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PubMed1997

Developing moral imagination and the influence of belief.

Moral imagination has been described by Murdoch as 'a way of seeing'. The focus of concern here is the influence of belief upon moral imagination and those attitudes that are needed if moral imagination is to be developed. The perspective adopted endorses a Humean recognition of the potent influence of personal experience upon those beliefs that are held, and therefore upon how we see the world. Kantian commitment to the power of the will, and to the ability of individuals to choose who they wish to be, allows room for optimism, a view which is supported by the findings of Liaschenko.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1995

Does imagined exposure to the consequences of not ritualising enhance live exposure for OCD? A controlled study. II. Effect on behavioural v. subjective concordance of improvement.

BACKGROUND: This study tested whether adding imagined exposure to live exposure would increase the concordance between behavioural and subjective improvement in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). METHOD: 46 OCD out-patients were randomly allocated to 9 weekly sessions of either combined live+imagined exposure/ritual prevention (Exi, n = 23), or only live exposure/ritual prevention (Ex, n = 23). Patients were asked to do 90 min of daily self-exposure at home (corresponding to Exi or Ex). Measures were: (A) behavioural; (B) subjective; (C) clinical global impression (CGI). RESULTS: After 9 weeks of treatment, improvement was greater on behavioural than subjective measures (similar for the Exi and Ex groups). At 20 weeks (3-month follow-up) each group had improved slightly more on subjective measures and slightly less on behavioural ones. Two subjective measures improved less during Exi than Ex, but this difference disappeared at follow-up. The greater difference between behavioural and subjective improvement scores in Exi than in Ex did not relate to clinical outcome at the end of treatment or follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to live exposure alone, combined imagined plus live exposure did not enhance behavioural/subjective concordance.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Role of pictorial cues in young children's distinguishing self-performed from self-imagined actions.

32 4- and 5-yr.-olds participated in a series of performed and imagined actions and a memory interview. Children in the Picture condition answered questions accompanied by pictures of actions whereas children in the Verbal condition received only the verbal cues. Children in the Picture condition performed as well as children in the Verbal condition when classifying performed and new actions but had more difficulty classifying imagined actions. Results suggest that retrieval cues (pictures) did not enhance children's discrimination of self-performed and self-imagined actions.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1998

Action and imagination in the formation of images.

This study examined the influence of motor enactment on the formation of mental images. Following a procedure originally used by Piaget and Inhelder in 1971, 5-yr.-old children were assigned to one of four treatments. They visually examined block configurations, imagined the construction of the configurations, imagined enacting the construction, or carried out the actual construction. When the original configurations were removed, the children were asked to reconstruct them from memory. Analysis showed that the children in the imaginary enactment and actual construction conditions were more accurate than those in the other conditions. The findings are discussed as supporting an action-based understanding of imagination.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1999

Functional equivalence for response programming of actually performing versus imagining movements.

The present study was conducted to test the hypothesis that response programming occurs when movements are only imagined. 12 subjects were required to react and produce the sequence of same or different force by squeezing a handle as quickly and accurately as possible after the two reaction signals which were separated by the interstimulus interval of 1 sec. The reaction time to initiate the second response was examined when the first response is covertly performed, but the second response is actually performed. The reaction times to initiate the second responses were significantly shorter for imagining and actually performing different movements or the control condition. There was no significant difference in reaction time between the conditions with the same movements. These findings were interpreted as evidence for functional equivalence for response programming of actually performing versus imagining movements.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

The role of graded category structure in imaginative thought.

Participants generated lists of exemplars from the categories of animals, tools, and fruit, and their lists were used to determine the relative accessibility of individual exemplars. Measures of accessibility included output dominance (the number of participants who listed an exemplar), rank (how early instances were listed), and two scores that reflect their combination-output precedence and dominance/rank. Other participants drew and described novel exemplars of those categories that might exist on an imaginary planet and reported on the factors that influenced their creations. References to Earth animals, tools, or fruit were used to determine imagination frequency (the number of participants who mentioned relying on particular Earth exemplars). Items high in accessibility were also high in imagination frequency, implying that those items that come to mind most readily are the ones most likely to serve as starting points for the development of novel ideas. This result held even when task constraints weighed against the use of such items (Experiment 2) and when participants were encouraged to be as creative as possible (Experiment 4), suggesting that it is difficult to avoid the influence of highly accessible category exemplars. Other measures of category structure, including the rated typicality, familiarity, and frequency of exemplars, did not predict imagination frequency as well. The results are discussed in terms of expanding concept boundaries and the inadvertent application of knowledge that is readily accessible.

