This study was designed to determine if long term training of mental imagery skills is more beneficial to an athlete than immediate imagery rehearsal practiced only prior to an event. Subjects were thirty male high school baseball athletes who were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: (1) long term imagery training and practice; (2) immediate imagery practice only; and (3) control. An accuracy relay-throwing test was performed with pre-test, mid-test, and post-test performance trials. Results of the study revealed no statistically significant differences over the three test periods for any of the treatment conditions. Thus, long term imagery combined with immediate imagery practice, immediate imagery practice and control groups performed equally well on the baseball throwing task.

M.A., Faculty of Humanities, University of the University, 2011 / With the increasing prevalence of autism on a worldwide scale, new teaching methodologies need to be explored in order to educate children with autism helping them to achieve their maximum potential. It has previously been established that many individuals with autism use visual opposed to verbal modes of thinking and learning. In this study action research was used to examine if high imagery instructional methods of teaching could be used as a teaching tool for autistic children attending a special needs school. This study examined whether there was a change in the classroom performance of three autistic children after a 5 month period of high imagery instruction, as compared against a baseline of response to previous instruction, as well as the pattern of verbal and non verbal abilities manifested at time of intake into the programme. Analysis of the results of initial cognitive, language and perceptual tests was thus undertaken for diagnostic purposes, combined with analysis of initial response to teaching prior to high imagery intervention. Once this base-line had been established, analysis of school readiness and scholastic tests was then undertaken pre and post intervention, combined with in-depth interviews with the children’s teacher, analysis of developmental diaries and analysis of work done as part of the school programme followed by each child over a five month period of intervention. At baseline all three children were found to have phonological weaknesses, as evidenced by difficulties isolating onset sounds in words, difficulties with rhyming and difficulties in skills such as blending sounds into words. Two of the children in the sample showed little to no response to the high imagery instruction, and continued to have difficulties with reading and pre-reading tasks involving working with the sound structure of the English language. The third child in the sample showed an increase in phonological skills and in reading, writing and spelling abilities in response to high imagery instruction, as well as an increase in both vocabulary and the non-verbal abilities involved in drawing . It was noted at base-line as well as throughout the study that visual memory was an area of strength for this child, but not for the other two children in the sample. The child who made progress was also able to use his visual strengths to develop associations between sounds and letters. The conclusions from this exploratory study are that not all children with autism learn through use of visual strategies in teaching. The success of high imagery teaching strategies when used with a child with well developed visual memory abilities would suggest that high imagery instruction could be a useful and successful teaching strategy where children with autism exhibit well developed visual modes of thought. Strengths in visual memory and in visual association may be indicators of the likelihood that a child with autism will respond positively to high imagery instruction.

This study aimed to better understand visuomotor tracking and spatial visual imagery. 101 Participants performed four tasks: A Manual Tracking Task (MTT), in which participants mouse-tracked the path of a circle, sometimes with occlusion. A Multi-Object Tracking task (MOT), in which participants tracked several objects simultaneously. The Sussex Cognitive Styles Questionnaire (SCSQ), in which participants self-reported their experience with imagery. A Mental Rotation Task (MRT) in which participants mentally rotate Tetris-like objects. The results demonstrated a significant correlation between the technical/spatial subscale of the SCSQ and the occluded MTT, the MRT, the MOT but not the visible MTT. A multiple regression showed that occluded MTT and the MRT together significantly predicted the spatial/technical subscale of the SCSQ above visible MTT and MOT. These findings support the claim that the cognitive resources behind mental imagery may also be recruited during other tasks that arguably draw on the need for internal visualization.

