Mental imagery as a "motivational amplifier" to promote activities

Abstract

Facilitating engagement in rewarding activities is a key treatment target in depression. Mental imagery can increase engagement in planned behaviours, potentially due to its special role in representing emotionally salient experiences. The present study tested the hypothesis that mental imagery promotes motivation and engagement when planning pleasant and rewarding activities. Participants were recruited from a community volunteer panel (N = 72). They self-nominated six activities to complete over the following week, and were randomized to either: a) a single-session Motivational Imagery condition (N = 24); b) an Activity Reminder control condition (N = 24); or c) a No-Reminder control condition (N = 24). As predicted, relative to control groups, the Motivational Imagery group reported higher levels of motivation, anticipated pleasure, and anticipated reward for the planned activities. The Motivational Imagery group also completed significantly more activities than the Activity Reminder group, but not more than the No-Reminder group. Relevance of results to behavioural activation approaches for depression are discussed.

Keywords: Activity scheduling; Behavioural activation; Mental imagery; Mental simulation.

Fig. 1

Overview of the research design, experimental conditions and outcome measures. The study consisted of two phases: Laboratory session and activity week outside laboratory. The laboratory session used a mixed design with a 2 level between-subject factor: experimental condition (motivational imagery condition; N = 24 vs. combined control condition; N = 48) and a 2 level within-subjects factor: activity ratings (pre/post activity scheduling). For the activity week outside the laboratory a three level between-subjects design was used: experimental condition (motivational imagery condition; N = 24 vs. activity reminder condition; N = 24 vs. no-imagery no-reminder control condition N = 24).

Fig. 2

Change in motivation, anticipated pleasure and anticipated reward ratings of activities from pre activity scheduling to post activity scheduling for the motivational imagery condition (n = 24) in yellow and the combined-control group (n = 48) in black. The bars show the observed mean change score and the error bars the standard error of the mean. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

Fig. 3

Illustration of the number of completed activities per condition according to whether the participant had formerly “put off” doing that particular activity (as rated at baseline). This indicates that for those activities that had been previously more put off participants were more likely to benefit from the imagery intervention.