scholarly journals Exploring the relationship between grapheme colour-picking consistency and mental imagery

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1787) ◽  
pp. 20190023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Jane Spiller ◽  
Lee Harkry ◽  
Fintan McCullagh ◽  
Volker Thoma ◽  
Clare Jonas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Self Selection ◽  
Proxy Measure ◽  
Potential Link ◽  
The Relationship

Previous research has indicated a potential link between mental imagery and synaesthesia. However, these findings are mainly based on imagery self-report measures and recruitment of self-selected synaesthetes. To avoid issues of self-selection and demand effects, we recruited participants from the general population, rather than synaesthetes specifically, and used colour-picking consistency tests for letters and numbers to assess a ‘synaesthete-like’ experience. Mental imagery ability and mental rotation ability were assessed using both self-report measures and behavioural assessments. Consistency in colour-picking for letters (but not numbers) was predicted by performance on the visual mental imagery task but not by a mental rotation task or self-report measures. Using the consistency score as a proxy measure of grapheme-colour synaesthesia, we provide more evidence for the suggestion that synaesthetic experience is associated with enhanced mental imagery, even when participants are naive to the research topic. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia’.

Stimulus Preference and Mental Imagery: Influencing the Way Sexual Stimuli are Viewed and the Intensity of Subjective Sexual Arousal

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Boccone
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Arousal ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Stimulus Preference ◽  
Sexual Stimuli ◽  
Sex Research ◽  
Sexual Stimulation ◽  
Subjective Sexual Arousal ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Preferred Stimulus

Background: The connection between mental imagery and feelings of presence within a film has not yet been investigated in sex research in relation to observational stance (imagining oneself as either a spectator or participant while viewing a film). Several studies have shown that people who take a participant stance when viewing a sexual film are more likely to report greater subjective sexual arousal (SSA). Research on observational stance has also found that viewing a preferred stimulus is predictive of taking a participant stance. Despite this, very few studies have allowed participants to select their own stimuli. Methodology: Sexual films that were researcher-selected or participant-selected will be presented to women and men, while continuously measuring their SSA. Information will be collected about observational stance and vividness of mental imagery via questionnaires. Expected Results: 1. Greater mental imagery ability will be associated with adopting a participant stance. 2. The relationship between mental imagery ability and taking a participant stance will be stronger for participant-selected sexual stimuli than for researcher-selected sexual stimuli. 3. Taking a participant stance will be associated with greater SSA. 4. The relationship between taking a participant stance and SSA will be stronger for participant-selected sexual stimuli than for researcher-selected stimuli. Conclusions: This project is the first to examine the relationship between mental imagery and observational stance for sexual stimuli, and is among the first to allow participants to self-select stimuli. Results of this project will encourage the development of standardized procedures for providing participants with optimal sexual stimulation.

Exploring synaesthetes’ mental imagery abilities across multiple sensory modalities

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Mary Jane Spiller
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Questionnaire Study ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Spatial Imagery ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Recovery of Motor Imagery Ability in Stroke Patients

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sjoerd de Vries ◽  
Marga Tepper ◽  
Bert Otten ◽  
Theo Mulder
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Hand Function ◽  
Mental Practice ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Motor Functioning ◽  
Rehabilitation Process ◽  
Implicit Motor ◽  
The Relationship

Objective. To investigate whether motor imagery ability recovers in stroke patients and to see what the relationship is between different types of imagery and motor functioning after stroke.Methods. 12 unilateral stroke patients were measured at 3 and 6 weeks poststroke on 3 mental imagery tasks. Arm-hand function was evaluated using the Utrecht Arm-Hand task and the Brunnström Fugl-Meyer Scale. Age-matched healthy individuals (N=10) were included as controls.Results. Implicit motor imagery ability and visual motor imagery ability improved significantly at 6 weeks compared to 3 weeks poststroke.Conclusion. Our study shows that motor imagery can recover in the first weeks after stroke. This indicates that a group of patients who might not be initially selected for mental practice can, still later in the rehabilitation process, participate in mental practice programs. Moreover, our study shows that mental imagery modalities can be differently affected in individual patients and over time.