L'objet de notre recherche est de clarifier les thèmes du réenchantement, de la théâtralisation et de l'expérience dans la distribution : ils correspondent à une réalité managériale diversifiée et répondent à l’impératif économique de se différencier dans un univers de plus en plus concurrentiel. Une étude menée auprès de professionnels de la distribution et de consommateurs de deux enseignes du secteur du jouet présentant des positionnements différents (expérientiel versus fonctionnel) nous permet de définir le concept de mise en scène d'un point de vente : création globale qui s'articuleautour des constituants suivants : décor ,scénario, acteurs, action, rebondissements et coup de théâtre. Cette vision holiste englobe la diversité des pratiques et dépasse l'équation théâtralisation = décor. Nous avons également établi que le consommateur vit une expérience spécifique lors de sa confrontation avec la mise en scène du point de vente. L'apport principal de cette thèse est de proposer le concept d’expérience de visite qui décrit l’interaction entre le consommateur et la mise en scène du point de vente. L’échelle de mesure développée comprend 5 dimensions : exploration, convivialité, exception, surprise et enchantement. Le prisme de l’expérience de visite représente graphiquement les scores atteints dans les 5 dimensions par une enseigne. Il permet ainsi de déterminer son degré de réenchantement et de procéder à des comparaisons avec ses concurrents. Nous avons eu recours au concept d'imagerie mentale, fondamentale dans la perspective expérientielle parmi les modalités sensorielles qui agissent dans la réception de l’expérience par le consommateur ; ce dernier interprétant la mise en scène grâce à la production d'images mentales. Une étude quantitative menée auprès des consommateurs des deux enseignes confirme :- qu'il existe des différences significatives entre enseignes pour chacune des dimensions de l’expérience ainsi que dans les caractéristiques des images mentales produites par le consommateur : nombre d’images, d’images congruentes suscitées par des techniques projectives, caractère agréable ;- que chacune des dimensions de l’expérience influence ces caractéristiques des images mentales ;- que chacune des dimensions de l’expérience influence le comportement d’achat : nombre d’articles achetés et nombre d’articles achetés non programmés.En effet, conscients de l’importance du critère de rentabilité des entreprises de distribution, nous avons mesuré l’impact de la production d’expérience sur le comportement d’achat. Le recueil des données dans les rayons s'est avéré d'une grande richesse et confirme la faisabilité technique pour les distributeurs de tester leur mise en scène in situ.Nos résultats montrent que l’expérience de visite est favorisée par la mise en scène du point de vente et exerce une influence sur le comportement d’achat. La mise en scène s’avère un levier stratégique que le distributeur doit s'appliquer à maîtriser et à rentabiliser afin d'améliorer ses résultats globaux. / The purpose of our research is to clarify the themes of reenchantment, dramatization and experience in retailing. They correspond to a diversified managerial reality and reveal the economic necessity to differentiate from competitors in ever increasing number. We have interviewed retailing specialists and consumers of two Toy retailers who have adopted opposite positioning : experiential versus functional. We have specified the French concept of dramatization : it is a global creation combining decor, scenario, actors, action, developments and coup de théâtre. This holistic view enables to include the variety of practices and to go beyond the equation dramatization = decor. We have highlighted that the consumer has a specific experience during the confrontation with the store dramatization. The main contribution of this design is to propose a new concept : the experience of visit, which describes the interaction between the consumer and the store dramatization. We have conceived a scale of measurement including five dimensions : exploration, conviviality,exception, surprise and enchantment. A prism shows graphically the scores reached by each of the five dimensions : for a retailer, it enables to measure his reenchantment level and to make comparison with competitors. The concept of mental imagery has been of great benefit for us. It is fundamental in the experiential perspective : among the sensorial modalities that act in the reception of experience, the consumer interprets the dramatization by the means of mental imagery.A quantitative study with consumers confirms that :- there exist significant differences between retailers for each dimension of the experience of visit, and for the characteristics of mental images produced by the consumer : number, number of congruent images and pleasantness ;- each dimension of the experience of visit has an influence on these characteristics of mental images ;- each dimension of the experience of visit has an influence on purchasing behavior : number ofpurchases and non planned purchases.Conscious that the return on investment is a main criterion for the managers, we have indeed measured the impact of experience production on purchasing behavior. Gathering the data in the store has revealed great interest and gives considerable support to the technical feasibility to test the store dramatization in situ. The results indicate that the experience of visit is favored by the store dramatization and has an influence on purchasing behavior. Managers should consider dramatization as a strategic means and try to control it and make it profitable.

