This chapter is focused on discussing the concept of mental imagery as a fundamental cognitive capability to enhance the performance of cognitive robots. Indeed, the emphasis will be on the embodied imagery mechanisms applied to build artificial cognitive models of motor imagery and mental simulation to control complex behaviors of humanoid platforms, which represent the artificial body. With t...

Mental imagery occurs "when a representation of the type created during the initial phases of perception is present but the stimulus is not actually being perceived." How does the capability to perform mental imagery arise? Extending the idea that imagery arises from learned associations, we propose that mental rotation, a specific form of imagery, could arise through the mechanism of sequence ...

Mental imagery is a fundamental cognitive process of interest to basic scientists and clinical researchers. This study examined large-scale oscillatory brain activity in the alpha band (8-12 Hz) during language-driven mental imagery using dense-array EEG. Three experiments demonstrated relative increases in alpha amplitude: (1) during imagery prompted by words compared to fixation without image...

Imagery is an important feature of mental simulation, which is central to human cognitive functions from decision making to joint action to language production. Imagery is often used as a mental rehearsal strategy in areas of expertise, such as music, athletics and surgery, but also in movement rehabilitation. Individual imagery abilities may vary by general, modalityunspecific imagery capacity...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Intrusive memories of traumatic events constitute a core feature of post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the association of pre-traumatic factors with post-traumatic intrusive memories is still only poorly understood. The current study investigated the extent to which vividness of general mental imagery prior to an analogue stressor is positively associated with oc...

Therapy with mental images is prevalent in the field of chronic pain, and this has been the case for centuries. Yet few of the recent advances in the cognitive behavioural understanding of spontaneous (i.e. intrusive) mental imagery have been translated to this field. Such advances include imagery as a component of a psychopathological process, as an emotional amplifier and as a cognitive thera...

Imagery interventions intended to increase exercise behavior are rare. The Active Adult Mentoring Program (AAMP) was a randomized controlled trial with imagery content. The purposes of this study were to examine the content and perceived utility of mental imagery with 24 AAMP participants (Mage = 65.00, SD = 8.79 years). Digital recordings of AAMP sessions and post-intervention interviews were ...

Mental imagery may occur in any sensory modality, although visual imagery has been most studied. A sensitive measure of the vividness of imagery across a range of modalities is needed: the shorter version of Bett's Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery (Sheehan, , J. Clin. Psychology, 23, 386) uses outdated items and has an unreliable factor structure. We report the development and initial validati...

Mental imagery has been associated with many cognitive functions, both high and low-level. Despite recent scientific advances, the contextual and environmental conditions that most affect the mechanisms of visual imagery remain unclear. It has been previously shown that the greater the level of background luminance the weaker the effect of imagery on subsequent perception. However, in these exp...

We empirically investigated the effect of mental imagery on young children's music compositional creativity. Children aged 5 to 8 years participated in two music composition sessions. In the control session, participants based their composition on a motif that they had created using a sequence of letter names. In the mental imagery session, participants were given a picture of an animal and ins...