simulate movements. The sample included 52 patients with acute anorexia and 62 healthy controls. All participants completed three tests of explicit motor imagery, a mental rotation test and a test of visuospatial perspective-taking. Patients with anorexia nervosa, with respect to controls, reported greater difficulties in imagining movements according to a first-person perspective, lower accuracy in motor imagery, selective impairment in the mental rotation of human figures, and reduced ability in assuming a different egocentric visuospatial perspective. These results are indicative of a specific alteration in motor imagery in patients with anorexia nervosa. Interestingly, patients' difficulties appear to be limited to those tasks which specifically rely on the body schema, while patients and controls performed similarly in the 3D objects mental rotation task.

Cognitive Modeling of Anticipation: Unsupervised Learning and Symbolic Modeling of Pilots' Mental Representations.

The ability to anticipate team members' actions enables joint action towards a common goal. Task knowledge and mental simulation allow for anticipating other agents' actions and for making inferences about their underlying mental representations. In human-AI teams, providing AI agents with anticipatory mechanisms can facilitate collaboration and successful execution of joint action. This paper presents a computational cognitive model demonstrating mental simulation of operators' mental models of a situation and anticipation of their behavior. The work proposes two successive steps: (1) A hierarchical cluster algorithm is applied to recognize patterns of behavior among pilots. These behavioral clusters are used to derive commonalities in situation models from empirical data (N = 13 pilots). (2) An ACT-R (adaptive control of thought - rational) cognitive model is implemented to mentally simulate different possible outcomes of action decisions and timing of a pilot. model tracing of ACT-R allows following up on operators' individual actions. Two models are implemented using the symbolic representations of ACT-R: one simulating normative behavior and the other by simulating individual differences and using subsymbolic learning. Model performance is analyzed by a comparison of both models. Results indicate the improved performance of the individual differences over the normative model and are discussed regarding implications for cognitive assistance capable of anticipating operatorbehavior.

Effects of mental simulation of future waterpipe tobacco smoking on attitudes, perceived harms and intended use among young adults.

The desire to engage in waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) may occur when smokers and nonsmokers conjure positive mental simulations of WTS. However, effects of these simulations on desire to smoke waterpipe tobacco and potential mediators are unexplored. This research addressed these effects among young adult waterpipe tobacco smokers and nonsmokers. Two online studies were conducted with adults ages 18-30. In Study 1, 200 smokers, 190 susceptible nonsmokers, and 182 nonsusceptible nonsmokers were randomized to mentally simulate or not WTS in the future. In Study 2, 234 smokers and 241 susceptible nonsmokers were randomized to four arms: no simulation or simulations that varied valence of experience (positive, negative or no valence provided). Main outcomes were immediate desire to smoke waterpipe tobacco, cognitive and affective attitudes, and perceived harms. In Study 1, mental simulations increased the desire to smoke waterpipe tobacco among smokers. In Study 2, asking participants to simulate WTS positively or with no valence instruction increased desire to smoke relative to negative valence instruction or no simulation. Negative simulations reduced perceived probability of smoking within a month compared to positive simulations. Effects on desire to engage in WTS were mediated by cognitive and affective attitudes among susceptible nonsmokers and by cognitive attitudes among smokers. These findings suggest that exploring when and how often mental simulations about WTS are evoked and their potency for promoting prevention and cessation of WTS merit further attention.

Visualizing recycling: Promoting recycling through mental simulation

Mental simulation is a potentially effective intervention method for pursuing goals and enhancing task performance. Little is known, however, about the application of this method for enhancing pro-environmental behavior. We examined whether asking individuals to mentally simulate themselves recycling impacted their intention to recycle and how the imagery perspective (i.e., actor's vs. observer's perspective) and thought focus (i.e., process vs. outcome focus) can enhance the potential effectiveness of mental simulation. Across three studies, we found support for the efficacy of recycling simulation in enhancing individuals’ recycling behavior and intentions to recycle. This effect partly comes from warm-glow feelings about recycling. Furthermore, when individuals focus on the outcomes of recycling, adopting an observer's perspective leads to greater pro-recycling intentions. In contrast, when individuals focus on the processes of recycling, adopting an actor's perspective enhances pro-recycling intentions. The mechanisms that underlie the interaction effect, along with theoretical and practical implications, are examined and discussed.

