Imagery mnemonic training in a patient with primary degenerative dementia

A visual-imagery mnemonic was used as a memory training aid for a 66-year-old patient with primary degenerative dementia. Length of retention time was used as the primary outcome measure. The application of the mnemonic procedure extended the length of retention time for name-face recall from baseline. Performance gains were sustained at one month.     

Finding downbeats with a relaxation oscillator

A relaxation oscillator model of neural spiking dynamics is applied to the task of finding downbeats in rhythmical patterns. The importance of downbeat discovery or 'beat induction' is discussed, and the relaxation oscillator model is compared to other oscillator models. In a set of computer simulations the model is tested on 35 rhythmical patterns. The model performs well, making good predictions in 34 of 35 cases. In an analysis we identify some shortcomings of the model and relate model behavior to dynamical properties of relaxation oscillators.     

Imagery and psychotic symptoms: a preliminary investigation

Recent cognitive accounts of psychotic symptoms have suggested that processes involved in the maintenance of emotional disorders may also be implicated in the maintenance of hallucinations and delusions, and particularly emphasise the appraisals of such symptoms as important. Imaginal appraisals have been identified in emotional disorders, and many studies have reported spontaneously occurring images in patients with anxiety disorders. Such images appear to be linked to affect, beliefs and memories. This study examined the occurrence of imagery, using a semi-structured interview, in 35 patients who were experiencing hallucinations and/or delusions and receiving cognitive therapy. The majority of patients (74.3%) reported images, and most of these were recurrent and associated with affect, beliefs and memories. Common themes included images about feared catastrophes associated with paranoia, traumatic memories, and images about the perceived source or content of voices. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed and directions for further research considered.     

The Relationship between Imagery Ability and Imagery Use among Athletes

The present study aimed to provide a better understanding of the relationship between imagery ability and imagery use. Athletes completed the Movement Imagery Questionnaire—Revised Second Version, the Motivational Imagery Ability Measure for Sport, and the Sport Imagery Questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that imagery ability explained 20 to 41% of the variance in the use of the functions of imagery. Visual and kinesthetic imagery ability predicted cognitive specific imagery use; motivational general-mastery and motivational general-arousal imagery ability predicted the use of the motivational general functions of imagery. To assess imagery ability multiple methods of assessment must be used.     

Imagery and argumentation in apologetics: a case study

This essay explores aspects of the relationship between imagery and thought in the work of the English apologist G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), focusing on the language and imagery of energy and of vision in his work. It attempts to assess both the strengths and the weaknesses of the ways in which imagery and other aspects of this writer's use of language relate to his argumentation. It also explores the possibility that Chesterton's work can shed light on one of the philosophical dimensions of apologetics, namely, apologists’ attempts to present concepts that cannot be explicitly stated, as part of a defence of Christianity. In considering this issue, it brings Chesterton's use of imagery into dialogue with certain images in the work of the philosopher Mary Midgley and the apologist C.S. Lewis. Finally, it draws certain tentative conclusions concerning the role of imagery in relation to argumentation, within the field of apologetics.     

Symbolism and Imagery in a Group of Chronic Schizophrenics

Block training in group psychotherapy makes it possible to train professionals living far apart and to import conductors to an area or country lacking sufficient expertise. This article reports experience with such a training program in Norway. Training is given in blocks of 5 weekends a year, each weekend containing small group therapy, supervision, theory courses, lectures, and large group experiences. The participants were questioned about their personal and professional gains from the training. These findings and the effect of the program in relation to stated goals are discussed.     

Imagery and olfactory stimulation

The purpose of the present study was to investigate a possible odor-emotion interaction by determining whether humans could differentially detect other humans' odor collected under varying emotional conditions. Odorants were collected from the axillary apocrine glands of four female donors, each of whom underwent different imagery induction procedures of anxiety, relaxation, and sexual arousal. The odorants were chemically preserved and later evaluated by 16 naive white male judges as to the presence of discriminatory odor cues. Judges' imagery was differentially related to the anxiety imagery-produced odorants but only for those produced by the most imaginative donors. The relaxation odorants of all donors were correlated. The judges were unable to detect the sexual imagery arousal odorants.     

