Vividness Of Imagery Research Articles

Associations between individual cognitive factors, mode of exposure and depression symptoms in practitioners working with aversive crime material

ABSTRACT Background: There is extensive literature on front-line officers and investigators exposure to trauma and its negative impact on them. However, there are analytical practitioners in law enforcement who indirectly work with the traumatic experiences of other people daily, but are seldom the focus of academic research. Objective: Our goal was to conduct the first international study with these practitioners to identify the risk of depression symptoms and establish whether potentially modifiable risk factors (belief in a just world, mental imagery and thought suppression) and work-related characteristics (medium of exposure) are associated with depression. Method: 99 analysts and secondary investigators employed in police and law enforcement organizations from the UK, Europe and Canada participated in the study. The online survey was advertised to employees via their employers but hosted without employer access. Multiple regression was used to analyze the data. Results: After controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, previous exposure to trauma, and marital status, four potential risk factors were identified. Analytical practitioners with vivid mental imagery, those exposed to crime material via auditory and visual means, those who suppressed intrusive thoughts, and those who believed in a just world reported more depressive symptoms. Conclusions: The majority of our sample reported clinical levels of depressive symptoms. Four potential risk factors accounted for just under half of the variance in depression scores. We consider strategies that can be used to mitigate the potential negative influence of these factors and suggest that these are established as risk factors for depression symptoms via future longitudinal research.

Music listening evokes story-like visual imagery with both idiosyncratic and shared content.

There is growing evidence that music can induce a wide range of visual imagery. To date, however, there have been few thorough investigations into the specific content of music-induced visual imagery, and whether listeners exhibit consistency within themselves and with one another regarding their visual imagery content. We recruited an online sample (N = 353) who listened to three orchestral film music excerpts representing happy, tender, and fearful emotions. For each excerpt, listeners rated how much visual imagery they were experiencing and how vivid it was, their liking of and felt emotional intensity in response to the excerpt, and, finally, described the content of any visual imagery they may have been experiencing. Further, they completed items assessing a number of individual differences including musical training and general visual imagery ability. Of the initial sample, 254 respondents completed the survey again three weeks later. A thematic analysis of the content descriptions revealed three higher-order themes of prominent visual imagery experiences: Storytelling (imagined locations, characters, actions, etc.), Associations (emotional experiences, abstract thoughts, and memories), and References (origins of the visual imagery, e.g., film and TV). Although listeners demonstrated relatively low visual imagery consistency with each other, levels were higher when considering visual imagery content within individuals across timepoints. Our findings corroborate past literature regarding music's capacity to encourage narrative engagement. It, however, extends it (a) to show that such engagement is highly visual and contains other types of imagery to a lesser extent, (b) to indicate the idiosyncratic tendencies of listeners' imagery consistency, and (c) to reveal key factors influencing consistency levels (e.g., vividness of visual imagery and emotional intensity ratings in response to music). Further implications are discussed in relation to visual imagery's purported involvement in music-induced emotions and aesthetic appeal.

Mental imagery and visual attentional templates: A dissociation

There is a growing interest in the relationship between mental images and attentional templates as both are considered pictorial representations that involve similar neural mechanisms. Here, we investigated the role of mental imagery in the automatic implementation of attentional templates and their effect on involuntary attention. We developed a novel version of the contingent capture paradigm designed to encourage the generation of a new template on each trial and measure contingent spatial capture by a template-matching visual feature (color). Participants were required to search at four different locations for a specific object indicated at the start of each trial. Immediately prior to the search display, color cues were presented surrounding the potential target locations, one of which matched the target color (e.g., red for strawberry).Across three experiments, our task induced a robust contingent capture effect, reflected by faster responses when the target appeared in the location previously occupied by the target-matching cue. Contrary to our predictions, this effect remained consistent regardless of self-reported individual differences in visual mental imagery (Experiment 1, N = 216) or trial-by-trial variation of voluntary imagery vividness (Experiment 2, N = 121). Moreover, contingent capture was observed even among aphantasic participants, who report no imagery (Experiment 3, N = 91). The magnitude of the effect was not reduced in aphantasics compared to a control sample of non-aphantasics, although the two groups reported substantial differences in their search strategy and exhibited differences in overall speed and accuracy. Our results hence establish a dissociation between the generation and implementation of attentional templates for a visual feature (color) and subjectively experienced imagery.

