Imagination,Cognition and Personality

An inability to see mental images may contribute to the development of psychopathic traits. This study examined the relationship between trait vividness of mental imagery, spontaneous use of imagery, and psychopathic traits in undergraduates (N = 836, 80.6% female). Results did not support that psychopathy is associated with imagery deficits. Vividness positively predicted total psychopathy and Boldness, and spontaneous use of imagery negatively predicted Meanness. Mediations revealed less vivid imagery associated with more impulsivity and therefore increased psychopathic traits. Findings suggest the generation of vivid images fuels the socially dominant elements of psychopathy, whereas a lack of generating or using imagery facilitates callousness and limits opportunities for behavioral control. Findings support the use of imagery-based cognitive behavioral therapy interventions that target the disparities in the generation of vivid images that fuel maladaptive attitudes and behaviors, which be key in mitigating the instrumental and reactive behaviors seen in this population.

Imagined interactions can help individuals as they navigate the end of relationships. In this study, we utilize imagined interactions to understand how participants with a loved one who believes in the QAnon conspiracy imagined interacting with that person. Participants wrote about an imagined interaction with a relational partner. Imagined interactions were qualitatively content analyzed. Themes that emerged from these imagined interactions included imagining ideal scenarios with the partner, justifying relational termination, venting frustrations about the partner, and avoiding imagining the interaction. Functions of imagined interactions, including catharsis and conflict-linkage, are used to help individuals manage intrapsychic processes in relational dissolution.

Improvisation, understood as a skillful activity, suggests a tension between the constitutive roles of habit and creativity. Cognitive and phenomenological accounts of skill acquisition point to the importance of developing habitual responses that facilitate fluid performance. Yet, habit formation is associated with repetitive behavior. Seemingly at odds with repetition, spontaneous invention is often regarded as the basis of improvising creatively. The puzzle – how habit and creativity relate in skillful improvisation – is resolved by drawing on a view of the brain as an embodied, predictive organ, entangled in cultural scaffolding, and perpetually engaged in inference. This view is in part rooted in the pragmatist tradition, as is a large body of work on music. By combining strands of theoretical and empirical research on the embodied, predictive, creative, and musical mind, an account of action-oriented abduction is developed and applied to an illustrative vignette. The resulting application goes beyond existing accounts to articulate an enriched sense of creative improvisation.

This study examines the mediating role of suggestibility in the relationship between personality traits and decision-making styles. Studied on a sample of 369 young adults, the research employed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory-3 (NEO-FFI-3) to assess personality traits, the General Decision Making Style (GDMS) scale to evaluate decision-making styles, and the Multidimensional Iowa Short Suggestibility Scale (SSS) to measure suggestibility. The mediation analysis was conducted using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicate that neuroticism, characterized by emotional instability and heightened stress responses, is positively correlated with increased suggestibility. This heightened suggestibility significantly mediates the relationship between neuroticism and both avoidant and dependent decision-making styles. The findings suggest that individuals with higher levels of neuroticism are more likely to exhibit suggestibility, which in turn influences their decision-making tendencies towards avoidance and dependency.

Mental imagery is an internal representation of perceptual experiences without external sensory input. Visual mental imagery plays a recognized role in the development and maintenance of anxiety and mood disorders. In this systematic literature review, we explored the kind of visual mental imagery content, its emotional impact, and possible recurrent visual mental imagery patterns (i.e., specific theme/content type) in individuals with mood and anxiety disorders. The mood disorders included in the review were Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder, suicidal behavior (attempts) and ideation, or non-suicidal injury (NSSI), as per the DSM-V. The Anxiety disorders included were post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety (SA) as per the DSM-IV and DSM-V. Electronic searches of five databases between January 2000 and April 2024 were undertaken to identify relevant publications, including qualitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies, with a final list of 17 studies eligible for review. The studies were synthesized using thematic synthesis. The results suggest that recurrent visual imagery content patterns across different mental health conditions include visualizing interpersonal interactions such as fighting with a spouse or another family member, suicide or self-harm-based imagery, and crossing one's boundaries by another. In addition, although individuals with anxiety and mood disorders are more prone to experience negative visual visual mental imagery, they can also experience positive visual mental imagery. In conclusion, the content of visual mental imagery can be objectively positive and negative, but ultimately, an individual's appraisal is the driving factor behind the emotional impact of visual mental imagery.