New neuroimaging techniques have made it possible to examine imagery and found evidence for that imagery share similar neural correlates as in perception. Imagery can be used in different areas to enhance performance, and it is a popular technique in sports. Similar to physical practice (PP), motor imagery (MI) can result in brain plasticity. The aim of this thesis is to describe what imagery means and describe different theories of imagery. This is to further look into what impact MI has on performance in different sports, and then to further see if there are any changes in brain plasticity as a result of using MI. There is a lack of studies done on MI, performance and brain plasticity in sport. To answer the latter focus of this thesis, studies of healthy persons and patient studies using MI to improve performance and examining changes in the brain have been used. In order to do that this thesis aims to do a literature review. The results indicate that MI combined with PP can improve sport performance. It has also been showed that MI alone can be as good as PP. Most studies found that MI combined with PP can result in brain plasticity, and only one study did not found evidence for it. It has also showed that MI alone can result in brain plasticity. Future research should include larger samples, matching subjects, and comparing the effects of MI in several kinds of sports.

The aim of this research thesis was to investigate whether there are any cognitive factors that might influence reported dream colour. This question was prompted by the existence of a period of time in the early 20th century when the majority of people reported having greyscale dreams, and coloured dreaming was treated as an anomaly. On the level of individual differences, age, visual imagery abilities and memory for colour were singled out as the potential contributors to reports of greyscale television and the changes in the methodology of research were preliminarily identified as the possible causes of the historical trends in the colour of dreams, and the first empirical studies in this thesis address these issues. Subsequent studies explored the role of visual imagery ability, and individual differences in cognitive representation and memory in determining the reporting of colour in dreams. Overall a total of seven studies are reported The range of methods employed in these studies was diverse and required the development of new measures of colour memory and visual imagery. Some studies employed diaries to gather dream data and allowed cross-sectional (e.g. age) or cross-cultural comparisons. Others were more laboratory-based and explored data concerning visual memory and imagery performance with diverse dependent measures (e.g. response time data). In addition these studies involved the development of a novel coding scheme for visual dream content. While it was impossible to decisively support or disprove the idea that greyscale dream reports reflect genuine dream experiences, the research carried out for this thesis provided many fascinating insights into the factors that determine how we dream and how we report our dreams, highlighting the role of our cognitive abilities and preferences. Moreover, the studies have uncovered novel ways in which visual imagery preferences shape how we remember and report our experiences. The implications of these findings are important not just for the methodology of dream research, but for the whole field of cognitive and applied psychology

Mental imagery as a form of human cognition is still not well understood, particularly in the area of spatiality. This thesis attempts to find the relationship between the mental images of places created while reading a story (ekphrastic) and the mental images created while viewing a cinematic adaptation of that story. Using Bakhtin’s idea of chronotope, and Panofsky’s theory of iconography, associations can be made between places in text and film that inform the themes that readers/spectators identify and evaluate. Netlytic, an online text analysis tool, permits the analysis of online message board fan opinions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings according to themes of visualization and of place. Analysis of findings suggests that mental images created from the text and from the filmic adaptation are both passively and actively integrated in order to increase comprehension of spatial elements in Tolkien’s epic.

Recreational athletes are encouraged to use mental imagery by their coaches less frequently than elite athletes (Jedlic, Hall, Munroe-Chandler, & Hall, 2007). The purpose of this study was to examine whether a mental imagery workshop would increase recreational level coaches’ encouragement of imagery to their athletes when compared to coaches attending a communication workshop. The workshops provided coaches with imagery or communication information and tools as well as role-playing opportunities. Recreational sport coaches (N = 132; M age = 41.80 years, SD = 9.67) completed the Coaches Encouragement of Athletes Imagery Use Questionnaire (CEAIUQ; Jedlic et al.), Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (CART-Q; Jowett & Ntoumanis, 2004), and questionnaires assessing coaches’ demographics, confidence, knowledge, and attitudes towards imagery. These questionnaires were completed before the workshop and online four weeks later. Repeated measure MANCOVAs, controlling for sex and highest level coached, were performed comparing the coaches’ encouragement of imagery use, as well as their confidence, attitudes, and knowledge of mental imagery, across the two study groups. No group by time interactions were found for any of the five functions of imagery. However, group by time interactions were found for knowledge (F(1, 132) = 5.45, p = .02, ηp2 = .040), attitudes (F(1,132) = 4.45, p = .01, ηp2 = .055) and confidence (F(1,132),= 7.10, p = .04, ηp2 = .032) towards imagery. Paired-samples t-tests demonstrated that the mental imagery group significantly increased their confidence from baseline to follow-up (t(65) = -2.75, p = .01). Findings provide direction for designing future coach education training programs and aid in understanding recreational sport coaches’ views on encouraging their athletes to use imagery. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-04-30 10:35:41.541

