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PubMed1997

Task-involvement and ego-involvement goals during actual and imagined movements: their effects on cognitions and vegetative responses.

It has been experimentally proven many times that the mental rehearsal of an activity not only improves motor performance but also has vegetative effects whose magnitude is correlated with the amount of imagined effort. These beneficial effects of mental imagery have been explained in terms of central programming structures capable of anticipating the metabolic demands of the task. Twenty-four subjects were asked to actually perform and also imagine an isometric contraction of the forearm under various goal conditions: a task-involving goal (8 subjects), an ego-involving goal (8 subjects), and no goal (8 subjects). During the contractions, electromyographic potential and heart rate were measured. Afterwards, the subjects were asked to indicate the amount of effort expended under different feedback conditions. The results showed no trace of electromyographic activity during the imagined contractions when the lack of movement was controlled using a force sensor. On the other hand, a significantly faster in heart rate was observed with a task- or ego-involving goal than with no goal, during both actual and imagined contraction. Similarly, as predicted, subjects said they applied less effort in the positive feedback condition, and more effort in the negative feedback condition with an ego-involving goal. The results are discussed in the light of goal theories, while regarding goals not only as serving to anticipate metabolic expenditures but also as promoting a self-image of competence, particularly in threatening, ego-involving situations.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

On the medical history of the doctrine of imagination.

In the early modern era the notion of imagination was made responsible for phenomena which were later explained in terms of embryology, genetics, psychology, bacteriology or other scientific disciplines. Images, often seated in the upper abdomen (hypochondriac region) or the womb (hysteria), were regarded as powerful influences on material reality. In the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the hypochondriac forms of imagination became mere whims and spleens, but they kept much of their original potency in respect of the uterus, accounting for monstrosities and the shaping of human offspring. The hysterical conversion of imagination into somatic phenomena has never been questioned. Since the two World Wars the realm of imagination has again expanded beyond the uterus and the older disease-concepts. In the last 10-20 years images seem to have regained some of their original creative force.

Congenital Abnormalities↗
PubMed1999

Creativity and imagination in autism and Asperger syndrome.

Three studies are reported that address the often described impoverished creativity in autism. Using the Torrance Creativity Tests, Experiment 1 found that children with autism and Asperger syndrome (AS) showed impairments. Experiment 2 tested two explanations of these results: the executive dysfunction and the imagination deficit hypotheses. Results supported both hypotheses. Children with autism and AS could generate possible novel changes to an object, though they generated fewer of these relative to controls. Furthermore, these were all reality-based, rather than imaginative. Experiment 3 extended this using a test of imaginative fluency. Children with autism and AS generated fewer suggestions involving attribution of animacy to foam shapes, compared to controls, instead generating reality-based suggestions of what the shapes could be. Although this is evidence of executive dysfunction, it does not directly account for why imaginative creativity is more difficult than reality-based creativity.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1986

The fantasy-prone person: hypnosis, imagination, and creativity.

The present study evaluated the so-called fantasy prone personality by selecting subjects who ranged along the continuum of fantasy proneness and then administering measures designed to assess hypnotic susceptibility (Harvard Group Scale, HGSHS:A; Shor & Orne, 1962), absorption (Tellegen Absorption Scale; Tellegen, 1976), vividness of mental imagery (QMI; Sheehan, 1967), response to waking suggestion (Creative Imagination Scale; Wilson & Barber, 1978), creativity (Barron Welsh Art Scale; Barron & Welsh, 1952), and social desirability (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960). Fantasy-prone (N = 23; upper 4% of college population), medium range (N = 22), and nonfantasy-prone persons (N = 17; lower 4% of population), were selected using the Inventory of Childhood Memories and Imaginings (Wilson & Barber, 1981). Strong support was secured for J. R. Hilgard's construct of imaginative involvement and Wilson and Barber's contention that fantasy prone persons can be distinguished from others in terms of fantasy and related cognitive processes. Fantasizers were found to outscore subjects in both comparison groups on all of the measures of fantasy, imagination, and creativity, with social desirability used as a covariate. Low fantasy-prone subjects were no less creative or less responsive to hypnosis than their medium fantasy-prone counterparts.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

The impact of imagining completed versus interrupted smoking on cigarette craving.