Modulation of intracortical inhibition during physically performed and mentally simulated balance tasks

PurposeAction observation (AO) during motor imagery (MI), so-called AO + MI, has been proposed as a new form of non-physical training, but the neural mechanisms involved remains largely unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to explore whether there were similarities in the modulation of short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) during execution and mental simulation of postural tasks, and if there was a difference in modulation of SICI between AO + MI and AO alone.Method21 young adults (mean ± SD = 24 ± 6.3 years) were asked to either passively observe (AO) or imagine while observing (AO + MI) or physically perform a stable and an unstable standing task, while motor evoked potentials and SICI were assessed in the soleus muscle.ResultSICI results showed a modulation by condition (F2,40 = 6.42, p = 0.009) with less SICI in the execution condition compared to the AO + MI (p = 0.009) and AO (p = 0.002) condition. Moreover, switching from the stable to the unstable stance condition reduced significantly SICI (F1,20 = 8.34, p = 0.009) during both, physically performed (− 38.5%; p = 0.03) and mentally simulated balance (− 10%, p < 0.001, AO + MI and AO taken together).ConclusionThe data demonstrate that SICI is reduced when switching from a stable to a more unstable standing task during both real task execution and mental simulation. Therefore, our results strengthen and further support the existence of similarities between executed and mentally simulated actions by showing that not only corticospinal excitability is similarly modulated but also SICI. This proposes that the activity of the inhibitory cortical network during mental simulation of balance tasks resembles the one during physical postural task execution.

Affective forecasting and travel decision-making: An investigation in times of a pandemic

People mentally simulate future events, visualise themselves in these events, and then make predictions about how they would feel. This process is referred to as affective forecasting. Tourism lends itself toward affective forecasting because holiday experiences are not tangible and difficult to judge upfront. The authors conceptualise and empirically examine the mental simulation and affective forecasting in tourist decision-making. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a proof of concept, they employ an experimental research design to demonstrate that affective forecasting can mitigate risk perceptions and travel decision-making in times of a pandemic. The findings highlight how affective forecasting can be leveraged to predict and change travel behaviour in the aftermath of pandemics, though implications reach beyond this context.

Mental Simulations of Phonological Representations Are Causally Linked to Silent Reading of Direct Versus Indirect Speech.

Embodied theories propose that language is understood via mental simulations of sensory states related to perception and action. Given that direct speech (e.g., She says, “It’s a lovely day!”) is perceived to be more vivid than indirect speech (e.g., She says (that) it’s a lovely day) in perception, recent research shows in silent reading that more vivid speech representations are mentally simulated for direct speech than for indirect speech. This ‘simulated’ speech is found to contain suprasegmental prosodic representations (e.g., speech prosody) but its phonological detail and its causal role in silent reading of direct speech remain unclear. Here in three experiments, I explored the phonological aspect and the causal role of speech simulations in silent reading of tongue twisters in direct speech, indirect speech and non-speech sentences. The results demonstrated greater visual tongue-twister effects (phonemic interference) during silent reading (Experiment 1) but not oral reading (Experiment 2) of direct speech as compared to indirect speech and non-speech. The tongue-twister effects in silent reading of direct speech were selectively disrupted by phonological interference (concurrent articulation) as compared to manual interference (finger tapping) (Experiment 3). The results replicated more vivid speech simulations in silent reading of direct speech, and additionally extended them to the phonological dimension. Crucially, they demonstrated a causal role of phonological simulations in silent reading of direct speech, at least in tongue-twister reading. The findings are discussed in relation to multidimensionality and task dependence of mental simulation and its mechanisms.

Actual and Imagined Movements Reveal a Dual Role of the Insular Cortex for Motor Control

Movements rely on a mixture of feedforward and feedback mechanisms. With experience, the brain builds internal representations of actions in different contexts. Many factors are taken into account in this process among which is the immutable presence of gravity. Any displacement of a massive body in the gravitational field generates forces and torques that must be predicted and compensated by appropriate motor commands. The insular cortex is a key brain area for graviception. However, no attempt has been made to address whether the same internal representation of gravity is shared between feedforward and feedback mechanisms. Here, participants either mentally simulated (only feedforward) or performed (feedforward and feedback) vertical movements of the hand. We found that the posterior part of the insular cortex was engaged when feedback was processed. The anterior insula, however, was activated only in mental simulation of the action. A psychophysical experiment demonstrates participants' ability to integrate the effects of gravity. Our results point toward a dual internal representation of gravity within the insula. We discuss the conceptual link between these two dualities.

Spatial constraints and cognitive fatigue affect motor imagery of walking in people with multiple sclerosis

Motor imagery (MI) is the mental simulation of an action without any overt motor execution. Interestingly, a temporal coupling between durations of real and imagined movements, i.e., the so-called isochrony principle, has been demonstrated in healthy adults. On the contrary, anisochrony has frequently been reported in elderly subjects or those with neurological disease such as Parkinson disease or multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, we tested whether people with MS (PwMS) may have impaired MI when they imagined themselves walking on paths with different widths. When required to mentally simulate a walking movement along a constrained pathway, PwMS tended to overestimate mental movement duration with respect to actual movement duration. Interestingly, in line with previous evidence, cognitive fatigue was found to play a role in the MI of PwMS. These results suggest that investigating the relationship between cognitive fatigue and MI performances could be key to shedding new light on the motor representation of PwMS and providing critical insights into effective and tailored rehabilitative treatments.