Towards a More Individualised Practice of Motor Imagery: The Additional Value of the Personality Dimension Extraversion

Motor imagery (MI) training is used to improve motor performance in both patients and athletes. The putative link between personality and MI remains however largely underexplored. In this pilot study, 72 sports students performed MI and physical execution of a finger pointing task. MI ability was assessed through the mental chronometry paradigm that captured the temporal components of imagery, as well as self-report measures of imagery vividness and imagery ease. Personality dimensions were assessed with the five-factor model. Extraversion was found to be significantly correlated with MI ability as measured with mental chronometry ( r = .37, p = .001) but not with imagery vividness ( r = −.08, p = .481) or imagery ease ( r = −.04, p = .741). The other personality dimensions were unrelated to MI ability (all p > .05). Based on these findings, we postulate that extravert individuals may have an advantage in controlling and maintaining the temporal aspect of mental movements. This may help extraverts to better benefit from imagery training.

Doris Lessing's Personal Pilgrimage From Communism To Sufism

This paper chronicles Lessing's journey from her early involvement in the London Communist Party to her disillusionment with Marxist theory after the Hungarian crisis of 1956. It discusses her major works, such as "The Grass Is Singing" and "The Golden Notebook," which challenged traditional narrative structures and investigated the complexities of identity and consciousness. With vivid imagery and symbolism, the abstract highlights Lessing's ability to depict diverse domains, including colonial Africa, social disintegration, and mental breakdown. The contributions of Lessing to literature are recognised, and her unique perspective as a Marxist feminist author is emphasised. The abstract also discusses her 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature and her reactions to it, illuminating her independent and unyielding nature. Lessing's writing voyage paralleled her personal development throughout her life, from political activism to a profound exploration of inner and outer space, which ultimately led her to Sufism.

Defining and ‘diagnosing’ aphantasia: Condition or individual difference?

Research into the newly-coined ‘condition’ of ‘aphantasia’, an individual difference involving the self-reported absence of voluntary visual imagery, has taken off in recent years, and more and more people are ‘self-diagnosing’ as aphantasic. Yet, there is no consensus on whether aphantasia should really be described as a ‘condition’, and there is no battery of psychometric instruments to detect or ‘diagnose’ aphantasia. Instead, researchers currently rely on the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) to ‘diagnose’ aphantasia. We review here fundamental and methodological problems affecting aphantasia research stemming from an inadequate focus on how we should define aphantasia, whether aphantasia is a pathological condition, and the extensive use of VVIQ as a ‘diagnostic test’ for aphantasia. Firstly, we draw attention to ‘literature blindness’ for visual imagery research from the 1960s–1990s concerning individual differences in visual imagery vividness. Secondly, despite aphantasia being defined as a ‘condition’ where voluntary visual imagery is absent as indicated by the lowest score on the VVIQ, aphantasia studies inconsistently employ samples comprised of a mixture of participants with no visual imagery and low visual imagery, and we argue that this hinders the uncovering of the underlying cause of aphantasia. Thirdly, the scores used to designate the boundary between aphantasia and non-aphantasia are arbitrary and differ between studies, compromising the possibility for cross-study comparison of results. Fourthly, the problems of ‘diagnosing’ aphantasia are not limited to the academic sphere, as one can ‘self-diagnose’ online, for example by using the variant-VVIQ on the Aphantasia Network website. However, the variant-VVIQ departs from the original in ways likely to impact validity and accuracy, which could lead people to falsely believe they have been ‘diagnosed’ with aphantasia by a scientifically-validated measure. Fifthly, we discuss the hypothesis that people who believe they have been ‘diagnosed’ with aphantasia might be vulnerable to health anxiety, distress, and stigma. We conclude with a discussion about some fundamental aspects of how to classify a disorder, and suggest the need for a new psychometric measure of aphantasia.

