Third-person Imagery Research Articles

Development and feasibility of first- and third-person motor imagery for people with stroke living in the community

BackgroundImpairment of arm movement occurs in up to 85% of people post-stroke, affecting daily living activities, and quality of life. Mental imagery effectively enhances hand and daily function in people with stroke. Imagery can be performed when people imagine themselves completing the movement or imagine another person doing it. However, there is no report on the specific use of first-person and third-person imagery in stroke rehabilitation.AimsTo develop and assess the feasibility of the First-Person Mental Imagery (FPMI) and the Third-Person Mental Imagery (TPMI) programs to address the hand function of people with stroke living in the community.MethodsThis study comprises phase 1—development of the FPMI and TPMI programs, and phase 2—pilot-testing of the intervention programs. The two programs were developed from existing literature and reviewed by an expert panel. Six participants with stroke, living in the community, participated in the pilot-testing of the FPMI and TPMI programs for 2 weeks. Feedback collected included the suitability of the eligibility criteria, therapist’s and participant’s adherence to intervention and instructions, appropriateness of the outcome measures, and completion of the intervention sessions within the specified time.ResultsThe FPMI and TPMI programs were developed based on previously established programs and included 12 hand tasks. The participants completed four 45-min sessions in 2 weeks. The treating therapist adhered to the program protocol and completed all the steps within the specified time frame. All hand tasks were suitable for adults with stroke. Participants followed the instructions given and engaged in imagery. The outcome measures selected were appropriate for the participants. Both programs showed a positive trend towards improvement in participants’ upper extremity and hand function and self-perceived performance in activities of daily living.ConclusionsThe study provides preliminary evidence that these programs and outcome measures are feasible for implementation with adults with stroke living in the community. This study outlines a realistic plan for future trials in relation to participant recruitment, training of therapists on the intervention delivery, and the use of outcome measures.Trial registrationTitle: Effectiveness of first-person and third-person motor imagery in relearning daily hand tasks for people with chronic stroke: a randomised controlled trial.Registration No: SLCTR/2017/031. Date registered: 22nd September 2017.

“I lose” “I gain” vs. “They lose” “They gain”: The Influence of Message Framing on Donation Intentions in Disaster Fundraising

Grounded in the 2018 California Camp Fire context, this study explores how message framing in charitable appeals influences individuals’ donation intentions. A 2 (firstperson imagery perspective vs. third-person imagery perspective) × 2 (gain frame vs. loss frame) between-subject online experiment was conducted via Amazon’s MTurk. Results showed that gain/loss framing and imagery perspectives interactively influenced participants’ donation intentions. Specifically, when a message is lossframed, a first-person imagery perspective (“I lose”) message is more effective than a third-person imagery perspective (“they lose”) message in enhancing participants’ perceived issue relevance, induced empathy, and donation intention. In addition, when the message is framed with a third-person imagery perspective, a gain-framed (“they gain”) message is more persuasive than a loss-framed (“they lose”) message.

Picturing yourself: a social-cognitive process model to integrate third-person imagery effects

ABSTRACT People have a fascinating capacity to picture their actions from an external vantage point. Much of the research on this third-person imagery has focused on the specific effects it has on cognition due to the elements of episodic experience that it lacks relative to first-person imagery. Other research focuses on the information that the third-person provides that first-person imagery lacks. We propose a more systematic approach that conceptualises how third-person imagery’s various effects interrelate due to a common underlying social-cognitive function. Specifically, we outline an integrative model proposing that third-person and first-person imagery cause people to adopt qualitatively distinct processing styles. This model explains many of the diverse effects that have been documented in the literature and helps reconcile seemingly discrepant findings. We conclude with recommendations for strategies to more systematically investigate the functions of visual perspective in mental imagery to build more comprehensive understanding of this phenomenological variable.

Taming temptation: Visual perspective impacts consumption and willingness to pay for unhealthy foods.

While thinking about food is a ubiquitous facet of daily life, the perils of imaginary eating are well documented; food-related mental imagery elevates both cravings and consumption. Given the serious health issues that often arise from overeating and obesity, identifying strategies that can be used to combat the link between imagination and consumption is, therefore, of considerable theoretical and practical importance. Here we explored the possibility that a fundamental property of mental imagery-the visual perspective from which an event is viewed-may alter the appraisal of unhealthy foods. Specifically, because it is accompanied by attenuated sensorimotor activity, third-person (cf. first-person) imagery was expected to weaken the link between imagination and consumption. The results of 3 studies supported this prediction showing that third-person (cf. first-person) simulations decreased the mental representation, actual consumption, and willingness to pay for desirable items. Driving these effects was the natural reduction of sensory components furnished by third-person imagery. Together, these findings suggest that adoption of a third-person vantage point during mental imagery may be a viable and effective tactic for curbing consumption in everyday life.