Humans↗

PubMed2000

Attribute centrality and imaginative thought.

Participants' representations of the concept human were examined to differentiate three types of associations between concepts and their component attributes: the capacity of concepts to cue attributes (attribute accessibility), the capacity of attributes to cue concepts (instance accessibility), and the extent to which attributes are thought of as central to concepts (attribute centrality). The findings provide information about the concept human itself and, more generally, about the functionally distinct roles those different attribute-concept associations play in guiding imaginative thought. College students listed attributes that differentiate humans from other animals, rated the centrality of those attributes, and listed animals that possess those attributes. Other students drew and described extraterrestrials that possessed some of the attributes that were found to vary across those listing and rating tasks. Rated centrality was the most important determinant of an attribute's impact on imaginative generation. When the imagined extraterrestrials were supposed to possess attributes that had been rated as central to humans (intelligence, emotional complexity, or opposable thumbs), participants projected more aspects of human form onto them than when the creatures were supposed to possess less central attributes or when attributes were unspecified.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Propagation of EEG activity during finger movement and its imagination.

We investigated the pattern of EEG activity propagation in the beta and gamma band during a finger movement experiment and imagination of that task. The data were analyzed by means of a short-time directed transfer function (SDTF) based on a multivariate autoregressive model. The signals from the right (or left) hemisphere were processed simultaneously (not pairwise), which is crucial for obtaining a correct picture of EEG activity transmissions. The pattern of propagation in the beta band involved for both tasks a decrease of the propagation from the motor areas during the execution of the movement - less pronounced in the case of imagination. The performance of the motion was mainly connected with a short outburst of gamma activity from the hand sensorimotor areas. In case of imagination the gamma outflow lasted longer and concerned larger brain areas.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Memory characteristics of recently imagined events and real events experienced previously.

In two experiments, we evaluated the memory characteristics of real and imagined events as they changed over time. Memories of real events were richer than memories of imagined events, and memories of recent events were richer than of events from a week earlier. These differences interacted such that memories of real events performed in week 1 were very similar to memories of events that were imagined in week 2. Source monitoring was tested and implications for the repressed or recovered memory debate are considered.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Drawing ability in autism: a window into the imagination.

This study investigated imagination via drawing tasks, in 15 children with autism and 15 children with Asperger Syndrome, compared to verbal mental age matched normal children and children with moderate learning difficulties (MLD). Experiment 1 used the Draw an Impossible Man Task. While children with autism were impaired relative to the normal group, they were not impaired relative to the children with MLD. In order to probe for an imagination deficit, Experiment 2 employed a more challenging measure of imaginative drawing, a task involving mixing categories to produce drawings of real or unreal entities (e.g., drawing half-fish/half-mouse). This revealed an autism-specific deficit. Experiment 3 confirmed this was not due to difficulties in combining elements per se. Experiment 4 required subjects to transform a picture (e.g., a cloud into a swan) and again found an autism-specific deficit. Children with Asperger Syndrome were only impaired when required to make such transformations spontaneously.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Cardioventilatory responses during real or imagined walking at low speed.

There is increasing evidence that motor imagery involves at least in part central processes used in motor control. In order to deepen our understanding on the neural mechanisms underlying vegetative responses to real and imagined exercise, we determined cardioventilatory variables during actual or imagined treadmill walking on flat terrain at speeds of 2, 3.5 or 5 km/h, in a group of 14 healthy volunteers. During actual walking, as expected, a comparable intensity-dependent increase was found in ventilation, oxygen consumption, tidal volume and respiratory rate. Imagined walking led to a significant, albeit small (less than 10%), increase in ventilation and oxygen consumption, and to larger increases (up to 40%) in respiratory rate, which was paralleled by a non significant trend towards a decline of tidal volume. These results confirm and extend previous observations showing that motor imagery is accompanied by centrally induced changes in vegetative responses, and provide evidence for a differential control on respiratory rate and tidal volume.