Positive mental imagery and mental health amongst university students in Pakistan.

Mental health problems amongst university students pose a major public health challenge, and this is particularly the case in Pakistan. Alongside broader societal and cultural pressures, cognitive factors likely also play a role in the development of and resilience to mental health problems and may provide a feasible target for interventions. The current study built on previous research in primarily European samples investigating the relationship between one cognitive factor, positive future-oriented mental imagery, and mental health, extending this to a sample of university students in Pakistan (N = 1838). In a cross-sectional design, higher vividness of positive future-oriented mental imagery was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and higher levels of positive mental health amongst participants completing questionnaire measures on paper (N = 1430) or online (N = 408). In the sample completing the measures on paper, these relationships remained statistically significant even when controlling for socio-demographic and mental health-related variables. The results provide a foundation for further investigating positive mental imagery as a potential mechanism of mental health and intervention target amongst university students in Pakistan.

What mental images remain after 23 years of blindness?

In this study, we ask whether a subject rates some sensory images change with time. We tested an adult female, aged 43 years, who became blind at 20 years of age. Her imagery had been previously measured on two occasions, at age 23, after 3 years of blindness, and at age 34, after 14 years of blindness. Several tests were now conducted to measure her imagery vividness, imagery control, and mental images linked to several other senses. She was found to score lower than the confidence interval obtained in the reference groups of sighted subjects on mental images that are linked to a sense involving vision, such as visual images. Conversely, the participant scored much higher than the confidence interval obtained in a reference group on mental images, such as auditory, cutaneous, gustatory, olfactory, and organic imagery. Scores on imagery tests may lower with blindness duration, and ratings of images related to other senses may increase.

Altered State of Consciousness and Mental Imagery as a Function of N, N-dimethyltryptamine Concentration in Ritualistic Ayahuasca Users.

Consumption of the psychedelic brew ayahuasca is a central ritualistic aspect of the Santo Daime religion. The current observational, baseline controlled study was designed to assess whether members (n = 24) of the Santo Daime church would show enhanced capacity for mental imagery during an ayahuasca experience. In addition, this study assessed whether the effects of ayahuasca on consciousness and mental imagery were related to peak serum concentration of N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the main psychoactive component. Measures of altered states of consciousness (5-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire) and ego dissolution (Ego Dissolution Inventory [EDI]) as well as measures of mental imagery (visual perspective shifting, vividness of visual imagery, cognitive flexibility, associative thinking) were taken on 2 subsequent days on which members of Santo Daime were sober or drank a self-selected volume of ayahuasca. Measures of altered states of consciousness revealed that feelings of oceanic boundlessness, visual restructuralization, and EDI increased most prominently after drinking and shared a positive correlation with peak DMT concentration. Measures of mental imagery did not noticeably differ between the baseline and ayahuasca condition, although subjective ratings of cognitive flexibility were lower under ayahuasca. Two measures related to mental imagery, that is, perspective shifts and cognitive flexibility, were significantly correlated to peak DMT concentrations. Peak concentrations of DMT and other alkaloids did not correlate with ayahuasca dose. These findings confirm previous notions that the primary phenomenological characteristics of ayahuasca are driven by DMT. Compensatory or neuroadaptive effects associated with long-term ayahuasca intake may have mitigated the acute impact of ayahuasca in Santo Daime members on mental imagery.

Individual differences in fear and self-distancing predict information processing via problem construal

In two preregistered online studies (NTotal = 984; Prolific), we examined how individual differences in fear and self-distancing predict information processing in decision-making involving risk in a business scenario. Dispositional fear was positively related to intuitive processing and negatively related to analytical processing, whereas self-distancing was positively related to analytical processing. These relations occurred indirectly via problem construal (i.e., concreteness and vividness of mental imagery). Dispositional fear predicted less concrete problem construal, which in turn predicted more urgent intuitive processing and less analytical processing. In contrast, habitual self-distancing predicted more concrete problem construal, which in turn predicted more analytical processing and less urgent intuitive processing. Overall, these findings suggest that, in contrast to emotionally regulated decision-makers, fearful decision-makers' tendency to construe problems less concretely (i.e., more abstractly) might hinder their ability to concretize and analyze problems involving risk.

