Inducing Positive Involuntary Mental Imagery in Daily Life Using Personalized Photograph Stimuli

Most people experience positive involuntary mental imagery (IMI) frequently in daily life, and this imagery is thought to play important functional roles. However, evidence for the importance and effects of positive IMI is largely indirect. The current study adapted a paradigm previously used to induce IMI in the lab with the aim of investigating whether it could also be used to experimentally induce positive IMI in participants’ daily lives. This could in turn provide a means to conduct direct experimental tests of the effects of positive IMI. In a within-subjects design, participants (N = 41) generated a series of positive mental images (imagery condition) and sentences (verbal condition) via combining pictures with positive word captions in the lab. Half of the pictures used were photos participants had taken from their own living environment. Participants then recorded involuntary memories of the previously generated images or sentences in a seven-day diary, before returning to the lab and completing some measures including an involuntary memory task. In the diary participants reported more involuntary memories from the imagery condition than from the verbal condition, and more involuntary memories from their own photos compared to the other photos. A more mixed pattern of findings was found across other tasks in the lab. The study indicates the paradigm can be used as a means to induce positive IMI, and that using photos as the basis for generating positive imagery increases the amount of IMI in daily life. Theoretical and potential clinical implications are discussed.