Dans la plupart des environnements de vente, le consommateur peut facilement manipuler les produits et ainsi vivre des expériences tactiles. Cependant, cette liberté de toucher les produits n’est pas sans conséquences. En effet, si le consommateur aime toucher les produits, il est réticent à ce le produit qu’il touche ait été manipulé au préalable par d’autres personnes. Ce paradoxe est un enjeu pour les praticiens. Comment permettre aux clients de toucher les produits tout en garantissant qu’ils soient dépourvus de contacts antérieurs avec autrui ? Cette thèse s’intéresse au phénomène de contamination perçue des produits. Elle a pour objectif de mettre en évidence les variables agissant sur la contamination perçue et sur les réponses à l’égard des produits perçus comme contaminés. Une étude première qualitative explore la vision que les consommateurs ont de la contamination perçue des produits ; une seconde étude qualitative s’intéresse au point de vue des manageurs. Cette phase qualitative sert de base au développement d’une échelle de contamination perçue. Puis, trois collectes de données quantitatives sont menées afin de comparer l’impact de deux facteurs de contamination. Les résultats montrent que le consommateur est plus sensible lorsqu’un produit présente un résidu suggérant qu’il a été touché que lorsqu’il voit un contaminateur manipuler ce produit. Ils mettent également en évidence que l’imagerie mentale est un mécanisme sous-jacent explicatif de la contamination perçue mais que le besoin de toucher n’a pas d’effet sur le phénomène. / In most retail environments the customer is able to handle products, feel their weight and try them, in other words the customer has a tactile experience. However, this freedom to touch products has a downside. Indeed, even if the consumer likes to touch products, he refuses the same product if it has been handled by other customers. This ambivalence concerning touch is a major problem for managers in retail outlets. How is it possible to allow consumers to touch products while guaranteeing that they are devoid of previous contact with others? This dissertation focuses on the concept of product contamination. It aims to understand the variables that reflect the impact of perceived contamination on consumer responses. A first qualitative study examines the vision of consumers on product contamination. A second qualitative study focuses on managers’ point of view. These studies are then used as a basis for the development of a perceived contamination scale. Lastly, three quantitative studies compare the impact of two contamination’s cues. The results suggest that the consumer is more sensitive when a product contains a cue that it has been touched, as compared to their reaction to seeing someone touch a product. These findings show that mental imagery is an underlying mechanism contrary to need for touch.

O objetivo desta investigação foi avaliar a eficácia de uma estratégia de psicoterapia breve e grupal baseada em exercícios de fantasia dirigida, e se tal eficácia estava relacionada à atitude das pessoas atendidas frente à imaginação, à vivacidade de suas imagens mentais e ao controle que tinham sobre estas. Os exercícios imagéticos foram realizados com o intuito de promover estados levemente alterados de consciência que, por sua vez, permitissem a ativação de potenciais psicológicos supraconscientes. Isso com o propósito de auxiliar estudantes universitários a superarem problemas de ansiedade em situações de prova e exame. As medidas de um grupo experimental (n=32) em escalas de ansiedade e atitude frente à imaginação, bem como de vivacidade e controle de imagens mentais, tomadas antes e após a realização do tratamento psicoterápico, foram comparadas às de um grupo de controle (n=50). E a análise estatística dos resultados obtidos forneceu indícios claros do sucesso da terapêutica empregada, mas não da relação entre esse sucesso e as variáveis ligadas a imagens mentais que foram levadas em conta. / This investigation\'s purpose was to evaluate the efficacy of brief group psychotherapy based on guided imagery, and if this efficacy was related to clients\' attitude toward imagination and clients\' imagery vividness and control. Guided imagery, aimed to promote slightly altered states of consciousness, were used with the purpose of activating supra conscious psychological potentials to help undergraduates with test anxiety problems. Measures of an experimental group (n=32) on test anxiety, attitude toward imagination, imagery vividness and control scales, taken before and after the therapeutic strategy\'s implementation, were compared with measures of a control group (n=50). Statistical analysis indicated the success of the therapeutic method employed but no clear connections between this success and the imagery related variables considered.

Mathematics education researchers have examined the relationship between visualization and mathematics for decades (e.g., Arcavi, 2003; Bishop, 1991; Duval, 1999; Fennema & Tartre, 1985; Presmeg, 1986). Studies have linked spatial visualization ability, such as measured in mental rotation tasks, directly to mathematics self-efficacy (Pajares & Kranzler, 1995; Weckbacher & Okamoto, 2014), which in turn influences mathematics achievement (Casey, Nuttall, & Pezaris, 1997). With the important role that spatial visualization plays in learning mathematics, the recent identification of congenital aphantasia (Zeman, Dewar, & Della Sala, 2015), which is the lack of mental imagery ability, has raised new questions for mathematics education researchers. This study investigated the differences in mental rotation test performance and vividness of spatial imagery between people who have aphantasia and people who do not as a first step toward examining how aphantasia may affect mathematics learning and education. Results confirmed prior aphantasia research showing that there was no significant difference in mental rotation test performance between people with aphantasia and those without aphantasia, despite people with aphantasia reporting significantly lower vividness of spatial imagery. Results also showed that there was less difference in mental rotation test performance between the genders for people with aphantasia, while gender played a significant role in mental rotation test performance for people without aphantasia. People with aphantasia also reported lower self-efficacy in the arts than people without aphantasia. Implications of these results will be discussed within the context of current research, and possible directions for future research will be offered.