가상현실(VR) 상호작용성에 따른 촉각적 심상화가 이중 쇼핑가치에 미치는 영향

Background/Objectives: This study investigated the factors that drive the dual shopping values of consumers in virtual reality (VR) fashion store environments, focusing on the role of haptic mental imagery as a mental simulation. It examined how perceived interactivity can enhance haptic mental imagery and increase the vividness of overall mental images, ultimately leading to an increased evaluation of utilitarian and hedonic shopping values. Methods: A professional research company recruited 330 participants in their 20s and 30s. Participants experienced a VR fashion store to browse items they were interested in purchasing, after which they responded to questionnaires online. A total of 319 responses were used for further analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS 23.0 was employed to test the hypotheses and multi-group comparisons. Results: Interactivity increased the participants’ haptic mental imagery and the vividness of their overall mental images. Haptic mental imagery helped enhance perceived imagery vividness. Both imagery-related variables had positive effects on the two shopping values. Differences in shopping orientation and gender were also observed in the relations among variables. Conclusion/Implications: This research provides insights into the impact of interactivity and the role of haptic mental imagery and vivid imagery in shaping VR store consumers’ shopping values.

Reframing Vodou’s Veves through Guided Imagery Therapy as Diasporic Expressions Among Haitians in Miami-Dade County, Florida

The Haitian culture is colorful and possesses a tapestry of images, complex symbols, and art archetypes that seem to brush with the cultural, spiritual, and psychological aspects of Haitian life. There are powerful visual narratives such as images, songs and dance, and arts expressing apparatuses for guided imagery, not expressed, but unite Haitians in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The components of imagery vividness are culturally considered to ascertain whether guided imagery in this culture can be therapeutic. The purpose of this article is to explore guided imagery as a therapeutic expression of mind-body medicine. It proposes an active transformative imagination exercise as guided imagery for three archetypal images as conscious experiences within the culture: The mother, songs and dance, and imagery known as veve (pronounced as vehveh). The tools considered: Gestalt Art, and Dialogue with Art Therapies for songs and dance, and veves, heralded by an Inner Advisor exercise about the mother are expressed to heighten the imagery experiences.

Narrative Perspective and Imagined Space: Understanding Japanese-American Experience in Hawaii through Murayama’s Fiction

This paper contextualizes the intricate relationship between language, culture, and place in Milton Murayama’s All I am Asking for is My Body, underlining the dynamic of the Japanese-American diasporic experience in Hawaii. The econarratological analysis delves into the spatial representation and homodiegetic narration employed by Murayama to immerse readers in the plantation labor experience and the linguistic landscapes of Hawaii. The study examines the complex dynamics between Standard English and Hawaiian Creole English (HCE) in Murayama’s work, highlighting their role in shaping the cultural and linguistic identity of the characters. By employing immersive textual cues, such as vivid descriptive imagery and the strategic use of language styles, Murayama creates a mental model of narratives that accurately depicts the historicity of the Nikkei community, focusing on the plantation labor experience. This paper argues that the deliberate blending of Standard English and HCE in Murayama’s fiction enhances readers’ engagement and understanding of the Nikkei experience and contributes to broader discussions on language, culture, and identity within the context of diaspora literature.

Measuring imagery strength in schizophrenia: no evidence of enhanced mental imagery priming.

Recent research shows ambivalent results regarding the relationship between mental imagery and schizophrenia. The role of voluntary visual imagery in schizophrenic hallucinations remains unclear. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between visual imagery, schizophrenia, and the occurrence of schizophrenic hallucinations using an objective visual imagery task. The sample consisted of 16 participants with schizophrenia (59.1% female; MAge =45.55) and 44 participants without schizophrenia (62.5% female; MAge =43.94). Visual imagery was measured using the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) as well as the well-validated Binocular Rivalry Task (BRT). Occurrences of hallucinations were assessed using the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale. Participants with schizophrenia showed more hallucinatory experiences but did not score higher on either the VVIQ or the BRT than participants without schizophrenia. A correlation between the VVIQ and the BRT was found, validating the measurement of visual imagery and enabling the interpretation that visual imagery vividness is not enhanced in people with schizophrenia. The association between mental imagery vividness and schizophrenia found in previous studies may be based on other facets of mental imagery than visual imagery.