abstract: Numerous studies have examined the attachments individuals have to the places they visit, and that those attachments are formed through experiencing a place in person. This study is unique in that it examines pre-trip place attachment formation via the use of mobile technology and social media. It proposes that media experienced through the use of a participant's smartphone can foster the development of positive emotions, which in turn, facilitates greater mental imagery processing that ultimately influences pre-trip place attachment formation. An experimental design was constructed to examine how text and video on a destination's Facebook page influences an individual's emotions, mental imagery, and subsequently attachment to that destination. Specifically, a 2 (narrative text vs. descriptive text) x 2 (short, fast-paced video vs. long, slow-paced video) between-subjects design was used. A total of 343 usable participant responses were included in the analysis. The data was then analyzed through a two-step process using structural equation modeling. Results revealed no significant influence of textual or video media on emotions although the choice in text has a greater influence on emotions than choice in video. Additionally, emotions had a significant impact on mental imagery. Finally, mental imagery processing had a significant impact on only the social bonding dimension of place attachment. In conclusion, while media had no significant impact on emotions, the effect of previous traveler's retelling of personal accounts on the emotions of potential travelers researching a destination should be examined more closely. Further, the study participants had no prior experience with the destination, yet emotions influenced mental imagery, which also influenced social bonding. Thus further research should be conducted to better understand how potential traveler's image of a destination can be affected by the stories or others. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Community Resources and Development 2013

Unwanted and distressing visual imagery is a persistent and emotionally taxing symptom characteristic of several mental illnesses, including depression, schizophrenia, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Intrusive imagery symptoms have been linked to maladaptive memory formation, abnormal visual cortical activity during viewing, gaze pattern deficits, and trait characteristics of mental imagery. Emotional valence of visual stimuli has been shown to alter perceptual processes that influence the direction of attention to visual information, which may result in enhanced attention to suboptimal and generalizable visual properties. This study tested the hypothesis that aberrant gaze patterns to central and peripheral image regions influence the formation of decontextualized visual details which may facilitate involuntary and emotionally negative mental imagery experiences following a stressful or traumatic event. Gaze patterns and hemodynamic response from occipital cortical locations were recorded while healthy participants (N = 39) viewed and imagined scenes with negative or neutral emotional valence. Self-report behavioral assessments of baseline vividness of visual imagery and various cognitive factors were combined with these physiological measures to investigate the potential relationship between visual perception and mental recreation of negative scenes. Results revealed significant effects of task and valence conditions on specific fixation measures and hemodynamic response patterns in ventral visual areas, which interacted with cognitive factors such as imagery vividness and familiarity. Findings further suggest that behaviors observed during mental imagery reveal processes related to representational formation over and above perceptual performance and may be applied to the study of disorders such as PTSD. / Ph. D. / Intrusive imagery describes the visual components of flashbacks that are common to mental disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia. Several explanations for this symptom have been suggested, including incomplete memories, changes in visual brain structures and function, inappropriate viewing patterns, and an individual’s ability to imagine visual scenes in detail. The emotional tone of a scene has also been shown to affect viewing patterns, which may lead to attention being narrowly directed toward specific visual details while ignoring surrounding information. This study tested whether inappropriate viewing patterns to central and outer image regions in negative images influence narrow focus to emotional details, thereby allowing flashback-type imagery to occur following a traumatic or stressful event. Viewing patterns and blood flow in brain regions were measured while participants (<i>N</i> = 39) viewed and imagined scenes with negative or neutral emotional tone. Self-reported detail of voluntary mental imagery and other cognitive factors such as content familiarity and pleasantness were used to investigate a relationship between viewing and imagery of emotionally negative scenes. Results showed that certain cognitive factors as well as the type of visual task significantly affected particular eye movements and patterns of blood flow in visual regions of the brain. These measures interacted with cognitive factors such as imagery detail and content familiarity. Findings further suggest that behaviors observed during mental imagery reveal cognitive processes over and above those during viewing and may be useful in the study of disorders such as PTSD.