A brief imagery procedure was used to determine the effects of imagining completed versus interrupted smoking on self-reported craving, mood, autonomic functioning, and reaction time to an auditory probe. Cigarette smokers (N = 60) imagined actively participating in 3 types of scenarios in which they (a) engaged in smoking behavior, (b) attempted to smoke but were interrupted by a lack of cigarettes, and (c) were not confronted with smoking cues. Imagining both completed and interrupted smoking produced equivalent increases in craving compared with imagining neutral scenarios. Imagery of interrupted smoking was associated with higher heart rate and increased negative mood relative to the other scenario types, whereas imagery of completed smoking was associated with slower reaction time on the probe reaction-time task. Theoretical and methodological implications of the results are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Influence of TV on daydreaming and creative imagination: a review of research.

The research literature is reviewed on the influence of TV on daydreaming and creative imagination. The hypotheses proposed to explain why TV might influence children's and adults' daydreaming and creative imagination positively (stimulation hypothesis) or negatively (reduction hypothesis) are discussed. The hypotheses that propose that existing daydreaming patterns result in changes in viewing behavior are also discussed. The weight of the available evidence favors the hypotheses that TV viewing stimulates daydreaming and reduces creative imagination, although decisive evidence of a causal relationship is lacking. The assumptions that underlie the hypotheses about TV's relationship to daydreaming and creative imagination are analyzed and whether these assumptions have been supported by research is established.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

The beat goes on: rhythmic modulation of cortical potentials by imagined tapping.

A frequency analysis was used to tag cortical activity from imagined rhythmic movements. Participants synchronized overt and imagined taps with brief visual stimuli presented at a constant rate, alternating between left and right index fingers. Brain potentials were recorded from across the scalp and topographic maps made of their power at the alternation frequency between left and right taps. Two prominent power foci occurred in each hemisphere for both overt and imagined taps, one over sensorimotor cortex and the other over posterior parietal cortex, with homologous foci in opposite hemispheres arising from oscillations 180 degrees out of phase. These findings demonstrate temporal isomorphism at a neural level between overt and imagined movements and illustrate a new approach to studying covert actions.

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed2005

Interactions among the imagination, expertise reversal, and element interactivity effects.

Interactions among the imagination, expertise reversal, and element interactivity effects were investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, less knowledgeable primary school students learning to use a bus timetable produced better performance under study than imagination conditions, but an increase in their experience reversed the result, producing the imagination effect. Experiment 2, in which students were taught to use a temperature line graph, replicated these results and demonstrated that the effects were more likely to be obtained using complex material. It was concluded that learners can engage more successfully in imagination procedures when learning has proceeded sufficiently to permit the information to be processed in working memory and that working memory limitations are of little consequence except when dealing with complex information.

Cognition↗
PubMed1978

Explaining imaginal inference by operations in a propositional format.

Solving problems by imaginal inference often seems inefficient for an organism that is manipulating propositions. One explanation for the apparent inefficiency is that the problems are being solved not in propositional format by operations in an analogue format. Imaginal inference might then be the most efficient method compatible with the limitations inherent in the analogue format. In the present paper an alternative rationale is given for the use of imaginal inference by explaining how the processes involved in mental problem solving are related to those in perception: it is suggested that the mechanisms used in problem solving have evolved from a perceptual system in which hypotheses about events in the sensory field are generated from an internal representation of the world. This thesis denies that perception is passive and suggests that originally for perception. Acceptance of the thesis implies that the capabilities of a propositional format in problem solving would be limited. This limitation could account for the apparently inefficient use of that format in imaginal inference.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed2002