Probing the unimaginable: The impact of aphantasia on distinct domains of visual mental imagery and visual perception

Different individuals experience varying degrees of vividness in their visual mental images. The distribution of these variations across different imagery domains, such as object shape, color, written words, faces, and spatial relationships, remains unknown. To address this issue, we conducted a study with 117 healthy participants who reported different levels of imagery vividness. Of these participants, 44 reported experiencing absent or nearly absent visual imagery, a condition known as “aphantasia”. These individuals were compared to those with typical (N = 42) or unusually vivid (N = 31) imagery ability. We used an online version of the French-language Battérie Imagination-Perception (eBIP), which consists of tasks tapping each of the above-mentioned domains, both in visual imagery and in visual perception. We recorded the accuracy and response times (RTs) of participants' responses. Aphantasic participants reached similar levels of accuracy on all tasks compared to the other groups (Bayesian repeated measures ANOVA, BF = .02). However, their RTs were slower in both imagery and perceptual tasks (BF = 266), and they had lower confidence in their responses on perceptual tasks (BF = 7.78e5). A Bayesian regression analysis revealed that there was an inverse correlation between subjective vividness and RTs for the entire participant group: higher levels of vividness were associated with faster RTs. The pattern was similar in all the explored domains. The findings suggest that individuals with congenital aphantasia experience a slowing in processing visual information in both imagery and perception, but the precision of their processing remains unaffected. The observed performance pattern lends support to the hypotheses that congenital aphantasia is primarily a deficit of phenomenal consciousness, or that it employs alternative strategies other than visualization to access preserved visual information.

Representing Dissent through Poetry: A Study of Select Poems of Maya Angelou

Literature in general and protest poetry in particular have been vocal about human condition and problems. This article examines Maya Angelou’s representation of dissent in selected poems, using the historical and socio-political context of her life as a lens. It analyses how Angelou’s work, including “Still I Rise,” “Caged Bird,” “Phenomenal Woman,” and some others, articulates resistance against racial, gender, and social inequalities. Through her powerful metaphors, repetitive phrases, and vivid imagery, Angelou defied societal norms and called for change. The study concludes by emphasizing Angelou’s enduring impact and legacy, not just in literature, but also in shaping civil rights discourse and inspiring social change. Her poetry exemplifies how art can be a potent instrument of protest. The article employs language for ‘writing back’, questioning norms, resisting atrocities and creating scope for change. Protest poetry, which is deeply embedded in American history, remains a prominent part of English literary corpus, contributing greatly to African American literature. The category of African American protest poetry is large owing to the huge expanse of time during which it has been written and also because of the great number of poets who have contributed to this form of writing. As a result, African American protest poetry is divided into three sub-categories– the first deals with protest during slavery, the second during segregation and Jim Crow Laws and the third after political obstacles to equality were presumably removed. This paper aims to deliberate on the following questions— what are the prominent themes of African American protest poetry? How have the African American poets used this genre of literature variously during different historical epochs? How are the concerns of female poets different from their male counterparts? What role has protest poetry played in political movements against inequality, social injustice, oppression, segregation etc.? The present paper aims to engage with this seemingly broad area of literature from the feminist and racial perspectives. The paper intends to deal with few important African American protest poets from foundational poets to the contemporary ones.

Developing and validating a Japanese version of the Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire.