While previous research on episodic memory vividness aims at measuring episodic memory, such cognitive tasks also involve visual mental imagery since vividness is primarily a property of visual mental imagery. Literature also shows that subjective measurements of visual mental imagery (e.g., the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire; VVIQ) are confounded by demand characteristic effects, either by participant response biases or instructional cues. Investigating such claims is most suitable in those who report an absence of visual mental imagery, that is, in aphantasia. Therefore, this study examines whether subjective vividness ratings are interpreted differently between a “visualize” and a “recollect” version of the VVIQ. One hundred and thirty-nine participants filled out online either one of the versions of the questionnaire, which also included an additional manipulation on demand characteristics (i.e., instructional cues on what alleged previous research found on response patterns). Eighty-nine participants self-described with aphantasia. Results showed that irrespective of self-describing with aphantasia or not, participants scored comparably on the two versions of the questionnaire (with aphantasic participants scoring overall lower than control participants), favouring the interpretation that episodic memory vividness involves visual mental imagery. Furthermore, no demand characteristic effects were found in those self-describing with aphantasia, whereas controls’ questionnaire scores were affected only negatively by the employed instructional cues. Different interpretations of such results are discussed, highlighting the idea that it is a difficult methodological exercise to discern the two theoretical constructs: visual mental imagery and episodic memory.

Dans nos sociétés modernes, la santé et le bien-être des individus occupent une place de plus en plus grande, ce qui a conduit les chercheurs en marketing à s'intéresser aux problématiques liées à la promotion de la santé (Block et Keller, 1995; Cox et Cox, 2001; Keller et alii, 2003; Zhao et Pechman, 2007). Sur la base des recherches qui étudient les stratégies de communication susceptibles de provoquer le changement comportemental, ce travail doctoral cherche à répondre à la problématique suivante : comment améliorer l'efficacité des communications de santé ? Par le biais de deux expérimentations menées aux Etats-Unis entre 2009 et 2010, cette recherche étudie l'effet de deux caractéristiques du message, à savoir, le cadrage des conséquences du message (gains versus pertes) et l'objectif annoncé de la communication (prévention versus dépistage). Les résultats soulignent notamment qu'un cadrage de gains provoque une attitude plus favorable envers la recommandation, une intention plus élevée de la suivre ainsi que des intentions d'échanges et de recherche d'information plus élevées, ce qui est d'autant plus vrai lorsque l'objectif annoncé est celui du dépistage. Cette recherche apporte également une meilleure compréhension des mécanismes impliqués en montrant qu'un message de pertes provoque une imagerie mentale de valence plus négative et que la valence des images mentales est médiatrice de l'effet du cadrage. Ce travail doctoral donne lieu à des contributions théoriques, qui permettent d'éclairer la littérature sur les communications de santé, ainsi qu'à des contributions managériales, qui apportent des enseignements aux décideurs des communications de santé. / In our modern societies, individuals' health and well-being is a major concern which elicits marketing academics' interest to health promotion research questions (Block and Keller, 1995; Cox and Cox, 2001; Keller et alii, 2003; Zhao and Pechman, 2007). Based on research studying communication's strategies that could induce behavioral change, this doctoral work aims at answering the following research question: how to improve health communications effectiveness? Using two experiments conducted during 2009 and 2010 in the United-States, this research studies two message's characteristics, the message frame (gains versus losses) and the communication's promoted objective (prevention versus detection). Results highlight that a gain-framed message produces a more favorable attitude toward the recommendation, a higher intention to follow it and higher intentions to converse and to look for information, results that are even truer when communication's objective is detection. This research brings a better comprehension of depth processes involved, showing that a loss-framed message induces a valence of mental imagery which is more negative than a gain-framed message and that the valence of mental imagery mediates the effect of message framing. This doctoral work brings theoretical contributions, which add to health communications literature as well as managerial contributions, which bring learning to health communications managers.