Imagining stumbling inhibits motor-evoked potentials in the soleus muscle.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cortical influences on the soleus and tibialis anterior muscles while the subject imagined stumbling. While standing, 7 healthy subjects imagined the following situations: stumbling by either the right or left leg stepping into an obstacle during walking, or a sudden backward sway of the body while in stance. Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in the soleus muscle and in the tibialis anterior muscle, along with soleus H-reflexes, were recorded from the left lower extremity. MEP amplitudes in the soleus muscle significantly decreased during the imagined stumbling. In contrast, there was no significant change in the MEP amplitudes in the tibialis anterior muscle or in the soleus H-reflex amplitudes. These results indicate that imagining stumbling modulates the cortical influence to the soleus muscle. The modulation may be related to cortical inhibition of the tonic muscle in order for voluntary movement to overcome antigravity postural mechanisms.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

The development of a capacity for imagination in early childhood.

Imagination as a mental capacity is part of a line of development that begins in the earliest symbiotic interactions between mother and infant, takes further shape as the child moves from dyadic to triadic relations, and culminates in a fully mature capacity to reflect upon in thought one's wishes and feelings vis-à-vis multiple others. Particularly for the 3- to 5-year-old child, imagination represents a special mode of mental functioning which allows him to expand his internal object world, motivates him toward increasingly complex relationships with others, and is a central precondition for the creation of the self-defining fantasies characteristic of the oedipal phase. The central neurocognitive precondition for an imaginative capacity is the ability to distinguish thought from action and understand that others as well as oneself are motivated to act because of mental states such as feelings, beliefs, and fantasies. In this paper, we present a view of imagination that integrates observations from psychoanalytically informed studies of the emergence of fantasy play in the oedipal phase with findings from recent work on how children acquire an understanding of their own and others' mental processes.

Child↗
PubMed2004

Neural substrates of real and imagined sensorimotor coordination.

Much debate in the behavioral literature focuses on the relative contribution of motor and perceptual processes in mediating coordinative stability. To a large degree, such debate has proceeded independently of what is going on in the brain. Here, using blood oxygen level-dependent measures of neural activation, we compare physically executed and imagined rhythmic coordination in order to better assess the relative contribution of hypothesized neuromusculoskeletal mechanisms in modulating behavioral stability. The executed tasks were to coordinate index finger to thumb opposition movements of the right hand with an auditory metronome in either a synchronized (on the beat) or syncopated (off the beat) pattern. Imagination involved the same tasks, except without physical movement. Thus, the sensory stimulus and coordination constraints were the same in both physical and imagination tasks, but the motoric requirements were not. Results showed that neural differences between executed synchronization and syncopation found in premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, basal ganglia and lateral cerebellum persist even when the coordinative patterns were only imagined. Neural indices reflecting behavioral stability were not abolished by the absence of overt movement suggesting that coordination phenomena are not exclusively rooted in purely motoric constraints. On the other hand, activity in the superior temporal gyrus was modulated by both the presence of movement and the nature of the coordination, attesting to the intimacy between perceptual and motoric processes in coordination dynamics.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

Art, dreams and active imagination: a post-Jungian approach to transference and the image.

The term active imagination is sometimes applied rather uncritically to describe all forms of creative activity that take place in depth psychology. Whilst there are many forms of expression that evoke or are evoked by active imagination, they cannot automatically be classed as active imagination. In this article investigation of visualized mental imagery, dreams and art reveals three distinct forms of image-based psychological activity. Integrated and mediated within the transference and countertransference dynamic, it is proposed that the engagement in active imagination reflects and is influenced by the transference. Distinctions between sign and symbol, simple and big dreams as well as diagrammatic and embodied imagery clarify the differences. Examples from clinical practice demonstrate each mode in action within the analytic frame.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Imagination and the imaginary.