Adult↗

PubMed1988

Phenomenal characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined autobiographical events.

Two studies explored potential bases for reality monitoring (Johnson & Raye, 1981) of naturally occurring autobiographical events. In Study 1, subjects rated phenomenal characteristics of recent and childhood memories. Compared with imagined events, perceived events were given higher ratings on several characteristics, including perceptual information, contextual information, and supporting memories. This was especially true for recent memories. In Study 2, subjects described how they knew autobiographical events had (or had not) happened. For perceived events, subjects were likely to mention perceptual and contextual details of the memory and to refer to other supporting memories. For imagined events, subjects were likely to engage in reasoning based on prior knowledge. The results are consistent with the idea that reality monitoring draws on differences in qualitative characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined events (Johnson & Raye, 1981) and augment findings from more controlled laboratory studies of complex events (Johnson & Suengas, in press; Suengas & Johnson, 1988).

Autobiographies as Topic↗

PubMed1986

Keats's oral imagination: "'Tis not through envy".

This study of four of Keats's greatest poems explores a dynamic pattern in the poet's imagination: a relationship between the oral/fusional imagery and the romantic/oedipal themes. The poet's imagination seems to have been propelled backward from oedipal conflict to earlier narcissistic/oral unrest and pleasure. There is a layering of special psychic capabilities evident in Keats's imagination: an element of oedipal romance which stabilizes the process of sublimation, a sense of magical play and danger in the maternal/oral imagery, and powerful narcissistic longins organized through the desire to communicate and the gift for expression.

Anxiety, Castration↗

PubMed1978

Accuracy of extrapolating a pointer into perceived and imagined space.

The authors investigated the ability of people to extrapolate lines in tridimensional space: an experimenter pointed at variously located targets, and the subjects tried to identify them. In an experimental condition, the subjects sat with their backs turned to the target objects, which they had previously inspected during a brief learning period; in two control conditions the targets were in front of the subjects and clearly visible. Overall error (difference in degrees of pointer angle between correct and judged targets) was no worse for objects imagined behind the head than for visible targets, about 2.7 degrees (root-mean-square) in both cases. Variable error was 29% greater for the imagined objects, but constant error was greater on the matched control targets. Some qualitative differences, in constant error patterns, were also found. With due allowance for these differences, the results strongly indicate that imagined space is functionally continuous with perceived space in the representational system.

Cognition↗

PubMed1997

The imaginative use of religious symbols in subjective experiences of anorexia nervosa.

Clinicians working with contemporary women with anorexia nervosa have commented on the ascetic component in anorexia, meaning their self-denial, heightened morality, opposition between body and spirit, asexuality, and denial of bodily death (Mogul, 1980; Palazzoli, 1978; Rampling, 1985; Sabom, 1985; Turner, 1984). While these clinicians have commented on the asceticism in contemporary anorexia nervosa, they have little to say about the role of culture in subjective experiences of this asceticism. As we have seen, Jane and Margaret used notions of asceticism about food and the body that are a part of their religious beliefs to create a personal meaning system through which they expressed their self-starvation. These cases, while supporting clinical studies that point to an ascetic component in modern anorexia, go further to suggest that in some cases, this asceticism may be encoded in religion. Religious anorectics like Jane and Margaret challenge models of anorexia nervosa that understand the condition exclusively in terms of cultural foci on "dieting" and secular ideals of beauty and bodily thinness for women (Bemporad, Hoffman, & Herzog, 1989; Chernin, 1985; Garner et al., 1980; Orbach, 1986; Rost, Newhaus, & Florian, 1982). They also suggest a continuing persistence into the twentieth century of an association between religiosity and self-starvation noted by historians during the early Christian, medieval, and late-Victorian periods in the West (Bell, 1985; Brown, 1988; Brumberg, 1985, 1988; Bynum, 1987). The above discussion points to the new directions in psychological anthropology which challenge a strict and opposing dichotomy between the conscious and unconscious, between culture (seen as "public") and the individual mind (seen as "private" and idiosyncratic). Obeyesekere's concept of "the work of culture," (Obeyesekere, 1990) and Stephen's concept of the "autonomous imagination" are especially useful in understanding how persons like Jane and Margaret use in imaginative ways cultural symbols, such as notions of asceticism about food and the body that are a part of religion, to give meaning to their personal concerns with growth, separation, and sexuality. We saw how Jane and Margaret transform cultural symbols and language to express their starvation and deep anxieties. These cases lend support to views that culture and religion, as symbolic systems, have underpinnings in deep motivation (Obeyesekere, 1981, 1990; Spiro, 1965, 1987). They also suggest that the relations between culture and the individual mind (and between culture and "illness," between "normal" and "abnormal") must be viewed as a moving continuum, with culture constantly worked and reworked by the individual imagination in innovative and creative ways.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Imaginal cell-specific accumulation of the multicatalytic proteinase complex (proteasome) during post-embryonic development in the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta.

