Speaker
Description
As compared to verbal thinking, mental imagery acts as an amplifier since it is based on mechanisms of simulation, but it is not clear whether it may also augment emotion complexity through richer descriptions of emotion experience. Thus, our study aimed to analyze differences in self-reported emotional experience, by comparing affect intensity and indexes of emotion complexity in response to mental images (MI) versus verbal thoughts (VT) starting from pictures paired with a word-cue (PWC). Thirty participants (F=15) underwent a lab-based study with a within-subject design and generated positive or negative MI and VT based on 60 PWC. They were asked to rate affect intensity and give a report of the emotions and bodily sensations experienced, and finally to regulate their emotions, after every mental representation. In response to MI (vs VT, p<.05), a linear mixed-effect model including covariates of task compliance and alexithymia showed that participants experienced more intense affect and used more mood words and details of bodily sensations in their reports. Negative valence led to more intense affect and richer descriptions of bodily experience, regardless of the type of mental representation generated. Instead, no significant difference in emotion regulation time was found between MI and VT, or between positive and negative trials. We built on previous literature confirming MI leads to more intense affect. Simulation via MI, as compared to VT, and negative valence may lead to more complex emotional experiences, with no difference in the time needed to regulate emotions.
| If you're submitting a symposium talk, what's the symposium title? | Addressing Diversity in Methodological Approaches to the Measurement of Affective Experience |
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| If you're submitting a symposium, or a talk that is part of a symposium, is this a junior symposium? | Yes |
