Use Of Imagery Research Articles

Mental imagery during daily life: Psychometric evaluation of the Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale (SUIS).

The Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale (SUIS) is used to measure the tendency to use visual mental imagery in daily life. Its psychometric properties were evaluated in three independent samples (total N = 1297). We evaluated the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the questionnaire. We also examined the structure of the items using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Moreover, correlations with other imagery questionnaires provided evidence about convergent validity. The SUIS had acceptable reliability and convergent validity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a unidimensional structure fit the data, suggesting that the SUIS indeed measures a general use of mental imagery in daily life. Future research can further investigate and improve the psychometric properties of the SUIS. Moreover, the SUIS could be useful to determine how imagery relates to e.g. psychopathology.

Mental Imagery as Facilitator to Lexical Learning-Blocked and Random Trials

Mental Imagery as Facilitator to Lexical Learning-Blocked and Random Trials

Strategy training eliminates sex differences in spatial problem solving in a stem domain.

Poor spatial ability can limit success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Many initiatives aim to increase STEM achievement and degree attainment through selective recruitment of high-spatial students or targeted training to improve spatial ability. The current study examines an alternative approach to increasing achievement that includes problem-solving strategy training. In this study, we examined how training in multiple problem-solving strategies affects science achievement and its relations to sex and spatial ability. We compared 3 interventions that trained either mental imagery strategies, analytic problem-solving strategies, or their combination in the context of a college chemistry course. As predicted, students adopted more analytic strategies after analytic training, and women used significantly more analytic strategies than men after instruction. Training in the combined use of mental imagery and analytic strategies eliminated sex differences in achievement, but training in a single type of strategy resulted in a male achievement advantage. Our work demonstrates that achievement is dependent not only on spatial ability but also on strategy choice, and that strategy training offers a viable route to improving the performance of female students.

Facets of imagery in academic and professional achievements: A study of three doctoral students

Since the inception of the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2005), which operationalises motivation as a function of learners’ future identities, the field of L2 motivation has seen a growing interest in mental imagery. Numerous studies have examined the role of a future self-guide, that is, the ideal L2 self, and have confirmed it to be powerful for explaining learner motivation (e.g., Csizér & Lukács, 2010; Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009); however, few studies have explored how mental imagery, a key dimension of the ideal L2 self (Dörnyei & Chan, 2013), can manifest itself in actual motivated behaviour. Using in-depth interviews, the present study aims to explore the motivational capacity of the natural use of mental imagery in three doctoral candidates studying at a British university. The main research focuses on examining how imagery was employed to stimulate the participants’ L2 learning and their doctoral research as well as career choice. This paper proposes a conceptual framework of types, functions, and conditions of imagery in academic and professional achievements based on the data obtained. It reveals an intriguing array of imagery types, functions, and conditions, which shape the achievement of the individuals’ desired goals. Recommendations and implications for future research on imagery use in SLA are also discussed.

Top Secret Topographies: Recovering Two and Three-Dimensional Archaeological Information from Historic Reconnaissance Datasets Using Image-Based Modelling Techniques

Historic aerial reconnaissance photographs are a valuable resource for archaeological and other landscape-oriented research. However, they are often difficult to access and convert into useable geospatial datasets. This article outlines a workflow for producing georeferenced two and three-dimensional data products from a range of historic frame camera imagery for use in GIS environments using readily available cost-effective computer vision based techniques. These techniques are highly automated and thus more accessible to non-specialist users, and are often able to recover meaningful, useable data from imagesets which can be difficult to process using traditional photogrammetric techniques. This approach is demonstrated on a number of historical datasets which cover the Kreuttal region of Lower Austria, an archaeologically rich area which contains traces of human occupation and land-use from the Neolithic to the Modern Historic periods. WWII Allied reconnaissance aerial photographs and declassified imagery intelligence data from the US Government HEXAGON program are processed using these techniques and the resulting orthophotograph mosaics and historic digital elevation models are analysed against high-accuracy reference datasets of known quality. In addition to obviating some of the difficulties inherent in processing historic imagery, this approach also demonstrates that historic remote sensing images can be put to novel uses that far exceed their intended purposes.