Imagery and memory illusions

This article provides a summary of current knowledge about memory illusions. The memory illusions described here focus on the recall of imagined events that have never actually occurred. The purpose is to review theoretical ideas and empirical evidence about the reality-monitoring processes involved in memory illusions. Reality monitoring means deciding whether the memory has been perceptually derived or been self-generated (thought or imagined). A few key findings from the literature have been reported in this paper and these focus on internal source-monitoring judgments which distinguish perceptual events from imagined events. Finally, the experimental paradigms used to shed light on processes occurring in the failure of reality monitoring in healthy subjects may be extended to an examination of the causes and the prevention of hallucinations in patients.     

Imagery and contextual organization

Three experiments explore the contribution of a shared imaginal context to associative memory for pairs of items imaged interactively or separately. The major result is that an imagined context only contributes to association between items that share the context if the items are imagined as interacting with the context. Therefore, interaction effects do not reflect the contaminating influence of a shared context. Rather, context effects themselves obey the same relational principles that interaction effects in general do. The results are presented as support for the organization-redintegration hypothesis as an account of imaginal interaction.     

Coping with body image changes following a disfiguring burn injury.

The influence of emotion-focused coping on distress following disfiguring injury was examined. Two types of emotion-focused coping (i.e., venting emotions vs. mental disengagement) were assessed in 78 patients with burn injury at baseline during acute hospitalization. Body image dissatisfaction (BID) was assessed 1 week and 2 months following discharge. Use at baseline of both venting emotions and mental disengagement, compared with use of only one or neither of these coping methods, was associated at the 2-month postdischarge follow-up with significantly higher BID related to nonfacial aspects of appearance and with a greater negative social impact of disfigurement. D. M. Wegner's (1994) theoretical model of mental control and a proposed motivational analysis are used to interpret these findings.     

Countertransference and containment in a patient with a psychotic mother

The importance of countertransference reactions in the treatment of a borderline patient with a psychotic suicidal mother is discussed. In such a case containment can be seriously disrupted by the violence of the patient's projections into the therapist. Where a psychotic internal object has been brought for treatment it is particularly important that the therapist be able to identify not only with the sane and mad parts of the patient but with the destructiveness and cruelty of the patient and her primary object. The difficulties of tolerating these relentless projections of madness and despair are increased by the multiple and confusing aims of the patient's excessive use of projective identification. The invasive and hostile aspects of this are often heavily disguised beneath idealization of the self and object as well as of madness itself. For the patient, attempts to interpret the idealization are moreover felt as an assault on the lost loved object, and the therapy then unconsciously becomes a persecutory experience for the patient. The therapist can thus be drawn into feeling the full force of the anger and hatred towards the real disappointing object and the sense of hopelessness about the reparative task. Although such feelings need to be tolerated, eventually some distance from the often-unpleasant fluctuations in the countertransference must develop if a useful degree of containment is to be achieved.     

Bilateral Transfer as a Function of Mental Imagery

Three experiments are reported which investigate the role of mental imagery in the bilateral transfer from right to left hand of rotary pursuit skill. In Experiment 1 both mental imagery and physical rehearsal showed significant positive transfer relative to a control condition. However, work decrement may have accumulated and transferred in the physical rehearsal group thereby depressing this group’s left-hand performance. Experiment 2 was conducted under conditions designed to allow work decrement to dissipate prior to transfer to the contralateral limb. The data still showed no difference between physical re-hearsal and mental imagery. One interpretation of these data is that work decrement was present under both the physical rehearsal and mental imagery manipulations in Experiment 1. The data from Experiment 3 confirmed this interpretation as well as replicated the positive transfer effects found for mental imagery in Experiments 1 and 2. The data are discussed in terms of central versus peripheral explanatory mechanisms.     

Eidetic Imagery and Paleolithic Art

This discourse treats experimentation only in the remote past, from early Aurignacian in the late Holocene to early Nuclear. Observations by Galton, Fechner, and Wundt lead to reexamining the connection between eidetic images and prehistoric art in the light of their independent perceptions of the problem. The differing positions of European and American investigators are reviewed in relation to the proposed connection.     

Interrelations of Imagery Use,Imagery Ability,and Performance in Young Athletes

The present study aimed to provide a better understanding of the relationship between imagery use, imagery ability, the interrelation between these two constructs, and athletic performance for young athletes. Participants were 80 gymnasts between 7 and 16 years of age. We assessed 5 different functions of imagery use and imagery ability regarding cognitive and motivational imagery. Cognitive specific imagery use, motivational general-mastery imagery use, and goal imagery ability significantly predicted performance at competition, independent of the athletes’ age. Consequently, it is useful to support young athletes’ imagery use and imagery ability systematically in order to improve their learning processes and sports performance.