What Are Confident Athletes Imaging?: An Examination of Image Content

1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra E. Moritz ◽  
Craig R. Hall ◽  
Kathleen A. Martin ◽  
Eva Vadocz
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Multiple Regression Analysis ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Image Content ◽  
Hierarchical Multiple Regression ◽  
Mastery Experiences ◽  
Sport Skills ◽  
The Relationship

Despite the advocacy of a confidence-enhancing function of mental imagery, the relationship between confidence and imagery has received little attention from sport researchers. The primary purpose of the present study was to identify the specific image content of confident athletes. Fifty-seven elite competitive rollerskaters completed the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised (MIQ-R), the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ), and the State Sport Confidence Inventory (SSCI). Results revealed that high sport-confident athletes used more mastery and arousal imagery, and had better kinesthetic and visual imagery ability than low sport-confident athletes did. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that mastery imagery accounted for the majority of variance in SSCI scores (20%). The results of this study suggest that when it comes to sport confidence, the imaged rehearsal of specific sport skills may not be as important as the imagery of sport-related mastery experiences and emotions.

scholarly journals Investigating Object Orientation Effects Across 14 Languages

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sau-Chin Chen ◽  
Anna Szabelska ◽  
Christopher R. Chartier ◽  
Zoltan Kekecs ◽  
Dermot Lynott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Mental Simulation ◽  
Object Orientation ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Real Objects ◽  
Visual Properties ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Multiple Languages

Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of real objects. Evidence from sentence-picture verification tasks has shown that people mentally represent various visual properties such as shape, color, and size. However, the evidence for mental simulations of object orientation is limited. We report a study that investigates the match advantage of object orientation across speakers of different languages. This multi-laboratory project aims to achieve two objectives. First, we examine the replicability of the match advantage of object orientation across multiple languages and laboratories. Second, we will use a mental rotation task to measure participants’ mental imagery after the sentence-picture verification task. The relationship between the participants’ performance of the two tasks will provide a cross-linguistic examination of perceptual simulation processes. With the (broad) evaluation of individual mental imagery ability and potential linguistic moderators, we expect a robust estimation of match advantage of object orientation.

Is Controllability of Imagery Related to Canoe-Slalom Performance?

2002 ◽  
Vol 94 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1245-1250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadhg MacIntyre ◽  
Aidan Moran ◽  
Domhnall J. Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Predictive Validity ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
Objective Test ◽  
Mental Rotations ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This study investigated the relationship of controllability of mental imagery with canoe-slalom performance. Controllability of mental imagery was assessed by an objective test of mental rotation, the Mental Rotations Test. This test was administered to both elite ( n = 19) and intermediate ( n = 12) athletes. Predictive validity of the controllability test was supported by a significant correlation between test scores and race rank order for the elite canoeing group ( rs = 0.42, p<.05); however, it did not distinguish elite from intermediate groups ( t29 = 0.98, p>.05). Researchers should attempt to evaluate vividness of imagery, controllability of imagery, and accuracy of reference to understand more fully the nature of athletes' imagery.

scholarly journals Prototypical actions with objects are more easily imagined than atypical actions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher R Madan ◽  
Adrian Ng ◽  
Anthony Singhal
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Movement Imagery ◽  
Objective Tests

Tool use is an important facet of everyday life, though sometimes it is necessary to use tools in ways that do not fit within their typical functions. Here we asked participants to imagine characters using objects based on instructions that fit the prototypical actions for the object or were atypical in a novel object-action imagery task. Atypical action instructions either described sensible, substitute uses of the object, or actions that were bizarre but possible. Participants were better able to imagine the prototypical than atypical actions, but no effect of bizarreness was found. We additionally assessed inter-individual differences in movement imagery ability using two objective tests. Performance in the object-action imagery task correlated with the movement imagery tests, providing a link between motor simulations and mental imagery ability.

