Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of mental imagery to reading comprehension of third grade children. The paragraphs used for the imagery study were taken from the stories tested for reading comprehension. Throughout this study, mental imagery shall be considered to be an image which a child reports after hearing the paragraphs read to him by the examiner. During the testing period there is an opportunity for the child to report the images he perceives, whether it be of a visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, or kinaesthetic nature.

Mental representations can be consciously experienced in mental imagery format, and verbal-linguistic format. Mental imagery representations of emotional information can evoke more powerful emotional responses than verbal-linguistic representations of the same information. Biases in mental imagery-based cognition are postulated to play a role in the maintenance of emotional disturbance in depression. Despite growing research, two questions remain: 1) is dysphoria (mild to moderate depression symptoms) associated with mood-congruent bias in the frequency of mental imagery generation; and 2) are such biases related to state emotional experience and emotional response to emotional information in dysphoria? To examine question one, participants varying in levels of dysphoria reported the occurrence of mental imagery in real time under task contexts that were emotional (negative and positive verbal cues) and unemotional (neutral verbal cues). Mental imagery generation was assessed under two task conditions: a) when participants were instructed to generate mental imagery in response to verbal cues (Study 1 & 2); and b) when participants were not instructed to generate mental imagery (or verbal-linguistic representations) during exposure to similar verbal cues (Study 2, 3, & 4). Results from all studies, across both instruction types, showed that dysphoria was associated with a loss of positive bias in mental representation generation, driven by reduced positive representation generation (Study 1, 2 & 4), but also by elevated negative representation generation (Study 1, 2 & 3). Interestingly, evidence of a loss of positive bias was most consistently observed when given neutral verbal cues, but also when given positive verbal cues. However, such dysphoria-linked effects were not disproportionately evident for mental imagery relative to verbal-linguistic representations, when both were allowed to naturally occur in Study 2, 3, & 4. Unexpectedly, dysphoria was associated with reduced tendency to generate negative imagery relative to negative verbal-linguistic representations in Study 2, though this finding was not replicated in Study 3 or Study 4. To examine question two, participants provided state mood ratings in addition to reporting mental representation occurrence during exposure to auditory emotional information (Study 3: verbal cues; Study 4: news stories). Dysphoria and mental representation generation was found to be unrelated to emotional response on negative trials (Study 3 & 4). However, greater occurrence of mental imagery, but not verbal-linguistic representation generation was related to greater positive emotional response on positive trials for individuals with dysphoria (Study 3), and all participants (Study 4). Study 5 analysed existing clinical trial data and found that the vividness of positive future event imagery is related to optimism in depression, such that those able to envision a brighter future are relatively more optimistic, and regain optimism more quickly, than those less able to do so, even when currently depressed. In summary, dysphoria was associated with loss of positive bias in mental representation generation, though such effects were not unique to imagery. Importantly, greater occurrence of mental imagery-based, but not purely verbal-linguistic, representations were associated with greater positive emotional response to positive information, and may hold value as a target for future translational research.

Introduction: Mental imagery (MI) has been shown to influence flexibility when used with treatments such as stretching. Currently, little evidence supports the efficacy of MI as an independent tool to increase flexibility. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to test if a guided mental imagery protocol could positively influence subject physical measures, including myofascial length, muscle tone and range of motion measures. Methods: Individuals with no history of lower limb injuries that would affect hamstring flexibility underwent initial measures, random assignment to a mental imagery or control group, and post-intervention measures. The imagery group followed a guided visualization of a hamstring stretch, and the control group remained still for the same amount of time. Independent T-Test, Dependent T-Test, and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze between-group differences, within-group differences, and group by time interaction, respectively. Results: 30 individuals enrolled in the study. No significant differences between groups at baseline were found for baseline demographics and ROM measures. No significant group by time differences were found between the two groups for any of the recorded measures. A posthoc power analysis showed a small effect size on the ANOVA test for knee extension. Discussion: Our evidence shows an acute MI-only protocol may not positively influence ROM measures. Future work should use familiarization periods, assess if imagery increases perceptions of flexibility, and utilize different musculature and stretches to see if visualization has a uniform influence globally.

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Yes / According to the theory of predictive processing, understanding in the present involves non-consciously representing the immediate future, based on probabilistic inference shaped by learning from the past. This paper suggests links between this neuroscientific theory and the psychoanalytic concept of reverie–an empathic, containing attentional state–and considers implications for the ways therapists intuit implicit material in their clients. Using findings from a study about therapists’ experiences of this state, we propose that reverie can offer practitioners from diverse theoretical s a means to enter the predictive moment deeply, making use of its subtle contents to connect with clients.