Autobiographical memory in semantic dementia: New insights from two patients using fMRI

Episodic autobiographical memory (EAM) consists of personal events embedded within a specific spatiotemporal context. Patients with semantic dementia (SD) generally show preserved recent EAMs, but a controversy remains concerning their ability to retrieve remote ones. Only one fMRI study examined remote autobiographical memory in SD through a longitudinal case study (Maguire, Kumaran, Hassabis, & Kopelman, 2010). Here, we propose a cross-sectional study to test the hippocampo-neocortical up-regulation hypothesis, through a multimodal approach (gray matter volume, activation, connectivity analyses), directly comparing recent and remote autobiographical memory retrieval and collecting data to asses phenomelogical re-experiencing. EAM retrieval recruits a distributed network of brain regions, notably the hippocampus which is shown to be atrophied in SD, although some studies report no hippocampal atrophy in SD. Using fMRI, we examined recent and remote EAM retrieval in two SD patients with different profiles of hippocampal atrophy, compared to 12 healthy elders (HE). JPL presented severe bilateral hippocampal atrophy, while EP showed sparing of both hippocampi. Behaviourally, JPL was impaired at retrieving EAMs from both life periods and showed poorer use of visual mental imagery than HE, while EP retrieved memories which were as episodic as those of HE for both periods and relied on greater use of visual mental imagery than HE. Neuroimaging results showed that, for JPL, hyperactivations of the residual hippocampal tissue and of frontal, lateral temporal, occipital and parietal cortices did not efficiently compensate his autobiographical memory deficit. EP however presented hyperactivations in similar neocortical regions which appeared to be more efficient in compensating for atrophy elsewhere, since EP's EAM retrieval was preserved. Functional connectivity analyses focusing on the hippocampus showed how the residual hippocampal activity was connected to other brain areas. For JPL, recent autobiographical retrieval was associated with connectivity between the posterior hippocampus and middle occipital gyrus, while for EP, connectivity was detected between the anterior hippocampus and numerous regions (medial temporal, occipital, temporal, frontal, parietal) for both recent and remote periods. These findings suggest that intensification of hippocampal atrophy in SD strongly affects both recent and remote autobiographical recollection. Up-regulation of neocortical regions and functional hippocampal–neocortical connectivity within the autobiographical network may be insufficient to compensate the lifelong episodic memory deficit for patients with extensive hippocampal atrophy.

“Lord, Teach Us to Pray”: Prayer Practice Affects Cognitive Processing

Abstract A secular observer might assume that prayer practice affects those who pray by making the cognitive concepts about God more salient to their lives. Those who pray, however, often talk as if prayer practice – and in particular, kataphatic (imagination-based) prayer – changes something about their experience of their own minds. This study examined the effect of kataphatic prayer on mental imagery vividness, mental imagery use, visual attention and unusual sensory experience. Christians were randomly assigned to two groups: kataphatic prayer or Bible study. Both groups completed computerized mental imagery tasks and an interview before and after a one month period of practice. The results indicate that the prayer group experienced increased mental imagery vividness, increased use of mental imagery, increased attention to objects that were the focus of attention, and more unusual sensory experience, including unusual religious experience, although there were substantial individual differences. These findings suggest that prayer practice may be associated with changes in cognitive processing.

On determining appropriate aerosol optical depth values for atmospheric correction of satellite imagery for biophysical parameter retrieval: requirements and limitations under Australian conditions

Atmospheric correction of high spatial resolution (10–30 m pixel sizes) satellite imagery for use in large-area land-cover monitoring is difficult due to the lack of aerosol optical depth (AOD) estimates made coincident with image acquisition. We present a methodology to determine the upper and lower bounds of AOD estimates that allow the subsequent calculation of a biophysical variable of interest to a pre-determined precision. Knowledge of that range can be used to identify an appropriate method for estimating AOD. We applied the methodology to Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper data in Queensland (QLD) and New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and determined that AOD must be estimated within approximately 0.05 of actual AOD for retrieval of foliage projective cover (FPC) to a precision of 10%. That knowledge was then used to determine the relative merit of using a fixed constant, Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) climatology, or dense dark vegetation (DDV) method for estimating AOD in QLD and NSW. It was found that using a fixed AOD of 0.05 allows estimates of FPC within 10% of their true value when the true value of AOD is less than 0.1. Such AOD values account for approximately 90% of all inland observations and 65% of coastal observations as determined by analysis of data obtained from AERONET. Using an AERONET climatology to estimate AOD was found to increase the likelihood of accurate FPC retrieval in coastal locations to 83%, although it should be noted that AERONET data are very sparse. DDV has potential in eastern and central areas for retrieving AOD observations with greater precision than fixed values or climatologies. However, more work is needed to understand the temporal variation of vegetation reflectance before the DDV method can be used operationally.