Perspectives on prediction: Does third-person imagery improve task completion estimates?

People typically underestimate the time necessary to complete their tasks. According to the planning fallacy model of optimistic time predictions, this underestimation occurs because people focus on developing a specific plan for the current task and neglect the implications of past failures to meet similar deadlines. We extend the classic planning fallacy model by proposing that a phenomenal quality of mental imagery – the visual perspective that is adopted – may moderate the optimistic prediction bias. Consistent with this proposal, participants in four studies predicted longer completion times, and thus were less prone to bias, when they imagined an upcoming task from the third-person rather than first-person perspective. Third-person imagery reduced people’s focus on optimistic plans, increased their focus on potential obstacles, and decreased the impact of task-relevant motives on prediction. The findings suggest that third-person imagery helps individuals generate more realistic predictions by reducing cognitive and motivational processes that typically contribute to bias.

Self-Enhancement or Self-Coherence? Why People Shift Visual Perspective in Mental Images of the Personal Past and Future

It is often assumed, by laypeople and researchers alike, that people shift visual perspective in mental images of life events to maintain a positive self-concept by claiming ownership of desirable events (first-person) and disowning undesirable events (third-person). The present research suggests that people shift perspective not according to the pictured event's desirability but according to whether they focus on the experience of the event (first-person) or on the event's coherence with the self-concept (third-person). This explains why self-change promotes third-person imagery of prechange selves (Studies 1 and 2). And, the same mechanism determines perspective apart from self-change, in both memory and imagination (Studies 3 and 4). By demonstrating that people shift perspective according to whether they focus on the experience of an event or its self-concept coherence, these results suggest how perspective may function more broadly in social cognition, and specifically in the construction and maintenance of the temporally extended self.

Looking back with regret: Visual perspective in memory images differentially affects regret for actions and inactions

People can regret things they've done and things they've failed to do. However, the experience of a regrettable action tends to be painful, while regrettable inactions tend to be painful only when one considers the inaction's impact in the broader context of one's life as a whole (Gilovich & Medvec, 1995). Three experiments manipulated the visual perspective (own first-person vs. observer's third-person) that participants used to picture regretted actions or inactions from their lives. Imagery perspective influences the degree to which people's understanding of events is determined by features of the event itself (first-person) or by the integration of the event with broader self-knowledge (third-person) (Libby & Eibach, in press-b). As predicted, relative to first-person imagery, third-person imagery reduced regret for actions but increased regret for inactions. Results provide new insight into the relationship between imagery perspective, meaning-making, and emotion, and suggest ways to strategically increase or decrease regret.

Seeing Future Success: Does Imagery Perspective Influence Achievement Motivation?

Imagining future success can sometimes enhance people's motivation to achieve it. This article examines a phenomenological aspect of positive mental imagery--the visual perspective adopted--that may moderate its motivational impact. The authors hypothesize that people feel more motivated to succeed on a future task when they visualize its successful completion from a third-person rather than a first-person perspective. Actions viewed from the third-person perspective are generally construed at a relatively high level of abstraction--in a manner that highlights their larger meaning and significance--which should heighten their motivational impact. Three studies in the domain of academic motivation support this reasoning. Students experience a greater increase in achievement motivation when they imagine their successful task completion from a third-rather than a first-person perspective. Moreover, mediational analyses reveal that third-person imagery boosts motivation by prompting students to construe their success abstractly and to perceive it as important.

Cognitive Repositioning inside a Desktop VE: The Constraints Introduced by First-versus Third-Person Imagery and Mental Representation Richness

Cognitive repositioning is crucial for anticipating the content of the visual scene from new vantage points in virtual environments (VE). This repositioning may be performed using either a first-(immersive-like) or a third-person imagery perspective (via an imaginary avatar). A three-phase study examined the effect of mental representation richness and imagery perspective on the anticipation of new vantage points and their associated objects inside an unfamiliar but meaningfully organized VE. Results showed that the initial level of encoding affects the construction of spatial knowledge, whose exploration is then constrained mostly by the imagery perspective that has been adopted, and the spatial arrangement of the environment. A third-person perspective involves mental extrapolation of directions with the help of a scanning process whose rate of processing is faster than the process used to generate the missing 3-D representation of first-person perspectives. Finally, anticipation of a new vantage point precedes access to its associated object mainly when adopting a first-person perspective for exploring the environment. These findings may prove to be of potential interest when defining cognitively valid rules for real-time automatic camera control in VEs.