It is still controversial whether mental practice – the internal rehearsal of movements to improve later performance – relies on processes engaged during physical motor performance and, if so, which processes these are. This series of experiments investigates this question. It utilizes a framework of ideomotor action planning theories, and tests whether mental practice may specifically draw upon planning- rather than execution-related motor processes, specifically those processes that “bind” intended action features to action plans. Experiments 1 to 4 utilize a classical stimulus response compatibility paradigm. Participants mentally practiced complex rhythms with either feet or hands while using the same or different body parts to respond to unrelated sounds. In contrast to previous work on stimulus response compatibility, we indeed found that responses were impaired – rather than facilitated – for those body parts that were concurrently used in mental practice. This result was found when participants mentally trained to memorize the rhythms (Experiment 1), to merely improve their performance (Experiment 3), when mental practice and execution directly followed one another and when separated by a different task (Experiment 4). These data link mental practice not to execution but planning related motor processes that are involved in binding intended action features to intended action plans. Experiment 5 and 6 then extend these results to imitation learning. Participants were instructed to learn the rhythms by observing somebody else, while again making unrelated responses with their hand and feet. While previous work on stimulus response compatibility focussed on testing automatic imitation processes, here imitation was therefore goal directed. We found, as in the previous experiments, that responses with the same body parts as used in the observed rhythms were impaired, suggesting that goal-directed imitation might rely on the same planning-related motor processes as the mental practice of action (Experiment 5). Importantly, these effects were only found as long as participants observed the actions with VI the purpose of imitating them later (i.e. formed action plans), but not when they merely tried to memorize the rhythms for later recognition (Experiment 6). The previous experiments suggest that mental practice and observation learning draw upon body-part specific planning processes. Ideomotor theories suggest, however, that action plans can be relatively abstract, and represented in terms of higher-level goals (i.e. the sequence of left and right button presses independent of the body part used). Experiment 7 and 8 therefore tested whether rhythms learned through mental practice or observation learning could be transferred to other body parts. As expected, we found a relatively high amount of potential transfer when rhythms were mentally practiced with one body part, and then had to be transferred to another body part (Experiment 7). However, this only held when participants learned the rhythms based on an abstract rhythm description, as in Experiments 1 to 4. If participants learned the same rhythms during action observation, any benefits were only obtained when the rhythms later had to be executed with the same (rather than a different) body part. Together, the present data suggest that mental practice does not rely on execution related-motor processes, and points to an involvement of planning related motor processes instead. We argue that such a planning-based account of mental practice is more compatible with the available evidence from body neuroscientific and behavioral studies, and allows one to resolve several debates. Moreover, it allows one to conceptualize goal-directed imitation in a similar manner as mental practice.

Communicating climate change and other long-term environmental issues to the wider public is a challenging process involving many barriers to action. Visualisations have the ability to overcome these barriers. Furthermore, the benefits of visual images over verbal information have been supported. However, there is a lack of research on how visual images can motivate behaviour. Based on Elaborated Intrusion theory, it is proposed that visual images can be internalised as mental images which can act as a ‘motivational bridge’ for pro-environmental behaviour. Six studies exposed participants to visual pro-environmental messages. Throughout all studies images were internalised as mental images, associated with intrusive thoughts. Consistently, mental images were strongly associated with pro-environmental goals and behaviour change (self-report and actual). Also, interfering with visual mental imagery, using cognitive tasks, reduced self-reported behaviour change (Study 6). Overall, two motivational roles of mental imagery emerged: mental images can trigger pro-environmental goals and can strengthen the relationship between pro-environmental goals and behaviour. The development, strength, and vividness of mental imagery depended on interacting individual and message characteristics. A vivid message was more effective when the message topic was relevant to the target individual (Study 2). Also, a message in line with existing values evoked more vivid mental imagery (Studies 2 to 6). A message could activate specific values as well if mental imagery was not interfered with (Study 5 and 6). And finally, positive and negative images were associated with different feelings, but could both be internalised and motivate behaviour (Study 3 and 6). A combined message could overcome the negative feelings associated with a fear appeal (Study 6). This thesis developed a theoretical framework, integrating approaches from social and cognitive psychology, which can help explain and predict responses to visual environmental messages. Six studies showed that the effect of a visual image on behaviour depends, among other factors, on its ability to trigger recurring mental imagery. Insights provide opportunities for designing evidence based visual pro-environmental messages. In turn this can maximise the impact visual messages have on changing people’s pro-environmental behaviour.