More than words? Hypomanic personality traits, visual imagery and verbal thought in young adults

The use of visual mental imagery has been proposed to be a risk factor for the development of bipolar disorder, due to its potential to amplify affective states. This study examined the relation between visual imagery (both trait usage and intrusive experiences of such imagery), intrusive verbal thought, and hypomania, as assessed by self-report questionnaires, in a sample of young adults (N=219). Regression analyses found (after controlling for anxiety, depression, and positive and negative affect) that levels of intrusive visual imagery predicted levels of hypomania, but that neither trait use of visual imagery nor intrusive verbal thought did. These results were consistent with the proposal that being a 'visualiser', as opposed to a 'verbaliser', is a risk factor for bipolar disorder, with the caveat that it is specifically intrusive experiences of imagery, rather than the tendency to utilize imagery per se, that acts as a risk factor.

Intérêt de la détection de la mutation JAK2 au cours d’une thrombose porte à l’ère des anti-JAK2

A range of psychiatric disorders are characterised by impairments in episodic future thinking (EFT), and particularly simulating specific, spatiotemporally-located future events. No study has examined whether training can lead to sustained improvement in specific EFT. In this study, participants (N = 60; M age = 31, SD = 13.2) were randomized to a two-session, group-based future thinking program (Future Specificity Training; FeST) or wait-list. At follow-up the training group, relative to wait-list, showed large, statistically-significant improvements in the ability to mentally simulate specific EFT (d = .82), increases in detail (d = 1.32), use of mental imagery (d = 1.32), anticipated (d = 1.78) and anticipatory pleasure (d = 1.07), perceived control (d = 1.20), and likelihood of occurrence (d = 1.09). Some effects were also observed on positive, generalised future self-states. In the context of inherent limitations of subjective reporting in trials, this study provides evidence that EFT specificity can be enhanced, and the effects of FeST indicate a possible avenue to disrupt psychopathological processes.

Examining the Relationship Between Mental Toughness and Imagery Use

Mental toughness is an important characteristic contributing to athletic excellence (Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton, 2007), yet little quantitative research has examined how psychological skills such as imagery contribute to its development. The present study investigated the relationship between mental toughness with imagery in a sample of varsity athletes (N = 151, Mage = 20.70). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that imagery use significantly predicted mental toughness. Specifically, motivational general-mastery imagery emerged as the strongest individual predictor for all dimensions of mental toughness (β = .45-.53), thus, providing support for imagery use as a potential strategy for developing or enhancing mental toughness in athletes.

Exploring synaesthetes’ mental imagery abilities across multiple sensory modalities

Previous research on the mental imagery abilities of synaesthetes has concentrated on visual and spatial imagery in synaesthetes with spatial forms (Price, 2009, 2010; Simner et al., 2008) and letter-colour synaesthesia (Spiller and Jansari, 2008). Though Barnett and Newell (2008) asked synaesthetes of all types to fill out a questionnaire on visual imagery, most of their synaesthetes reported some form of linguistic–colour synaesthesia. We extend the investigation of mental imagery to a wider variety of synaesthesia types and a wider variety of sensory modalities using a questionnaire study and several tests of visual and auditory mental imagery ability. Our results indicate that, as a group, synaesthetes report making greater use of mental imagery than non-synaesthetes, in everyday activities. Furthermore, they self-report greater vividness of visual, auditory, tactile, and taste imagery than do non-synaesthetes. However, as a group the synaesthetes are not seen to do significantly better at the mental imagery tasks, in either the visual or auditory modalities. These results have important implications for our understanding of synaesthesia, in relation to potential fundamental differences in perceptual processing of synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes.