scholarly journals An efficient and adaptive test of auditory mental imagery

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Gelding ◽  
Peter M. C. Harrison ◽  
Seb Silas ◽  
Blake W Johnson ◽  
William Forde Thompson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Musical Imagery ◽  
Online Test ◽  
Ideal Tool ◽  
Individual Ability ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Automatic Item Generation

The ability to silently hear music in the mind has been argued to be fundamental to musicality. Objective measurements of this subjective imagery experience are needed if this link between imagery ability and musicality is to be investigated. However, previous tests of musical imagery either rely on self-report, rely on melodic memory, or do not cater in range of abilities. The Pitch Imagery Arrow Task (PIAT) was designed to address these shortcomings; however, it is impractically long. In this paper, we shorten the PIAT using adaptive testing and automatic item generation. We interrogate the cognitive processes underlying the PIAT through item response modelling. The result is an efficient online test of auditory mental imagery ability (adaptive Pitch Imagery Arrow Task: aPIAT) that takes 8 min to complete, is adaptive to participant’s individual ability, and so can be used to test participants with a range of musical backgrounds. Performance on the aPIAT showed positive moderate-to-strong correlations with measures of non-musical and musical working memory, self-reported musical training, and general musical sophistication. Ability on the task was best predicted by the ability to maintain and manipulate tones in mental imagery, as well as to resist perceptual biases that can lead to incorrect responses. As such, the aPIAT is the ideal tool in which to investigate the relationship between pitch imagery ability and musicality.

scholarly journals Deciphering the format of representations in mental imagery and establishing the relationship between mental imagery and visual working memory in primary school children and adulthood

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn E Bates ◽  
Emily Farran
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Component Model ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Image Generation ◽  
The Relationship

We addressed three research gaps related to Mental imagery (MI) in children. First, MI relies on depictive representations of varied visual precision in adults, however evidence for individual differences in visual precision of MI in children is lacking. Second, researchers have employed a four sub-component model (Image Generation, Image Maintenance, Mental Rotation, Image Scanning) to investigate the development of MI, however findings are mixed. Finally, shared mechanisms between MI and Visual Working Memory (VWM) are suggested in adult literature, yet this relationship has not been tested directly in children. Using a novel battery of MI tasks, we found evidence for visual images of high precision from age 6 years (children aged 6-11 years [N=92], adults [N=58]). Moreover, we found that participants make similar errors when estimating varying distances in both visual perception and mental imagery: participants of all ages underestimated distance, and this increased with increasing distance. To address our second research question, we report evidence to support a separable-component model of MI in children, with some components (Image Generation and Image Maintenance, Image Maintenance and Mental Rotation) becoming more integrated in adulthood. With respect to our final research question, we found a dissociation between MI and VWM in both children and adults. Our findings extend current understanding of development of MI from childhood to adulthood and broadly suggest that while MI components are dissociated in childhood, they are integrated in adulthood. Moreover, the findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences in the format of representations and strategy use when deciphering the relationship between MI and VWM in both children and adults.

Relationship between Visual and Motor Imagery

2007 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 823-843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura P. McAvinue ◽  
Ian H. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Principal Components ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Correlation Matrix ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Implicit Motor ◽  
Components Analysis ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between visual and motor imagery was investigated by administering a battery of visual and motor imagery measures to a sample of 101 men ( n = 49) and women ( n = 52), who ranged in age from 18 to 59 ( M=34.5, SD=12.6). A principal components analysis applied to the correlation matrix indicated four underlying components, which explained 62.9% of the variance. The components were named Implicit Visual Imagery Ability, Self-report of Visual and Motor Imagery, Implicit Motor Imagery Ability, and Explicit Motor Imagery Ability. These results suggested a dissociation between visual and motor imagery although visual and motor imagery were associated as self-reports and there were correlations among particular measures.

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