Psychological research regarding mental imagery is heterogeneous in nature owing to its internal nature. Mental imagery involving music is most simply defined as hearing music in the mind’s ear. Musical imagery (MI) is an understudied phenomenon particularly by means of non-experimental methods. This study investigated four dimensions of everyday MI: namely it’s content, nature, constancy and associated corporeal manifestations (for instance, foot-tapping, humming and so forth), via experience-sampling methods. Stage one of data collection involved a cross-sectional survey (n = 87) whereby participants provided retrospective self-reports concerning MI, pertinent demographic information, and particulars concerning their musical history. Stage two – implemented subsequent to piloting – utilised iterative sampling to illuminate the dimensions and descriptive facets of MI during everyday activities. Each participant (n = 16; 8 musicians; 8 non-musicians) was selected based on specific inclusion criteria, following stage one participation, and were invited to complete 21 questionnaires over seven days, receiving three SMS prompts per day. In terms of prevalence, MI was consistently experienced by participants, regardless of their musical background although musicians reported higher rates of MI occurrences. There was a statistically significant association between MI and musical training/experience (χ² = 6.35; d.f. = 1; p = .012). Furthermore, odds ratios suggested that the musicians demonstrated an 85% likelihood of experiencing MI as compared to the non-musicians (OR 1.85; CI 1.14 – 2.99). Daily exposure to music appeared to be an equally significant factor relating to every day MI incidences, particularly given the finding that the majority of participant’s MI episodes were familiar and recently heard.

<p>Mental ljudföreställning (eng. auditory imagery) innebär att uppleva ett ljud för sitt inre i frånvaro av yttre sinnesintryck. Tidigare studier har visat att ljud­föreställning kan inverka såväl faciliterande (t.ex. Farah & Smith, 1983) som interfererande (t.ex. Okada & Matsuoka, 1992) på perceptuell ljuddetektion. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka om ljudföreställning faciliterar eller interfererar perceptuell detektion av kongruenta och inkongruenta komplexa ljud. De 39 under­sök­nin­g­­s­­deltagarna randomiserades till en av två betingelser (ljudföreställning eller ingen ljudföreställning) och fick därefter lyssna samt detektera olika ljud (varav ett var detsamma som föreställningsljudet). Resultatet visade att ljudföreställning varken hade en signifikant faciliterande eller interfererande effekt på vare sig kongruenta eller inkongruenta komplexa ljud.</p>

Mental ljudföreställning (eng. auditory imagery) innebär att uppleva ett ljud för sitt inre i frånvaro av yttre sinnesintryck. Tidigare studier har visat att ljud­föreställning kan inverka såväl faciliterande (t.ex. Farah &amp; Smith, 1983) som interfererande (t.ex. Okada &amp; Matsuoka, 1992) på perceptuell ljuddetektion. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka om ljudföreställning faciliterar eller interfererar perceptuell detektion av kongruenta och inkongruenta komplexa ljud. De 39 under­sök­nin­g­­s­­deltagarna randomiserades till en av två betingelser (ljudföreställning eller ingen ljudföreställning) och fick därefter lyssna samt detektera olika ljud (varav ett var detsamma som föreställningsljudet). Resultatet visade att ljudföreställning varken hade en signifikant faciliterande eller interfererande effekt på vare sig kongruenta eller inkongruenta komplexa ljud.

Mental practice is a strategy that can be used to acquire the necessary skills for piano and other music performance. This type of practice strategy involves the use of imagery as opposed to the motor skills used in physical practice. In a preliminary review of piano pedagogy material and recent scientific literature, the benefits of mental practice were established. However, this review also revealed a lack of clarity in the use of terminology which sometimes interfered with readability. In order to better understand this problem of terminology, 33 current studies on mental practice in music performance were collected and examined for both the quantity and quality of term usage. Terms were identified and recorded using existing terminology and classification methods. Terminological records were created for each term appearing more than twice in the literature. In total, 83 records were created. Issues related to frequency of use (repetition), use of multiple terms (synonymy), lack of term definitions, and the need for clarity in term usage (semantic vagueness and ambiguity) were then analyzed using these records. This term analysis process resulted in the creation of a glossary and taxonomy. The glossary of 21 terms and corresponding hierarchical taxonomy (tree diagram) are proposed as an aid to help clarify the terminology of mental practice in music performance. Given the value of mental practice in learning to play music it is important to develop and maintain terminology that will facilitate both the understanding of existing literature and the design of future studies.