This chapter compares spatial constructs in mental imagery to spatial constructs in non-metaphorical and metaphorical language. The study is based on a psycholinguistic survey of people’s mental imagery for paths and roads, and a previous corpus-linguistic investigation of path- and road-instances from the British National Corpus (the BNC) (see Johansson Falck 2010). The aim is to investigate if spatial path and road constructs in mental imagery focus on similar aspects as those in metaphorical language. The study shows that mental imagery and metaphorical language are more restricted than non-metaphorical language, and typically are related to the specific anticipations for bodily action that paths and roads afford. The focus is on function, which influences both direction and manner of motion. / Embodiment of Motion Metaphors

The previous research have found that consumers' choices of vacations may be significantly influenced by mental imagery processing, which is considered to be high elaboration cognitive processing. Mental imagery is defined as an experience that significantly resembles the experience of perceiving some object, event, or scene, but which occurs in the absence of the appropriate stimuli for the relevant object, event, or scene. This study first aims to identify imagery-eliciting Web site features and second, to test their influence on persuasion-related outcomes such as attitude strength, confidence, and attitude resistance. Finally, this study investigates the role of individual processing style (e.g., visualizer or verbalizer) as a moderator variable. A total of 252 subjects participated in a Web-based experiment to examine the influence of selected Web site features on individual imagery processing and its effect on consumers’ attitudes and expectations. It involved a 2 (narrative vs. expository text) × 2 (pictures vs. no picture) × 2 (sounds vs. no sound) full factorial between-subjects design. The data was analyzed primarily using a structural equation modeling methodology. Structural model results revealed that the mental imagery construct strongly influenced the communication effects, which were represented by attitude strength and attitude confidence. In addition, the results of the study found that the communication effects had a significant impact on attitude resistance. This implies that the stronger attitude creates stronger resistance to a negative impact. In the context of the influence of Web site features (e.g., narrative text, pictures, and sound) inducing mental imagery processing, only pictures have a significant effect on mental imagery processing, which support positive effects of concrete pictures on mental imagery processing. In conclusion, the findings of this study show that mental imagery processing is important. Thus, we need to continue to investigate what forms of Web site designs and features best support imagery processing. More specifically, tourism marketers need to understand how certain stimuli influence mental imagery processing, and then they need to enhance Web site designs to capture potential customers.

The current state of much research on written patient education materials (WPEM) suggests that they are written in a manner that is too difficult even for educated patients to understand and remember. Much of the research in this area is focused on modification of the readability of WPEM, which has shown to be relatively ineffective. In this study, an attempt was made to determine if a theory-based method in revising WPEM for improved comprehensibility and memorability was effective. The effectiveness of three versions of WPEM regarding breast self-exams (BSEs) was examined; the original version without illustrations obtained from the American Cancer Society website, a version that was written at a lower readability level as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula, and a version with a lower readability level as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula and the increased use of concrete language as suggested by Dual Coding Theory. The researcher compared the percentage of recall of idea units recalled by 76 participants at two time periods: immediately after reading the randomly assigned version of WPEM and seven days after the initial reading. The WPEM that contained the lower readability level and concrete language was most recalled by participants both at immediate recall and delayed recall. In fact, the delayed recall of the WPEM that contained the lower readability level and concrete language after the seven-day period was almost equivalent to the immediate recall of the participants in the other two groups. A significant main effect was found for the forms of WPEM, F(2, 73) = 27.69, p = .00, n2 p = .43 with an observed power of 1.00. A significant main effect was found for time, F(1, 73) = 161.94, p <.00, n2 p = .69 with an observed power of 1.00. A significant interaction of WPEM and time was found, F(2, 73) = 5.07, p = .01, n2 p = .12 with an observed power of .80. Reported levels of frequency of performing BSEs and levels of confidence in performing BSEs were also analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test in relation to the three WPEM versions over time. Reported frequency was significantly greater after seven days, regardless of form of WPEM (WPEM A, p = .32; WPEM B, p = 1.00; WPEM C, p = .74). Levels of confidence were significantly greater after seven days, regardless of form of WPEM (WPEM A, p = ..02; WPEM B, p = .00; WPEM C, p = .00). Overall results indicate that combining reduced readability and increased concrete language is beneficial. The writing of WPEMs in a way that patients can understand should be supported by a theory, and infusing Dual Coding Theory in the writing of selected WPEMs may be beneficial for patients.