This paper argues that real imagination depends on the capacity to acknowledge the absence of what is imagined from the world of material actuality. This leads on to a view of symbol formation as the operation of the transcendent function between the opposites of presence and absence. 'The imaginary' is contrasted with this as a defensive misuse of imagination that attempts to deny 'negation' where negation is defined as all those aspects of the world that constitute a check to the omnipotence of fantasy--e.g., absence, loss, difference, otherness etc. Parallels are drawn with theoretical antecedents in analytical psychology and psychoanalysis, with particular attention to papers published in the Journal of Analytical Psychology (JAP) in the 1960s on the relation between active imagination, transference and ego development. A clinical example is given to show the use of the imaginary as a means of warding off the unbearable pain of Oedipal disappointment.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Imagination as laboratory.

The theme, 'Science and the Symbolic', may be approached via either concept. From one side, we may track how imagination, fantasy, and even dreams have initiated scientific theory and lines of research. From the other, we may look to the mythopoeic musings of the human mind for themes of proto-science and/or proto-psychology, and attempt to discern if they follow a method which may be called scientific. Neuroscientists such as Edelman and Llinas honour imagination as the carrier of emergent properties, and depth psychoanalysts see it as a vector toward actualization. What mind imagines through what the alchemists termed 'true imagination' may eventually be realized through what brain and body may conceive and execute.

Humans↗
PubMed2006

Updating imagined translational movements.

The aim of this study was to examine the mental processes involved in changes that are the result of imagined translational movements. Participants were presented with a single view of a small spatial display. In a computer-based reaction-time task, spatial judgments were then made relative to four imagined headings that were either the study view or novel views that differed from the study view in terms of imagined rotational and/or translational movements. The main finding was that translational shifts detrimentally affected performance in the absence of concurrent rotations suggesting that imagined translations require additional processing time.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Learned tolerance to alcohol: mental rehearsal with imagined consequences.

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the acquisition of a new response is enhanced by mental rehearsal which includes the imagined consequence of mental performance. A total of 48 males participated in the research. Experiment 1 tested drug-free learning of a motor skill task. Experiment 2 used the same task to test the acquisition of a drug-compensatory response (i.e., tolerance) under alcohol. Subjects in each experiment were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: mental rehearsal with imagined consequences (C), mental rehearsal with no imagined consequences (N), and rest (R). Both experiments confirmed the hypothesis. C treatment yielded superior drug-free performance, and a greater tolerance. The effect of N treatment was intermediate, and R treatment was least effective. It was concluded that incorporating an imagined consequence of mental performance enhances the learning of alcohol tolerance and the acquisition of a motor skill. Factors that may have contributed to the marginal efficacy of N treatment were discussed, and research implications were considered.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Episodic action memory for real objects: an ERP investigation with perform, watch, and imagine action encoding tasks versus a non-action encoding task.

Cognitive research shows that people typically remember actions they perform better than those that they only watch or imagine doing, but also at times misremember doing actions they merely imagined or planned to do (source memory errors). Neural research suggests some overlap between brain regions engaged during action production, motor imagery, and action observation. The present study evaluates the similarities/differences in brain activity during the retrieval of various types of action and nonaction memories. Participants study real objects in one of four encoding conditions: performing an action, watching the experimenter perform an action, or imagining an action with an object, or a nonmotoric task of estimating an object's cost. At test, participants view color photos of the objects, and make source memory judgments about the initial encoding episodes. Event-related potentials (ERPs) during test reveal (1) content-specific brain activity depending on the nature of the encoding task, and (2) a hand tag, i.e., sensitivity to the hand with which an object had been manipulated at study. At fronto-central sites, ERPs are similar for the three action-retrieval conditions, which are distinct from those to the cost-encoded objects. At occipital sites ERPs distinguished objects from encoding conditions with visual motion (Perform and Watch) from those without visual motion (Imagine and Cost). Results thus suggest some degree of recapitulation of encoding brain activity during retrieval of memories with qualitatively distinct attributes.

Adolescent↗