Mental Imagery: Functional Mechanisms and Clinical Applications

Pearson, Joel; Naselaris, Thomas; Holmes, Emily A.; Kosslyn, Stephen M.

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.003

Cited by 749 publications

(615 citation statements)

References 116 publications

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“…Kosslyn, Ganis, & Thompson, 2001;Pearson, Naselaris, Holmes, & Kosslyn, 2015) or what sometimes is referred to as simulations (e.g., Barsalou, 1999Barsalou, , 2008. In our view there is currently no evidence available that conclusively shows that imagery and simulations are distinct.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

A task-dependent causal role for low-level visual processes in spoken word comprehension.

Ostarek

Huettig

2017

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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It is well established that the comprehension of spoken words referring to object concepts relies on high-level visual areas in the ventral stream that build increasingly abstract representations. It is much less clear whether basic low-level visual representations are also involved. Here we asked in what task situations low-level visual representations contribute functionally to concrete word comprehension using an interference paradigm. We interfered with basic visual processing while participants performed a concreteness task (Experiment 1), a lexical-decision task (Experiment 2), and a word class judgment task (Experiment 3). We found that visual noise interfered more with concrete versus abstract word processing, but only when the task required visual information to be accessed. This suggests that basic visual processes can be causally involved in language comprehension, but that their recruitment is not automatic and rather depends on the type of information that is required in a given task situation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

A task-dependent causal role for low-level visual processes in spoken word comprehension.

Ostarek

Huettig

2017

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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“…Thirdly, we did not assess individual differences in the ability to use imagination in daily life. Given that mental imagery allows people to make plans for the future (Pearson, Naselaris, Holmes, & Kosslyn, 2015), the judgement of future events may depend on the ability to generate vivid images of those events. Moreover, the imagination technique used for manipulating the affective states may be more effective for the participants with a high level of imagination.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dispositional Optimism, Affective States and Judgements of Future Life Events

Diaconu‐Gherasim

Măirean²

2017

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This research examined the relationship between dispositional optimism and judgements of future life events, and whether this relationship is moderated by affective states. An adolescent sample (N = 139, 57.6 % girls) was recruited. After filling in the questionnaire for dispositional optimism, the participants were randomly assigned in the experimental conditions in order to induce negative affective states versus control condition. Finally, the participants completed the a ffective states and judgements of fu ture life events scales. The results indicated that dispositional optimism positively correlated with judgement of positive events, but not with judgements of nega tive events. We found evidence for a ffective state a s a modera tor; the relationship between dispositional optimism and judgements of future positive events was stronger in the control condition compa red to the negative a ffective state condition. T he implications of these findings for understanding the relation between personality factors and judgements about future events are discussed.

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“…These include intrusive visual memories after psychological trauma (James et al, 2015), mania‐related visual images (Davies et al, 2012) and craving‐induced visual images of desire (Skorka‐Brown et al, 2014). Such beneficial effects of Tetris are hypothesised to occur when the visuospatial processing demands of game play compete for the same limited cognitive resources within WM (Baddeley, 2012; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974) that contribute to maintaining visual mental imagery in mind (Pearson, Naselaris, Holmes, & Kosslyn, 2015). The impact of the concurrent task is initially on weakening the mental imagery as held in WM — that is for brief periods of time (Baddeley & Andrade, 2000; Skorka‐Brown et al, 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

Selective Association Between Tetris Game Play and Visuospatial Working Memory: A Preliminary Investigation

Lau‐Zhu

Holmes

Butterfield

et al. 2017

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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SummaryRecent experimental and clinical research has suggested that Tetris game play can disrupt maladaptive forms of mental imagery because Tetris competes for limited cognitive resources within visuospatial working memory (WM) that contribute to imagery. Whether or not Tetris performance is selectively associated with visuospatial WM remains to be tested. In this study, young adults (N = 46) completed six standardized measures indexing verbal and non‐verbal reasoning, verbal and visuospatial short‐term memory, and verbal and visuospatial WM. They also played Tetris. Consistent with the hypothesis that visuospatial WM resources support Tetris game play, there was a significant moderate positive relationship between Tetris scores and visuospatial WM performance but no association with other cognitive ability measures. Findings suggest that Tetris game play involves both storage and processing resources within visuospatial WM. These preliminary results can inform interventions involving computer games to disrupt the development of maladaptive visual imagery, for example, intrusive memories of trauma. © 2017 The Authors. Applied Cognitive Psychology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Mental Imagery: Functional Mechanisms and Clinical Applications

Cited by 749 publications

References 116 publications

A task-dependent causal role for low-level visual processes in spoken word comprehension.

A task-dependent causal role for low-level visual processes in spoken word comprehension.

Dispositional Optimism, Affective States and Judgements of Future Life Events

Selective Association Between Tetris Game Play and Visuospatial Working Memory: A Preliminary Investigation

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