Mental imagery refers to the representation of stimuli that are not physically present and has long been a subject of interest in psychology. However, most research on mental imagery has been limited to visual images, with other types of imagery, such as sound and smell, receiving little attention. A possible reason for this is the lack of appropriate scales to measure the vividness of multisensory imagery. The Plymouth Sensory Imagery Scale (Psi-Q) has been developed to address this issue and has been used in several studies to measure the vividness of seven imageries: vision, sound, smell, taste, touch, body, and feeling. In this study of 400 participants in Japan, the Psi-Q was translated into Japanese and tested for reliability and validity. The results showed good internal reliability and retest reliability and moderate to high correlations with other measures of construct validity, including mindfulness, Big Five, and life satisfaction. Additionally, there is no significant difference in total Psi-Q scores between the Japanese and British samples, although some differences are found in individual sensory imagery abilities. This study provides valuable insights into multisensory mental imagery, and it is expected that research dealing simultaneously with the responses of multisensory modalities will further accumulate.

No increased prevalence of prosopagnosia in aphantasia: Visual recognition deficits are small and not restricted to faces.

Aphantasia and prosopagnosia are both rare conditions with impairments in visual cognition. While prosopagnosia refers to a face recognition deficit, aphantasics exhibit a lack of mental imagery. Current object recognition theories propose an interplay of perception and mental representations, making an association between recognition performance and visual imagery plausible. While the literature assumes a link between aphantasia and prosopagnosia, other impairments in aphantasia have been shown to be rather global. Therefore, we assumed that aphantasics do not solely exhibit impairments in face recognition but rather in general visual recognition performance, probably moderated by stimulus complexity. To test this hypothesis, 65 aphantasics were compared to 55 controls in a face recognition task, the Cambridge Face Memory Test, and a corresponding object recognition task, the Cambridge Car Memory Test. In both tasks, aphantasics performed worse than controls, indicating mild recognition deficits without face-specificity. Additional correlations between imagery vividness and performance in both tasks were found, suggesting that visual imagery influences visual recognition not only in imagery extremes. Stimulus complexity produced the expected moderation effect but only for the whole imagery-spectrum and only with face stimuli. Overall, the results imply that aphantasia is linked to a general but mild deficit in visual recognition.

The Interplay of Class Struggle and Human Relationships in G. G Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera

Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his Love in the Time of Cholera explores complex themes of social injustice, class struggle, and alienation in a Spanish colonial town located along the Caribbean coast of Colombia. He uses a masterful blend of magical realism, vivid imagery, and insightful prose to offer a poignant portrayal of the societal inequalities that plague the town and its inhabitants. At the centre of the novel's narrative are the two young lovers, Florentino and Fermina, who are separated by their social classes. Fermina's father expects her to marry Urbino, a man who can elevate their family's social status.
 Marquez illustrates how Florentino, despite his deep love for Fermina, is confined by his lower social class and thus must work tirelessly to amass wealth with the help of his uncle. This struggle for social mobility is a powerful commentary on the constraints that exist within the town's social hierarchy. Throughout the novel, Marquez aptly captures the complex interplay between social classes and the effects they have on individuals. He shows how societal expectations and constraints can tear individuals apart and how class consciousness can have a devastating impact on human relationships. The power dynamics in the society are portrayed with great sensitivity, and the author offers a stark reminder of the injustices that exist in the society.
 The novel is also rich in symbolism, which adds another layer of meaning to the narrative. The image of cholera, which permeates the novel, serves as a metaphor for the moral decay and sickness that exist within the town's social hierarchy. The character of Fermina also serves as an embodiment of the struggle against social conventions and the desire for personal freedom. The text offers a profound commentary on the human condition. Marquez's insightful understanding of social inequality and the effects of class consciousness on individuals is masterfully portrayed in the novel.

Images, reviews, and purchase intention on social commerce: The role of mental imagery vividness, cognitive and affective social presence

Images and textual reviews are central to social commerce sites. But little is known about the mechanism by which image quality and type of textual review (with personal experiences versus facts) impact consumer purchase intention on a social commerce page. We address this knowledge gap and use the stimulus-organism-response (S–O-R) framework to develop our conceptual framework. We hypothesize that image quality and type of textual review impact purchase intention through imagery vividness that functions as a stimulus. Further, imagery vividness impacts purchase intention positively in the social commerce context through social presence. Specifically, the effect of imagery vividness on purchase intention is likely to be serially mediated by cognitive social presence and affective social presence. We collect data by conducting two experiments using a social media post regarding fashion apparel for middle-aged women on Instagram and find support for our thesis.