Decoding and encoding models reveal the role of mental simulation in the brain representation of meaning.

How the brain representation of conceptual knowledge varies as a function of processing goals, strategies and task-factors remains a key unresolved question in cognitive neuroscience. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants were presented with visual words during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During shallow processing, participants had to read the items. During deep processing, they had to mentally simulate the features associated with the words. Multivariate classification, informational connectivity and encoding models were used to reveal how the depth of processing determines the brain representation of word meaning. Decoding accuracy in putative substrates of the semantic network was enhanced when the depth processing was high, and the brain representations were more generalizable in semantic space relative to shallow processing contexts. This pattern was observed even in association areas in inferior frontal and parietal cortex. Deep information processing during mental simulation also increased the informational connectivity within key substrates of the semantic network. To further examine the properties of the words encoded in brain activity, we compared computer vision models—associated with the image referents of the words—and word embedding. Computer vision models explained more variance of the brain responses across multiple areas of the semantic network. These results indicate that the brain representation of word meaning is highly malleable by the depth of processing imposed by the task, relies on access to visual representations and is highly distributed, including prefrontal areas previously implicated in semantic control.

Differential contribution of anterior and posterior midline regions during mental simulation of counterfactual and perspective shifts in autobiographical memories

Retrieving autobiographical memories induces a natural tendency to mentally simulate alternate versions of past events, either by reconstructing the perceptual details of the originally experienced perspective or the conceptual information of what actually occurred. Here we examined whether the episodic system recruited during imaginative experiences functionally dissociates depending on the nature of this reconstruction. Using fMRI, we evaluated differential patterns of neural activity and hippocampal connectivity when twenty-nine participants naturally recalled past negative events, shifted visual perspective, or imagined better or worse outcomes than what actually occurred. We found that counterfactual thoughts were distinguished by neural recruitment in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, whereas shifts in visual perspective were uniquely supported by the precuneus. Additionally, connectivity with the anterior hippocampus changed depending upon the mental simulation that was performed – with enhanced hippocampal connectivity with medial prefrontal cortex for counterfactual simulations and precuneus for shifted visual perspectives. Together, our findings provide a novel assessment of differences between these common methods of mental simulation and a more detailed account for the neural network underlying episodic retrieval and reconstruction.

The key to group fitness: The presence of another synchronizes moral attitudes and neural responses during moral decision-making

Morality encompasses a set of norms that originate from the group’s consensus and cultural evolution. Accordingly, the mere presence of another person is very well capable of shaping moral judgment and decision-making in a way that benefits group coherence. Here, we measured justice sensitivity (JSI), implicit moral attitudes (mIAT), and neural activity during mental simulation of interpersonal morally-laden behaviors (helping and harming) when participants were either alone or when they thought a confederate was present. Both JSI and mIAT, as well as various brain networks, were modulated and, further, synchronized by the presence of a confederate. Participants with lower scores on the mIAT and JSI enhanced their moral attitudes when they were in the presence of a confederate. This change was driven by increased signal in the amygdala and anterior insula when the low mIAT participants mentally simulated harming another person, but was effected by decreased activity in the dorsomedial- and dorsolateral-prefrontal cortex in the high JSI participants. The presence of another significantly impacts moral attitudes as well as neural correlates underlying moral behavior. Together, the results support the view that both individual dispositions and social influence shape and synchronize people’s moral computations, and fits with the theoretical perspective that morality has evolved to promote group fitness.

The challenge of mental simulation in preference-sensitive treatment decisions.

This commentary discusses the importance for preference-sensitive treatment decisions of episodic future thinking, which is the capacity to mentally simulate and pre-experience what might occur in one's personal future. Our aim is to call attention to this important topic since patients confronted with preference-sensitive treatment decisions could benefit from professional support that promotes the construction of comprehensive and detailed mental simulations of what might affect their future well-being and satisfaction.

