Profiles of Perfectionistic Ruminations in Undergraduates: Impact on the Spontaneous Use of Mental Images

Perfectionistic Automatic Thoughts (PAT) negatively affects people who present it. Hence the importance of their study to determine possible ways of reduction. The current study tried to identify PAT profiles and specify the statistically significant differences in the Spontaneous Use of Mental Imaging in 647 undergraduates. For this the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory and the Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale were used. The cluster analyses showed three groups of PATs; low (LPAT), moderate (MPAT) and high (HPAT). An analysis of variance revealed moderate size differences in the visual-spatial capacity as well as in the total of the Spontaneous Use of Mental Images for MPAT and LPAT. Implications for the training of future teachers related to the use of mental imagery that can reduce maladaptive PAT are discussed.

Investigation into Aphantasia: Neurological, Functional, and Behavioral Correlates

In this paper I will conduct a thorough examination and organization of available research on aphantasia. I will examine two theories of the known types of aphantasia, as well as the neurological correlates associated with a range of mental imagery ability, and the functional and behavioral correlates of aphantasia and low imaging ability. I will then consider published accounts of the effects of hallucinogenic drugs on the visualization abilities of people with aphantasia and review popular strategies for coping with and treating aphantasia. I will end by discussing related disorders and other extreme mental imaging phenomena, providing my own opinion on existing research, and suggesting possible future research about aphantasia.

A. R. Luria and Scenario Management

On the basis of the analysis of A. R. Luria’s biography, the article discusses theissue of leadership thinking in science and life scenario management. The articleshows that the main parameter of the scenario thinking of successful people whenresolving unexpectedly occurring problems with a great measure of uncertainty is the vision of purpose and future perspectives. The main conclusion lies in the fact that in teaching university students, life-scenario development must be started with the purpose vision and technologies of mental imaging. Managing your leadership capital, possessing the ability to understand new things, applying them into the new life scenario in conditions changed are activated by purpose vision. Keywords: leader, biography, teaching, life scenario, self-management, scenario management

Hearsay

This chapter returns to Denis Diderot and speculates on how his life-long fascination with blindness may have influenced his theories on visual art. For example, why does he open “Notes on Painting” (1765) with a description of a blind woman? His Salon Reviews, which are considered by many to be foundational works of art criticism, employ a number of techniques to describe art work for people who could not see it for themselves. This chapter closely examines his account of his friendship with a young blind woman, Melanie de Salignac, and compares their conversations to autobiographical accounts of other blind writers, activists, scientists, and artists discussing their tactile perceptions and mental imaging.

Touching on Science

While the Hypothetical Blind man is a useful prop for philosophical theories of mind, he also influences the research of many contemporary neuroscientists. This chapter will survey cases of “restored sight” from the eighteenth century to the present. These cases follow such a predictable script that they have supplied the plots of such literary texts as Wilke Collins’s Poor Miss Finch and Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney. The chapter will go on to describe research on brain plasticity that employs blind subjects to investigate various aspects of tactile perception and mental imaging, without any direct applications for blind people themselves.

Mental Imagery in Translation Processes

The use of mental imagery has been claimed in Translation and Interpreting Studies to help students to understand source texts as well as to avoid interferences. The role played by mental images in translation and interpreting has, however, been scarcely investigated. This study explores the use of mental images by translation students, drawing on embodied approaches to language comprehension – in particular, on the Language and Situated Simulation (LASS) theory. Five translation students translated three texts with different contents (respectively focusing on objects, on spatial relations and on abstract concepts). Four kinds of data were collected: (1) a self-report questionnaire about individual preferences in the use of mental imagery; (2) key-logged translation processes; (3) finished translations, and (4) self-reports about mental imaging during the translation processes. The results suggest that there are individual differences in the use of mental images in translation and that the participants’ individual imaging profiles, as assessed by the self-report Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (OSIVQ), may help to explain these differences.

Bio-Cognitive aspects of simple and progressive verb forms usage

The article offers a cognitive subject-oriented perspective on language and its acquisition with a focus on grammar. By sketching out the cognitive mechanisms of languaging ‘conceptual complexes’ or mental categories through grammar means, the authors endeavour to define and formulate their semantic representations which are supposed to meet three prime objectives, namely to 1) reflect the orientation effect of grammar forms and constructions used in the process of speech production as coordination of his/her own interactions; 2) interpret the meaningful content and mental imaging associated in the subject's mind with this or that grammar form; 3) serve as an auxiliary technique in understanding and explaining English grammar for various teaching and learning purposes. The proposed approach and delineated technique are showcased by the verbs forms of present simple and present progressive whose cognitive essence and interpretative models are described and analysed in minute detail. Keywords: Cognitive grammar; cognition, English tense forms, simple and progressive tenses

Like Drifting Snow My Head Falls

In this chapter, the author focuses on the somatic activity of imaging, which has played an important role in his engagement with dance and performance. He describes the feeling in the body as images arise in the mind and the stories that these images tell through a first-person phenomenological narrative. In particular, he discusses the somatic dimensions of mental imaging, highlighting the fickle, unpredictable nature of images as well as their affinity with somatic awakenings. He also talks about the use of image as a means to bring the body’s voice to the page and to dance, along with his research that aims document dreamlike image experiences. He concludes that somatic image generation requires trust and compares images to his arms, which he claims can support a shift in his consciousness and help him connect to himself and beyond.