Research has suggested that representational and perceptual systems draw upon some of the same processing structures, and evidence also has accumulated to suggest that representational formats are malleable by instructions. Very little research, however, has considered how nonspeech sounds are internally represented, and the use of audio in systems will often proceed under the assumption that separation of information by modality is sufficient for eliminating information processing conflicts. Three studies examined the representation of nonspeech sounds in working memory. In Experiment 1, a mental scanning paradigm suggested that nonspeech sounds can be flexibly represented in working memory, but also that a universal per-item scanning cost persisted across encoding strategies. Experiment 2 modified the sentence-picture verification task to include nonspeech sounds (i.e., a sound-sentence-picture verification task) and found evidence generally supporting three distinct formats of representation as well as a lingering effect of auditory stimuli for verification times across representational formats. Experiment 3 manipulated three formats of internal representation (verbal, visuospatial imagery, and auditory imagery) for a point estimation sonification task in the presence of three types of interference tasks (verbal, visuospatial, and auditory) in an effort to induce selective processing code (i.e., domain-specific working memory) interference. Results showed no selective interference but instead suggested a general performance decline (i.e., a general representational resource) for the sonification task in the presence of an interference task, regardless of the sonification encoding strategy or the qualitative interference task demands. Results suggested a distinct role of internal representations for nonspeech sounds with respect to cognitive theory. The predictions of the processing codes dimension of the multiple resources construct were not confirmed; possible explanations are explored. The practical implications for the use of nonspeech sounds in applications include a possible response time advantage when an external stimulus and the format of internal representation match.

No description available.

Many attempts have been made to explain the nature of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) or the phenomenon of “hearing voices”. In the contemporary discussion of auditory verbal hallucinations, the raw material of the voices of AVH is seen as either inner speech, a spontaneously activated auditory experience, or imagined speech. Some contemporary theories of AVH are self-proclaimed self-monitoring theories which claim that AVH are the result of a failure of self-monitoring of some raw material, while other theories claim that AVH are produced without a self-monitoring failure. In this paper, I argue that even the theories that claim to not rely on self-monitoring, are in fact selfmonitoring theories. I argue that any viable theory of AVH will need to be a self-monitoring theory. Further, I argue that Daniel Gregory’s imagined speech self-monitoring theory is the most parsimonious and complete of the explanatory theories of AVH since it is able to explain characteristics that other theories cannot, including AVH that take place in what seem to be the voices of others, perceived spatial location, intensity of sound, multiple voices, and the intermittent nature of AVH. Further, I show that the imagined speech theory can be well integrated into a general understanding of schizophrenia, while still retaining its explanatory power for all populations that experience AVH, not just schizophrenics, and that for these reasons, it is the strongest contemporary explanatory theory of auditory verbal hallucinations. / Många försök har gjorts för att förklara naturen av auditiva verbala hallucinationer (AVH) eller fenomenet att "höra röster". I den samtida diskussionen om auditiva verbala hallucinationer ses råmaterialet till rösterna i AVH som antingen inre tal, en spontant aktiverad auditiv upplevelse, eller inbillat tal. Vissa samtida teorier om AVH är självutnämnda teorier om självövervakning som hävdar att AVH är resultatet av ett misslyckande i självövervakningen av något råmaterial, medan andra teorier hävdar att AVH produceras utan ett misslyckande i självövervakning. I den här uppsatsen hävdar jag att även de teorier som påstår att de inte är beroende av självövervakning i själva verket är det. Jag hävdar att varje användbar teori om AVH måste vara en teori om självövervakning. Vidare argumenterar jag att Daniel Gregorys Imagined Speech Theory är den mest sparsamma och fullständiga av de förklarande teorierna om AVH eftersom den kan förklara egenskaper som andra teorier inte kan förklara, inklusive AVH som äger rum i vad som verkar vara andras röster, upplevd rumslig placering, ljudintensitet, flera röster och AVH:s intermittenta karaktär. Vidare visar jag att The Imagined Speech Theory kan integreras väl i en allmän förståelse av schizofreni, samtidigt som den behåller sin förklaringskraft för alla populationer som upplever AVH, inte bara schizofreniker, och att den av dessa skäl är den starkaste samtida förklaringsteorin för auditiva verbala hallucinationer. / De nombreuses tentatives ont été faites pour expliquer la nature des hallucinations auditives verbales (HAV) ou le phénomène des "voix entendues". Dans la discussion contemporaine sur les hallucinations auditives verbales, la matière première des voix des HAV est considérée comme étant soit un discours intérieur, soit une expérience auditive activée spontanément, soit un discours imaginé. Certaines théories contemporaines de l'HVA sont des théories autoproclamées d'autosurveillance qui prétendent que l’HVA est le résultat d'un échec d'autosurveillance d'une certaine matière première, tandis que d'autres théories prétendent que l’HVA est produite sans échec d'autosurveillance. Dans cet essai, je soutiens que même les théories qui prétendent ne pas reposer sur une autosurveillance, sont en fait des théories d'autosurveillance. Je soutiens que toute théorie viable de l’HAV devra être une théorie d'autosurveillance. En outre, je soutiens que la théorie de l'autosurveillance de la parole imaginée (The Imagined Speech Theory) de Daniel Gregory est la plus parcimonieuse et la plus complète des théories explicatives de l’HAV puisqu'elle est capable d'expliquer des caractéristiques que les autres théories ne peuvent pas expliquer, y compris les HAV qui a lieu dans ce qui semble être la voix des autres, la localisation spatiale perçue, l'intensité du son, les voix multiples et la nature intermittente. En outre, je montre que la théorie de la parole imaginée peut être bien intégrée dans une compréhension générale de la schizophrénie, tout en conservant son pouvoir explicatif pour toutes les populations qui font l'expérience des HAV, pas seulement les schizophrènes, et que pour ces raisons, c'est la théorie explicative contemporaine la plus solide des hallucinations auditives verbales.