Tradition and Innovation in Later Medieval English Manuscripts (review)

Tradition and Innovation in Later Medieval English Manuscripts. By Kathleen L. Scott. (London: The British Library. 2007. Pp. xiv, 194. $75.00. ISBN 978-0-712-34936-0.) This volume examines five little-studied English manuscripts of the later medieval period that contain rare or enigmatic decoration and iconography. Scott uses these examples to argue that although fifteenth-century manuscript illumination has often been derided as derivative and dull, these specific manuscripts not only contain strikingly inventive pictorial elements but also raise intriguing questions about the broader contours of English book production and the function of illustrations in late-medieval manuscripts. The first chapter concerns Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 156, an English modelbook for a work known as the Postilla litteralis super totam Bibliam, a widely used literal exegesis of the Bible composed by Nicholas of Lyra (d. 1349). Although this manuscript does not include the full text of the commentary, which typically ran from three to five volumes, it contains illustrations intended to accompany the text, including images that depict practical information about the Bible such as diagrams, plans, and illustrations of the Temple of Solomon, the Table of Shewbread, the Brazen Sea, the Altar of the Holocaust, and so on. She posits that the Bodleian manuscript was a kind of archetypal exemplar or modelbook that provided copyists with a repertoire of imagery for use in the numerous other copies of the work produced during the period.The second chapter considers All Souls Library, Oxford, MS 10, the only surviving copy of an illustrated French Bible written in England. The origins of this manuscript are especially mysterious, as the text was written in French at a time when Wycliffite Bibles were readily available, but produced in an English illuminating shop by a prolific and well-known artist who seems to have moved in the highest circles of noble book-commissioning patrons. Although the manuscript contains many of the standard features of English book art, some of its iconography was clearly influenced by French models; moreover, it prominently features miniatures of readers and books. Scott unravels some of the potential implications of this evidence for ownership and, intriguingly, proposes that the book may have been commissioned by a French patron in forced residence in England such as Charles d'Orleans. Scott then focuses on British Library, Stowe MS 39, the only surviving English manuscript of the Abbey of the Holy Ghost, a Middle English treatise of spiritual guidance that employs architectural motifs to depict aspects of interiority. …

Mood stability versus mood instability in bipolar disorder: A possible role for emotional mental imagery

A cognitive model of bipolar disorder suggests that mental imagery acts as an emotional amplifier of mood and may be heightened in bipolar disorder. First, we tested whether patients with bipolar disorder would score higher on mental imagery measures than a matched healthy control group. Second, we examined differences in imagery between patients divided into groups according to their level of mood stability. Mood ratings over approximately 6-months, made using a mobile phone messaging system, were used to divide patients into stable or unstable groups. Clinician decisions of mood stability were corroborated with statistical analysis. Results showed (I) compared to healthy controls, patients with bipolar disorder had significantly higher scores for general mental imagery use, more vivid imagery of future events, higher levels of intrusive prospective imagery, and more extreme imagery-based interpretation bias; (II) compared to patients with stable mood, patients with unstable mood had higher levels of intrusive prospective imagery, and this correlated highly with their current levels of anxiety and depression. The findings were consistent with predictions. Further investigation of imagery in bipolar disorder appears warranted as it may highlight processes that contribute to mood instability with relevance for cognitive behaviour therapy.

Impact of metacognition and motivation on the efficacy of strategic memory training in older adults: Analysis of specific, transfer and maintenance effects

The current study examines the contribution of a number of metacognitive and motivational variables in explaining specific, transfer and maintenance effects of a strategic memory training program, based on the use of mental imagery, in older adults. Participants were assessed before and after the training (immediately post-test, and at 3- and 6-month follow-up) on list recall (criterion) and working memory (transfer) tasks. At the pre-test, metacognition (use of strategies, belief about memory, control on memory) and motivational measures (cognitive engagement, self-efficacy) were also collected. The training produced a benefit in both the criterion and transfer tasks, which was maintained at follow-up. Some of the metacognitive and motivational measures, over and above the level of performance obtained at pre-test, predicted the gains in the objective memory measures. The findings confirmed the importance of considering the role of metacognitive attitudes of older adults in memory training activities.

