Search results for "Imagery"

Two ways to metaphor comprehension in comparison: towards a bidimensional account of metaphor comprehension - poster

In this paper we will discuss the role of literal meaning and mental imagery in metaphor comprehension, showing their link and the problematic nature of these notions in pragmatics (Wilson & Carston 2019). We will try to overcome these problems by putting in dialogue the typology of metaphors offered by Carston (2010, 2018), based on the parameter of literal meaning, and the typology offered by Green (2017) based on the parameter of mental imagery. Carston (2018) recognizes the existence of two kinds of metaphors: (1) local metaphors such as “Giulio is a professor” in which a single lexical item - PROFESSOR - is modulated pragmatically; (2) metaphors such as “The yellow fog that rubs it…

Effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy with relaxation vs. imagery rescripting on psychophysiological stress responses of students with test anxiety…

2018

Background and objectives: Psychophysiological measures were assessed in university students during a test simulation before and after group treatment for test anxiety based on cognitive behavioral...

Effects of cognitive behavioral therapy with relaxation vs. imagery rescripting on test anxiety: A randomized controlled trial.

2016

Abstract Background Test anxiety is a common condition in students, which may lead to impaired academic performance as well as to distress. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two cognitive-behavioral interventions designed to reduce test anxiety. Test anxiety in the participants was diagnosed as social or specific phobia according to DSM-IV. Subsequently subjects were randomized to three groups: a moderated self-help group, which served as a control group, and two treatment groups, where either relaxation techniques or imagery rescripting were applied. Methods Students suffering from test anxiety were recruited at two German universities ( n =180). The …

Mentally represented motor actions in normal aging. I. Age effects on the temporal features of overt and covert execution of actions.

2005

The present study examines the temporal features of overt and covert actions as a function of normal aging. In the first experiment, we tested three motor tasks (walking, sit-stand-sit, arm pointing) that did not imply any particular spatiotemporal constraints, and we compared the duration of their overt and covert execution in three different groups of age (mean ages: 22.5, 66.2 and 73.4 years). We found that the ability of generating motor images did not differentiate elderly subjects from young subjects. Precisely, regarding overt and covert durations, subjects presented similarities for the walking and pointing tasks and dissimilarities for the stand-sit-stand task. Furthermore, the tim…

Mentally represented motor actions in normal agingII. The influence of the gravito-inertial context on the duration of overt and covert arm movements

2007

Here, we address the question of whether normal aging influences action representation by comparing the ability of 14 young (age: 23.6 +/- 2.1 years) and 14 older (age: 70.1 +/- 4.5 years) adults to mentally simulate arm movements under a varying dynamic context. We conducted two experiments in which we experimentally manipulated the gravity and inertial components of arm dynamics: (i) unloaded and loaded vertical arm movements, rotation around the shoulder joint, (ii) unloaded and loaded horizontal arm movements, rotations around the shoulder and elbow joints, in two directions (inertial anisotropy phenomenon). The main findings indicated that imagery ability was equivalent between the two…

Does order and timing in performance of imagined and actual movements affect the motor imagery process? The duration of walking and writing task.

2002

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects on the duration of imagined movements of changes in timing and order of performance of actual and imagined movement. Two groups of subjects had to actually execute and imagine a walking and a writing task. The first group first executed 10 trials of the actual movements (block A) and then imagined the same movements at different intervals: immediately after actual movements (block I-1) and after 25 min (I-2), 50 min (I-3) and 75 min (I-4) interval. The second group first imagined and then actually executed the tasks. The duration of actual and imagined movements, recorded by means of an electronic stopwatch operated by the subj…

Training the Motor Cortex by Observing the Actions of Others During Immobilization

2014

International audience; Limb immobilization and nonuse are well-known causes of corticomotor depression. While physical training can drive the recovery from nonuse-dependent corticomotor effects, it remains unclear if it is possible to gain access to motor cortex in alternative ways, such as through motor imagery (MI) or action observation (AO). Transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to study the excitability of the hand left motor cortex in normal subjects immediately before and after 10 h of right arm immobilization. During immobilization, subjects were requested either to imagine to act with their constrained limb or to observe hand actions performed by other individuals. A third gro…

Mental Imagery Training Increases Wanting of Rewards and Reward Sensitivity and Reduces Depressive Symptoms.

2017

High reward sensitivity and wanting of rewarding stimuli help to identify and motivate repetition of pleasant activities. This behavioral activation is thought to increase positive emotions. Therefore, both mechanisms are highly relevant for resilience against depressive symptoms. Yet, these mechanisms have not been targeted by psychotherapeutic interventions. In the present study, we tested a mental imagery training comprising eight 10-minute sessions every second day and delivered via the Internet to healthy volunteers (N = 30, 21 female, mean age of 23.8 years, Caucasian) who were preselected for low reward sensitivity. Participants were paired according to age, sex, reward sensitivity, …

Aging Affects the Mental Rotation of Left and Right Hands

2009

BACKGROUND:Normal aging significantly influences motor and cognitive performance. Little is known about age-related changes in action simulation. Here, we investigated the influence of aging on implicit motor imagery. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Twenty young (mean age: 23.9+/-2.8 years) and nineteen elderly (mean age: 78.3+/-4.5 years) subjects, all right-handed, were required to determine the laterality of hands presented in various positions. To do so, they mentally rotated their hands to match them with the hand-stimuli. We showed that: (1) elderly subjects were affected in their ability to implicitly simulate movements of the upper limbs, especially those requiring the largest amplit…

Animacy effects in episodic memory: do imagery processes really play a role?

2019

International audience; Animates are remembered better than inanimates because the former are ultimately more important for fitness than the latter. What, however, are the proximate mechanisms underpinning this effect? We focused on imagery processes as one proximate explanation. We tested whether animacy effects are related to the vividness of mental images (Study 1), or to the dynamic/motoric nature of mental images corresponding to animate words (Study 2). The findings showed that: (1) Animates are not estimated to be more vivid than inanimates; (2) The potentially more dynamic nature of the representations of animates does not seem to be a factor making animates more memorable than inan…