Altered subcallosal and posterior cingulate cortex-based functional connectivity during smoking cue and mental simulation processing in smokers

BackgroundLong-term cigarette smoking induces sensitization of incentive salience and conditioning of contextual cues which involves brain function alteration across multiple regions. Understanding how nicotine affects hub-based functional connectivities involved in affective and cognitive function can help us determine the treatment strategy for nicotine dependence. MethodFunctional MRI was conducted on 30 smokers and 30 non-smokers while mentally simulating neutral and smoking hand movements. Smoking cue and mental simulation processing-related changes in functional connectivity strengths of the subcallosal and posterior cingulate cortex (SCC and PCC) with major brain network nodes were examined. ResultsCompared to non-smokers, smokers showed cue-induced SCC functional connectivities which were enhanced with the intraparietal sulcus and reduced with the medial prefrontal cortex. The PCC activation and functional connectivity enhancements with the anterior insula cortex and rostro-lateral prefrontal cortex was found during smoking mental simulation. The PCC-lateral prefrontal cortex functional connectivity correlated with nicotine dependence severity. ConclusionThe present results demonstrate that smokers can be identified by cue-induced SCC functional connectivity strength decline and increment in the default mode and dorsal attention network nodes. However, nicotine dependence was associated with smoking mental simulation-related PCC-lateral prefrontal cortex functional connectivity strength, suggesting that the development of nicotine dependence may depend on the strength of coupling between the default mode network and the central executive network at the cognitive level.

How mental simulation evokes negative affective misforecasting of hedonic experiences

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between mental simulation and affective misforecasting of hedonic consumption experiences.Design/methodology/approachThe authors present a series of lab and field studies that manipulate mental simulation and experience type (ordinary versus extraordinary) and measure affective misforecasting and mindfulness. Data were analyzed using a combination of ANOVA and PROCESS.FindingsMental simulation before an experience causes negative affective misforecasting to occur for extraordinary experiences but not ordinary experiences. The authors further show that mindfulness mediates the effect of mental simulation on affective misforecasting.Practical implicationsThe findings provide insight into how thinking about experiences before consumption affects consumers’ actual engagement with the experience. This paper suggests that, by encouraging consumers to mentally simulate their experiences before consumption, marketers may cause consumers to miss out on enjoying their experiences to the fullest. Instead, marketers may want to maintain some mystique by encouraging consumers to “come see for themselves”.Originality/valueThe authors demonstrate a novel cause of affective misforecasting: mental simulation before the experience and provide initial evidence in support of a novel psychological process explanation (i.e. mindfulness) for the effect of mental simulation on affective misforecasting.

Is imagining a voice like listening to it? Evidence from ERPs

Readers who have seen the Harry Potter movies before reading the novels may “hear” actors' voices in their heads when they later read the books. This phenomenon of mentally simulating the voice of speakers depicted in texts has been referred to as auditory perceptual simulation (APS). How much is this mental simulation of voices like listening to actual voices? Two event-related potential (ERP) experiments examined the auditory perceptual simulation of native and non-native English speech while participants silently read English sentences containing subject-verb agreement errors or pronoun-case errors. The aim was to compare readers’ ERPs when imagining native and non-native speech to the results of Hanulíková, van Alphen, van Goch, and Weber (2012), who recorded ERPs while participants listened to native and non-native speech and found that native-speaking listeners “forgive” errors (signaled by reduced P600 effects) by non-native speakers. Our participants listened to samples of a native and a non-native English speaker's speech and were then asked to imagine the voice of either one or the other speaker while reading sentences. Results revealed differences in N400 and P600 waveforms when imagining the non-native speaker's voice compared to the native speaker's voice. Importantly, when imagining the non-native speaker committing subject-verb agreement errors, P600 amplitudes were no different from error-free items.

What if? Neural activity underlying semantic and episodic counterfactual thinking

Counterfactual thinking (CFT) is the process of mentally simulating alternative versions of known facts. In the past decade, cognitive neuroscientists have begun to uncover the neural underpinnings of CFT, particularly episodic CFT (eCFT), which activates regions in the default network (DN) also activated by episodic memory (eM) recall. However, the engagement of DN regions is different for distinct kinds of eCFT. More plausible counterfactuals and counterfactuals about oneself show stronger activity in DN regions compared to implausible and other- or object-focused counterfactuals. The current study sought to identify a source for this difference in DN activity. Specifically, self-focused counterfactuals may also be more plausible, suggesting that DN core regions are sensitive to the plausibility of a simulation. On the other hand, plausible and self-focused counterfactuals may involve more episodic information than implausible and other-focused counterfactuals, which would imply DN sensitivity to episodic information. In the current study, we compared episodic and semantic counterfactuals generated to be plausible or implausible against episodic and semantic memory reactivation using fMRI. Taking multivariate and univariate approaches, we found that the DN is engaged more during episodic simulations, including eM and all eCFT, than during semantic simulations. Semantic simulations engaged more inferior temporal and lateral occipital regions. The only region that showed strong plausibility effects was the hippocampus, which was significantly engaged for implausible CFT but not for plausible CFT, suggestive of binding more disparate information. Consequences of these findings for the cognitive neuroscience of mental simulation are discussed.