Using number sense to compare fractions

Third-grade teachers found that giving particular attention to the use of realworld contexts, mental imagery, and manipulatives brought success to problem solving as students moved from using models to reasoning.

Broad Minded Affective Coping (BMAC): A “Positive” CBT Approach to Facilitating Positive Emotions

This article describes a new cognitive-behavioral treatment Broad Minded Affective Coping (BMAC) based upon Frederickson and colleagues' “broaden and build” theoretical model of positive emotions. Simply, negative emotions are threat-focused and survival based whereas positive emotions broadened thought-action repertoires and increase access to a much wider range of psychological resources. Thus constructive and positive cognition and behaviour are more likely to arise from the experience of positive emotional states. The theoretical underpinnings of, and the clinical procedures to, BMAC are described. BMAC aims through the use of mental imagery to elicit positive past memories and the positive emotional states associated with them. BMAC is indicated as a tactical addition to cognitive behavioural treatments and a number of cases are briefly described to indicate its clinical feasibility and acceptability.

Mental Imagery Research in Physical Education

The purpose of this article is to present a framework for researching mental imagery use in school-based physical education. Mental imagery use has been researched quite extensively over the past 50 years in the areas of motor learning and sport psychology. Much has been learned regarding the benefits of using mental imagery to improve learning and performance. This article has drawn parallels between school-based physical education and the areas of sport psychology and motor learning. Based on findings in the areas of motor learning and sport psychology, and the similarities drawn between school-based physical education and these two areas, it could be expected that mental imagery use in school-based physical education has the potential to produce many benefits in learning and performance for both students and teachers. However, to date there has been very little research conducted with regard to mental imagery use and physical education. This article provides a research framework identifying questions that need to be addressed in order to more fully understand the potential imagery use has for both students and teachers in school-based physical education.

The Effects of Physical Practice on a Novel Mental Imagery Task as Measured by Electroencephalography (EEG)

Studies have shown that the use of mental imagery can improve performance (Mamassis & Doganis, 2004; Martin, Mortitz, & Hall, 1999). However, these studies only use outcome measures to show the benefits of mental imagery/practice. Researchers have not yet examined the underlying cognitive processes of imagery performance as individuals physically learn a new skill. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of physical practice on EEG activity when imagining a dart throwing task. EEG activity from P4, P3, O2, and O1 was recorded from 30 volunteers. Participants were randomly assigned to either a physical practice condition or a non-practice condition. Ten two-second epochs were recorded and analyzed for both the pre-test and post-test. A separate 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 (Hemisphere x Sites x Test x Practice) mixed model design was conducted for each EEG frequency band (i.e., lower alpha, upper alpha, lower beta, and upper beta). Results revealed a significant interaction test by practice in the lower alpha band (p > .05). Further, there was a significant interaction test by site (p < .05) in the lower alpha band. Lastly, a significant interaction site by hemisphere was shown in the lower beta band (p < .05). The results suggest that either the task was not complex enough to detect differences or the participants did not have adequate physical practice. In addition, the occipital sites were less involved in attention and effort during the post-test imagery performance while the parietal sites were as involved as the pre-test. The imagery script used for this study emphasized feeling the movement prior to imagery performance, and this may have resulted in the parietal region being activated during the pre- and post-test. However, the occipital region at the left hemisphere was more stimulated than the right hemisphere, suggesting the cognitive processing of imagery instructions.

Maintenance of real objects and their verbal designations in working memory

The present study investigated the neural correlates of working memory maintenance for real objects in contrast to their verbal designations. For this purpose we employed a delayed match-to-sample task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The conjunction of load effects for objects and for words revealed a common bilateral network with main foci in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the intraparietal sulcus. Load effect for objects in comparison to load effect for words revealed stronger activation of bilateral precuneus, which suggests the use of mental imagery of objects and object features. The opposite comparison load words versus load objects showed premotor and auditory areas to be activated in association with phonological rehearsal. The bilateral common activation indicates overlapping codes for real-world objects and their verbal designations. Importantly, there is also a dissociation between maintenance of words and objects, which indicates that phonological rehearsal and mental imagery are employed to different degrees.