Bien que le phénomène de co-Création prenne de l'ampleur dans les pratiques actuelles des entreprises, ces dernières se déclarent souvent déçues par la faible créativité effective des utilisateurs « ordinaires » à générer des idées de nouveaux produits. Ce travail doctoral cherche à répondre au questionnement général suivant : peut-On améliorer l'efficacité des démarches de co-Création avec des utilisateurs ? Si l'identification des utilisateurs créatifs est un enjeu crucial pour les entreprises, il est également essentiel pour ces dernières de faire en sorte de stimuler les capacités créatives des utilisateurs enrôlés dans les processus d'innovation. Cette thèse s'intéresse donc au phénomène d'imagerie mentale qui a souvent été souligné en psychologie pour son implication dans les processus créatifs. Trois études quantitatives explorent la relation entre la capacité individuelle d'imagerie mentale et la capacité créative de sujets. Les résultats obtenus identifient la capacité d'imagerie mentale comme une variable révélatrice de la capacité créative des individus et constituant ainsi un élément possible d'identification des individus créatifs. Une quatrième étude montre qu'il est possible d'agir, par le biais d'instructions d'imaginer mentalement, sur les processus d'imagerie suspectés d'être en œuvre dans les processus créatifs, de manière à améliorer la créativité résultante. Ces résultats mettent en évidence l'imagerie mentale comme un mécanisme sous-Jacent explicatif des processus créatifs. Enfin, une cinquième expérimentation, plus conséquente en matière de variables examinées, étudie l'effet de deux types de stimulations de l'activité d'imagerie, à savoir : la présence d'une stimulation d'imagerie liée à soi (versus non liée à soi) et la présence (versus l'absence) d'un entraînement préalable à l'imagerie mentale. L'étude confirme le rôle médiateur de l'imagerie mentale et met en évidence les effets favorables de ces stimulations sur la quantité, l'originalité, l'utilité perçue et l'attrait des idées produites. Le rôle modérateur de variables individuelles – le caractère lead user et l'implication envers la catégorie de produit – a également été examiné. / Although co-Creation is a phenomenon increasingly present in various business practices, companies are often disappointed by the low effective creativity of "ordinary" users to generate ideas for new products. This doctoral research aims to answer the following general question: Can we improve the effectiveness of co-Creation processes with users? If the identification of creative users is a critical issue for businesses, then it is also essential to ensure stimulation of the creative abilities of the users enrolled in the innovation process. This thesis is interested in mental imagery, a phenomenon that has often been cited in psychology for its implication in the creative process. In this work three quantitative studies explore the relationship between the individual's imagery ability and their creative ability. The obtained results identify the mental imagery ability as a variable indicating the creative ability of individuals and thus constituting a potential element for identifying creative individuals. A fourth study shows that it is possible to impact, via instructions to form mental images, the mental imagery process that is implemented in the creative process, thus improving the resulting creativity. These results highlight mental imagery as an underlying mechanism of the creative process. Finally, a fifth experiment, more consistent in terms of the variables examined, studies the effect of two types of stimulation of imagery activity: self-Related vs. non self-Related imaging stimulation, and the presence vs. absence of mental imagery training. The study confirms the mediator role of mental imagery and highlights the favorable effects of these stimulations on the quantity, originality, perceived usefulness and the customer appeal of the generated ideas. The moderator role of individual variables - leadership and involvement with the product category - was also examined.

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

PhD / In design literature, how designers think and how they design have been identified as a reflection of how they interact with their sketches. Sketching in architectural design is still a central concern which shapes our understanding of the design process and the development of new tools. Sketching not only serves as a visual aid to store and retrieve conceptualisations, but as a medium to facilitate more ideas, and to revise and refine these ideas. This thesis examined how mental imagery and sketching is used in designing by conducting a protocol analysis study with six expert architects. Each architect was required to think aloud and design under two different conditions: one in which s/he had access to sketching and one in which s/he was blindfolded (s/he did not have access to sketching). At the end of the blindfold condition the architects were required to quickly sketch what they held in their minds. The architects were able to come up with satisfying design solutions and some reported that using their imagery could be another way of designing. The resulting sketches were assessed by judges and were found to have no significant differences in overall quality. Expert architects were able to construct and maintain the design of a building without having access to sketching. The analysis of the blindfold and sketching design protocols did not demonstrate any differences in the quantity of cognitive actions in perceptual, conceptual, functional and evaluative categories. Each architect’s cognitive structure and designing behaviour in the blindfold activity mimicked her/his cognitive structure and designing behaviour in the sketching activity. The analysis of links between the design ideas demonstrated that architects’ performance in idea development was higher under the blindfold condition, compared to their sketching condition. It was also found that architects’ blindfold design performance was improved when they were more familiar with the site layout. These results imply that expert designers may not need sketching as a medium for their reflective conversation with the situation. This study indicates that constructing internal representations can be a strong tool for designing. Future studies may show that designers may not need sketching for the generation of certain designs during the early phases of conceptual designing.

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.