The multicatalytic proteinase complex is a multi-subunit, high molecular weight proteinase present in the nucleus and cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells. This catalytic complex is involved in diverse cellular functions as part of the ubiquitin proteolysis system, including non-lysosomal proteolysis, antigen presentation, cell cycle progression, and cell proliferation, and in the programmed death of intersegmental muscles after adult eclosion in the tobacco hornworm moth, Manduca sexta. We have investigated the distribution of the multicatalytic proteinase complex in the central nervous system of this moth. At all stages of post-embryonic development, most cell types exhibited consistent, low levels of cytoplasmic and nuclear immunoreactivity for the multicatalytic proteinase complex. High levels of cell-specific accumulation of the complex were, however, demonstrated in abdominal neurosecretory cells and in imaginal cells in the larval brain, the larval segmental ganglia, and the developing wing discs. Imaginal cells exhibited intense immunoreactivity for the multicatalytic proteinase complex only until the onset of terminal differentiation. Intersegmental muscles undergoing programmed cell death exhibited intense cytoplasmic immunoreactivity for the multicatalytic proteinase, while persisting flight muscles and dying neurons were characterized by basal levels of staining. These staining patterns suggest that the multicatalytic proteinase of Manduca sexta serves multiple functions and is associated with the period of developmental arrest displayed by imaginal cells prior to metamorphosis.

Animals↗

PubMed1997

Expression of the pair-rule gene odd Oz (odz) in imaginal tissues.

odd Oz (odz), the only pair-rule gene that does not encode a transcription factor, is expressed in every imaginal disc and imaginal tissue of Drosophila melanogaster, as assessed by immunocytochemical staining for the protein and by odz-enhancer trap line staining. The eye imaginal disc expresses odz at the morphogenetic furrow, in R7 photoreceptor cells, and in adepithelial cells. Genetic evidence indicates that odz is involved in furrow progression, and in R7 cell RTK receptor tyrosine kinase signalling. Expression in the wing pouch appears in a complex pattern that displays a symmetry axis at the dorsal-ventral boundary. In other dorsal thoracic disc sites, Odz appears at specific points of prospective thoracic integument and prospective proximal structures of the wing and haltere. Expression in the leg and antennal discs is strongest in prospective proximal segments at sites homologous between these discs. In addition, odz appears in sensory mother cells (SMCs) in all of the above-mentioned discs. This recurrence indicates the general importance of odz in the development of the peripheral nervous system (PNS), which complements the finding that it is expressed in the CNS, with striking optic lobe staining. odz must be involved in cellular signalling in pleiotropic roles in varied pathway contexts.

Animals↗

PubMed1990

Characterization of IMP-E3, a gene active during imaginal disc morphogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster.

The steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (20-HE) induces imaginal discs to form adult appendages in Drosophila. We have isolated a set of six ecdysone-responsive genes that apparently encode disc cell-surface or secreted proteins. Transcripts from one of these genes, IMP-E3, accumulate rapidly within 1-2 h in response to hormone. Developmentally, IMP-E3 transcripts reach maximum levels during the first stages of metamorphosis (white prepupae, WPP) and are primarily limited to imaginal tissues. Transcripts are also present during embryogenesis (0-3 h and 12-18 h). Two different-sized transcripts (1.2 and 1.4 kb) result from differential polyadenylation, with the larger transcript predominating in WPP. The conceptual IMP-E3 protein contains a signal peptide, an RGD sequence, and a potential glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor. We speculate that the protein provides a transient cue important for imaginal disc morphogenesis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